Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-09-07
NURSERIES OF CRIME.

IN the NoT'h AnleriGGR IteDleg ChIet PO-
lice Inspector Byrnes of New York has
paper that directs attention to nursery of
crime that very few have seriously consid-
cred. According to this practical and
long-experienced officer, the lodging
houses of New York City are evils of great
and growing proportions The Inspector
need not have confined his charge to New
York and large cities, for, as others can
testify, lodging houses, even in towns and
small cities, are nurseries of crime"
But until We read Inspector Byrnes' ad-
mirable contribution this fact had not
deeply impressed itself upon our mind. I'm
questionably, however, it is true that the
lodging house, as a rule, is an enemy to
society, there being, of course, honorable
exceptions.
The Inspector holds that it is suscepti-
BILE Of proof, easily, that the city lodging
houses have powerful tendency to pro-
duce, foster and increase crime, because
they are generally the resort of thieves,
loafers and people of the lowest type.
The lodging-house of New York City, as
now known, and which has been repeated
in every city in the Union, Mr.. Byrnes
assures us is really but about twelve years
old, having been founded by man named
Howe, who retired in FIVE years from the
lucrative business with fortune This
sounds like a mistake, and is so, far as Cali
fornia cities are concerned, for we recall
lodging houses of twenty-five years ago, in
San Francisco, for instance, that were dens
of infamy then as they are to-day.
In New York City, says Mr.. Byrnes,
there are no less than 347 lodging-houses
267 being of the order under considera.
tion they have 10,439 rooms, and in 1888
accommodated 4,649,66O lodgers. Yet
they are under neither State nor munich
pal regulation, and are, save for the in
cursions of the police occasionally, free
territory. The sanitary laws are supposed
to reach them, but do so less successfully
than any other class of houses. The young
man who lands in city with limited
means and little experience in life gravi-
tates toward the cheap lodging-house.
There he is thrown into contact with the
lowest order of criminals, and in vast
majority of cases becomes their victim or
their ally. The Inspector declares it to be
his conviction that the great increase in
crime in New York City in the last two or
three years is chargeable in a large sense
to the cheap lodging house, where the
plots that culminate in criminality are
planned, and in which resorts the perpe-
traitors take refuge.
The bulk OF the beginners in petty crime
the Inspector traces to the lodging house.
This class is composed of young fellows, in
greatest part, and their initiation into
lawlessness took place in the lodging
house under the direction of older heads.
The Inspector gives list of the worst
lodging houses in his city and the prices
charged. Some of these supply beds as
low as five cents a night. The young fell
low who takes to that class is certain 10
have for associates only the abandoned and
vicious, and but week or two is needed
by them to work his undoing. A very
large number of foreigners who land in
New York with but few dollars float to
the "cheap lodgings" and surprisingly
large number are converted in consequence
into criminals, beggars, loafers and agents
for the doing of evil deeds concocted by
others.
The lodging-house plays an important
part in politics, as it is an efficient agent
for the colonization of voters. Men reg
lister from these low places regardless Of
dates, and have not the slightest hesitation
about swearing in their votes.
In the lodging-house of the kind under
consideration no questions are asked, no
recommendations or references demanded, |
and the proprietors, as rule, find it profit, |
able to be dumb and ignorant concerning
the habits, the coming in and going out of |
their customers. Inspector Byrnes de-
clares with great emphasis that a rem
edy, a drastic, searching remedy,
is needed for the city lodging house; not a
mere palliative, but remedy that lays the
knife about the cancer to the bone for the
evil is on the increase, and, without regu-
lating laws, the police are powerless to
contest with it. What the Inspector SAYS
is true of New York is true unquestion-
ably Of other large cities. and as we have
said, is true also in degree of smaller
places. In this city, for instance, there
are lodging-houses that are nurseries OF
crime" also, and the homes of the dregs of
the place, the resort of the vilest of crea-