St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-12
WHERE CRIME REIGNS
Something About That Classic
Locality Known as Fish
Alley.
Where 1t Is, Who Lives There
and What They All
Do.
1t Looks as if Cole Would
Win the B., L. & P.
Fight.
Rev. William Wilkinson on
NewspapePs--News Of a
Sunday.

cinct denominated Fish alley? For the
information of people who have never
heard of the place, let it be stated that
Fish alley is not an alley at all. The
name is applied to collection Of dives"
on Washington avenue south, between
Seventh and Eighth avenues. The
ground floors of these structures
open onto Washington avenue; the
second floors onto a sort of
court, or cul-de-sac, and onto the vacant
lot back to Third street. This
court is reached from Washington
avenue by small passage between
two buildings. just wide enough to al
low man to walk through. Two per-
SONS could not pass each other there.
This slit, SO narrow as to be almost I'M
noticed by passer-by, is about twenty
feet long. At its termination is the
alley proper, merely an open space
around which the buildings are
thirty feet one way by twenty the other.
At the side most remote from the street
asceDdS stairway leading to a sort Of
platform which starts away OH either
side in pulling ZigZagS until it is lost in
the darkness. Upon this platform open
the doors of the second-story jewellers.
Pits, seemingly bottOmless in their
blackness, really from five to
ten feet deep, yawn on every
side. Light there is none,
except on especially bright nights.
An occasional CLEAN of light streams,
with sinister glare. from some win
dows, but it is a rarity. That locality,
and the people who tenant it. shun the
light as an enemy. The people are all
poor. but they have money enough to
provide curtains, which conceal from
the outer world the scenes within. Foul
odors asSail the nostrils at every step.
Occasionally is heard the sharp bark of
a dog. for these people all keep dogs. A
creak of the rickerty platform falls
upon the ear, and a dark form is
seen disappearing into the impenetrable
shadowGs that shroud all the angles.
After 10 o'clock at night the lights are
gone, and the swiftly, though noise
leSsly, moving figures become more
numerous. The effect of all this upon
the stranger to that uncanny Spot is pro-
ductive of goose pimples and desire
to shun the place unless in the company
OF an officer
Fish alley is probably the most preg
nant mother of crime within the boun-
DIARIES of Minneapolis. There crime in
the abstract exists and fattens upon it.
self. 1t is the home of those persons
who are criminals by instinct, and who
have been further welded to life of
evil through association and in
diligence. Crime of all kinds
there lives and thrives, from the
petty theft of few pieces Of linen in
cautiously left upon the drying line, TO
murder, the kind of murder that is
actuated by lust for few dollars or so
perhaps. More dark deeds have been
done in Fish alley than a whole volume
would narrate, deeds which have never
come to the knowledge of the police, for
the place is peculiarly fitted for the con-
cealment of crime. A blow in the dark
and all is over with the victim. He
doesn't know his assailant. No one will
reveal the guilty party.
Early Sunday morning part of Fish
alley was raded by Officer Farrell and
Sergeant Volk. Mrs. Nobel, Harry
Whitaker and Jack Walters were
locked up. All three were taken from
Mrs. Nobel's rooms, on the second floor
of m Washington avenue south. She
OStenslbly keeps boarding house. In
reality her home, if such den can be
and thugs. 1t is the headquarters of
what is called the Push" gang,
gang Of criminals of all sorts.
Besides the three arrested, Hiram Wal
tiers, the ''lover'' of Mrs. Nobel.
"Blondy'' Pierson and others are its
members. The police are doing their
best to weed out this crowd, but evidence
is hard to secure. A GLOBE reporter
last night visited this nostril of vice. in
company with police officer who was
seeking evidence, and found the place
to be substantially as described above.
The first call was made upon Dora
Hadley. Dora used to be one of the
trusted residents and "sport." But
she has married and become a Chris
tian. She wants to move away. OF the
scenes which those dark corners have
witnessed she related enough to fill this
whole paper. She can testify that the
members of the gang are all thieves.
They steal clothes. pocketbooks, any
thing. Work they are total strangers
10. Harry Whitaker is the leader of
the gang, and. according to her, many
man has been done up" as they ex-
press it, by him and his followers.
AS an illustration, she related the
case of Ed Melich, who is now serving a
ICl III III 0llIlNdLCl IOl OlQ9SlnS clllO lOO-
bling a man. Dora went over the whole
story and concluded it thus:
led Melich never done up that Teller
1t was Harry Whitaker. that's who it
was. Ed Melich didn't have nothin' to
do with it. They got Ed to sell the
watch because he was foolish, but
Harry Whitaker was the one who'd
ought to have been sent up"
Another case to illustrate. 1t will be
remembered that a young man called
"Biddv'' Doyle was found in Smiths
lodging house on Washington avenue
south with bullet through his brain.
He had been member of the Fish alley
crowd. The circumstances surrounding
his death were most peculiar, but the
then coroner deemed it unnecessary to
hold an inquest. The death was put
down as suicide, although it looked like
murder This Harry Whitaker and
"Blondy" Pierson were arrested, but
there was not sufficient evidence upon
which to hold them. Dara last night de-
clared that Harry Whitaker or
"Blondy' had killed Doyle.
This is sufficient to indicate the char
acter of Fish alley. 1t is but small
place, yet it is prolific in the production
of criminals. The shrewd, intelligent
SaIe-DloWef OF burglar, OF lne carefully
trained pckpocket, or the slippery
sneak thief, or the accomplished conf
dence man, does not come from there;
but it is the foster mother of the mid
night prowler, or the brutal
thug, who does his work in
the dark, or who accomplishes
his purpose through the agency of the.
knife, the saHdbag or the club. Chill
drnn are horn there In that rank At
mosphere, fetid with the vapors of vice,
is it any wonder that they. in turn, be-
come the lshmaelites of civilization?
They breathe naught but the air of
crime III its most loathsome and brutal
aspect. They grow according to what
they feed upon.
This nest needs thorough overhaul
ing. Nothing but fire will do it.