The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-08-16
GOSSIPS OF NEW YORK
CRIMINAL ACTIVITY IN SUMMER
 MONTHS.
Pennies Are fin Demand Among The Youngsters-Case of Mrs. Castle And Lawyer
 Craig.

New York, Aug, 15-(Special)- Under the most sweltering sun that has tortured the people of this island in years. criminal activity throughout town has sprung up full ten per cent this week, according to the police records today. From murder down to milk bottle poaching. every crime on the calendar has been practiced in steadily increasing volume as the traffic heat has held the maddened poor each day longer in It's grasp. That hot spells and humidity hatch criminal instincts in the baking brains of the masses is believed by practical policemen to be not theory alone, but hard proven fact. Special watches for the man-slayer and thief, as well as the suicide, are being posted all about the shady sides of the city as the heat wears deeper into the souls of the crowd: and thus far the har- vest of crime from the deadly rays of the sun has proved only too abundant
 Pennies Preferred.
 The brokers boast that the spirit of Wall Street whirls the town seems to be almost justified by the speculation in Lincoln pennies that has today spread to every corner of this city.
 With no thought but to bull the market in the rare copper discs, hun dreds of youngsters are feverishly bidding selling and swapping quota tions on them along every street in town.
 Fully a thousand street urchins have formed curb market along Nassau street, just above the stock exchange where penny puts and calls are fairly blocking business traffic Almost every boy of the upper part of town is also busily engaged in taking one flyer after another in the coins that are now assured as more or less of rarity.
 From one to two. three and four for a nickel these pennies preferred have fluctuated among the wildly scramb ling youths and the market has just begun to soar again on late advices from Washington. Wall Street will not want for future speculators, &C., cording to this novel demonstration.
 Judging Judges.
 To re-organize and reform the com mon courts. through which the rights and wrongs of hundreds of thousands of the plain people are sifted each year, Is the object of a sweeping move ment that has been set on foot here today.
 For years the outrageous practices of the police courts have scandalized the better element of the bar in this citv and worked sad injustice to the poor who must plead before their auto cratic magistrates. Vested necessarily with wide powers and discretion, rsa men who pass upon hundreds of petty cases each day have come in many in stances to assume ths attitude and manner of Czars rather than servants of the people. Political pull and personal prefer ence have eaten into the structure of all the lower courts till New York has shame. Where the persons and property of millions of citizens are at stake, 1t is believed, justice should be found without long and costly hunt. WOman's Weapons.
 Following upon the spectacular shooting case in Peacock Alley at the Waldorf, a dozen tragic attacks by been recorded by the police in every stratum of life in this metropolis.
 While Mrs. Castle has stepped out of court, after firing a bullet that barely escaped taking the life of Will liam B. Craig, the idea of murderous remedy for real or fancied wrongs seems to have fired the brains of many another woman to the attempt.
 Every page of the criminal history
 
 of the ease with which woman may escape the penalty for such deeds in court; and there is hardly a conspicu- ous case of feminine assault or murder that has met a jury ready to convict. Street shooting by women bids fair to soon become a popular pastime, if the law does not become speedily aroused. Shark Stories.
 Real sharks have invaded this har- bor and now turk about it's beaches. unless hundreds of residents of the Staten Island shore are united in one very plausible and circumstantially symmetrica lie. Fathers at Midland Beach are every day reporting the sight of glistening shark fins. cutting their deadly course not fifty feet from the coast line of the upper bay. Fishermen swear to the same sights and stick to their story. Though the experts affect to scout the possibility of sharks so close to shore in this latitude, no one can convince the Staten Island excursionists that the marine man-eCters are not lying in wait beneath every roll of the surf.