Sunday Washington globe., 1902-01-19

/ 1T may seem a strange statement, said
an old detective, "but the detective Of these
modern days owe as much for important
arrests to opium as they do to inf, rmers
Some days ago a local opium Joint was
raided by the police, and among the offend.
| ers caught we're several crooks, who were
later identified as the originals of some
| photographs contributed to the rogue's
gallery by the police of New York aud Chi
cago. Many of the most dangerous Grim
| inals Of the country are addicted to the use
! of opium, not the low and vicious brutes Of
/ criminals who knock man on the head to
rob him, or the common murderers, cut
throats and ordinary thieves who infest
every large city. mean the smart crimi
nails, the men with subtle brains to plan
subtle plots and the nerve and daring to
carry them out. They are often addicted
to the use of opium, and this fact is well
known to the up-to date thieftaker, and he
makes good use of it. No matter how
bright, how entertaining or how plausible
the habitual opium smoker may appear.
there is always something wrong with him.
and that something is generally the lack of
al morality and the deadening of all sense
of moral responsibility. And there is a
connection between the effects Of the subtle
drugs and the subtle plots the unraveling
of which gives the police so much troubled
While clouded by the drug the brain of Thea
opium smoker is more active than ever
under the stimulation of the drug and
many plot is FIRST conceived while the
smoker is toasting the little pills on the end
Of a long needle while indulging ia his
favorite dissipation
An Opinni suokar "a never a vryhiskry
drinker as long as he can get opium. There
is no after-eff, ct to opium except insanity
and the grave, and most men reason that
they will never go insane and that others
may die, but somehow they never associate
themselves with the idea of death. The
recollections of any crime are eifectually
banished through the use of opium, and
conscience and its accusations are always
stilled by the whiffs of the pipe. By the
modern Bertillion system of criminal iden-
tihcation, as much as is possible is always
found out about the criminal, and all his
customs and habits, friends and pecul jarites
are as fully set forth in the description on
the back of the photograph, as are the lines
of his face. An opium smoker cannot long
keep his habit secret, and the fact that
criminal is an habtual user of opium seldom
is unknown to the police, and through the
criminals are often caught The smoking
Of opium is always betrayed by the smell
This odor canuot be mistaken for anything
else. 1t belongs exclusively to the burning
of The extract of the poppy, and in hotels or
rooming houses 1t may be detected by any
one on the same floor with the smoker.
IF a murderer l once knew had taken to
the pipe instead of the bowl he would have
escaped the gallows" continued the de-
tective 1T was one of the strangest cases
that ever came under my notice, and Il
shows how little thing can cause a mans
undoing. ! was i'll Louisville at the time,
and was present at the execution of the
man, and the words that doomed wretch
spoke to the gaping and morbidly curious
crowd from the scaffold have never for
got and never will forget Across the
river, in Jeffersonville, is the Indiana State
Penitentiary, and this man-Warner be.
lieve, his name was-was convict in the
penitentiary. He had been in many years.
and during all Of tile time of his imprison-
ment he had, of course, never tasted liquor,
which was the primary cause of the striped
suit he wore. In a quarrel with another
convict in the shoe shop where both were
working, Warner stabbed his fellow-convict
to death with a oeknfe. He was taken
from the prison to the County Jail, tried for
murder and sentenced to death. Some days
before that set for the execution a photog-
rapher took some pictures of the murderer.
and these the man sold to visitors on the
plea that he wanted the money for a decent
funeral after the decree Of the law should
have been carried out. His sales we're
many, and he had more than SIoo for his
funeral Two days before the time set for
the hanging the man broke Jail and escaped
clear of the town. Of course a hue and cry
was raised for him. and the police OF every
town within radius Of 400 miles had a
description Of the fugitive, and all officers
were on the lookout for him because Of the
substantial reward offered by the sheriff.
'rhe very night Of the escape Of the gal
lows sentence man we we're itting around
the main police station in Louisville talk
ing about the breakaway. A call for the
wagon came in and when the vehicle re-
turned the officers carried a limp and un-
conscious figure into the station and
dumped it to the hoor in front of the desk
sergeant for registration, and that officer
was perfunctorly going through the search
ing process, when he turned the drinking
unconscious man over, and. looking at his
face, recogniz him as the condemned
murderer who had the night before escaped
from the Jail across the river in Indiana
For years the man had been without the
taste of liquor. and when he had the chance
to drink il and the money with whicA to buy
it, he did drink il, and he was hanged two
days later in the Jacksonville Jail. As he
stood before the crowd assembled about the
scaffold the man, with the hangmans moose
in his hand, raised Il aloft and waved II Ia
the direction of the npturned faces, and
said simply: When you raise the glass OF
LIQUOR look in the bottom and you will see
the shadow Of this rope. That was all, and
then they hanged him"