Evening star., 1901-08-31


The child owned to the soft impea chm.nt
that her average consumption OF the things
was about forty per diem. she oousnt
them at the rate of two for cent. A
simple mathematical computation Will en-
able the astute reader to perceive that this
little girl consequently required twenty
cents in real money each day In order to
keep her system sufficiently saturated with
nicotine-if. indeed, there is any nicotine in
cigarettes. This diurEal sum she gained
by pan-handing persons on the streets.
The fingers of her one hand-the other arm
was cut off in a street car accident a year
ago-were stained rich walnut from her
handling of the cigarettes.
Her eyes had the dull glaze of the ha-
bitual cigarette smoker. and, having been
shut off from the things for a couple of
days before appearing in court, she was
about as tremulous and distressed a little
East Side girl you'd care to see. The
magistrate asked the child how she had
got into the habit OF smoking cigarettes.
Here she made her indictment of the New
York boy for his lack of gaiiantry. She
piped out to the magistrate that the fel-
lerS' the East Side docks wouldn't play
with the ''goils'' unless they Ghe "goils')
smoked cigarettes with them AS life with
out playing with the "feiierS' on the docks
was, of course, not to be thought of. the
''goils' as a matter of course had to learn
to smoke cigarettes-Snd after a time, in
deed, to provide them for the 'feliers.''
Wouldn't the fellers play with you at
all unless you smoked cigaretteS?' in
quired the magistrate, curious1y.
''NaW--nuttin' don'-nuttin doin' if us
soils didn't hit de sticks wit en- replied
the child expressively, with graphic hori-
zontal gesture of her remaining hand.
''Well, l think the boys around here
ought to smoke up on chivalrousness," the
magistrate was heard to mutter, ana then
he turned the child loose, on her promise
that she wouldn't smoke any more cigar
cites. The magistrate forgot to pledge her
with respect to cigars and pipes
And speaking of little girls, their precoc
ity over here is indeed quite startling at
times. For instance, a little ffteen-year
old girl is at this very hour confined in
the alcoholic ward of Bellevue Hospital,
suffering from as acute a visitation OF
the delirium tremens the oldest rum
nurses around the hospital met up
with such precocity!
Modern Pirates.
Whosoever maintains that the era of
piracy has passed is slumbering. There
has been a vast amount of piracy around
Long Island Sound this summer. 1t is not
the cutlass- ss-between-teeth, arm-and.away
or grappIng-hooks brand of piracy. but it
is theft on big scale by means of sailing
vessels, whether they be long, low and
rakiSh not, and if this state had a fleet
such as Maryland maintains for the hand
ling of the oyster pirates some of her rich
citizens who live along the coast would be
thankful.
These latter-day pirates who have been
have picked up big plumber. Their method
is to east anchor in the nearby waters to
fine summer residence at a proper dark
some hour of the night and to burglarize
the plant.
They customarily pick out mansions the
occupants of which are temporarily absent
sound cruises. They loot the mansions
from top to bottom, testing all of the
gold and silver with acid, and displaying
in general a nice taste and even hateur in
the character Of stuff they appropriate
unto themselves. When they've got the
plumber all together they hike it down to
their boat, spread their white wings and
fly away into the mystical night. 1t will
be plain at a glance how much better a
method this is than to load plunder into
a noisy and often creaking wagon or even
to labor1OuSly pack 1t away on the back in
a bag. Both of these primitive methods
appreciably increase the chance of being
captured. whereas none of these heavy
weather burglars has been corralled by the
wistful cops up to date. These merry night
cruisers provision their ships, too, from
the stores of their victims. They penetrate
to the cellars for stocks of fine wines
and condiments. and one must conceive
that they have fine, care-free, rollcking
old time of 1t during their hours of leisure.
II is only a matter of time before the
wealthy New Workers who live up along
the sound will be yelling for a man-o'-war.
Worked an Old Game.
Whenever the New York papers think
that they have discovered something en-
tirely new and original in the criminal line,
they make mighty annoying and unwar-
rantable splurge over it. For instance, they
are now telling at great length how
young man who needed the money accom-
plished well-nigh successful scheme to
chisel the bOOkmakers operating up at the
Saratoga track out of their hard-won pelf.
The young man, acting In accordance with
the instructions of his chief, a formerly
E1l-Rn Minn ma w hl
crook of late years. wired from New York
to the Saratoga bookmakers that John
Kerr"-the name he emplOyed-had de-
pCsited certain SiZeable sums to their credit,
and signed the name of well-known
Broadway bank. few hours later John
Kerr wired in his own name that he
wanted the money (placed to their credit
according to the fake dispatch from The
bank) put on certain horses to win. The
bookmakers, who often transact business
in this way, and having what purported to
be the banks kilograms. placed the money
in accordance with John Kerr'S' inStruc-
tions. and the horses won. couple of
days later John Kerr presented himself
at Saratoga for his winnings, and the
amount he had won was unhesitatingiy
handed over to him by the bookies He
repeated the scheme a couple of times
winning large sums.s before 1t struck the
wise bookmakers that they might. after
all, be playing against wind, and they then
wired the bank. which. of course. returned
the reply that it had never heard of John
Kerr The next time the young man ap-
peared at Saratoga to collect his winnings
Billy Pinkerton gathered him in, and now
he is In hot, stuffy cell, waiting for the
trial Judge to come back from his dog-day
vacation.
Played at st. Asaph.
The New York papers look upon this as
a wonderfully cute scheme. and they have
been publishing yards of stuff about it, as
if it had never been heard of before. AS
a matter of fact, the biggest job of that
sort that was ever worked happened in
Washington when the merry-go-round over
at st. Asaph was in operation. An amiable
young person. with bright, shrewd eye
named George Cathcart, from Baltimore
got something like $4,000 out of the ST.
Asaph bookmakers by the same method
George discovered when he landed in Wash
ington that he imperatively needed quite
set of funds in order to maintain himself
in the style to which he hadn't been accus-
toned. and so he originated this scheme
He wired to the st. Asaph pencilers
the name of a Baltimore bank of the con-
siderable sums that had been deposited to
their credit, followed these up with wires
of his own as to how the money should
be placed, had almost miraculous luck in
picking the winners, and visited Washing