New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-01-16
By Arnold Prince
IF IT is a fact that in the year
inst hepun abort eipht hundred

of us in New York City are
certain to be killed by automobiles
and thousands more to be injured
we have one ameliorating consola-
ton.
The city has what probably is the
richest court Of it's kind in the world,
and its receipts are constantly in
creasing.
This is the court presided ovel
by Magistrate Frederick B. House
and deals exclusively with traffic
cases. AS in the twelve months just
closed, its money income was four
times what it was four years ago,
and as it is confidently predicted that
in 1921 the aggregate will show still
greater progress, it will easily be
seen that the tribunal has many
points to recommend it, at least to
popular attention.
A Banner Year
Never in this city Of many expe-
riences have there been so many
traffic violations as in the year which
closed with the ringing of Trinity's
chimes at midnight on December 81
last, and, if the forecasts are accu-
rate, never have the ambulances
been so busy nor the speed maniacs
more numerous and enterprising
than they will be in the twelve
months just beginning.
AS to why this should be, the au-
thorities cannot say, except that this
sort of thing, like the speed of the
offending automobiles themselves,
seems inevitably to take on Gu
mulative momentum. Each year the
experts seem to know exactly how
many persons will be crushed to
death or MANNED in a certain class
of accidents, and each time the
figures work out with the infallibilty
almost of arithmetical progressions.
And they are always on the in
crease. The prophets have yet to
reach the point where they can des-
ignate the individuals to be killed,
but they know for a certainty that
certain number to-day walking the
streets of the city in full possession
of health and bodily vigor will be
rushed to the morgues before the
year is closed. They know that hun
dreds of children will be crippled in
addition to those who are killed and
that the cots in the hospitals will
hold their allotted percentage of
males who have been liun down.
Express Train Speed
AS for the speed attained by auto
mobiles, MAGISTRATE, House told me
that whereas four years ago the av-
erage record of vjolators arraigned
before him was Under thirty miles
an hour, to-day the level is much
higher, and it is not unheard of for
offenders to admit travelling through
the city streets at from fifty to sixty
miles an hour.
The court presided over by Mag
istrate House, is at 800 Mulberry
Street. Going there by way Of the
East Side subway you leave the
train at Bleecker Street. Around
the corner you find yourself before
a rather inconspicuous looking struc
ture, which played an important
role in ether days. This was where
Police Headquarters was before it
removed to the imposing edifice on
Center Street, and it's worn Railways
recal} many famous criminal cases
and stirring episodes.
The commissioners who ruled the
"fi.nest" when there never was a
possibility Of Manhattan going Re-
publican sat there In their might. Old
bosses constantly were coming out,
generally in rage, and new ones,
full of optimistic predictions, going
in. General Bingham stalked out
Indignantly after his break with Nc
Clellan and the old walls resounded
with the echoes Of that encounter
Baker went in, and when his tine
came, he, too, went out in worry
storm. McAdoo, Cropsey, Woods
and-most famous of all-Big Bill
Devery of "touchin' on and apper-
tainin' to" fame, had their day and
A Personal View
A good story might be written of |
the noted criminals themselves who |
had been led, manacled, up and down
those ancient stairs, but this was not
my mission when I visited the old
recently. I had been invited |
to "sit with Judge House on the
hanGh ~ an ma ~ crot fn~ v~sxvcr7R ~~rL |