The Washington times., 1922-07-23
"Anofher Week." Said the Warden,
"and He'd Haze Sold the Prison."

1t was some time before suspicion fell on Joe, as he
had carefully filed away the duplicates Of the correct
bills of iading When the railroad detectives exposed
the trick the warden nearly had apoplexy, but there
was nothing he could do. Joe's accomplce had
capped, and there record Of the forged bills Of
lading With nothing definite against him. Joe was
discharged in the allotted six months.
IF that crook had been in here another week"
said the warden. he'd have sold the penitentary!
But the ingenuity of Gentleman Joe has few, II
any, parallels. Prison means ruin to ninety-nne out
of one hundred criminals. and you may be sure they
take the most extreme precautions to stay out Of JAIL
If they have plenty Of money and good lawyer who
knows his business, this Is fairly easy to do. For
proof 1t would be interesting for enterprising
newspaper to publish the complete record of some
welknown crook like Fred Buckminster or Professor
Joseph We'll, whose exploits described in previous
chapter
The reader would be surprised at the enuIess Legal
distractions that have been cleverly nterposed be-
tween this precious pair and the prison terms they SO
richly deserved.
But all the delays and habeas corpus wrts and
other devices by which skifu lawyers work hand In
hand with the most notorious crooks at large are only
possible in this country with its lenent laws and in
Vulnerable legal subterfuges.
1t is only when the prospect of fat pickings leads
the crook to England France that he runs a real
risk His money is Of no use to him there When he
falls into the hands of Scotland Yard detectives or the
French secret service police he is through-forever
And what fate awaits him!
The machinery of the French courts is automatic
and absolute the crook has committed some trivial
crime he Is clapped into prison without any delay II
he has murdered, his head is chopped off with the
same absence Of fuss or sentiment Il he has played
for big stakes, the aristocrats Of the Underworld
boast the most horrible penalty of all is administered
He is sentenced to Devils Island the famous and
feared convict colony few miles of the east coast OF
Cayenne in South America!
No amount of money, no lawyers skill can save
him after he has reached this horror Of the South At
antic for 1t is the boast of the French prison auhor-
ties that no man escapes from DEVILS Island. And yet
man did escape from that fever-rdden rock as
will show later on.
The English, while q little more humane, are
equally stern in the administration of justice. The
other day broken husk of stepped from the
gang plank Of the great ocean liner Majestic as it
docked in New York harbor He haggard and
prematurely bald, and looking at him it hard for
me to recognize that DArtagnan Of all international
crooks. Charlie Smith. Fifteen years in an English
prison, to which he had been sentenced for life, had
broken his heart and health, and he returning to
his native land an old man. '.@
shall not betray the real name Of Charlie Smith
am too deeply indebted to him to break that conf
dence and bring disgrace to the honorable and arsto-
cratic Virginia family To which he belongs, But Is
significant that his release from jail was finally
brought about through the intercesson Of Lady Astor