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

ate and cunning of the biggest city's
criminals have nightly gathered. In
those days barges at anchor in the
stream and ships at the docks were
forced to guard their property as if
they were In a place where law and or
der did not exist l am told that more
than "A dozen murders were done by
Thames thieves in one week years ago,
and that drunken man was almost
certain to lose his valuables and, like
as not. his life, if he ventured near to
the strange river that flows through
London.
At that time the banks for great dis
tances were lined with the old Thames
arches. over the feet of which the river
ran at high tide, and which. on the
ebb, were the resort of the whole city's
poor and wicked. l have a picture in
my possession which shows a hundred
outc1sts sleeping on the stone flooring
between the pillars of one of these
arches. and there is no doubt that this
picture is n faithful representation of
a scene which actually and nightly oc-
CURED in the old days-and the old
days have not gone for many years.
But that was before the DAYS of the
metropolitan police. Now a great float
ing dock at the side of Victoria En-
bankment is the headquarters of one of
the most perfectly disciplined and thor
oughly competent bodies of police in
the whole world. The arches have
been replaced by this very embank-
ment and the others which, like il. line
the Thames with solid stone walls sur
mounted by pleasant driveways or
staid business streets. The docks are
as well patroled by the officers of the
law as is the Strand. and the old time
desperate waterside characters have,
10 a great extent, passed into history
That impressive waterside scene in
THE Silver King is no longer true TO
life. although at the time the play was
produced il was said that scenery and
characters were copied from existing
places and existing men. The man who
wrote that playa melodrama of the
desperate criminality of I.ondon-has
now turned his attention to writing
plays which tell of the immortality of
another class-those in high life. And
the authors change may have a sig |
niicance unguesssd The Thames has |
been reformed as Whitechapel has |
been reformed. in curbing a certain /
kind OF crime which is born of power /
~; she has succeeded very much bet !
ter in hghting that than she has in |
hghtinS certain other kinds of crime 4
which is born OF luxury and wealth.
SIN the Thames is not without its
Wlckedneas. Civilization has not vet /
advanced so far as TO prevent a muir /
derer from occasionally throwing the /
body Of his victim into the black /
waters of the strange stream. and a /
part Of its advance seems TO have been I
the increase OF the number OF self /
murderers who throw themselves into /
II. Thus the policemen i'm the little
darling boats are not without their
business. They often find what they
are looking for.
London bridge-that historic struc- /
ture which has been falling down in
the song Of childhood ever since Moth
er Goose became popular as a poetess
seems 10 be the favorite springboard I
OF the miserahles who wish to lean I
into eternity Scores Of suicides jump /
from il every year and II is a tradi- |
ton in Scotland YARD that its suicides
are the ones which always give the !
greatest trouble 10 the police. They