The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-03-30

mind now five or six cases of men who
had been professional c iminalS, who
tried to convey the impression TO me that
they had undergone a change of heart,
| and would in the future live honest lives.
These fellows set up bust less with money
they had stolen, but their business was only
blind They were still as crooked as ever,
| not taking part in robberies themselves. but
| planning them and getting other thieves to
| execute their plans, aud give them per-
centags of the proceeds. Thus they escape
the risk of jail, but they are more wicked
and dangerous than the ordinary thief.
A man who has just completed his first
| term of imprisonment almost invariably
resolves that it shall be his last He goes
back to the city and struggles along for
| short time. trying to make an honest
| living, but it is very hard. Everything is
against him. Employers will not give him
work. He falls in with his ola associates;
they tempt him. he is without means; he
takes to stealing again as naturally as ii duck
takes to water.
Criminals are cruel to each other. Let
one OF them get employment and be living
| honestly, and another finds him out. IL the
one who is working does not submit to
blackmal the employer will receive letter
telling him what kind Of a man he has
working for him. got employment for
| number of professionals who were
trying to give up their old lives. In
every case old associates who found them
tried to bleed them, and, failing in that,
exposed them and had them turned adrift
again.
AT present New York is singularly free
from professional criminals. There is no
organized crime Go to the court of energa
| sessions any day and watch the sentences
The fellows who are being sent to prison are
all young men from II to 81 years of age.
The great operators, the famous bank
burglars and sneak thieves and forgers and
so forth have found New York too hot for
them and have left for more congenial
climates. Some are i'll Europe and doing
good business at their own specialties;
others are out in the west, spending money
they have made abroad, and others agaia
are in jails scattered all over the world
The vigorous measures taken by the present
| police and detective forces have broken that
sort of thing up
We would be even better if the law did
not hamper us. Under the present law of
| New York state professional thief has as
! much right on the public highway as any
| other man. The police must not arrest him
| unless they catch him at work. Thus it be-
comes a game of sharpness, with most of
| the advantages on the side of the criminal
| Surprising policeman sees two pickpockets
pushing about in a crowd at Macey's win
dow. He knows exactly what those thieves
are there for. They are plying their trade.
But he must not touch them unless no
catches them actually at work. On the
| other hand, the thieves know the policeman
and they know the law The law suits
them finely. All they have TO do is to avoid
the policeman and they can pick as many
| pockets as they like.
A thief on the public highway is like
case of smallpox in tenement house. He
| is menac9 to all about him, and should be
Put where he could do no d 4mage. Many
states Of this country have what is called
professional criminal act" and we need
one. During the last session of the legisla-
! ture such an act was introduced and passed
: through the Senate. but it was defeated
in the assembly mainly through the
efforts of a New York city member. The
criminals against whom it was directed had
influence enough to defeat it. During the
last centennial Celebration in this city our
department had TO resort TO very severe and
stringent measures for the protection of our
citiz5ns and the visiting public against the
depredati ms of the law-breakers who came
here on that occasion. There was a row
raised about that high-handed pro
ceeding by professional philanthropists,
who said it was a shame to persecute
men simply because they had been
in jail. Well, magistrates had the right to
frae the men whom | had arrested, if they
were willing to take the responsibility. On
the other hand | had the right to re-arrest
them as suspicious characters, which | GER
tainlv would have done, no matter " hat the
outcry from the philanthropists. But the
magistrates supported me in the matter and
held the thieves, and the result was thai the
centennial celebration passed off without a
single crime Of any note.
The men who are active in spreading the
erroneous impression that professional
CT iminals OF the most hardened description
are in the habit of reforming and leading
model lives ever after, are what | call pro-
fe sioual phianthropists, who ges salaries
for effecting such reforms. The people who
pay them expect results, and, consequently,
every now ald then one of these pro-
fessional philanthropists catches a thief
who is willing to pose as a reformed
man. He takes these fellows about with
him from place to place, and the thief
makes addresses at meetings. and tells how
hard ne was, and how bad his companions
are, and how no has been brought to sos the
light through the ministrations and exhor-
tations Of the prof essional philanthropist,
and how hol and righteous ana full of grace
he has become As a star evangelist of the
sensational order the thief is great success
till he is talked out, when the philaBthropist
dscarls him for a ne attraction and the
thief goes back to his old business again.
THOMAS BYRNEs,