The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-11-17
GOTHAM'S CRIME-WAVES.
SOME STARTLING CONCLUSIONS
FROM A LAWYERS EXPERIENCE.

Despite Its I'd uitltuolnOuS Sins, the
wicked Metropolis is Actually
Growing William F. Howe on
the Vices of Great City-Amerlcan
and European Girls-The Divorce
Market-He Vindicates the Honor Of
American Women - The Vanished
Gangs-The Gamblers and the Bur
glars.
NEW York, Nov. 16.--It has been the
fashion from time immemorial, almost, to
talk of New York as a sink of iniquity and
a den of unspeakable wickedness. In the
country, particularly, the custom has been
to decry it at every turn and to warn the
Young and unsophisticatei against its
temptations and perils. While it is not
denied that at one time there may have
been very good grounds for this characteri-
cation of the great city, it cannot fail to
strike even superficial observer that things
have changed greatly within very few
years-certainly not more than decade.
New York has improved in morals. When
you find a man of the type of Rev. Howard
Crosby paying a compliment to the superin-
tendent of police, there is surely something
in the situation to be thankful for.
OF course, like every other great city in
the world, New York has its vices, but
they are the faults that are inseparable
from large mixed communities. Wherever
people are gathered together by the million,
you may expect to find practices and pur-
suits for both pleasure and profit, that
would be condemned anywhere else. It
would be idle to say that, because New
h hos hoff af,.-,
no gambling houses within her borders. So
long as mixed society always demands va
ried amusements, SO long as the swell gamb-
ling clubs Of London are patronised by the
nobility, and while the Partisan Jockey
Club allows baccarat to be played, it can
hardly be considered a deadly offense to
permit such games as we find in vogue
here.
But there is a very general impression
that such gambling houses as do exist are
O temptation set to catch the unwary vic
tim. Now, speaking from wide expert
ence, as a criminal lawyer, l have no
hesitation in saying, that, IN almost every
case, the gambling houses under the ban of
the police are places which none but pro-
fessional gamblers are permitted to enter
and sit at play. Clerks and merchants and
trusted employees are not to be found there,
no matter how much the romancists may
AhA 0pOA IAS51 1dNOlIuo duu lOI
very good reasons. Were such persons to
be entrapped into gambling house and to
lose their money, or the funds of their
employers, discovery would certainly follow
and the closing of the gambling house would
be the inevitable result.
But there are other and abundant evil
dences of the growth in grace of the metro
polls which l, as a criminal lawyer, am
specially cogniZant Of Within five years
tho NIaox IF OrnfacSiOnaI tbinUag lxr
existing here, and which was recruited
from England, France and different Sec
tions of the United States, has almost to-
tally disappeared. The severe and very
positive manner in which they have been
treated has resulted in exiting the majority
and now they all give the city wide berth.
Then too, the gangs which were for twenty
years or more the terror of New York are
broken up and dispersed. 1t is impossible
now for any one to point out even rem
nant of the disbanded and scattered
gangs that were the authors of most of the
murders and many Of the other crimes of
the last quarter of a century, antecedent to
1884. The WYos, some of whose Young
members-all typical toughs-have graced
the gallows; the McGloin gang; the Tenth
avenue gang, of whom the notorious
Dutch Harmon" was leader and who lived
by robbing the freight cars; the 'Bowery
and caring nothing for a broken head
whether it was their own or somebody
else's; the dead Rabbits'' the wild and
murderous "Mackerelville gang" the rio
tous Gas House District gang, and last but
not least, the Hells Kitchen gang, with its
foul records of murder and outrage. All
have vanished and their old haunts are
taken by an orderly and peaceable popula-
ton.
But, strangely enough, although morals
have greatly improved, the number of
offenses has increased. This is explained
by the fact that the Penal Code is now so
tull of offenses that almost everything one
does against public morals and interest is a
statutory crime. The law makers, in CON-
piling this Code, have simply given more
work for the lawyers; yet, notice that
svery session of the Legislature increases
The list of misdemeanors. The courts, too,
have been kept very busy. There are
many philanthropic societies, but there are
laws enough and crimes enough
to keep all their machinery
going, such has been the effect of this null
tlplicatiOn of crimes; yet while they have
been augmented by legislative enactment
the criminals themselves have decreased,
OWING to the energy and persistence of the
ponce In enforcing the laws.
Crime, like many other aspects of our
one time we will have succession of start
ling robberies; at another a remarkable
series Of equally daring burglaries. Only q
snort time ago the city had visitation OF
plckpockets; this was followed by robberies
IN which men were boldly attacked on the
streets in broad daylight. Before
that period, and probably five
or six years ago, the city
was shocked at a succession of bold
crimes in which bank managers and mes
sengers were assaulted and, in some in
stances, gagged by thieves, while the latter
were rit1ing the safes of the banks. Inspec-
TOR Byrnes has been mainly instrumental in
putting quietus on these reckless criminals.
There has been no bold bank robbery of
moment since the Manhattan Bank was
robbed. This is certainly astonishing when
1t is remembered that for twenty years
bank robbery was the leading calling OF
experts in the criminal profession, and that
almost every noted offender in the country
mad been at one time or another, guilty
Of it.
The latest illustration of this crime-wavt
theory is the epidemic of sneak-thieving
which has afflicted the metropolis and its
suburbs for some time past. A sneak THE
is very different from burglar, and takes
no such chances as the latter does. Still
some of the recent sneak thefts have led Il
murder. The only way to minimize thu
oesplcable sort of crime, is for the residents
themselves to make their dwellings secure
oy the use of ample locks and bolts on the