The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-13
PETTY GRAFT AT ITS WORST.
THICK Ar MAYORS LICENSE BU-
REAU, SAYS JUDGE HOGAN.
street women sim Arrested for a DivVy
with Bondsmen-POlice Piilase street
-- vendors and License saloons Then'-
selycs-A Nasty West slide Case.

Police Magistrate Edward Hogan, who
said in court on Tuesday that never in his
Ionq service on the police bench had he
seen the police graft" so bad al it is at
present, gave yesterday some Of his reasons
for this statement. Magistrate Hogan
has been on the police bench almost con-
tinuously since 1853. At present he is
sitting in the Tombs police court, which is
handy TO the Mayors License Bureau, over
which the Hon. James B. Reynolds pre-
sides, having reformed it, Among other
places that the desire for graft" has
struck, he says, is this bureau, where push
cart pcdlers, scores of whom are arraigned
before him every day for having no licenses,
are absolutely unable to get licenses unless
they are wiling TO pay blacl<mail money
1o somebody. Magistrate Hogan makes
no charge against Mr., Reynolds, but, on
the authority of scores Of Italians and
Greeks whom he has questioned, he says
there is 10 doubt that graft is work.
ing overtime in the Eeighborhood of that
branch Of the city government.
Il have nothing to say about the big
graft" he said yesterday. 1T is the little
graft that complain of and which declare
Every little merchant and shopkeeper
who is not willing to pay something TO
grating policeman or precinct detective
out of his honest earnings is annoyed and
harassed until there seems to be nothing
for him to do but submit to the extortion
the prshcart men, the liquor dealers, the
men who keep street stands, men working
on uucomple, ed buildings. sidewalk mer-
chants pedlerS and even merchants of
standing who desire TO use little of the
street for their businesses all have to pay
the price to some police official or take the
Consequences.
When some men are allowed to violate
the law in these SIN II matters and others
are hailed into court at the first violation and
harassed and annoyed at every turn no sane
man can doubt that there is some reason for
such condition.
The other day two policemen brought
an Italian here charged with selling gallon
Of wine to a girl of seventeen. Under the
law these dealers cannot sell wine In less
than fve-gallon demijohns The officers
swore that they saw the Italian pour the
wine from a five-gallon demijohn into a
one-gallon demijohn It turned out in the
course of the examination that the officers
had numerically beaten the Italian before
they arrested him and that they had been
harassing and annoying him for some time.
j learned, too, that the girl who was said to
have bought the wine was a niece OF the
prisoner and lived in his home, so that he
couldn't very we'll have sold her tho wine.
Furthermore, the girl testified that she had
been taken to the station house bv the
policemen and had there denied that her
uncle had ever sold the wine to her. But
in court the policemen didn't call the girl
as witness. They seemed determined TO
railroad this man, and even went so far as
TO swear that he had signs in his place stat
ing that wine in small quantities would be
sold. A score of witnesses denied this
absolutely.
1T was perfectly plain to me what the
trouble was. When you see policemen
tr,Imping up case like this against man
it Is clear that there is some purpose in the
persecution. This man wasn't easy for any
body TO graft on. He wouldn't stand it.
Isn't it clear what the trouble was?
Over in the Fifty-fourth street court
the other day six women and man we're
brought in as inmates of disorderly house.
The man protested that he was a perfectly
innocent man who had been taken into the
house by the police themselves. They
wanted me to hold him on a charge OF being
here is what I found. The man is a re-
spectacle young man and has been working
o. for year and half with a business house
at Centre and Canal streets. He became
two daughters and got one of the girls a
place. After working in it three days she
disappeared. The grief-stricken mother
asked him to help her find the girl: He
located her in a certain disorderly house
and went to the house to try to induce
her to so home to her mother. She refused
so he had to tell the mother where she was.
Then with the mother and other sister
he went to the Eldridge street police station
TO see what could be done There they
sent him to the West Thirty-seventh street
station.
The three went to the station house and
two detectives were assigned to go to the
house with them. When they reached the
house the detectives went inside, leaving
the others outside. After about half an
hour they came out and took the mother,
sister and young man in There demand
was made by the mother for her daughter.
The woman who kept the place said the
girl was not there. The young man in
sisted that the house be searched. The
detectives said there was no USE. Then
the young man saw a sudden movement
behind curtain and pulled it aside, reveal
ing the hiding place Of the girl The de-
tectives were very angry at this interference,
but had nothing to do but arrest all hands
Now, at the station house they let the
mother and sister go. but they locked this
young man up all night and the next morn
ing asked me to take case against him
as a procurer. This, mind you, was a
reputable, honest, Woodworking young
man. in whose behalf over twenty reputable
people appeared before me Why were
these policemen able to go into that house
and stay half an hour all alone? Why
was the girl able TO hide behind curtain?
The officers must have known she was
there. Isn't it plain the place was being
protected, and that everything was being
done by the police to stop any interference
with its business even TO helping keep this
Young girl there? And why was this young
man prosecuted like this? Can any citizen
ask himself these questions and not find
the answer?
over on the West Side the liquor dealers
are divided into two classes-those that
pay blackmail and those that will not.
Those in the latter class are in the police
courts for violating the excise laws every
few days. Occasionally, when one of the
others gets into court the case falls down
for lack of evidence. The thing s per-
fectlv transparent. | am sure the present
officials Of this Citv must know Of this.
/ have been sitting here in the Tombs
since Aug. 0. Since then two police
men have brought in handbook
man Their evidence against him was
that they had seen man make bet with
him. But they didn't have the man who
made the bet Result, the man was dis
charged Last Monday these same two
officers brought here the proprietor Of
hotel downtown, charging him with keeping
a disorderly house. They testified that
thew had takpn n woman To the hotel and