The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-03-31
NEW YORK'S SHERIFF.
Continued from Fifth page.)

East Side anarchists announced meet
 ing in Union Square. He feared that
 the mob might attack the jail in Lud-
 low street. That future sheriffs may
 be called upon to preserve public peace
 is possible, but unlikely.
 Action of the legislature has relieved
 the sheriff of many of his duties, and
 he now has little to do with criminals.
 He is still in charge of the old Ludlow
 street jail, but most of the prisoners are
 those who are in trouble through not
 paying their debts. He takes charge of
 federal prisoners who are arrested by
 the United States authorities in this
 county. There are seldom more than
 thirty-five prisoners in the sheriff jail
 at one time, and more than half of them
 are held for debt.
 One of the chief sources of the sher-
 ifs revenue when the office was on a
 fee basis was the simple duty of report
 ing to the secretary of state the convic-
 tions in the county The sheriff re-
 ceived fifty cents for every conviction
 reported, and, as the number ranged from thirty-five hundred to four thou
 sand a month, the fees were considera-
 ble Fees for this service have not been allowed since the sheriff received salary, but it takes page or two of the statute book to set forth the many oth- CT things for which he is still allowed to charge For serving summons the sheriff received a dollar and a half; for collecting money by virtue of execution, warrant or attachment, five per cent, on the first one thousand, two and one- half per cent. on the next nine thousand loIJ ant on ten thousand dollars; for each person committed or discharged from prison, one dollar to be paid by the person at whose instance he is imprisoned, and there is a long list of other duties for which he is well paid Half of the fee money goes to the sheriff and half to the county.
 The only drawback to the office from a financial point of view is the fact that the sheriff is liable for the acts of his deputies, and frequently has to pay heavy damages when they exceed their authority or are not jealous enough Ill the performance of their duties. When the office was put on a salary basis q plea for the sheriff's protection was made, and the legislature threw certain safeguards around him. The amount of damages for which he was liable was limited, and it was stipulated that all suits must be begun within a year after | the heriff went out of office. That | there may be no trouble in recovering | damages awarded by the court, the l sheriff is forced to give bonds to the amount of one hundred thousand dol lars. The under sheriff is under fifty | thousand dollar bonds, and each of the | twelve deputies under twenty five | thousand dollar bonds. As the legisla- ture has restored many of the fee priv ileges without increasing the sheriff's | liability, the office has again become | one of the most proffitable in the list of public offices.
 In the sheriff's office, in the Stewart building, is cabinet filled with swords and batons, whi4h rseG to figure in the ceremony whic'. surrounded the infic- tion of the death peadltY. Before the law was passed which provided that all executions should be carrie1 out at the state prisons the sheriff took charge 1f executions in this couaty and attended Tn person. He carrlel a sword with straight blade and an ivory handle He was attended by his under sheriff, who carried baton with a brass cres- cent on the tip, and by deputies bearing plain batons. They gathered about the gallows and when all was ready for the execution the sheriff raised his sword.
 It was this signal which caused the executioner to cut the rope and release the trap. The sheriff and his force stood at attention until the physicians announced that the criminal was dead. Then they returned to their various du- ties. Under the present statutes the sheriff has nothing to do with the exc cution of the death sentence, and the old batons, slaves and swords will probably never be used again.
 When Sheriff William J. O'Brien, who was elected on the fusion ticket, came into office the first of the year, he mo- ticed the swords and batons and asked one of his deputies about them
 Tn the old days" replied the deputy, "the sheriff carried sword to execu- tions and gave the signals for hang ' ing the poor devils.'' I'm glad the law has been changed" /, said the sheriff If I had to signal the {, killing of man don't believe I would take the office" ' He showed his feeling for the unfor- :. tunate in another and more practical way yesterday when he told a Tribune , reporter about the unfortunate debtors who are serving out sentences in pris- on.
 There is something radically wrong with our laws" said the sheriff when = poor fellows can be sent to the debtors s prison for trifing sums at the instance Il of dishonest and graspng tradesmen U We have several foreigners in the Lud- r low street jail new whose stories are c pitiful in the extreme, They are the victims of East Side instalment deal D ars in clothing and furniture. They u were persuaded to buy furniture for a their miserable tenement flats by the II sasy terms which the dealers offer i' them. They paid instalments week af- T, er week until something happened VI which made it impossible to make the ~ weekly payments Perhaps they lost VI heir jobs, or sickness in the family l., ised up the money that was to go for +h he furniture. The moment the pay ia nents were overdue the dealers came to d, lemand the goods, for the ironclad con racts which they signed provided that p