Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-07-23

NI[uIf
//MAAN the great metropolitan
N&NMN thoroughfare Is the
//Mx1M N chosen promenade Of
/MN@ high grade criminals
mr. their Rialto, where
~. they custowArily stroll,
~ and can be seen ON
the corners or drop
ping in and out Of the saloons. Herr they meet
their professional brethren and hold confabula-
ton, on sporting topics chiefly. No men in New
York are better dressed than they nor enter
tain greater respect for themselves apparently
With the gamblers and other persons about
town who get their living at the expense Of the
community they are apt to be on terms of hail
fellow acquaintanceship, their actual occupa-
ton being known with certainty to few besides
the police detectives, who make no attempt TO
interfere with them SO long a. they are not
down on Mr.. Byrnes' List as wanted"
THE CREAM OF THE PROFESSION
These men represent the cream Of their pro-
fession, finding always their headquarters and
favorite haunts in New York. They devote
their attention to such higher branches Of their
special pursuit as swindling in large way and
the robbing Of banks. In their business the
lines are sharply drawn respecting the kinds Of
properly engage. For example, the self-re-
specting bank burglar or "bank sneak would
never think Of cracking q safe in O store. His
enterprises are always conducted on q superior
scale, requiring great ingenuity and daring, and
With with the expectation Of gains in proportion A
of preparation and o large outlay Of
money, may produce a fortune. At police
headquarters is preserved tin box which once
held S2l6,0 the proceeds Of the Concord
Bank robbery in 1866, found buried with its
precious contents seven feet below the bed Of
the Delaware river, where it was hidden at low
tide. robber arrested for a crime like that
takes pride in the exploit, whereas he would be
horribly ashamed to be caught picking pockets.
CRIMINAL SOUVENIRS.
A big room at police headquarters is filed
with an extraordinary collection Of criminal
souvenirs. Among the most horrible Of them
is o photograph Of the reassembled remains.
minus the head, Of Henry Bolles, who was dis
membered and packed in q trunk by the fero-
cfous Capt. Unger. There is bomb which blew
out the front Of q store on Grand street some
planted by advocates Of the early closing move
meut, to which the shop in question had refused
to subscribe. An Internal machine is exhibited
which was found on o shelf in great Broadway
dry goods establishment, presumably put there
by discharged employee. 1t was box SO con-
VINO
might chance to find it would release spring,
strike row Of matches, ignite gunpowder and
scatter broken glass, scrap iron and nails In all
directions.
THE WHARF RATS AUaER.
Another curiosity is a huge auger Of the
kind with which the river thieves called "wharf
rats" bore upward from beneath Q dock into
tierces Of sugar. OF course the sugar runs out
and 1t Is carried away, the theft being only dis
covered when the tierces are moved and found
to be empty. There Is also great iron syringe
such as burglars formerly employed to inject
powder into a safe for the purpose of blowink
IT up. But that method is now out Of date,
superior mechanical processes having been de-
vised for accomplishing the same result
with greater quickness and less noise.
o Most t impressive Is the array Of liter
every one Of which has done to death q human
being. Appropriately accompanying these are
the black caps and nooses Of rope which have
been worn by executed murcerers during the
last twenty years, each ticketed with the name
Of the wearer. or card sharpers' implements.
burglars tools, sandbags, brass knuckIes,
counterfeit plates and other such paraphernalia
OF wickedness there is no end.
IDENTIFYING CRIMINALS
The chief inspector Of police was asked yes
terday If there was any prospect that the an
for the purpose OF Identification would be
adopted here. His reply was in the negative
Said he: 1T is too elaborate and complicated
We arrive at the same result more easily and by
comparatively simple means. The anthropo-
metric system, on which the French brag SO
much, may be very useful for the study Of the
physiological peculiaritie Of criminals, but it
is OF very little practical service. One thing
they do over there which might be initiated
here with advantage-that is, in photographing
an offender they take both the full face and the
profile, which is very readily done in q single
portrait by causing the subject to sit by q mir
ror that is inclined at the proper angle
"Our system for identifying criminals is en-
tirely satisfactory" he continued. "In this
cabinet of drawers, each Of which is numbered,
we have 20, 900 portraits On the back Of each
picture is a detailed description of the indi-
yldual For example, here is likeness of the
bogus Lord Beresford, who recently swindled
SO many people by means Of his aristocratic
pretensions. even SO worldly wise q person as
Mr.. Richard X. Fox cashing his draft for 81 900.
Another rich man. from whom he secured q like
amount, declared that he was glad to get of 40
cheap, inasmuch as his daughter had acknowi-
edged her intention to marry the alleged noble
man, saying cooly that he was lust
the man to spend papa's money On the
reverse of his carte de visite you will observe
the inscriptions walter s. Beresford, alias
Lord Beresford; crime, forgery and swindling;
residence, England; age, thirty-three; color,
white; height, five feet eight inches; weight,
LAT pounds; hair, light brown; eyes, blue; nose,
regular; complexion, fair; has strong. English
accent With that description and his portrait
we have all the material that is necessary for
Mr.. Beresfords ideptifcation. His complete
record is inclosed imam envelope readily re-
ferred to from an index. With all the other
criminals on our list the arrangement l. the
same"
WHERE CRIMINALS ARE SAFEST
1t is curious fact that criminals usually
imagine that they are much safer out of the
country than in it, whereas the fact il quite the
reverse: An offender who goes abroad is much
more likely to excite observation than il he re-
manned here, simply for the reason that he is a
foreigner 'The best hiding place for person
who has broken the-laws Of the United States il
in some large city," said an official in the dis
trict attorneys Office, 80 long as he does not
choose the town in which he has been sccus-
TONED to reside. II he must seek an ASYLUM
outside OF Uncle Sans DOMAIN there IL no place
better than Mexico. supposing that grand lar
ceny IL the crime, inasmuch as that ofrense ia
not covered by the extradition treaty between
Mexico and the United States. On account of
such limitations in the treaties OF extradition
with various- powers it IL actually apt to be
easier to recover criminals from countries
with which this government has no treaties
OF the kind. The latter win usually give offend-
ers up - q matter of courtesy to the limited