The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-30
STRIKE AGAINST BONDSMEN.
STREET WOMEN WHO WON'T GIVE
UP NOT WORTH ARRESTIAG.

SIeuths to Get Into Decent Business.
When Magistrate Walsh opened the days
business in the Yorkville police court yes
terday he noticed that the prison box was
filled with young women and that many
others out on bail sat among the spectators
What evidence have your" the Magis-
trate asked Detective Wagner Of the Fifth
street station when a young woman was
arraigned on a charge Of soliciting.
'She was walking up and down the street
for half an hour"
Anything else?"
Il got u conviction against her once"
SIS that all?"
Eyes"
'Why you should make such an arrest
l annot understand unless it is to help the
professional bonasmen," said the Magis-
trate as he discharged the prisoner.
Two other women who were arrested by
the same policeman were let go for lack of
evidence. Another plain clothes man from
the same precinct arraigned four women he
had picked up on the streets on Saturday
night. The only evidence he presented
was that he saw Them walking up and
down..
There's a lot Of police activity wasted
here" eaid the Magistrate. at Is OF no
benefit to the city TO lock up these women
and then bring them to court In this fashion.
These arrests are doubtless profitable to
the professional bondsmen."
He asked one of the court clerks how
many of the women had been bailed out
after their arrest.
The clerk informed him that thirty-two
women had been arrested by the men OF
the Fifth street station and Twenty-Five
had been baiIed out. Fifteen women were
arrested by the plain clothes men OF the
East Twenty-seCond street station and all
bailcd. Twelve women had been arrested
by the police Of the East T~hirty-tifth street
| police station and all bailed out,
Fifty of the women were discharged for
lack Of evidence, and the others were held
in 500 bail for their good behavior for one
month.
fidence how the big haul Of women came to
be made.
There wasn't much doing in the house
last night. when the desk sergeant said IT
was a wonder W didn't 60 out and pick up
the women that Were lettering on the 81 rr"ts,
Then ws got busy"
Tie street women OF the Fifth street pre-
cinct have begun IA strike against the pro-
fessioual bondSman. The leader OF the
strike j. II woman known as Blanche Brown,
who has II record of nineteen arrests in one
month. When she was arrested one niShf
last week and was asked al the station
house if she didn't want a hondsmun,. as
usual, she said she did not. She was locked
up for the night, and said in court the next
day that she had been informed that she
would not be arrested so often if she did
not get a bondsman. She was discharged
by the Magistrate and has not been arrested
since
S.yru OF the women arrested In that pre-
Cinct Saturday night initiated her action
and declined to engage bondsInen. One
of them said she had saved S. by staying in
the station over night. The women said
the Strike was likely to spread.
The usual number of street women, ar.
raigned on the usual charge, with the usual
lack Of evidence, stirred the wrath OF Mag
iotrate Pool. sitting in the Jefferson Market
police court yesterday.
station charged a woman who said she was
Ethel Hall with soliciting. He hadn't heard
any of her conversation and she was dis
charged.
What do you arrest these women for,
officer, demanded the Court, ito get money
out Of them for the professional bonds
mem
Mcdonnell declared that he didn't know
anything about such IA scheme.
OF course you do" replied Magistrate
Pool, that's what all you fellows do
Policeman O'Meara, another Tenderloin
plainclOthes man, arraigned TWO women
against whom he had no evidence. After
the Court had discharged the second woman
the Magistrate said:
You're another of those Nineteenth pre-
cinct men. I'll have your superior Instruct
You to go somewhere else. i saw the m
spector of this district and he promised
me he would try to stop this practice You
fellows all play into the hands oil the pro-
fessional bondsmen."
Then the Court sent a telephone message
asking Capt. Hodgins to come to the court,
Detective Shepard, also from the Tender
loin, had three women prisoners WHO gave
After he had discharged the women Magls-
! trate Pool said:
Your oath is not worth that %Isnapping
his %tingersl. You swear In your aftidavits
that these women solicited men, and yet
you say you heard zone of their conversa-
ton. You had better get out OF the business
and do something decent for a living. You
are worse than that old timer, Capt. Price,
who used to take these women into his pri-
vate room so that they never got to the
sergeant at all. Get out Of here"
The plain clothes men of the Mercer street
station Jared better. Detectives Fitzgerald,
Holahan and Foster all arraigned women
whom the Court sent to the workhouse,
solicited personally.
When Sadie Brown, arrested on Saturday
night by the Tenderloin police as the pro-
prietress of a disorderly mousse in West
Tw~enty-seventh street, was arraigned be-
fore Magistrate Pool she was discharged
because the police had insufficient evidence.
The detectives who had arrested her and
twelve other inmates of the house protested
that the place had a bad reputation and
had been raided before. AS a result of their
contention Magistrate Pool summoned the
inmates into his chambers to hold an in
veStigation and determine If possible just
who ran the house.
Leon Levy, attorney for the Brown
woman, went into the room and told the
women that were being questioned not to
answer. Magistrate Pool ordered the law
yer out of the room. Levy refused to bulge
and was finally led out by the police. Levy
contended that he was counsel for all the
women. Magistrate Pool took a different
view and said that levy had forced himself
on the women as their counsel. Nothing
came Of the investigation and the raid
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