The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-11-10
HAUNTS OF CRIME.
The West Side Gangs and Their
Favorite Resorts.
BATTLE ROW AND HELL'S KITCHEN
What Reporter Saw and Heard in
Tenth and Eleventh Avenues.

Every reader OF the newspapers has heard of the
notorious Tenth avenue gang. which has been
terror TO the west side for years. Just what its pres
ent condition ia. who its principal members and
why it is permitted to ere questions of general
interest which . HERALD reporter recently en-
dsavored to solve. The result of his Investigations
will be found appended.
For thirty years the river front ON the west side
OF the city north Of Thirteth street has been in
tested by gangs of ruffans of the worst possible
character. Tenth and Eleventh avenues and the
cross streets from the old Hudson River Railroad
Company's depot far up as Fiftieth street have
been at times almost ut mercy of bands of thieves
and desperadoes The tenement houses aud rock
cries in this section like seething cadrons of
vice and brutality. and the flthiness and slime of
the passageways and alleys in these human hives
are in embematic keeping with the moral dirtiness
and corruption of their inmates.
When the Hudson River Railroad Company
brought its cars down through Eleventh avenue
and built its depot ut Thirteth street this neghbor
hood had already become of the sort that may be
characterized in one word chad" and from that
time down to within year two 1t became steadily
worse as it grew in size and population. The thicky
settled and crowded four and Ave story tenement
houses. that took the place OF the old small frame
structures as they crumbled into decay, made room
for new invoices IN the "bad lot already consigned
to this location. until finally the Tenth avenue gang,
the organized bands Of rufsns to DO called.
were terror not only to lsw-abiding citizens but
even to the police.
THE ORIGIN OF THE GANG.
The life blood Of these thieves drawn from the
railroad The railroad was their Of supplies.
They fed and fattened upon it like foul parasite
upon vigorous tree. The railroad was bonanza
to them. Scores of families lived entirely
fha
hundreds Of freight cars always standing on the
tracks laden with valuable goods nothing was easier
than to break In and STEAL under the cover of dark
and IN the absence of any organized and cffec
tive surveillance. Opportunity makes the thief,
and under circumstances where theft easy It
Is scarcely matter Of wonder that those who were
naturally vicious with the way smooth and tempt
ing before them should eventually become
habituAl and hardened criminals. making living by
theft. Even the children were taught to steal.
They have grown up educated in this school, and
the Tenth avenue gang of to-day the second gener
alton Of . bad stock. whose places. when shey
die. will be filled by the Infant Glass in
Population which is now pursuing Its studies with
object lessons in the way Of 'lifting" such small
affairs bits Of board and lead pipe from empty
houses. little articles OF clothing from back
yards.
BORN AND BRED IN cRIME.
It is . painful fact that in this part Of the city
little children are actually sent out to steal when
they scarcely able TO walk. They trained
and educated in sin by harsh and brutal parents,
and driven into the streets to sin when they have
scarcely received mothers 1t is not enough
that they are brought up amid surroundings Of
Indebtedness and crime. cruelty and neglect. pow
erty and rum. They arc not only compelled to-
breathe this atmosphere Of iniquiy. but lest they
might remain pure even in such places II left to
themselves. the precepts of rufaanism and outlawry
are persistently beaten into them.
THE SURROUNDINGS.
With the removal Of part of the business Of the
railroad company to the Grand Central Depot. the
increasing efficiency Of the police and the lighting
up Of the streets and at night the depreda-
tiDns of the outlaws have diminished and they no
longer dare to be 30 bold in their crimes. Murder
and wholesale robberies no longer frequent,
but this part Of the city is still unsafe at night for
an unprotected stranger and the Tenth avenue
gang is still source Of terror. The surroundings
and topography are favorable to rufisnism. There
are large four and Ave story brick tenement houses
with small rooms and narrow and winding passage
ways. There innumersble low rum shops of the
vilest sort and . few dance houses OF the same
kind. There are old rookeries and shanties
ON the rocks. especially in the por-
ton called Sebastopol. There are dark
way. There abandoned buildings and cellars
whose original and legitimate occupants left
when the slaughter houses were driven north Of
Fortieth street. There are open lots and heaps of
refuse There are all sorts of hooks and crannies
where men may conceal themselves or where plum
der may be hidden; and down by the water side ct
night 1t Is dark aud desolate that ono might be
murdered without seeing the face of his assassin
being able to make his cries heard. People such Q
place as this with criminals and those whose sym
pathies are all with crime. or who would not dare
to raise voice hand against 1t. and imagine
how small the chances Of escape would be II one
waylaid in such neighborhood.
The police?
The visitor is not often treasured by their
presence. They cannot adequately protect the
district. Their posts are long and they have not
sufficient numbers to do the work. Captain WASH
burne of the Twentieth precinct and his assistants
capable and brave men. but they say that their
force Is far below what Is needed They the best
they can under the circumstances, they say, but
they cannot with their present strength repross the
rniansm OF this dangerous locality populated as it
Is, by thieves and dcsperadoes.
ALONG TESTH AVENUE
at your side-you would be foolish indeed venture
alone in daylight with decent suit of clothes
on--you feel that you are stranger indeed aud are
whole neighborhood is watching you and speculat-
ing upon your erraud. "They think you've been
rOpDeu anu are Trying 10 iuently tho place or tno
men," explains the officer. Every movement il
watched. Villanous faces glover ut you from the
doors and windows OF grog shops and tenements.
The general occupation has stopped and every
with singular unanimity In looking at the stranger
and his escort. Faces peer through the in
the rum holes That coterie of half-a-dozen young
men In the porch OF this saloon, as the gilt sign
ambitiously calls It, stop their boistcrous laugh
ter as you approach. They stare from under their
hat brims In furtive and there dead silence.
Turn quickly after you pass and you catch them
whispering together and still following you with
their eyes. Slatternly and brazen young women and
dirty and bloated old nod and lecr at the officer
with very evident desire to maintain friendly
| quaintancc with him. as they lean from tenement
| house windows or loaf about the doors with arms
| akimbo. You meet thin and pale. sickly hued lads
OF fourteen or hfteen with prematurely old aud
wicked faces, showing already the marks OF disspa-
ton They, too. suddenly their talk and start
and gaze with furtive. guilty manner. Poor, pre-
cocious young wrotches. trained and schooled in
crime as they are they have not yet learned to con-
cca their emotions beneath q hardened and stony
| Evan recnnuiZa lla