Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-23

26@21A&N without sense of fear will in
fSGHHNl6%M Carnate in a of muscle and
ISNSSRE2k13 sinew he lived like the comic opera
N&SG|EAS bandits, gay free reckless robbing
ruthlessly. and. when confronted,
saving. "Well, what are you going to do about it -
And for twenty years there had been no answer to
that def If you produced ten witnesses to swear
that he had turned crooked trick, he produced
thirty to swear that he hadn't.
And before long you would find yourself trans
formed from prosecutor to defendant. and Jack
would not let up until he had put you some of
before the whole world. Not that Jack bore malice.
Get me if you can" he used to say. Its all part
OF the game" He pursued his assailants solely
from prudence to drive it home that whoever went
for Jack Candless did it at the risk of his reputation.
his liberty, his life Yes. his life; for Jack stopped
at nothing And he had at his absolute command
only his picked retainers of the force, but also
the whole professional criminal class. They both
feared and worshiped him, because he never dis
turbed them, so long they respected the dead
Lines he established.
On the other hand if of them tempted
into crime in forbidden sections of the city against
protected people, and Jack discovered him. as was
usually the case, he never attempted to escape. 1t
was only necessary for Jack to send one of his
to the detected breaker of the law above-the-la
and say, The main guy wants you. - When?".
the crook would say. And the answer would be.
oh. tonight or tomorrow morning You'd bet
S he the tx
would be at headquarters, ready to serve term in
the pen.
There were men in our town who fanced they
had power by reason of wealth or position. Jack
really had real power.-power of life and death.
Toward the last, SO strong and so bold had he grown
that literally safe from him. In fairness
him it must be said that he used that power with
remarkable discretion Whenever what he chose to
regard his legitimate graft was not concerned.
he honest, upright. efficient guardian of the
community
You call CRATER he used to say in times
Of truce to those of us whom he regarded as fair
fighters. We'll, who isn't: It's simply one kind
Of graters throwing up their hands in horror
other kind We all live off each other The only
difference between me and them respectable graters
that keep shops and banks and swell bunko games
and grease the preachers PALM is that I'm straight
and on the level and they amt. Between the sneak
that slips up behind you and pinches your roll and
which do you choose,
In properly organized society. Jack would have
to organize for the good of his fellow men, In our
crude and clumsy social organization for making
InilonareS, paupers, criminals, and walkers
in our society whose chefest actual ideal seems to
be living without work off the labor of Others Jack
simply followed the line of least resist toward
the achievement of the heaven of wealth. He
born in a sum tenement He scOrned the social SEN
tence of hard labor all the daylight hours and got
together band of young desperados Being strong
and really shrewd, he graduated from it into the
police force instead of into the penit entarv became
an ardent free handed but richer CRATER on
vice and crime. Il amt got single honest dollar
in my bunch he said Che was fond of para
doxes) Every dollar of it came from some fellow
that had right to it And that's another differ
ence between me and them oily swell swndlers that
graft only on the honest working men
He was the best of husbands a fat her whose chill
dren adored him, and an all round good fellow
big heart had Jack, and definite ideas of right and
wrong given him by ancestors who had lived where
aliens imposed the laws and where to DEFY or outwit
authority not only justable but also the high
est evidence of manhood. People who have few
real temptations in their sheltered, conventional
lives and who escape those few by tmidity rather
than by moral courage, will not underst and lack
especially will underst and how he could be at
the same time man of good instincts and many
1naIe 1o1c~ a.