The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1912-08-27
REFORM POLITICIAN OF PHILA.
DELPHIA CONFESSES THAT
HE HAS WORN STRIPES.
lis A MODERN JEAN VALJEAN

Fellow Convict Discovers Former Pal
and Levies observation-disclosures Man
Had Led a Convicts Life For Eight
Years-Mayor 5Iankenburs Would
Give Him a New Chance.
Victor Hugo's Jean Vatican, the ro-
mantle and appealing reformed convict
of LES Miserables" has counterpart
In real life. Confessing that he was a
former convict a burglar, yeggman
and a porch climber, William Burke. a
member of common councils Of Phila-
delphia, has rendered his resignation
and fed the city. Burke was elected
to councils last fall on the reform ticket
by a large majority.
Soon after taking his seat in coun-
ellis, Burke says, he met fellow convict
who had served a sentence in the Mas
sachusetts state Jail while he was
prisoner there and who had been i'm
DIicated with him In various robberles.
Burke says that the ex-convict now
aged and penniless, recognized him and
since that time has been persistently
levying blackmail under threat Of eX-
posture. The fear that his past record
would be eventually revealed led Burke
to give I'D his position in councils and
leave the city in order to make new
start in life.
Started as Gopher"
Burke said in his published story
that he could not recall how he started
In life. A street waif on the east side
of New York, he began to exc out an
uncertain existence by selling newspa-
pers. It was while he was hanging
around the corners" of the east side
that he began the life of crook.
Gopher men," the species Of crooks
who confine themselves to cracking and
robbing safes, were the first Of the IN
derworld he fell in with. They used
him, so his strange story runs, to visit
establishments where they thought
safe might be worth rifing He spot
ted" many such an establishment for
them, his boyish plea that he was look
ing for work giving him the means to
| find out the location of the safe. He
received a share of the plumber.
Then he drifted in with a gang OF
"moIl buzzers." that class OF thieves
which bears a title bestowed upon 1t
by the parlance of crooks even farther
back than the Elizabethan days.
Burke goes on to tell how he was
sent to Blackwelrs island at different
times, Of "yegging'' in the west, of
gambling 'Just as all those fellows
who have figured in the Rosenthal
case have done"-gambling, winning
and losing. From gambling he dnfted
into sneak work and then into bigger
"iobs," which he pulled OFF, mostly IN
New York.
In the second chapter the reform
councilman says:
"I played the game in Boston for
three years before began to hit the
done That was my finish. used to
keen in touch with the crooks who
blew into town from New York or 9TH
er places. l used to drop in at the
places where they hung out. never
told them / was working let them
think that l was living straight. May
be they thought 1 was going it alone,
/ but | never let them get anything on
me. I was then stalling under the
name Of Mccarthy. The crooks knew
me as New York Slim
! zone Of the crooks L fell in with,
/ New York con man. was a hop f1end.
We got pretty friendly, and he started
me smoking hop That has put more
/ than one crook down and out, and 1t
started me to the pen. Once you start
/ hitting the hop you have no nerve IN
less you've got it in you, and when
you've got it in you you have no
/ brains"
/ Abandoned Crime.
! His term in prison, he said, destroy
ed his criminal instinct, and upon be-
ing released he returned to New York
and obtained employment in the
stores. In May, 1904, discarding all
his old associates, he went to Phila-
delphia and took the name of VIII
liam Burke. He had learned the trade
of a hardwood fnisher while in prison
and found employment in the furni-
ture factories. Later. having saved