The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-10-13
Sin.Cdrst Gotham
And lis Octopus
New York's Police Force Shelters the
Biggest Thieves in History.
SCARLET SKIRTS-BLUECOATS
Unholy Alliance Between Law AMI Order
and Crime and Disorder-Thirty Years
Of Depravity-Last Year More Than
Five Millions of Money Extorted.


Five Millions of Money Extorted.
New York. Oct. 12.-In one sense the
so-called Lexow scandal-by which Is
meant the whole fostering mass of
municipal corruption laid bare in New
York city by the investigation of the
LeXow senatorial committeee-is, as
the Syracuse Post has well said, in
an article Of which this is q condensa-
ton, the most colossal scandal of the
kind that Gotham has developed. 1t
differs from ordinary financial steals
in that the men who have been mixed
up in 1t have not only been proved to
be dishonest, but to have linked them
selves to all manner of revolving vice.
And the fact that they are all men
who have sworn not only to keep
financial faith with the public, their
employees, but to protect it from the
very people whom they have been
| proved by undoubtable testimony to
have fostered and encouraged in their
crimes adds to the amazing features OF
it. Not in the history of America,
either, have disclosures affected so Sc
riously the personnel of the whole mu-
nicipal department, not in the history
of America have disclosures shown so
| great q tester to have existed SO long
without interruption in any city.
Thirty Years Of Foulness.
When the testimony Of Tom Gould, a
notorious dive-keeper and all around
criminal-a man who for years boasted
the proprietorship of den so vile that
1t was celebrated from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, a man who has often been
locked up for his wrongdoings and
would be now If he had his deserts
showed that the organized corruption
In the police department of New York
city had existed since the days Of the
| Civil War, the whole city stood
| aghast. That means thirty yearsl 1t
| Is generally conceded now that it
began before the war did. And up
to the time that DR.. Parkhurst step
ped In with his disclosures 1t had never
been interrupted for so much as a day.
The town had gone through spasms Of
virtue when the police had been
forced by public sentiment to close up
some Of the dens which they were
paid to protect, but the police them
selves, infinitely worse than the dens,
had gone unscathed Both the po-
lice and the dens knew that 1t would
be only a spasm, and neither dreamed
| All Il HlOlhCuI VI dlttIllS lut DledoduI
relations that had so long existed be-
tween them. The dens knew that the
| police in closing them up were simply
bowling for a time, and that as soon
as circumstances altered they would
be permitted to go on again. There
was no hard feeling" on either side.
Each knew that the other was right"
The police were certain that as soon
as they could allow the dives to open
| again their revenue would begin to
pour in, and the dives knew that the
police were animated by no personal
enmity, or even opposition, when they
ordered them to stop business for q
time. For years 1t was the custom for
the captains Aof police precincts ito
send men around to warn the dive
keepers when complaints made raids
necessary, so that everything could be
right and tight by the time the po-
lice got there to enact their miserable
farce of enforcing the law. This lit
tie accommodation was only omitted
in those cases where the divekeepers
had failed to put up" In such cases
outraged law swept the wrongdoers
away with high hand.
Ramified Rascality.
Such a condition seems Incredible
but it only approximates the condition
that really exists in New York. Not
only were hands outstretched from be-
tween the silken curtains of the dis
orderly houses to drop coins into the
waiting palms of the police, but COM
mon criminals-panel thieves, sawdust
men, green goods operators and a score
of workers in allied tields-plied their
trades under the direct care and COM
fort of the police of the biggest city in
America. During the testimony given
before the LeXow senatorial committee
a green goods operator told how the
whole detective force had been working
in the interests of the green goods mer
who thereby had been enabled to form
what was practically trust in the city
The detective office acted as kind OF
board of directors for this trust They
divided the city into districts, each one
of which was in charge of certain
green goods man. That particular
green goods man was permitted to dc
as much business as he liked in thai
district, and whenever he needed helI
he had but to call upon certain mem
bers of the detective force in order t.
get it. If any victim Of the green goods
men complained he was forced by the
detectives to leave town or be locked
up; and IL any green goods man so fal
forgot himself as to operate In another!
district he was promptly prevented
from so doing by the police. But M
objection was offered to his working II
his own territory.
In return for these little courtesies
the green goods men Of New York paiC
to the accommodating detective force {
very large share of their enormous pro
fits. Reliable testimony will be brough
out before the investigation ends to th
effect that the police protected pick
pockets as carefully as they did tn
green goods swindlers. Their relations
to panel thieves and workers Of th
badger game" have been more or les
clearly understood for many years
and will doubtless be proved beyond |
doubt within a few weeks. 1t is al
ready evident that no wrongdoing ha
been too vile for the police to act as 1t
abettors and protectors when they wer
we'll paid for it; and no persecution to-
petty and contemplate for them to re
sort to for money.
Trading on Female Virtue.
! Perhaps the most impressive part o
, this disgraceful spectacle Is the unhol
| alliance between law and female de
gradation. For thirty years the Scarle
skirted woman of the town and the blu
coated men of the police department
have walked arm in arm through tn
dark byways of New York's neither life
Prostitutes and police have played int
each others hands increasingly an
skillfully. The police have CAREFUL
seen to it that the prostitutes were no
molested, and that their traffic in soul
was brisk-so long as the money wa
given promptly at the end Of eac
month in payment for the service. Th
prostitutes have carefully seen to it tina
the police were able to live in fin
houses, give diamonds to their wive
and college educations to their childre
so long as the protection was givenir
variably in payment for the money.
As woman after woman swore to tn
business-like methods of the police |
extracting this money stained with tn
blood of woman's virtue and mans In
tegrity, the town gasped and horrore
at the news.
That was the first chapter Of tn
Handbook of Infamy which the ser