New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-11-03
How Grapevine" Flashes
News to the Underworld

7
! diet in the places TO which it was dashed
by the grapevine, and YOU will come
/ first TO an East Side cafe ON Second ave-
nue.. It is an ordinary enough looking
place. not thoroughly clean as TO linen.
and not at all the kind of place that
would ever he picked out by the "slum-
mcr" or the tourist.
| II happens TO be. however, one OF the
best known cafes on the East Side, among
! East Siders. You can hear tongues in
/ several languages. with a Proclamation
! o. a Niddish- AmericaniZed sort of speech
{ that would b" exchanged and understood
possibly nowhere else in the world but on
( New York's East Side.
| Here are hard bestial faces, men who
! have murderous look-women dressed
! in cheap. gaudv finery. but with real and
! valuable diamonds on their fingers and in
! their earrings.
! At this back table nova group Of men,
| taking no part in the general air OF r'er-
! Iiment To those others The Verdict
!, which has been flashed through the cafe
at one minute before midnight. is but an
exciting topic OF discussion. But to these
! men at the back table 1t is apparently
! something more serious.
} These men knew Rosenthah Before he
| graduated from this very section to the
/ haunts Of the Tenderloin he was one OF
| them. Badly" Jack Rose was even
4 closer to their minds, because he had not
entireIy deserted the cafe and the gath
ering places Of the East slider.
-Four months ago ne had been with
them. and tonight he stood in that most
upenvisble position that the gangman :
| mind can conceive of-an lntormer'
suuealer. vhose word had started pow
| erful police lieutenant on the road 10
the death chamber at Sing Sins prison.
! Recker-they knew MIN. In their minds
| he stood in much the same position as
| the leader of a powerful gang. They had
thought him unbea table. They had De-
IHeved Jack Rose implicitly when lie
had told them that Becker is prince III
| the department" Becker, in their con-
ception, could do anything. They knew
him for an iron man in his person: as
| policeman they believed that he could ac-
complish anything that his brazen coui-
| age suggested 20 him.
| They knew him. too, for a CRATER, and
! for that they admired him. His physical
strength impressed them somewhat, but
moi so much as II would a clean living
American, for. in the words Of their kind
rbe bullet I'm the back, the towards muir
derous revenge. where the victim has no
chance for a fair fight laid low the
strong as quickly as it did the weak.
He's strong bull. an he'll neHsr
break''-that was Becker's epitaph from
A dark-skinned, chunky youth IN the
group.
| They say he almost dropped and mad
\ TO grab the rail commented another.
That was detail that YOU did not read
of until the next morning. This was r
minute before midnight. Becker, facing
the electric chair had lost his iron nerve
for Just a second in that courtroom two
miles away. and had gripped the rail OF
the defendants inclosure in the court
room. II was apparently known here-it
may have been guessed at
1T wouldn't help him any 10 give up
the cops he splits with he'll take the
dose without a murmur"-that from one
Of the little group brought forth nod Of
affirmation that circled the table. They
believed that Becker would go TO the
chair without telling any one OF his graft
or with what other police grafters he
divided IT,
I'D hate TO be Jack Now, il he ever
gets out the cops will certainly hand 1t
10 him. He nights well go dutch y
Rose, they knew, would meet with such
trouble from policemen that. in their Opin-
ion Rose had better commit suicide. The
gangman knows that all the cops %
honest OF not-snd he don't believe that
any cop" is honest-will turn their hands
against a man who has given testimony
that hurts policeman.
These men had seen too many OF their
fellows prosecuted, blackjacked and rail-
roaded to prison after sessions on the
witness stand against policeman 10 al
low themselves any doubt as TO Jack"
Roses ultimate fate.
Twelve blocks away lies a dirty little
saloon in the back room or which four
linen are playing cards with a greasy
pack. A block beyond, the East River
fattens out it's broad belt of silent black
ness between the cities. The crumblng
shack is guiltless Of anything 50 modern
as a telephone. There is no one behind
the smudgy bar, for the proprietor, who
is his own bartender, IL in the game.
Here. too, though II is now but few
minutes after midnight, The Verdict is
the topic of discussion. The broken men
around the table have no bond with the
doomed police lieutenant they have heard
the names of the East Side characters
whose testimony sent him to that doom,
hut To them Il r. an abstract proposition.
The chairs good enough for 'im'
says one.
"Yeh they'd oughter send o. lot more
cops up. damn EN- Is added.
This strikes the consensus OF opinion.
These men are not interested In graft.
The murder Of Rosenthal in the heart or
the city's White Light district makes but
a passing impression on them. whether
Becker ordered the murder or whether 1t
was purely the result Of a gamblers feud
Interests them but slightly.
Becker is a "cop"-that Is enough Tor
them. A cop makes one move on;
"cop" fans their feet" when they sleep
out on pier sheds in the summer, ana
cop IL their natural enemy. a cop
lieutenant started toward the death chaii
that appeals 10 them as sort or ihde-
Unable balancing Of the scales. cops
are prosecutors; now let one cop al
least, be pcrsecuted.
Go uptown to district that LOOKS
payer AT least go up 10 II place "heTe