Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-30
IN NEW YORK JAIL
Whitaker Wright's Expert
ence in Ludlow Street.
HAD POOR QUARTERS
TALKED BITTERLY TO INTER
VIEWERS OF HIS FATE.
His Erstwhile English Friends Ready
to Tear Him Limb From
Limb.
HAD POOR QUARTERS


NEW YORK. January 80. 1904.
| Whitaker Wright, the English company
promoter, whose tragic death in a Lon
| don court room the other day was so
| singularly like the wind-up of a conven-
tional English melodrama. was an inter-
esting man. He impressed those who
| visited him while he was under lock and
key here, awaiting extraditon to Eng
| land, as a game man, too He happened
to land in this country, on his flight from
his own land at a time when the de-
| c1dedly sinister and queer Ludlow street
| jail was coming in for lot of newspaper
| criticism on account of the notorious ia
vorftism shown there to wealthy prison.
| ers. So the Ludlow street Jail people
| seized upon the Englishman as a shining
mark toward whom to exhibit Impair
ttaF' treatment, well knowing that ac-
| counts of the Accommodations" bestow-
| ed upon the noted schemer would be
| printed everywhere.
| They went good deal out of their way
| in truth, to make Wright miserable dur
| ing his confinement ut the dingy old
prison. They put him in one of the small
est and darkest and meanest cells in the
| place, despite the fact that at the very
time he was locked up there were several
embezzlers occupying suites of three or
| four ample rooms in the prison finely
| furnished from the outside. They forced
! him to partake of the coarse prison fare
| although other "well-heeled" prisoners
| were having their meals and their wines
sent in from the best restaurants in New
| York.
| Associated With Sullen Prisoners.
He had to take his corridor exercise
with sulIen gangs of sailors held as wit
nesses in cases having to do with abuses
| on the high seas, while it was an estab-
| l1shed fact that other Ludlow prisoners
| of Wrights degree were actually allowed
| to roam the streets of New York after
| nightfall under the espionage of keepers.
/ Wright arrived in this country a time
| when the weather was extraordinarily
| hot He was under an enormous mental
strain and wholly out of physical condi-
tlon ct he never. during all the months
OF ms incarceration under Impartial cir
| cumstances, whimpered over the treat
ment meted out to him at Ludlow.
| Inc writer. while engaged in gathering
| Data regarding the management % the
Ludlow street jail. happened to visit
Wright at a time when, the bottom having
| fallen out of certain tremendously inflated
American industrial securities there was
eral high financiers'' of New York. Wright
was reading some of these fiery attacks
with good deal of interest.
II wonder when l may be expecting some
| of these chaps to join me hera?' he in
| quired. with a twinkle of amusement
He was informed that there was little
likelihood of any of the American stock
waterers ever being subjected to criminal
prosecution.
"Oh, l knew that, of course" he replied
In this country you have a secret admiral
ton for the manipulation who does YOU
and who gets away with it as you say
You make a lot of noise in crying out
against him, but that is ALL Americans
even when they are out of pocket-even
when they are quite broke, 1 might almost
say-have sort of sly respect for the ma
nDulatDr
upon the arrangement as sort of dog-eat-
dog affair. L got mine, and got it good
the specializing American says when his
good thing is ha shed and then he pockets
his loss and makes up his mind that the
next fellow who gets him has got to be a
good deal smarter than the one who has
already done him.
The Difference in Old England.
1T is very different in old England. They
scream over there, and for personal VEN
geanee. Half of England is laundering to
see me working on a sea breakwater in
ooze and slime up to my waist I'll just
mention; here and now, in brackets, as 1t
were, that they'll never see me in that
somewhat damp and clammy situation.
1t was only a little while ago that my
English shareholders regarded me as a
gorgeous fellow. l picked up an Australian
gold mine for a few thousand pounds
Shortly after got hold of it it gave prom
L
my English friends in at the rate of shill-
ing share. Then the mine began to turn
out gold to the tune of f12o 600 a month
The shares jumped from a shilling to ESQ.
Oh, then [ was the cleverest chap in the
whole British empire, you know. 1 was,
as you say. all right, all right 1 was the
greatest public benefactor ever.
Then the output of the mine suddenly
slumped and, shortly, ceased altogether
1t had been worked out Well, the change
in the attitude toward me would have
seemed absurd had 1t not meant my actual
ruin. They began to call me bleod-suck-
ing vampire. then. I was the robber of the
widow and the orphan, the enemy of little
English homes. 1 was trying to chuck all
middle-class England into the workus. L
was a sybaritic deceiver of the poor and
lowly. They didn't stop to reflect that l
could have got from under during three
straight years with a clean profit to N.Y.
self of from FLO. 600 600 to f2O, 900 goo
1T made no difference to them that I
up, and to which 1 had admitted them ON
shilling terms"
An Americans Estimate Of America.
Henry Harland. the writer of that ininl-
itably refined piece of fiction. 1.-The Cardi- |
nails Snuff Box" and several other tales
that have placed him In the front rank
among novelists, got back to ''the states" |
a little while ago. after having spent sew |
eral years In Florence. Verona, Nice, Ma
pies, the Tyrol. Rome and other places duly
mentioned In Baedaker and on the Cooks |
Tourists lists. Most of his fictionizing has !
been done in Europe. and all of his fame |
garnered there. |
When he got back. and the interviewsrs |
were sent after him. he certainly talked