The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-08
SOME QUEER WEAPONS.
WHAT THE vARIoCS CLASSES USE
IN DEFENSE AND DEFENSE.

IN OFFENSE AND DEFENSE.
Gamblers Worst Offenders as Con-
cealed Weapon Bearers, but Least
Dangerous CIass-ItaIians Prefer
the blade and Use 1t on Each
Other-NegrOes and HobOes Rec
Ognize the Razor as Their Omcial
WeapOn-Chinamen Drop Bricks
ON Heads of Victims-The Latin
Races Operate Deadly Cancs-WO-
men of the Street Attack with the
Hatpin-CuriOus Forms of Metal
EnucI]Ies, Black Jacks and Life
Preservers."
New York, Nov. 6.-Every considera-
BILE city in this country to a greater
or less extent. enforces ordinances
relative to the carrying of deadly
weapons. Any person in whose possess
sion is found a dagger. dirk, danger
GUS knife, slung shot, billy, sand club,
loaded cane, or metal knuckles is
liable to arrest. A revolver may be
carried but only by special permit, I'M
less the owner is a city, state or federal
official of certain classes. Permits are
issued with great care, and mostly to
night watchmen and bank or express
messengers. Notwithstanding these re-
strictions, the carrying of concealed
weapons in the large cities, east and
west, is constantly spreading evil.
The police of New York estimate that
$4,000 private citizens habitually go
armed. In Boston and Philadelphia the
percentage is somewhat smaller; in
Chicago, Cincinnati, San Francisco and
st. Louis it is much larger. In Buffalo,
Cleveland, Rochester and other cities
of the second class in magnitude the
percentage is about the same as in
New York. More weapons are carried
in the South than in the North, and
in the West than in the East, general
ly speaking.
Most professional gamblers of the
small fry class go armed. Every raid
on low class gambling hell fills up the
police station desk with revolvers, for
your cheap sport commonly wears
gun" Some few carry black jacks.
life preservers." or metal knuckles,
but they are, from the very fact, sus-
pected of being more thieves than
gamblers, or of being "snide" men,
such as thimble ringers, three card
monte throwers, and swindlers of that
ilk who make the rounds of country
fairs, seeking the "wads" of the inno-
cent. The straight-out buckers of the
faro bank and the roulette wheel ap-
parently carry their revolvers very
largely as a sort of badge of their high
profession, Time was when shooting
ARRAYS in gambling places in the cities
We're common, and in the small west
{, ern towns they are not rare. But in
the big, prosperous, well conducted
gambling denS of the cities such affairs
are about as infrequent as similar
fracases in church. The proprietors dis
courage them as being productive of
undesirable notoriety. So the gamblers,
While perhaps the most numerous, are
probably the least dangerous class of
weapon bearers.
In proportion to their numbers the
Italians carry more weapons than any
other Immigrant race. The arm is the
blade-dagger, stilletto, or knife, and il
is carried, not for ornament or the
pride of possession. In nineteen cases
out of a hundred the weapon is used
upon another man of the same race.
Regular duels between Italians are by
little Italy not long ago two Italians
who had quarreled selected seconds,
mot to see fair play, for all is fair in
stabbing duel, but to prevent inter-
ruption by the police,) and went in to
fight by the Pickering light of a lamp
post. When 1T was over one of the men
had crawled into a basement to die.
and the police had no difficulty in
tracking the other by the trail of blood
Yr1fx 90,
the Italians are curiously formed,
with a terminal twist to the handle.
designed to set against the fieshy out
side muscle of the hand and insure a
firm grip, for the true italian knife
fighter lunges as with a foil, holding
the palm of the hand up and guarding
with his other arm held across his
chest.
Much in vogue among the Italian
rag picking women is a very thin still
letto, sharpened to a razor keenness
on both edges. So small is the mark
left by this terrible weapon that there
is record of one case where a doctor
issued certificate of death by heart
disease, and issued it in good faith, for
man whose heart had been split by
the thrust from one of these slender
blades. Further Investigations follow
ing an accusation against the woman
who had struck the blow showed that
the flesh had closed around the wound,
leaving barely perceptible mark
That familiar comic paper joke about
the negro "spoht' and his "razzah''
is not a baseless fiction. If the tough
negro of the cities carries any weapon
at all it is a razor. In use it is held
with the blade doubled back across
the knuckles. and the approved method
is long. drawing sweep with the hand
held palm downward. Fatalities are few
but the mutilations are frightful. the