The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-05
BLOW TO BONDSMEN'S GRAFT.
UNIFORNTNG PLAIN CLOTHES
MEN CHECKS ARRESTS.
System Had Been Highly Developed and
Sometimes an Arrest Cost q woman Of
che streets M High as S5S-Lawyers
Traded on Friendship with the Judges.

SBUtCNtUtte ~ !hTECtt NVoy - vVtuAh "
the streets NJ High ~ S5S-Lawyers
Traded on Friendship with h Judges.
No order issued by the Commissioner
Of Police in recent years has had a more
immediate and marked effect in the police
courts thar that Of Gen. Bingham putting
the plain clothes men in uniform. II has hit
the professional bondsman hard. Their rev.
enues have been cut almost 10 nothing. The
reason is that few women OF the street are
now being brought before the Magistrates.
This decrease. old timers in the police courts
saw. is sufficient indication that most OF the
arrests Of these outcasts were for the pur-
poses Of graft.
II In only within recent years. according
to those who are familiar with these courts.
that the process OF extracting money from
disorderly women was reduced to a smoothly
moving system. That system had A. its
most finished example the pickle trust
Two lawy ers. the right kind OF a Magistrate
and one or more bondsmen completed the
outfit. After that it was addition, division
and silence. The silence extended beyond
the group that made the money; IL sealed
the lips of the plundered ones. A police court
official explained the helplessness OF these
women in this way:
From the time the law takes a grip
on them until they get clear Of the court
they are continually running against out
stretched hands dehled with moneylust.
They are victims Of oppression and ex-
tortion while in the custody OF the law.
They are robbed not only Of all the money
they have but Of their earnings for days
to come. As a result many of them have
,AHf,..aI &Io. kka,r ka..a 10 wAh Ahn In
toxicated themselves in order to pay their
police expenses
1t is this smoothly rolling system that
COMMISSIONS Bingham's order has put out
Of gear. When business was dull ant
there was need Of money the custom was
for the police captain or the sergeant who
handled this kind Of money to go into a
deal with a bondsman and ave a large
number of arrests made for the ostensible
purpose Of cleaning up the precinct. The
women would be brought in and released
on bail by the sergeant. The cost was
usually s.. the bondsman getting his money
as soon as the women reached the outer
door. That bono made the women APP
pear in the police court the next morning.
Occasionally one would not appear and
then there was a scurrying around 20 get a
substitute. so that the hail should not be
forfeited. Many a wonan has gone into
court to he fined under another name TO
obliGe the bondsman.
Once in the police court the usual punish
ment was a So fine. making the cost of ar
rest 20 the offender $40, Of which the bonds
man got IS. In recent years il was dis
co vered that the mcney ma ing methods
had not teen ~ haUsted. With the righl
kind of a Magistrate the bondsman could
do a more Observation-Disclosures than he had
already done. He could nave the Maeis-
trate put the women Under bonds for good
behavior for a given time.
The fee for the bond was 10 per cent. of
its face. 500 for a $500 bond, and 80 on UP
to $50 for "a $500 bond, which was about the
largest imTos ed. No one ever new that
any of these bonds were forfeited and hence
there was absolutely nc risk in signing them.
I he women might be arrested the next
week for the anne offence. but no one
thought Of declaring the bond for good
behavior forfeited.
The women take their medicine in silence
and their chief concern IL 20 comply With
the demands made upon them in the short
est possible time and escape. They have
had TO pay from s. to $40 for net being locked
UP in the station house over night. Then
comes a paw ment Of from $50 TO $50 for a
bond releasing them on their good vior.
J hat would seem to have been enough to
satisfy a graft machine. but soon n new
means of eytortion appeared.
1t was discovered that these outcasts
should be represented by a lawyer. on the
theory That the fines may be reduced or
legal rights be- preserved. Formerly Il was
considered almost a reflection on q lawyer,
even q police court lawy OF. TO appear as
counsel for women charged with lettering
or soliciting who were liable to "a s. fine or
who might be discharged. Bot under the
pressure of rapacity times changed in
recent years and il became a matter oi
almost daily occurrence to see a lawyer
whose fee might vary from so to s25 de-
Tending n woman charged with lettering.
The right lawyer might get as many as a
dozen of these cases in a day. 3 him
whv he wa willing to take up such business
and his re-pOnEe would be-
The meanest wretch in the city is entitled
TO be- represented by counsel and have his
or her Interests safeguarded at the bar OF
justice, especially when an .0verzeal ons
policeman makes a charge OF criIre 81 which
he or she is innocent at least in this case
A different explanation Is the right one
IL Ii that by requiring these women 10 EN-
ploy counsel the plumber machine may
make still more money. To that n a
rumoT long ago went the rounds OF the
under world that a certain lawyer in an up
town court was the brOther-in-law OF "a
Magistrate. ben this Magistrate sat in
that court arrests were nun erOls. tie was
Replied 10 De very severe Nl nls sentences,
and the report was that the only mar who
could lessen that severity was hiS relative
by marriage. The lawyer was not related
10 the Ma Ristrate in any way, but the report
went the rounds and Is still current.
4 story that the women would be sent
to the Island unless he was employed was
the means always of raising d rich crop in "a
field hat hitherto had been barren. The
names of another Ma gistrate and another
lawyer were also always coupled in this
scheme Of eXtortion, and many n woman
has paid out scores of dollars throu 1h need
less fright.
The result has been that often one Of these
arrests has cost the woman a. high as SIS,
s. for the station house bond, $50 for a law
yer and $50 for a bond They are helpless
as soon as they get in the clutches OF the
gang. n they pay. sometimes out Of their
savings and oftener by pawning even their
clothing.
Then the gare is to get their things out
Of pawn by robbing the unwary-all TO
satisfy the demands of the machine which
certain Magistrates have allowed TO be run
in their courts.
II is this highly developed plumber
machine that Commissioner Bingham has
put out Of business by his recent order
putting plain clothes men in uniform. The
full effect Of that order will not be felt until
thirty days from its ssuance have expired.
Whether the reduction OF arrests which
N - Ill 49, Mh~