Evening star., 1901-08-31
IN GlDDY GOTHAM
How a Murderer Tries to Escape
the Death Chair.
CHILDREN Who SMOKE CIGARETTES
Long Island Sound infested With
Pirates These Days.
WORKING AN OLD GAME
WORKING AN OLD GAME
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

The New York criminal lawyer does not
/ permit many of the opportunities of his
craft TO get by him. He resorts to the
stage for many of his effects Not only is
| he skilled in the arrangement and execu-
| ton of emotional scenes conducting to the
| advantage of his client, but he has re-
| course not infrequently to the niceties of
| stage makeup to convert the appearance
! of the client to a deve-tailing fitness with
| the state of mind which the lawyer de-
| sres to have exhibited.
A few months ago a young Harlem man
member. as you may suppose, of an ex-
| cellent family-took it into his whisky and
| igarette-addled head that his young and
pretty wife-she was really pretty-waS d
mere incumbrance upon the map of the
world. 1t seems that. because she found
! it impossible to live with him, forasmuch
as he was blackguard and general no.
good he considered that her title to live at
ali was consequently forfeited He had
known her since she was little bit of
thing with pair of plgtallS, ana they mad
entered the. connubial state not great
length of time after they had forsaken the
nursery.
The child-wife. however, leaped at once
to womanhood to take up her new reSpon-
sibility and she made her young reprobate
of a husband as good a mate as child
wife did or could out OF the pages of
a novel. After several years of married
misery, during which her husband made it
a practice to empurple her pretty eyes at
least once per week the girl-Wifes folks
took her away from him. 1t was at this
point that he arrived at the conclusion that
what she most required was to be put al
together out of this vale of care and. sOr-
row.
So he provided himself with a shoemak-
ers knife of fine temper and remarkable
keenness, lay in wait for her, and vivi-
Sected her. Never on this island was man
or woman more literally slithered to rib
bons by human hand than was this poor
little golden-haired gir-wife with the big,
pathetic blue eyes.
Having thus effectually sent his spouse
| adown the asphodel meadows, the young
man. after carefully Wping. off the knife
| on his coat. repaired to a nearby gin mill,
| in the back room of which there was a
piano. Here he sat himself down before
| the instrument and, being an accomplish
! ed performer, and gifted besides with a
| voice of the most penetrating beauty and
| sweetness. he executed Chopin nocturnes
| for a space and then broke into joyous
| lifting. He was still singing gayly and
with the abandon of youth, high spirits,
whisky and cigarettes for the delectation
| of an admirng crowd when the cops
nailed him.
In the Best Of Spirits.
| Placed in a narrow cell in the Tombs,
| his exalted spirits remained with him.
| Iron bars did not prison make for this
| Harlem youth. 1t might naturally have
| been imagined that the cutting down of
| his whisky and cigarettes to a figure rep
resented by naught would have served
! to depress him slightly, even If the rec
objection of the horrid butchery he had
WIeaked upon his young wife had not had
| this effect. However. neither deprivation
nor memory bothered this lark-like pris-
orer
He hummed and sang most melodiously
| from the hour Of his awakening until he
| fell into restful, Child-like siumber. and he
kept a four-Square front of cheerfulneSs
| to the world that was both a precept and
an example to prisoners of a morbid or
gloomy frame of mind. The writer hereof
| saw the young man in his cell four five
days after his Incarceration. He vas
| rendering one of Tostfs most saccharine
melodies with fine precision and plaintive-
ness. When he had completed cycle of
| the Tosti airs he gave his rich voice a
short rest by studying with great intent
ness the dope charts of the metropolitan
raceS-racing being sport in which he mad
interested himself for a number of years
during all of which he theved impartialIy
| from his father and mother to crafty his
yearn1ns to get at the nub Of the meaning
of the maturity of chance. He seemed TO
this writer to be about the Sanest, cheer
fullest, most normal human being-not ex-
cepting the keepers-beneath the roof Of
the sorrowful old Tombs edifce. True he
talked for moment as of one who felt at
times the shadow of a vague regret, but
he quickly put such folly away from him.
Far be it from him to be borne down by
Imposing thoughts of the inconsequential
past!
How the Change Came About.
Then came the lining up of the lawyers.
The dead girls father declared openly that
he purposed seeing the murderer to the
chair If 1t cost him every cent of his for
| tune. The unfortunate parents of the
hat
threat was no idle one. engaged a lawyer
who Is famous in this neighborhOOd for his
resOurcefulness. The lawyer was perfectly
well aware of the fact that even taking
into account the circumlocution procedure
of the New York criminal courts his Young
client was bound for the electrical throne
at a rate of speed little less than that of
scorch. Consequently he celled himself
with his client for few days-that is, for
a few hours each day-and instructed him.
Music ceased to proceed from that cell.
The young mana difficult deprivation this
gave over ms survey Of the racing
charts He LEFT on shaving himself daily.
| He fell into the staring habit. He had
such admirable control of his nerves that
| he was able to sit immovable for hours and
stare at one Of the uprights of his cell
bunk. He speedily developed the mono
logue habit, and conversed morosely with
himself at great length. He permitted his
shoulders to slouch forward. He executed
weird passes, with his hands in the air. He
scribbled driVel with pencil on a pad. He
struck grotesque attitudes He twisted his
! long hair into zuluesque points. He made
| faces at his keepers Oh, he did many,
many wonderful stunts of the mime-did
| this erstwhile litter of the TonYlls!
The writer was present on Monday after
| noon last at a preliminary hearing which
| this young man is passing through for the
purpose Of having his sanity tested Well,
| his makeup was certainlyaunimpeac
| The boy was bearded like a bard, and the
hirsute on top of hts head was in a thou
| sand convolutions. His ffngeranails were
| longer than those of Brahmin ascetic
| His eyes had CLASSY stareft1attw twas really
admirable for the purpose. snHisf pallor had
almost certainly been intensified by a cos
| metic. He was a sight He was the luna
tic to a , hairrto those who hadn't heard
! fore, and who hadn't seen him dipping
| into dope charts.
The Result.
Regard him. said the crafty lawyer,
| with victorious gleam in his eye Look
him over" and those in the court room
who knew the lawyer pretty well almost
expected to hear him inquire, "Ain't he