Wichita eagle., 1888-01-31
GOTHAM.S WHARF RATS.
MEN WHO LIVE BY STEALING FROM
DOCKS AND SHIPS.

thieves mo Afo expert DsveIS anu
Who Are Able to EIude the Police.
Selling the Loot.
A great city like New York contains
many people who live by violating our
laws, and taese people are divided into
| odd groups, each having a distinctive pur-
pose of its own One of these groups in
tests the water front of New York, and
nowhere in our civilization can be found
more degraded class of criminals. The
members are known to the police and to
the watchmen on the ships as "wharf
| rats" The title is certainly well chosen.
The wharf rats are expert swimmers and
divers and are as agile in avoiding the po-
lice as is any intelligent rodent in escaping
from the clutches of cat. These men
and grown up boys live as criminals from
choice. They extract more happiness
from the theft OF a bag of coffee or coil
| of rope than the average person would
from Christmas present. Ii shot at
while stealing from ships cargo they
jump into the river, sink ont of sight and
come to the surface under the protecting
shade Of wharf. II not wounded they
take their experiences as . joyful advent
ure. If wounded they rest on the rafters
under the pier until night comes along,
when confederates take them away.
The most conspicuous of all the wharf
rats Of New York is Buckshot Taylor.
He has carried several loads of buckshot
in his legs and back and one side of his
face is also disfgured because of his I'M
expected acquaintance with q shotgun.
Taylor never steals rope or coffee unless
| he is hard up. His speciality is the theft
of bars of lead. He is as wideawake as q
lynx after snowfall, and always knows
where to look for his plumber. Taylor
will dive under wharf and fasten an end
of thin wire rope to one of the rafters.
Then, with the other end in his hand, he
will sneak on board lead laden schooner
and fasten the wire to his plumber. An
other wharf rat keeps watch while this is
being done. If the coast is clear the loot
is dropped into the water, where it sinks
out of sight. Then the thief, who is as
much at home in the water as on the
land, dives out of sight, coming up, of
course, under the wharf where the wire is
fastened to the rafters. One of the heavy
bars OF lead will net from So to 81 at any
one OF the junk shops which abound along
the river front. If Buckshot Taylor steals
two or three bars a week during the
spring, summer and autumn months he
feels happy, for all he cares for is little
food, plenty of whisky and constant
supply of tobacco.
CRIMINALS OF LOW TYPE.
Buckshot Taylor is the best known of
the wharf rats, but there are hundreds
who follow in his footsteps AS a rule
they commit no greater crime than petty
larceny. The majority of the wharf rats
do their work at night and move about on
the water in row boats. Their speciality
is the stealing of rope, which is an article
easy to dispose of to junkmen who do
business with shipmasters. If chased by
the harbor police they abandon their boat
and swim, under cover Of the darkness, to
places of refuge under the wharves Some
of these fellows makes a speciality of using
giant augers, and boring through the
flooring Of the docks and into the sugar
barrels that have been unloaded from
ships. They empty the sugar into bags.
and then dispose Of it when the opportu
nifty offers.
All these wharf rats do not carry their
plumber to the stores along South and
West streets. In some cases the plumber is
too bulky, and in other cases the wharf
rats are too well known to risk discovery
by carrying the stolen goods in the street.
Friendly junkmen fill this deficiency.
There is band Of jankmen that goes
from wharf to wharf in boats and buys old
stuffs from the captains of ships. Some
times these junkmen have something to
sell in the way of rope, anchor chains and
pulley blocks. The wharf rats await the
coming of these junkmen, and in their
lairs under the wharves make their sales
of stolen property. One shipmaster buys
the rope and other stuff stolen from
another ship, and so there is constant
demand by junkmcn for the plunder OBJ
tanned by the wharf rats. These degraded
specimens of our civilization have very
little courage and are of a sneaky dis
position. Once in a while they Go an
honest days work in unfolding boats, but
it is only when luck goes against them
and when they must work or starve.
THEIR METHOD OF LIVING.
In the summer months the wharf rats
sleep in row boats under the wharves, or
in the daytime upon the docks Not q
few of them who steal at night sneak
upon the summer excursions of local so
cial clubs, and when they are stupid from
drinking beer sleep under the benches to
be found On all excursion barges. When
ont the ginmlls that line the river front,
and with the dime they get for their labor
buy coffee and cakes. Others fish from
the ends of the piers, and if they catch
string Of fish have no trouble in obtaining
quarter from the liquor store proprie-
tors, who offer sine fish chowdsr'' free
as an inducement for 'longshoremen to
spend FIVE cents for beer or ten cents for
Of q
long way with river crook. for next to
the satisfaction of stealing he finds his
greatest comfort in chewing the cheapest
kind Of tobacco. The wharf rats who
have good fortune divide with their com
panions who have i'll luck. In this way
the proceeds of days plumber will make
3 large number Of the thieves happy.
The hundreds that sleep ON the piers in
summer have to find ten cent lodging
houses in winter. Such OF these as have
not courage to pick pockets or steal from
the stands outside of stores get little
money in the winter by begging. 1t is
not easy to steal from the docks in the
winter, and SO so per cent. Of the wharf
Fats have to exist as best they can until
the severity Of the weather passes away
and permits them to use the water and
the under side of the whaYves as aids to
their methods of thieving. These wharf
rats have great horror Of policemen, and,
even when not guilty Of any recent crime,
keep away from the vicinity Of the blue
coats. A few Of the river crooks become
professional burglars and in many cases
sneak thieves. Many of them tire of their
hard experience and ship before thH mast,
aud natural percentage find death in
the river, temporary place on slab in
the morgue and then rest in potter's
6eld.-New York Mail And Express.