The Savannah morning news., 1902-01-05
NEW YORK TOPICS.
DRIFTS AND UNDERCURRENTS OF
THE METROPOLIS.

! New York to BE Made a Decent
city" but Not in Day-The Sea
det" system VIII BE Suppressed.
Croker and Perry Belmont No
Longer Friends-Where the Demi-
Monde surpasses the Four Hun
dred-News and Views of the
street.
New York, Jan 3.-"The people must
not expect that the millennium is com
ing the week after the first of Janu-
ary," said Col. Partridge. the incom-
ing police commissioner, yesterday, and
thereby covered the present political
situation. Many people there are who
look for an immediate readjustment
of municipal conditions following the
Inauguration of Mayor loves reform
administration. These are going to be
disappointed. The changes will not be
sudden and violent; they will be slow
and gradual, and so will have bet
ter chance of being permanent. Ex
else enforcement, it appears, will not
be oppressively rigid. 1t is understood
that the decent saloons will not be
bothered and that a thirsty man need
not fall in a fit on a drug store floor
in order to get a drink on Sunday.
Peggy" Thurston, who is to be the
new deputy Commissioner, vice Dew
cry (bounced), has expressed himself
somewhat alarmingly as to the right
eousness of enforcing all the laws, but
his superior Col. Partridge, followed
this with an intimation that he, and
not his deputy, was going to run the
department, and that there are some
statutes on the books which were bet
ter left undisturbed. 1t is pretty thor
oughly established that Mayor Low
and District Attorney Jerome are in
favor of a liberal municipal creed and
neither of them thinks it advisable to
close the saloons on Sunday, or to at
Tempt to wipe out absolutely the social
evil an achievement that is as inn
practicable as it would be dangerous.
AS a member of the incoming admins
tration recently put it, I'VE can't eX
pect to make this city pious; the best
we can expect is to make it decent and
even that isn't going to be done in a
day"
An evil there is, the most shameful
of all, that will be repressed with the
utmost harshness. That is the traffic
that is carried on at the sign of the
Red Light. For the past fortnight
there have been drifting back to town
by various railroads number of low
bred nashily dressed young men,
LevinslIis. Panatowskis. SzarlenslIis,
Berodskis and the like-exiles from
oppressed Poland-who have fastened
down to the East Side, there to report
to a certain once-poWerful politician,
who has recently announced his re-
tirement and who is the patron saint
of their business. These young men
are the agents and procurers for the
dens whittier young girls are decoyed
and where they are Kept prisoners for
the gain of the gang that makes a
good living from their shame. Some
of them have been "out on the road"
for months. They have sought their
prey over a wide radius of country.
Their method is to lure young girls
under eighteen, preferably to New
York by promises of remunerative
work or of stage positions, and then
| get them into one of the red light
| houses From the time the door of
the prison to which she has been lured
| closes on the unfortunate, she might,
for her own sake and that of all who
love her, be dead and buried. There
| is no escape from her fate. Occasion
ally the men who do this work of re-
cruiting are caught. One was nearly
killed in Salem, Me. Another was run
| out of Reading, Pa. The Boston au-
thorities caught one, and for some in
explicable reason he got off, on trial,
with six months sentence. The au-
thorities of Charleston w. Va. de-
ported one of this gang from the city,
and thereby probably saved his life.
Another narrow escape from lynchng
was that of a Levinski, who tried to
take two young girls from Richmond,
Va. This goes to show how wide the
operations of the syndicate are. Be
fore the election here changed the as
pect of matters it was the boast of
the politician mentioned above that
within year his agents would have
canvassed every considerable town
| east of the Mississippi river The re-
turning Red Light Cadets have come
| back at an evil time. Several of their
| fellows have been sent to prison;
others are awaiting trial. Nothing
doing" is the word in their line. II
looks as if they must either work OF
go hungry for a time, for no part of
the city will be so carefully watched
under the new police administration
as that where the Red Light adver-
tises vice.
Drop a tear, ye sympathetic ones
on the grave where the friendship OF
| Richard Croker and Perry Belmont
! lies buried. The pair who once loved
each other like brothers--each with a
shrewd eye to what he could get out
of it--are now sundered. Possibly the
reason is that neither of them got
much of anything out of it, Mr. Bel
mont expected Mr.. Croker to boost
him along politically and help him to
| some day, or. at least, Governor of
New York Mr.. Croker looked to Mr..
Belmont to establish him in that lofty
realm of society toward which his soul
has long yearned. The partnership
was inaugurated with bright promise.
| Mr.. Croker made Mr.. Belmont presi-
dent of his Democratic Club. and Mr..
Belmont taught Mr.. Croker how to
tie a dress bow so that it was the ad-
miration of all beholders. But that
is about as far as it got. Mr.. Croker's
crowd didn't take kindly to Mr.. Bel
mont. wat tell" said they, in their
rude. coarse way. Dat pin-headed
dude butt into de organization and cop
out de fat jobs? Kermit" Nor was Mr..
Croker much more successful with Mr..
Belmont's friends of the four hundred.
They regarded his beautifully tied
lawn with positive indifference. and
his Tammany mode of expression gave
them chlls. Mot at home, Perry. dear
boy they languidly drawled. Bring
your friend around next summer when
were abroad"
Friendship dropped. The two drlfted