The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-05-15
NO PROFIT IN CRIME
Human Experience Shows That No Degree
of TheHPays One Mill on Dollar---Ex~
amples of Mott Haven Red, AZonzo
Whitman, Ellen Peck ct al

the body and soul. There are no eX-
ceptions to it. 1t is of no conse-
quence to point out that here and
there in the world are men who drive
about in costly motor cars, live in
mansions and rent pews in churches
who made their fortunes evilly. But
what goes on inside these men? VIII
knows what blackmail they pay?
Who can guess their secret humilia-
tions? Who can estimate their fear
of the hereafter? And every SO
often one of these rotten trees falls
with a crash and throws up dust in
the world.
At police headquarters there is an
angled room approached through a
wicket of steel. 1t is a graveyard OF
human lives. The careers of men and
women are to be found there, all
tucked away neatly in steel boxes,
like bodies in cofins. 1t is a mauso-
leum of fallen humanity; a vault
wherein the dead souls of living per-
sons are already buried. Novelists
would do we'll to enter this vault and
read the inscriptions. There is moth
ing On the dark sides Of life which
may not be found there. This room
is officially entitled "The Bureau OF
Criminal Identification. Therefore
it is a morgue, in which may be
identified the personality of individ-
uals with aliases as scars, prison SEN
tences as distinguishing marks. 1t
is not a cheerful place, though there
are few rooms more interesting. In
addition to being morgue it is a
laboratory for the study Of crime.
There are people who visit it regu-
larly to perfect their knowledge OF
how best to protect society from ma
rauders. None know better than
these students that crime offers no
reward. 1t is time thrown away,
lives squandered to no end.
Alonzo Whitman's Record.
One of the steel boxes containing
dead souls is marked with the name
"Alonzo J. Whitman" Here was
is-an individual who schemed for
a generation to make crime pay,
equipped as he was with about every
physical and mental asset necessary
to the trade. Tall, handsome, schol-
arly looking, splendidly educated, ne
worked at forgery for 20 years. Not
so long ago he was sitting upon the
curb at Canal street and the Bow
cry regarding the toes of his right
foot protruding through the ruins OF
a shoe. A little later a judge in Gin
cinnati was giving him two years in
the penitentiary. There is scarcely a
better example of the utter foolish
ness of crime than Whitman.
He is the son of Minnesota mine
owner and lumber man who was ra-
ted as a millionaire in the '7Os.
Young Whitman went to Hamilton
college and subsequently to the Co,
! lumbia University law school. Not
one boy in 100 had as good chance
to wrest fortune honestly from fate
He went back to Minnesota, got intn
politics, was elected to the State sen
ate, served term with some ability
ran for congress and was defeated
and then tried his hand in the wheat
pit of Chicago. 1t won't do to say
that unlucky wheat speculation and
the wiles of opponents drove Whit,
man into crime when his money was
swept away, for there was something
askew inside his head. His progress
downward is interesting. Wiped Out
at the Chicago board of trade in
1898, he became bookmaker on
Western and Eastern tracks and fol
a time did pretty we'll. He once bet
$4,000 to win $1,000, making the
wager with the late Davy johnson
on the old Monmouth Park track
and won the bet, Pierre Lorillard's
mare Wanda just managing to get
her pretty nose in front of the tho1-
oughbred that imperilled Whitman's
$4,000. Eventually, within a year
or so, he had to quit as bookmake1
because his money was gone and his
credit was no good.
What next? Plain forgery. He
forged a check somewhere out West
and was convicted. When he came
out of prison he tried a little more
chirography. The outcome was the
same. Year after year his name oc-
ours in the record of arrests and
convictions. At times his loot was
big and he wriggled out of the law S
grip, Iut in the long run there were