The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-03-26

mentally mRtured men. To stick
man up, all that is required is a pistol
an unfreauented spot In any city and
certain amount Of physical nerve.
The first attempt is as likely to be pro-
ductive of a big haul IN vaIuables as
any later one. The stick-up is there
fore, class Of crime within the easy
reach OF any young fellow cr1m1nally
disposed. Escape is also comparative
ly easy, as has been shown by the
numerous crimes committed by Chi
cago stick-ups before they we're
caught
Modern Industrial conditions have not
a little to do with the spread Of this
crime. Young men thrown out of work
by the numerous strikes, with their
minds fnfamed by mad reading. take
TO the stick-up business readily. The
smuggling done in many Of the strikes
under the guise Of battle for principle
is a splendid school for the stick-up-
Those who teach that what the rIcn
have belongs to the poor furnish some
with an excuse who might otherwise be
deferred by conscience.
AS to cure and prevention, for years
1 have held a very positive and flrm
opinion. I have watched the develop
ment of the stick-up in American cities
closely. I have carefully and without
prejudice followed all the plans al
vanced for the cure Of the evil MY
observation leads me to believe, now
ever, that there is but one practlca4
remedy-the whipping post. Those TO
whom I have offered this plan, or many
Of them, have criticised II as DelnS
return to barbarism.
About 80 years ago four OF the New
York swell mob the criminal aristo-
crats-planned to rob a bank in VIII
mington, Del. They learned that the
keys were in possession of the cashier
in that officials house. They repaired
to his home, stuck up the family ana
secured the keys to the bank, but not
until q negro servant had escaped ana
given the alarm. The men were cap
tured and sentenced to ten years IN the
penitentiary, one hour in the plilory ana
so Iashes on the bare back AS nave
said, these men were among the afls-
tocrats in their calling. They wore SILK
hats frock coats and had their box at
gence and daring had caused the pupllc
to throw a glamor OF romance ABOUT
them. When it became known that they
were convicted, the sentimenrallsts
cried:
to fog Jim Brady; you are not gong
to lay the lash on Joe Howard; you
don't intend to subject big Fran
Mccoy to this indignity?'
But they did fog them, ana tney
did it we'll. Every time the big negro
laid on the lash it cut the skin. Iney
were not spared. This was the pegln-
ming and the end of the stick-up Dusl-
ness in Delaware. In 30 years there
I has not hGen even an dlletAA pIS0 be~lAr n
/ robbery. The swell crooks have given
Delaware a wide berth for genera
ton There is not a populous county
/ in the union in which there is as little
crime with violence.
when we first undertook the po-
Icing of race tracks 1t was considered
/ almost legitimate for pickpocket to
/ operate on the tracks. Years ago we
/ frequently took an arrested pickpocket
out onto the quarter stretch, pinned q
/ sign on his back, 4 am a pickpOcket,
( and paraded him back and forth be-
! fore jeering thousands several times
/ No man treated that way ever failed
/ to get and stay as far away from
/ Chicago as possible.
without undertaking to go into the
/ psychology of the thing. the fact
| cannot be disputed that a crook fears
public ignominy more than the seclu-
sion of prison cells. The sentimental
lists may be right when they say the
whipping post is a return to barbarity
But any man or woman holding such
sentimental theories who IS stuck ur
at the point Of a pistol, robbed Of then
| money and valuables and beaten over
the head with the butt of a pistol viii
be willing to sacrifice sentiment to any
means to check this sort Of crime"