Evening star., 1924-08-11
ADDICT GETS DRUG
BY clever RUSE
Prisoner at Riker Island Pulls
Soaked Wool Thread
Through Bars of Cage.
By Consolidated Press.

By Consolidated Press.
NEW YORK, August 11.-Onee more
it has been demonstrated that stone
walls do not make a prison, nor iron
bars a cage; not IL you put your mind
on preventing it. Once more the law
has been defied, the authorities out
witted and the vigilance of half
dozen guards set at naught.
1t happened at Riker Island. that
hummock Of earth and grass, spiked
down by a dozen tall trees. which
forms the city institution for man
drug addicts, and which lies off the
upper East Side
Riker Island is out Of the way of
ordinary travellers. To get there you
need a permit and ar alarm clock
that gets you up in time to take a
municipal boat at a morbidly early
and unattractive as crime itself, is
named the loyalty or the Fidelity, or
something equally applicable. On the
little boat they search you, to maze
sure that neither a weapon nor a
packet of heroin or cocaine is among
your belongings. And after two hours
OF dawdling along up river, with
stops for freight or to let off pris-
oners at Welfare-nee Blackwelrs
Island-you finally get to Riker's.
Scene On Island.
Here you are met by guard.
bristling with authority, a revolver
and policeman's club. If prisoners
disembark also. they are taken by the
guard. well away from your own per-
son, lest you slip them drug or
gun, or perhaps wink. You cross IA
wide space of sun scorched grass
which at times is the base BAH field.
and find yourself ill the main buildin.
where the affairs of from 200 to 500
addtcts are administered.
Please note that from the moment
you apply for a permit, you arc
treated with the utmost suspicion.
foa might as well be prisoner your
SELF, for all the human kindliness YOU
meet This aroma of unyieldina
crouch on the part of the authorities
Is evidently due to the fact that even
the incest people often are drug
bootleggers.
Care Of Spanish Lady.
The Spanish lady was among them.
She went down to Riker's a few days
ago to see an unfortunate friend. who
was trying, oh, so sincerely. to he
cured of his dreadful habit. The
Spanish lady did not talk English
very Well, but her refined clothes and
her refined manner made distinct i'm
foi oh the guards. during the
interval OF waiting for her friend to
be brought to the office. she refrained
from chatting with other visitors and
concentrated on knitting a sock.
Is long and narrow, the visitors
room. There is a bench drawn I'D be-
Iore heavy wire screen with a tiny
mesh You can just about put the tin
or your little finger in one of the mesh
noleS or this screen. Perhaps six feet
ocnIho thfs screen is another. And be-
nind the second screen stands the ad-
dict to whom the visitor talks.
Coed at Figuring.
Can you figure out how any one could
nano anything except conversation to a
man behind that second screen?
All. senior; but the Spanish are good
at figuring. eN
The day after the Spanish lady had
sniiingiy taken her leave it was noted
that her boy friend showed symptoms
Of having used his favorite drug. II was
manifestly impossible that he could have
obtained it-and yet not only he but
several OF HIS buddies were distinctly
woozy.
One defect about taking this particu-
lar narcotic is that it makes YOU boast
rui. Only few questions were neces-
sary to make the Spanish ladys boy
friend tell all about it
The lady had been knitting a sock.
hadn't she? Well, while the guard
length Of hay wire-picked up on the
dump at one end of the island-throueh
the two screens Still chatting amiably
in soft Spanish accents, the lady had
tied thread to the wire, and while the
conversation progressed the prisoner had
unraveled the sock and an entire ball
Of wool and stuffed the thread into his
shirt.
Drug in Wool
The wool, oh, It was saturated with
the drug and then dried, before the lady
began to knit her cock And all the
prisoner had to do was soak the wool
in a little water and use a common Din
as hypodermic needle.
But the big lesson for New Yorkers
is that this is the type of brain with
which the local police have got to deal
in ever-increasing numbers 1t is the
drug addict who, of all offenders, is daily
growing more numerous, and it is he
who most often plans the fur-loft rob-
berries. stages the daylight hold-ups, or.
ganizes the underworld gangs and sets
hre to tenement houses. He is the most
dangerous, because the most ingenious.
Of all criminals. and New York is full
OF him today.