Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-08-01

the pursuit Of a criminal through these
dark tubes the most exciting experience
ever known to the annals of the Wash
ington police.
To understand what absolute protection
against the police the sewers OF Washing
ton afford a criminal who is not afraid to
escape in the dark it is necessary to
have some idea of how the Subterranean
streams have been laid out.
The map of the District showing the
various sewer lines hangs on the wall of
the inner Office of the sewer department.
1t shows the great plat of the city with
it's squares of houses, it's big parks and
public buildings. and marked along the
streets are red lines. in appearance very
much like the veins and arteries of an
anatomical chart.
The great sewers, with the enormous
twelve and eighteen foot spans are in
very dark red, while the smaller sewers.
down to the twenty-four-inch pipe, are
graduated to almost light pink.
**
The dark red lines point the way to the
criminals escape. There is one enor-
nous tunnel which emptes into the East
ern branch within sight of the very Jail
which a malefactor could leer at as. he
creeps out into the daylight after having
escaped from the police seven miles away
This big sewer drains the whole north
eastern section and is one of the biggest
pieces of construction of its kind in the
entire world.
Along either side Of the tube on it's in
terror is broad shelf fully large enough
for a man to run on, walk on or even
sleep on. This walking shelf is like that
which lines every other one of the big
sewers. In times when the sewers are
running at normal the shelves are per-
fectly dry, the water runs a fair distance
below them and there is no danger to any
one who can keep his head and wits in
the absolute blackness
Speak to any member OF the sewer de-
partment force about the possibility of
criminals using the sewers for escape
and the reply will probably be quick:
"Why. certainly Remember Dorsey
Fouitz?''
The man who may best elude the de-
tectlves by taking TO the tunnels below
the streets would probably be man who
had worked along the lines Imagine the
possibilities of a gang Of Italian la borers,
members of any of the so-called BLACK
Hand orders, the Malta or the Canon
"a, who might purposely get employment
with pick and shovel digging in the
streets and laying the pipes and bricks
of the sewer system.
Every man Of them could acquire be-
fore long a vivid mental picture of the
plan of the main sewers. They would
know the streets which contain the man
holes by which any one can get into the
dark vault below by means of a very easy
and accessible ladder of iron bars They
would know just where the sewer started
and where 1t ended. And with such
knowledge, coupled with a little nerve.
one Of these desperate men could infiict
a death wound upon his victim within
sight of policeman. dart up an alley,
Del2lhOrlng to ha
manhole and disappear. to come to light
again perhaps far north of the city per-
haps below the Washington monument
or perhaps on the street not far from the
place where he disappeared.
For instance, one of the greatest .'hold-
ups in the history of crime would not
be impossible on 10Th street near the
Treasury Department. That section is
not only the heart Of the city's finances.
but is the thoroughfare over which the