Evening star., 1904-02-27
GOTHAM CHARACTERS
Man With Brittle Bones Has
Filched Big Money
FOR ALLEGED DAMAGES
MAKES REGULAR BUSINESS OF
SUING RAILWAY COMPANIES.
Many Professional Litigants Spotted
During Past Year-Number Of
Women in the Business.
FOR ALLEGED DAMAGES
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star

Special Correspondence OF The Evening star
NEW YORK. February 20. 1904.
Every once in while some ingenious pro-
fessional ltigant is rounded up over here.
remanded for examination and then turned
loose. 1t isn't easy to convict a profess
sional litigant. A professional litigant OF
long experience and training has a good
deal stronger clutch upon the law than the
law is ever able to gain upon him.
One of them was landed in the Tombs
only a few days ago. He is an individual
of forty or so. who, for dozen years or
more has skillfully turned a bodily Attic
ton into source Of profit. He is man
with brittle bones. His bones are so brittle
that he only has to sit down with unusual
force in order to break one of them. If he
breathes little too heavily, straightway he
has floating rib as he calmly tells you.
AS a matter of fact. the chap is a bit
proud Of the brittleness of his bones. as,
indeed, he may well be. considering how re-
munerative to him they have been since he
first became aware of their value from a
monetary standpoint.
This adrcit fellow has been making 1t hts
regular business for more than ten years
to sue street railway companies for dam
ages. His game is easy enough. Pretend
ing that a car has been started up by the
conductor before he, the brittle -boned
CRATER, has got on or off, he gently sinks to
prostrate position alongside the car track.
having. in the act of going down. gently
contr!ved to break one of his bones.
The symp athletic pedestrians remove him
to the sidewalk or to a drug store, a doctor
Is summoned. who quickly discovers the
broken bone, and the case against the street
railway company is all made The mans
bones knit almost as readily as they break.
and he suffers no very great discomfort
from his personally conducted breakages.
He sues the street railway company for
large damages as soon he gets around
TO 1t, but the companies generally settle
with him on a satisfactory basis before the
cases ever reach the courts Unlike some
OF the professional litigantS who frame UP
fake damage suits against railway compa-
MES, he doesn't have to enlist the services of
scheming medical men Of doubtful reputa-
tions. Any physician surgeon the most
eminent in the profession, for the matter
of that, will do for his scheme. His bones
are really broken. and the medical men
don't have to know that breaking is lit
tie rnatter-of-fact habit his bones have.
Has Collected $35, 900 for Damages.
This man is said. on good authority to
have collected no less than $35,O00 from
street railway companies in New York.
New Jersey and Connecticut since he first
began to turn the brittleness of his bones
to profit. He is said to have had two and
even three different suits. for entirely diff
ferent broken bones. pending against street
railway companies in different states at the
same time.
He is now well-to-do, having invested his
curiously earned increment in tenements in
New York city. He doesn't appear to be
bothered in the least over his incarceration,
which, as a matter of fact, is liable to be
but temporary, since there seems to be not
chance in the world for him to be
victed of any offense. His cases have all
been strictly ION the level" as the saying
is
His bones have actually been broken, and
In each case 1t has been shown by the evil
dence that they were broken in street rail-
way accidents Of one sort or another. The
fellow is being held mainly to enable the
claim agents of all of the street railways
of New York and New Jersey and Connec-
ticut to visit the Tombs and take a good
long look at him. Most of them have al
ready done this, and the majority of them
have instantly recognized him as a man
who has mulcted their companies of goodly
sums for dislocated bones
While they were taking turns sizing him
up, the chap somewhat inadv~ ~tently hint
ed that New York, New Jersey and Con-
necticut were not the only states in the
Union. meaning, probably, that he had it
figured out that his game would do equally
we'll in other sections of the country 1t
probably won't however, for the claim
agents of street railways all over the coun-
try are going to have photographs and COM
plete descriptions of him tucked away in
their desks.
Professional Litigants Spotted.
Within the past twelvemonth a number
of professional litigants OF the committing
class have been spotted over here and thus
clipped of their earning capacity. These
fellows. as a rule, locate in New. Jersey
towns and cities through which a number
of different railroads pass. Then they go
to work to fix up lodges whereby, after
arguments with conductors M IA
tion trains. they will be gently tossed off
such trains. The usual scheme is to offer
communication ticket as fare, about
which there is some doubt as to whether
its time limit has expired, and then after
the wordy alteration with the conductor.
get themselves chucked off. preferably in
the marshes of New Jersey.
They like this marsh thing because it
offers them an additional source of COM
plaint of having been almost consumed by
predatory mosquitoes The bulk of these
chaps introduce their suits against the rail-
road companies in the New Jersey courts.
The courts of New Jersey are so far from
being Subsidized by the railroads pass
ing through the state that 1t would actu-
ally seem that nine out of ten suits
against the companies are won by the
plaintiffs.
One of them. however who had one suit
pending against the Lackawanna and an
other against the Erie at the same time.
and both based on identical grounds. e.
that he had been unjustly and violently
tossed OH trains In spite OF having offered
to pay his fare, ''queered" the game. as 1t
We're.
The detectives of all the Jersey railways
got to work when this discovery was made
with the result that half a dozen of these
professional litigants of the Communication
train class were corralled here In New
York.
Number Of Women in the Business.
A number of women who have gone in
for professional litigating have been ex-
posed. too. in New York during recent
years. They are considerably more hard
ened and dangerous than the male profess
sional litigants who gouge railway COM
paLies. for their schemes are always
wrought to the injury of some individual.
One of them who was only prevented by
an accidental court room recognition from
mulcting a highly respected mddle-aged
business man of Harlem for damages
away up in the thousands. was warned out |
of New York last year. Her game was |
the breach of promise business.
She was an exceedingly pretty woman of |
twenty-eight or so. and the sleuths who |
traced her record found that she had fig |
ured in no less than eight OF her scientific |