The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-09-28
THE ASSASSIN'S PARADISE
Paris Prey to Criminals Of the
Lowest TNpe.
Lowest

The "City of Murder" is the latest
name given to the French capital. and
the name is not undeserved Joseph
Brandreth in the London Daily Ex-
press.
At the present time such is the ter
ror created by the exploits of the
bands of ferocious ruffians who pollute
the streets of Paris that respectable
people are afraid to venture out of
their dwellings after nightfall.
Scores of inoffensive citizens are
daily knocked on the head, stabbed,
shot. or throttled by lasso-throwing
bandits, and stripped of all they pos
sess. Lucky they are if they escape
with their lives. Not a day passes
without pitched battles, taking place
between bands of thieves and ignoble
'souteneurS" in the public streets,
without the body of some murdered
citizen being found by the police, or
without a score of burglaries taking
place.
In the district of the Rourse alone.
in which the Paris office of the Express
is situated, no fewer than fifteen burg
laries were committed on Monday
night last by an organized gang of
cut threats whom the police seem
! OWeIleSS 10 lay THEIR ndnQS on.
The number of murders for robbery
which have taken place this year is
beyond count. One day an old woman
living in a fiat in the Avenue DIES
Ternes is brutality murdered and her
rooms ranSacked. Another day the
body of a demi- mondaine is found
stabbed to death in bed. and all her
belongings rifed; or, again, a poor old
couple are murdered while asleep for
the sake of 60; and in every case the
assassins go undiscovered.
CutthrOats' Paradise.
Paris has truly become the cut
throats' paradise, and her reputation
as the playground of Europe is in
danger. People in the provinces read
the daily newspaper accounts of the
atrocities that are committed, and pru-
| IDENTIFY give up their contemplated an
nual trip to the capital. Foreign tour
lists are alarmed, and cut short their
| sojourn in a city in which their lives
may not be safe.
But what are the police doing to al
| low all this? How comes it that. with
$4,000 policemen and a large and ad-
mittedly able detective force, Paris has
become a sort of murderers' headquar-
ters?
With a larger number of police than
| ,
Paris exceeds the crime list of London
by more than 100 per cent The police
authorities will tell you that they are
not to blame, that they are continually
making large organized raids and cap
turing seventy, eighty or a hundred
vagabonds and malefactors nightly,
but that their work is wasted.
1t is wasted, they assert because the
judicial authorities release the very
| .l.,xr
| dred scoundrels and cutthroats they ar
rest.
There is a sore feeling between the
police officials and the judicial
authorities, for the latter coun-
teract and render useless the eff
| forts of the former to clear the
city of the hooliganism which now in
| tests H.
This is how a high police officer ex-
| plains the matter:
Ragged VmgHbonds BnHged.
1--WE arrest every suspicious person.
but we cannot bring proof against all
OF them-we leave thar 10 the judicial
authorities. what happens? The exam
] Ing magistrates make a summary eK-
animation next morning Of the whole
crowd Of ragged yagabonds bagged the
previous night The keep the black
sheep. those who have previous COM
yictions against them. and release al
she others, ali those who have ~ far
undergone no infamous punishment.
ana who may have the necessary legal
tN0peuoe lD their pockets no prove that
they have means ~ subs lsfenof Others
show certificate ~ prove that they
have been employed 81 leaef one ~
ESQ daye iH month these too ars
aHgwea 90 10 fhouRh in nine cases DOT
~ feH farg ore r.nunaffie Hho i've 90
thr fafninRf ~ WoUea
Ans gsa4elal aulhgrues agth : De-