The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-09-14

luen succt 5 IN LleSe QlfecDlDuS l6du5
them to the commission Of holder crimes,
and they become housebreakers, and mosG
reckless ones. They commit crimes which
professional thieves would pass by. VIM g
the professional stops to consider whethi
or MT the plunder is worth the risk, these
people will take risks Of enormously
unequal proportion to the plumber.
Tie murder of Grocer Luca by young
| McElvaine in Brooklyn a few weeks ago is
a fair example Of the sort of work these
people do. Tnev hold their lives at very
little value, and will take any risk that is
suggested, whether the plumber is great or
small. Because Of the great chances which
these people take there are on record among
the crimes which they commit some Of the
highest known to the Law.
SOCIAL SETS.
There are social Sc In the cheap lodging
houses which are ruled by an unwritten
code. To climb the social ladder here one
must conduct himself ia just such ways as
! would fOrce him down the social ladder of
respectable society. It is the men who can
| boast OF the crimes they have committed,
the amount of whisky they can drink. Of
the pile of money they have spent in a few
hours that are the nabobs Satellites flock
| around them ard do homage to them while
| striving by some equally meritorious act TO
| become their social equals.
Going about from one cheap lodgiF
| house to another there is a set of traveling
fences" who are ever ready to turn honest
| boys into criminals. They are always on
the lookout for plumber, which they buy
and dispose Of right in the lodging houses.
The professional thief who has been dis
charged after serving long term in prison,
| and who returns to the city without cash,
naturally drifts into a cheap lodging house.
| He knows the fact that he has been dis
| charged has been telegraphed from the
prison to the police, and that each police
| man in the city has been warned to watch
him, aud to arrest him should he excite
suspicion. He dare not show himself
on the streets and he must live. In the
| lodging house with him are hundreds of
| men, all Of whom want money. He makes
his influence felt and brings to himself the
homage Of the unfortunates in the place.
IL he finds in one of the almost useless
drunkards the qualities he requires to
| utilize in a certain direction, he exerts his
influence over the fellow until he has
CHARMED him, as a serpent charms bird
Then he directs him to commit some crime,
| the risk is so great that he in his in which
| palmiest days would not have undertaken it.
If the poor drunkard succeeds and escapes
| arrest he receives but little of the plunder
| If he is caught and sent to prison, who
! caresa He does not dare to tell on the man
who led him into the trouble, as he knows
that if it is shown that a professional thief
is his accomphce the law will desl harder
with him, because he will be more feared
by society.
Perhaps the Fagin may see his Oliver
| Twist in bright, honest boy who has run
| away from home and is for the first time
in his life suffering the pangs of hunger.
Too proud to go home and too ambitious to
| commit suicide, the boy returns to the lodg-
| ing house at night, after vainly seaki g work
all day. A panic has seized him, and as he
sits looking at the wall unable even to think
the Fagin studies his face and marks him
for his own. 1t would be useless to suggest
theft to him at once. But by sharing a
meal with him and feeding his mind with
bright prospects he is gradually conquered,
and almost before he knows it he is an out
cast. All his bright future has passed be-
You'd his grasp and he has given up trying
to conquer himself
And between these two extremes-the
honest ambitious boy just starting out in
life and the poor old sot who has devoted
hi life to drunkenness-there are many
people of all shades of life and character
who drop into the cheap lodging house and
are contaminated by the surroundings.
FAGIN OF THE BowERY.
Greenwald who is now under sentence to
be hanged for the murder of Mr. Weeks
whose house he was robbing in BROOKLYN
when he shot the house owner, was the
Fagin of the Phoenix lodging house at SO
Bowery. He had about him lot of Ger
man satellites who would probably have
been honest farm laborers but for his iafiu-
ence. Since Greenwald shot Mr.. Weeks
seventeen of his pupils have been sentenced
to terms of imprisonment.
Nearly every one of the cheap lodging
houses has its Greenwald or its Fagin.
Travelling fences" go so far as to announce
that they will advance money to any man
who can show that he has prospect of re-
ceivIng articles of value, or IN other words,
the honest boy who finds himself hungry
can get something to eat by promising that
he will steal.
= In an article on "Crime's Breeding
Places" in the current number of the
North american ReUielO, Inspector Byrnes
says:
at is undeniable that the lodging houses
of the city have a powerful tendency to
produce, foster and increase crime In
stead of being places where respectable
people reduced in circumstances or temper
arily short OF money can secure clean bed
for a small amount of monev, they have
come to be largely frequented by thieves or
other criminals of the lowest class who
lodge in these resorts regularly and here
consort together and lay their plans for
crimes OF one sort or another
The inspector goes on to show that nine
out of ten OF the boys who run away from
home aud get into cheap lodging houses
become thieves, if indeed. they do not
sooner or later become murderers. The in
spector suggests as a remedy the enactment
of stringe u laws by the legislature for the
government of lodging houses.
The records and books of these houses"
he says, SHOULD be open at all times to the
inspection of proper authorities 1t should
be made misdemeaaor for the proprietor
of such house to mutiliate or destroy his
books, and he should be compelled to keep
an accurate record of all his dodgers. This
would be important in the matter of pre-
venting FRAUDULENT registrations, etc. No
persons who is not of good character should
be permitted to own or maintain a lodging
house, and bonds should be required of and
licenses issued to those who desire to carry
on this business In my Judgment, based
on many years. experience, the lod yinr
house business should be under the imms-
date supervision Of the police, since taey
are the officials who practically enforce the
laws, and because they have better oppor-
than any others for ascsrtaining the charae-
ter of persons and places"
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