New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-24
FREED ALMOST AT WILL
"YEGG" MANS DEFIANCE.
MAGISTRATE Breen Mentioned IN Re
mort ON Island Conditions.

cancy prisoners who, the Charity orsahiHd'ioh
Society alleges, have been Improperly ana UNI
1ustifably released from the workhouse on
Blackwelrs Island and the branch workhouse on
Riker's Island was sent to Francis j. Lantry'
Commissioner of Correction. late last night. The
report will be supplemented with the account OF
some fifteen other which should be ready
for the Commissioner on Friday.
Three of the most glaring cases In the report
were those of Bridgeport Shorty. yegg
man, who, II is alleged. has four times obtained
his release from the workhouse "Pekin Edole'
otherwise known as Edward Ashleigh. one Oh
tn. most notorious "yegg' mendicants IN the
country and Arthur Dorey. who is better known
on the Bowery as "Bridgewater Blackey." the
friend of many divekeepers and an intimate OF
"Harmonica Rosie" the queen of the 'yegs,
who has headquarters at No. 43 45 Jay-st..
Brooklyn.
Serious charges are made against a city
magistrate and number of minor officials
Magistrate Matthew p Breen is accused of re-
leasing a mendicant Of whose record he was
fully informed by the society. Michael Whaler.
head keeper of the Department OF Correction
and an election district captain, is alleged TO
have obtained special discharges for one of the
most notorious beggars the society ever prose-
cuted. Charles E. Sheridan. president of the
Charles E. Sheridan Association, political! or
ganizaton in Commissioner Lantrys district
and head keeper of the Workhouse, is charged
with laxity. Indifference and indirect connlvahce
at the escape of ''Pekin Eddie
The case of bridgeport Shorty Frank
Wells. alias James McGreevy. is known in the
underworld of grafters. is the most striking or
the three sent to Commissioner Lantry. Ac-
cording to the signed and sworn report of James
Forbes special officer of the mendicanCy COM
mittee. he has obtained his release from the
JsIa FOR nv %
schemes known to "yegg' men,"
Wells was first arrested March ?. 1902.
While sitting the pavement at Fourteenth-st
between Second and Third ayes, with a fake
bandaged leg and arm. He was committed Tor
six months by Magistrate Pool, and as a real
first termer" obtained his release after serving
a little more than month. The society re-
turned him to his home at Bridgeport Conn.
Wells narrowly escaped arrest second time
when young cripple named Jones, whom wells
had trained to beg, arrested at an East
Side elevated station He was finally captured
at his old tricks on November 10. 1908. while
begging at Eleventh-st and Third-ave. He
was sentenced for six months by Magistrate
Hogan, but released on November l6. This
discharge was obtained. according to Wellss
boast, by dipping" the pastor of the st. Brigids
Roman Catholic Church. Wells said that he
had been tipped Off" that the pastor was
mark to in Influencing Magistrate ftOSdn.
He arrested third time in April of this
year while acting as lookout for a man named
O'Reilly, who went into stores with bandaged
arm and solicited aims. He was taken before
Magistrate Breen. The society declares that
there was no lack of proof of the actual i'm
pastures practised in begging and of Welshs
black record He again committed for the
usual term of six months. On October Wells
walked into the office of the Mendicancy De-
partment and boasted of the pull which had
obtained his discharge without spending one
day in the workhouse.
The report from Mr. Forbes goes on to say:
Wes u.s. and b we haTe no reason 10 aGuoi
through Michael Whalen, ranking head keeper
in the Department of Correction and assigned 10
charge of district court prison.
The report then goes on to state that Wells
hal declared that he had not even gone to the
WorkhOuse; that Whalen had made representa-
lions 10 Magistrate Breen which resulted In his
discharge. The report then complains that the
magistrate released Wells without consulting it
or informing 1t OF the action he intended taking.
1t continues:
Little wonder that Wells. intoxicated by success.
boosted Of the impotence OF all efforts to restrain
his criminal liberties boosted that he would soon
within FIVE years he would be saloonkeeper and
in ten an alderman.
Ashlegh was arrested on a New-Haven train
in the Grand Central Station begging from pas
sengers May - He sent the island
for six months by Magistrate Crane. and the
Charity Society declares 1t took especial pains
to warn Charles f. Sheridan, head keeper of the
workhouse. that he a notorious 'yegg"
who would use great fertility Of resource in
securing for himself an easy berth at the work
house, a special discharge or an escape" Sher-
idan. 1t is said. promised that Ashleigh would
get place the coal gang. but it not long
until the society learned that he was enjoying
himself in a graft" job in the cot ROOM and
that he was subsequently transferred to the
clothes room.
AS soon as the society learned that Asheigh
planning an escape Officer Barry was sent
to warn Sheridan that vigilance should he used
in regard TO Ashleigh communicating with out
side criminals. A third warning. it is declared.
was sent to Sheridan when the society learned
that a woman with whom Ashleigh was associ-
ated had gone to Philadelphia to await his
cape on August Il Ashleigh did escape as the
'yegg" and not from the Department of Cor
reCton.
The report says of the escape:
that Immediately after effectng his escape (which
he was able TO do by calmly selecting his own
assigned him. being thus enabled to Law aside his
striped suit and mingle unobserved with the crowd
the department launches Tom Lee dive keeper,
passed revolver 10 Ashleigh. Lee was armed
ond-ave. elevated road to the South Ferry station.
on the ferryboat TO Staten Island. trolley
Ferry into Jersey. where Ashleigh secure from
| the NewYork police.
TO Philadelphia. and returned 10 his dive to cele-
| o. hut TiInip