The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-01-29
CHICAGO'S CRIMINALS
sANDBAGGERs HOLD FULL SWAY IN
THE BIG CITY BY THE LAKE.
No One Ii Safe without a Gun-Mur-
derous Assault and Robberies Are
Too Numerous TO Mention.
Letter in Pit,sburg Dispatch.

criminals one must be here on the ground.
Accounts of riots murder, highway robbery.
sandclubbing. and such matters that get 10
the outside world through the regular Chi
cago channels are likely 10 be toned down
to suit the mild tastes OF the effete East,
but no man can spend so much as a day
in Chicago without having 1t brought very
clearly to his mind how daring and danger
Gus the criminal population is.
The criminal population is one of Chi
Cages heritages from the Worlds Fair.
Following the millions of sightseers came
hundreds Of cut-throats. gamblers, bunko-
steerers. highwaymen. and general thugs
and crooks in hope Of rich harvest. Some
of them Jared well, but not so we'll as they
would have had not the city been better
policed during the fair than it has been be-
fore or since.
The sightseers came and went, but he
criminals came and stayed. having discov-
cred a place in every way suited to their
profession. Putting these two facts to-
sether, it requires no difficult reasoning TO
perceive that the proportion of thugs to
citizens must be such to make the life
and property Of the latter somewhat uncer-
tain of tenure in the Windy City.
AT present Chicago's great industry Is
sandclubbing. Every morning there
half dozen cases reported in the newspa-
oning must be made of at least ten not
made public. To a stranger 1t is an I'M
pleasant reflection to note how many Of the
sufferers are visitors in the city. The rea-
son, however, is not far to seek.
In this city every man whose business
carries him out after dusk takes, certain
conduct. In the first place, he carries a
pistol. and often. in addition, a heavy cane.
He knows what places are particularly
dangerous. and walks in the middle of the
street when passing them. No man can
come upon him from behind and find him
unprepared. No woman can stop him in the
street because he is agile in lodging.
If a stranger. meeting him face to face,
asks him what time It Is he does not pull
out his watch. but he does pull out his
pistol. Where he finds himself in a tight
place he wastes no time calling for the po-
lice, for he well knows how useless that
is, but either runs or fights the best he
understanding of such things are unlikely
to live to a green old age-or TO any other
kind.if they venture out at night
Half dozen railway stations form the
points determining circle within which
lies that portion of Chicago where is done
by day the bulk of the business, by night
reaches the city at night takes risk hard
ly to be appreciated by New Yorker In
attempting to get to hotel on foot; no
matter how near it may be. From what
soever station he may start, in whatsoever
direction he may go he cannot reach his
destination without passing through dam
gers that he may not realize until too late.
Throughout the business sections of Chi
cago the blocks are bisected by narrow
alleys, into the saturnine blackness of
which the eye cannot penetrate. AS none
of them are lighted, they afford secure
lurking places for the thugs. Each Of them
is the den for some particular gang, and
every passerby Is subjected to the keen
scrutiny of unseen and unsupported eyes
back in the shadows.
ALLEYS ARE DANGEROUS.
Particularly dangerous are the alleyways
in the vicinity of the railway stations. A
man with a grip is the best kind Of game,
for burdened with his satchel, he is less
likely to put up fight, and, moreover, the
swag carried by a traveller is likely to be
not inconsiderable. To jump out from the
mouth of the alley, strike the passer-by one
quick, sure blow horizontally across the
senseless, back into the darkness. Is the
work of five seconds, perhaps less.
The victim. If he RECEIVERS his senses
staggers out into the street, to be found
he doesn't the police who. on their morn
ing tour, look carefully into every alley,
fr him neTe ane sMer
might be expected Probably nine-tenths
Of the sandclubbed recover.
Part of the business OF the ca l OF
they emerge from the railway stations.
1t is a matter of business with them. Let
a night arrival attempt to walk to his hotel
and he is beset by dozen cabbies who ex-
postulate with him:
"Keb, sir; take a keb; take yer to yer
hotel''
Yer wouldn't think ter walk at this time
o. night?'
Step right inter. this carriage, sir. I'll
get yer there safe
Sure, Yell never get past a alley wild
that grip; it's murdered yez'll be this
night" ,.. ..s. ..or
don't walk round Chicago after O'CLOCK
They was fely killed just around the
corner last week."
..An' five more robbed since on this
Better take keb sir. Keb! Keb.''
How far the interest of the cabbies ex-
was sandclubbed about Christmas time and
appeared in court few days later against
a suspect gave the following suggestive tes-
zone of the cabmen followed me almost
| to the mouth of the alley. and as he finally
| turned away heard him whistle 1t didn't
| occur to me then that Ii might be sig
| nal, but a second later something struck
me- and when / came to myself IL was day
| light and 1 was lying in the alley with my
| valise empty and my pockets turned inside
| out I could identify the cabman If / saw
him again.
NOTHING COMES OF ASSAULTS.
| The police didn't find the cabman, and
| nothing came of the case. Nothing comes
| Of most such cases. Itis very seldom even
| that any one is arrested. Sandbagging is
regarded as the natural lot of a man who
| goes about at night unarmed in Chicago.
| The police seem powerless to control this
! particular form of crime, and that is
scarcely to be wondered at. since a police
| man after dark is rare sight in the down
town portion of the city Before o'clock
| one sees two or three on every corner
| where they serve mainly as street pilots
| and directories.
Their knowledge of the city is minute
| and extensive, and they are for the mos
| part, courteous in extending information
| But with the coming OF night they disap-
| pear suddenly and mysteriously, and
| after o'clock the whole downtown dis
| Nothing more dark and dismal and ter.
| ror-inspiring than these streets at 10 O'Clock
| Just the time when the streets of the
| average city are full of life and lght-car
| be imagined. But it must not be supposed
! that the thugs wait until that hour tC
| begin their work. Any time after night
| fall Is good enough for them. 1t happened
| to the writer TO see sandba gging recently
| at o'clock IN the evening or Fifth ave
| Of the city. There were perhaps fifty peo-
| pie within stones throw of the spot.
| A middle aged man or good appearance
| was passing the black mouth of the alley
| that bisects this block, when two meT
| leapei out upon him, struck him. down
| rummaged his pockets for a moment, and
then disappeared into the impenetrabl'
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