The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-06-02

| cial home, going from place to place
1 as business calls them, and Offering a
| snug refuge for their owner and his
family wherever they are. 1t is their
privilege to lie anywhere i'm the river
at any time, so long as they do not in
terrupt the navigator of their fellows.
and when one needs repairs il is sim
ply steered up where low tide will
leave II high and dry on a shelving
mud bed, and permitted to remain
there until the leisurely workmen have
completed the job of fixing it.
One of these old barges lay all win
ter about a mile above where West
minister Abbey's big gray towers over
look the Thames, and its generally di-
lapidated and deserted appearance at
tracted no special attention. But one
day the police thought IL had laid there
long enough, and rowed up to see what
the number of its license was. A mo-
ment's investigation showed that il
was at that time being used for a pur-
pose which no watermans license COW
ered-that 1t was the resort of a gang
Of thieves. Quickly the officers made
away again, intending to return that
night, when they were more likely to
catch the whole gang and when they
could have achievements within call.
They did so, and there was a man in
the boat with them who was not a
member of the Thames police. There
tilbutu lllt lItllltSl liBnI lIldRlDaDle.
All the reinfOrcements handy were
needed, and when, at last. the officers
had succeeded i'm overcoming and ar
resting three Of the rufiians-three had
escaped-two policemen We're badly
damaged 1t was long thought that
one would die, but he will probably pull
through
The barge had been the headquarters
of one of the most desperate gangs of
criminals in the city. Driven from
Shoreditch by the destruction of their
old haunts, they had found this old
barge and either begged or forced the
owner to give his consent TO tying IL
up and permitting them to make it
their refuge during the winter At
last accounts, indeed. this owner had
not been found. Ii is possible that he
has already played a part in one of
the tragedies of murder which the
Thames hides so successfully. and that
the gang began it's occupancy by eject
ing the owner from the barge straight
into the presence of his Maker.
Along this part of the Thames how
ever. in the midst of the better section
of London, the Thames has little that
is exciting about IL. II is down by the
docks-the East India docks especially
that what is left of its old criminal
life chiefly concentrates. Several muir
ders were done there last year. and
ships and men innumerable were
robbed by the thugs and scoundrels
who prey on sailors and their weak
nesses. Down there. too. women take
their part in the villainy of the Thames.
There are many of them who watch
for drunken men as eagerly as the |
police watch for them. and from whose |
clutches IL is unlikely that Jack will |
escape without having lost his money |
and very likely his life as well One |
brutal murder of a drunken |
sailor by one of these women and her |
lccomplices was frustrated while | |
have been in London. The intended |
victim frustrated il in the simplest |
possible way by killing the woman. |
and badly hurting two men who were |
.rying to help her commit murder 1t /
S bad thing to underestimate mans
drunkenness.