Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-21
LUDLOW STREET JAIL
New York's. Prison Where
Debtors Languish.
F AVORITISM SHOWN
PRISONERS WITH MONEY GET
WHAT THEY WANT.
Case Of Ives-Swearing Habit Growing
Among Women-Return Of
the Song Birds
VORITISM SHOWN
,ecial Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondents OF The Evening Star.
NEW YORK. March 90 1908.
Ludlow street Jail is not much heard of
any more unless 1t gives shelter to some
notable prisoner like J. Whitaker Wright.
fat. bald. double-chnned. that unnterest-
ing-lookng promoter who was nabhed
when he got Off steamer here the
other day by request Of the English
authorities. And yet it remains the
same old eye-sore that has been pounded
by the press for SO many years. Some
slight notifications have been made in the
laws applying to debtors. but old Ludlow
remains the debtors prison. Just as many
unfortunate debtors in paltry sums drearily
while away the days. weeks. months, even
years, there at the present time as ever did.
"A good many of them have been there so
long that they have been quite forgotten
by their families and friends. Last year a
philanthropist got man out of Ludlow
who had been confined there for twelve
years because he owed So on a clock and
couldn't pay it! His wife had died during
his incarceration, and his children had
grown up and gone away from New York.
The man wasn't well enough educated to
had to languish in Ludlow for a dozen
years before benevolent individual ac-
cidentally heard about his case and dug
him out.
Many Similar Cases Still Exist.
Many men are still there who have been
imprisoned for long periods for being I'M
able to meet petty obligations. Time and
again has the system been held up and
lambasted which deprives a petty debtor
Of the chance to earn the money to pay
his miserable little debts, but nothing much
has been done to correct the absurd
scheme. Perhaps the debt-owing prisoners
are treated bit better now than they used
to be, but that Is ALL
In way Ludlow street fail is good deal
like the old-time sponging houses Of Lon
don which Thackeray and Dickens so en-
tertainingly described in their stories. That
Is to say, the prisoners who have got the
price can make themselves pretty comfort
able in old Ludlow. Federal prisoners with
money in their pockets often drift there,
and, except for the fact that they are
locked up. they contrive to make them
selves mighty cozy, fitting up their apart
mentS" as they choose, sending out for
their meals and wines, and SO on. The
poor chaps confined in Ludlow take what
they can get and 1t is pathetic to See how
wistfully they contemplate the luXuries en-
joyed by the fellows who have the money
to pay for them. The most down-in-the-
mountaineering group of men that this
writer ever saw We're half dozen deep-sea
several months as witnesses. They had
made some sort of complaint against the
skipper Of their ship. and they had been
clapped into Ludlow-where they were
treated just like prisoners, instead Of wit
nesses-to walt for the case to come UP in
court. They had cells at the other end of
the" corridor from the apartments-the
word is used advisedly-wherein Henry
Ives was 'confined.' and 1t was plain to
see that the splendor of the Ives layout as
compared with their own humble state in
the prison had worn their spirits much
as their incarcera ton.
Ives Case Recalled.
Henry Ives, 1t will be recalled, was the
young Napoleon of finance-the original one,
for whom the phrase was coined-who,
starting In the stock brokerage business at
the age of twenty one, managed to wreck
several railroads and to annex the tidy sum
Of $15,OOO,O 900 unto his own bank roll before
he attained the age of twenty-five. He lost
most of this money when he got out of Lud-
low but this is another story. There GER
tainly was plenty doing within the walls of
old Ludlow when Henry Ives was confined
there for a few months. He had four large
rooms thrown into one, ana fitted them up
gorgeouSly at an expense of several thou
sands of dollars. Fresh flowers and fruit were
kept on the tables of the rooms all the
time. A steady stream OF callers visited
Ives at all hours Of the day and night, and
d
his disposal. A telephone was placed in
one Of his rooms, and he was arranging to
have telegraph instrument put in when
he obtained his release. The refrigerator
in one of the rooms was kept stocked with
the choicest liquids that could be bought for
money, and nobody ever visited Ives with
out going away with his pockets stuffed
with the kind of cigars that are made for
crowned heads. fine billiard table was
installed in one of the rooms and Ives got
q lot of interesting exercise that way.
But, as matter of fact, his normal eXer
else wasn't much restricted. Ives was sup
posed to be just as much of prisoner in
Ludlow as any Of the unfortunates lam
gushing there for being unable to pay the
arrears on bedstead bought on the in
stallment plan-but he wasn't, all the same.
He drove out after nightfall, in his fine vic
toria very frequently. and he even held
quiet little levees in parlors which he char
tered in uptown hotels on these occasions.
The Ives business in Ludlow was raw
that big fuss was kicked up about it in
the newspapers of New York, and a few
keepers lost their jobs. Ives. however took
bountiful care of these discharged keepers.
1t should be said of the young man that
when he himself was released from Lud-
low he took out with him all of the poor
debtors who were given an opportunity to
apply to him for helping hand, paying
their obligations and giving them money
besides to make a new start for them
selves.
Since Ives time none of the well-to-do
Ludlow prisoners have been permitted to go
abroad in their carriages. but some Of them
have lived in the old prison In mighty lux
urious way, although this sort of thing is
more kept under cover than 1t used to be.
Meanwhile. the unfOrtunates held there for
owing wretched little sums of money go on
munching the coarse prison fare, playing
checkers and fumbling greasy cards when
they are given the chance. and waiting Mi
cawberishly for something to turn up.
Woman Sentenced for Swearing.
Last week Brooklyn judge made a sad
invasion upon feminine rights as they are
construed by some elements Of the popula--
ton over this way. A couple of young mar
ried women Of neutrality-suspicious., of the
perfec' loidy type-who had conceived a vio-
lent antipathy toward each other, met on
one of the. most prominent corners In
Brooklyn and began to "cuss each other
o,,,fx haxy