New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-04-07
TROUBLE FOR CITY MARSHALS.
LEGAL AID SOCIETY ACCUSES SOME OF THEN OF HELPING
TO UlPRLSON NS7ALMENT DEBTORS
POOR FOREIGNERS TRICKED BY COLLISION, IT'S SAID

Charges of a serious nature against several
of the city marshals who have offices on the
East Side will be brought to the attention OF
Mayor Low in a few days. A mass of evidence
alleged to connect them with extensive frauds
of various instalment dealers has been col
lected by the Legal Aid Society, and is now be-
ing put into shape. Sheriff OBrien. who has
charge of persons imprisoned for debt, has
given valuable assistance. and Mayor Low has
already been interested in the case by his sec
retary. James B. Reynolds. who is familiar
with East Side conditions through long resi-
dence at the University Settlement.
The marshals will be charged with making
dozens of false affidavits of service by which
body judgments for debt have been obtained
in municipal courts and the debtors thrown
into Ludlow Street Jail before they knew that
any action had been taken against them Ii is
further charged that they have Cnticed other
defendants out of the cOurtrooms when their
cases were about to be called, in order that
Judgment by default might he entered against
them in their absance- By grossly Illegal
means it is said, they have frightened ignorant
foreigners into paying unjust judgments and
exorbitant fees. For the last month attorneys
of the society have been investigating these
cases and obtaining sworn afidavits from the
alleged victims.
With the assistance of the marshals, it is de-
clared, combined with the ignorance of their
victims the instalment dealers the courts
designed for the protection of foreigners to
carry out their swindles. The gloomy old red
brick prison which the city maintains in Lud-
lowest in the heart of the foreign quarter, is
never without it's quota of miserable debt pris-
oners who we're caught in the instalment net
Generally they are foreigners who neither
read nor write English, and speak it brokenly.
if at all. Often they have not the slightest
idea of why they imprisoned. They are in
nocent of wrongdoing and cannot understand
why they have been torn away from their work
or hauled out of bed at early hour to be
hustled off to prison by q marshal Italians,
Hebrews Russians. Swedes. Rumanians. Syr-
ians. and sometimes even Turks. among the
instalment debt prisoners.
AN ITALIAN BARRIERS TALE
No one who listens to o tale of the troubles
of an instament victim doubt the inability
of the average tenement house foreigner to pro-
tect himself from instalment sharks even if the
law was not perverted. A Tribune reporter
listened while a little Italian barber. Tadaro
Basario. of No. T2J Gates-ave, Brooklyn, told
how he had been taken from his shop on Friday
afternoon by a marshal and held in Ludlow
Street Jail until he satisfied a Judgment of
sol IA. He sat on bench in the visitors room
of the Jail and with the aid of fellow Italian
prisoner who could talk better English, told how
he bought watch from an instalment dealer
about five months go.
Tadaro did not want the watch badly. but the
dealer put it in his wife's hands. She smiled.
and that settled it. Tadaro gave the dealer -.
and says the latter told him that if the watch
was not all right he would return the money
Tadaro signed paper with some printing on It.
What it was he did not know. He asked no
questions not even the price of the watch He
took the timepiece to pawnbroker. who told
him il was not worth two cents When he next
saw the instalment dealer he asked for the re-
turn of his 81. 1t was refused he says At the
end of a few weeks he received letter from
the dealer telling him that if he did not pay
S4l for the watch within four days he would be
sent TO jail He had not SAL
The barber positive in his assertion that
he had received summons from any court.
and that he did not know that action had been
taken against him until the marshal came to ar
rest him. Some marshal swOre that he had
served him personally with summons to ap-
pear in court. and when he did not appear judg-
ment was entered by default. Bassario will
probably be released to-day. through the efforts
of the Legal Aid Society. In the mean time his
wife is trying borrow money TO get him free
KNEW NOTHING OF COURT SUMMONS
Pasqualo GuIda is another Italian who spent
the best part of last week in Jail. charged with
conversion of property, as the result OF buying a
watch from Stormberg- In an afhdavlt asking
for a reopenng of his case he says that he owed
a balance of 81 - 81 watch He was
served with a summons and to court
eral times. The amount sued for was Sl3. and
he told the court that he did not owe that much.
IT. aI{ ed Anril .
in court that day with a witness. and waited
until after IL o'clock. marshal then came 10
him and asked him to go outside and settle the
case Gulda says he told the marshal that he
wanted to walt for the judge, but was informed
that II was not necessary. He went TO the mar
shars Office at No. 100 Clinton-st-, and was told
that unless he paid S11 the marshal would at
once take him to Jail. He refused to pay and
was taken to Jail. the records showing that he
arrived at IL o'clock. The judgment was OBJ
tanned by default while Gulda out of the
courtroom and news Of II sent to the marshal so
that there might be no delay about sending him
to jail
Adolph Golberge is Hebrew victim who was
rescued from the city jail last week by the Legal
Aid Society. a year ago he purchased suit OF
clothes from Charles Ludwin for 81 ~. and
paid S11 30 in various instalments. leaving
balance of 81 A few days ago. he declares.
Ludwin told him that ne was thlel' pecduse he
had a Judgment against him for conversion He
was arrested on Judgment obtained in the
summer of 1901 when he was not in the city
He saws that he received summons in the
case and did not know that action had been
entered against him. In an effort to hnd out
about the judgment he wandered into the Essex
Market Court The officials did not understand
what he wanted, and gave him summons lor
Iudwin. The Judge dismissed the suit AS soon