The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-07-22

a QUEER EOOhlNG SHOP NEAR The bOWERJ.
J the nearest fence. Hence 'fence," a place
to hide swag, and, by easy transition, tbs
person who provides such place.
The fence makes large profits. l bought
a very good pocket knife the other day foe
half dollar in queer New York shop near
! the Bowery, where pretty much everything
from dumbbell to Cross of the Legion
of Honor is displayed for sale. 1t looks
the shop-like what it purperts to be,
a place for the sale of pawnbrokers' un-
redeemed pledges bought at auction ac-
cording to law. As l came out rough
! looking fellow who stood near and had
evidently been watching me said, What
! did yer pay for de knife, boss'"
Fifty cents" replied, somewhat sur
prised
''Oh, Halifax he exclaimed, too much
! d:sgusted to pronounce the name clearly
or fully. t'Why, de bloke only give us
| fifty cents for two dozen of 'em." And he
strolled up street with another rough fell
low who seemed to be his pal. If I am not
mistaken they were using bad language
when they walked away.
Together with large profits the business
offers very serious risks, though probably
less than almost any other kind of crime
it is better to say that they are severe.
The chance of detection and conviction,
however, is comparatively small. Even
after the police have learned beyond the
possibility of doubt that man or a
woman makes business of buying booty
from thieves, it is exceedingly difficult to
procure such evidence as will warrant an
Indictment, to say nothing of the proba-
bility of petit jury dsagreeing or acquit-
ting the accused person.
In the last case of the kind which was
tried in New York the prisoner, Mr..
Saich. who was jeweler doing business
on Sixth avenue, was convicted on the tes-
timony of three professional burglars.
One of the witnesses testified coolly to hav-
ing committed burglaries enough TO con-
sign him to dungeon for hundred years,
but when he was asked if he had ever been
a convict he refused to answer on the
ground that it would degrade him. Will
lam T. Howe, the famous criminal lawyer,
declared that he had never seen a parallel
case. AS a matter of course it was per-
fectly easy for him TO fIrpeSch the credi-
bility of the witness-m fact it was scarce
ly necessary to do it-but the jury believed
the burglar as against the fence, and Mr.
Saich was sent TO state prison.
Speaking of this case Inspector Byrnes
said the other day: Eyes. we have to use
thieves for witnesses We can't get any
other. You may talk ell you have mind
20 about convicting man on the testi-
mony Of disreputahle witnesses, but what
can we do9 We can't get William NJ.
Evarts or DR.. John Hall to go to fence
and sell him stolen goods. OF course it
makes conviction difficult. The fence usu-
ally has an eloquent lawyer who knows
his business. he will take one witness in
hand and ask him if he has ever been in
state prison. Usually the witness will say
yes, knowing that his record is known.
Then the lawyer viii talk 10 the jury, and
will generally influence at least onejuror to
give his client the benefit of the doubt, tell
ing them that no one ought TO be convict
ed of crime on the testimony of a convict.
Undoubtedly Mother Mandelbeum was
the most notorious fence in New York."
continued the inspector. "Yes, there was