The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-03-25
OFFICIAL CORRUPTION.


r
D New York is great city-great in pop,
ulatiOn, great in wealth, great in com
MERGE, and great in crime. The criminal
+ classes gravitate towards large cities
Like the most enterprlsing and adven,
turous men emigrate to the frontier, the
shrewdest swindler, the most accomplished
craftsman moves eastward to the great
cities of the seaboard, where richer prizes
await his skill and daring; and New York
in that way has become the home and
headquarters of the genius of crime.
Petty thieves are numerous in Gotham,
but petty thieves in the rudiments of
crime have in New York college curricu-
INN of training that fits them for the uni
versity of crime, and there they soon at
tain distinction in all its departments.
The only difference in the crime .chools
of New York and other seats of differ
ent kind of learning, is that in New York
the schools teach specialists, and in that
way the highest art is attained. There are
in the primary schools pickpockets who
go through all the classes and are grad
uated. Some of these men and women
are content to stick to that special accom-
plishment, but there are Others with a
higher talent, who enter the university of
crime to study higher art, and thus are
sho2lifters, cracksmen, garroters and
robbers educated up to the highest accom-
plishments in each profession. Some
are ambitious, and, not content with the
degree of bachelor of arts, attain the de-
gree of master of arts; and vet Others
who seek higher degrees, the highest of
all being counterfeiters and "shovers of
the queer" Davis, who was killed by the
Texas Holland, belonged to the highest
class; he was an LII. D. He doubtless
had passed through all the stages of such
an education as we describe. He was said
to have respectable wife, and perhaps
children that associated with honest REQ
pies children. Besides all these, there is
another class, swindlers and confidence
men, bogus insurance agents-in fact, the |
list may be extended indefinitely.
1t may seem that this process of educa-
ton is quaint fancy of the writer, but
the same schools of crime that Dickens
describes in London exist in New York.
There are,however, two modes of education
in crime in New York, one upward from
the very slums of society, another down.
ward from the best society, through the
first stages of political corruption, down
ward to the prison walls, the checked suit
and the shaven head.
Just now We are having repetition of
the days of Tweed, alderman of the CITY,
once, doubtless, honest and Woodworking
men, becoming prosperous and, having
political ambition, have commenced in ,
ward meetings to become conspicuous, ,
and by judicious placing of money in
the right place, finally have become CITY
officials. These are generally men who :
know very little outside of their particu- ,
lar occupation. Men of moderate means ,
in city, travel very little their expe- :
Renee is confined to a narrow round of >
duties. Unlike our towns where any man =
addresses a governor or judge at pleas g
ire, these men perhaps never was in the O
private presence of either, and such =
hing as associating with a merchant q
prince, they never dreamed of it. They -
watch his carriage pass with awe and ven. .
ration. :,
Elected to Office, however, they are Il
brown with higher class of officials, and il
ecome at once their subservient tools.
iradually they are accustomed to hearing A
UGH men speak of jobs, to begin to speak I
f jobs themselves, and at once thew g
re spotted as the easy prey of II
harpers and spectators and are seduced IS
y the first bride, some of them with sense la
nough to be reteceut like Tweed, and Il
row In wealth and power, but others, I
eak, like Alderman Jaehne, talk at once. K
nd are spotted again by the officers of X
le law as Inspector Byrne spotted and 81
elected Jaehne, and they at once find al az
in utter ruin. All of the alder
len of 1884 who have taken brides for
wing franchises to the elevated railroad
'mpany, with only two exceptions, find 80
lemselves in the tolls of the law and they ac
ill all go to the state prison. They were RI
respectable men; when they come out ca
prison they will go down and down ID
It'll they become the meanest of crimi-
his, the allies and tools of the educated
ieves of great city.
There have been great criminals in New -
ork conspicuous as examples and warn CT,