The Project Gutenberg eBook, The New York Tombs Inside and Out!, by John Josiah Munro

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

John J. Munro
Ex-chaplain of the Tombs.

───────── THE ─────────
New York Tombs
Inside and Out!

Scenes and Reminiscences Coming Down to the

Present.—A Story Stranger Than Fiction,

With an Historic Account of

America’s Most Famous

Prison.

By

JOHN JOSIAH MUNRO,

Ex-Chaplain of the Tombs.

(Illustrated)

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

Printed and Published by the Author,

at 186 Ainslie Street.

PRICE, $1.50.

Copyrighted, 1909,

by

John J. Munro,

Brooklyn, N. Y.

Thomas J. Blain, printer,

PORT CHESTER, NEW YORK.

INTRODUCTION.
By Rev. Madison C. Peters, D. D.

I have known the author of this book for many years. He was once associated with me in my ministerial work. I know all about his work as Chaplain of the Tombs, and have often spoken with him about the conditions prevailing in that institution, and have again and again urged him to tell the public all he knows about its inside workings. I have every reason to believe from what I know of the author, that he has written a true story, one which every citizen of Greater New York should read, and which ought to arouse the red-hot blood of every lover of his kind.

The book ought to be in the hands of every clergyman, lawyer, physician, and of every good citizen. It will furnish material for sermons and addresses, and give impulse and impetus to all the workers for social betterment, and bring to us the blessings of Him who said: “I was in prison and ye visited Me.”

THANKS.

In the preparation of this work, I feel I am under lasting obligations for discriminating advice and kindly suggestions tendered me at different times by many friends. But I am under special debt to Mr. George H. Sandison, Managing Editor, and J. A. Belford, Art Editor of the Christian Herald, for valuable suggestions.

I also express my sincere thanks to the Rev. Madison C. Peters, D. D., whose clarion voice against wrongs and abuses of various kinds has been heard all over Greater New York, for many helpful suggestions. I am also thankful to many of the New York magazines and papers for kind words and much interest in articles of mine on Prison Work that have appeared from time to time. These magazines and papers include Harper’s Weekly, Success, Van Norden, Intelligencer, Christian Advocate, Examiner, Press, Presbyterian, Witness and many others.

I extend my thanks also to Messrs. Harper & Bro., for the use of a cut, and to the Evening Journal for the loan of photographs.

The Author.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

The Author, Rev. John J. Munro

Children’s Court

General Sessions Judges

Criminal Branch of Supreme Court

Ex-Police Commissioner Theodore A. Bingham

Police Commissioner Baker at His Desk

New Tombs Prison

Corridor of Women’s Prison

Old Tombs Entrance on Leonard Street

Davis, Who Pardoned Himself Out of Prison

Sing Sing Prison Entrance

Sing Sing Chapel

The Death Chamber at Sing Sing

New Police Headquarters

Sunday Morning Service in the Old Tombs

Old Police Headquarters

Justice Blanchard of Supreme Court

Justice Goff of the Supreme Court

The Bridge of Sighs

Hon C. V. Collins, Superintendent of Prisons

Hon. John F. McIntyre, Criminal Lawyer

Scene in the Tenderloin Station House

Mrs. John A. Foster, the Tombs Angel

Putting a Crook Through the “Third Degree” at Police Headquarters

Roll Call in a Station House at Midnight

Men’s Prison

Women’s Prison

CONTENTS.

FOREWORD

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XIII

CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XV.

CHAPTER XVI

CHAPTER XVII.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CHAPTER XIX

CHAPTER XX.

CHAPTER XXI.

CHAPTER XXII

CHAPTER XXIII.

CHAPTER XXIV.

CHAPTER XXV

CHAPTER XXVI.

CHAPTER XXVII.

CHAPTER XXVIII

CHAPTER XXIX.

CHAPTER XXX.

CHAPTER XXXI

CHAPTER XXXII.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

CHAPTER XXXIV

CHAPTER XXXV.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

CHAPTER XXXVII

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

A Sunday morning service in the old Tombs prison.

FOREWORD
Some Personal Experiences

My first visit to the grim old Tombs Prison was in the early part of 1875. I have never forgotten that visit and the deep impression it left on my mind. The scenes I witnessed that day have come back to me scores of times and I have wished that I had the power to have changed the things I then saw. At any rate, that memorable experience started in my soul a deeper sympathy and pity for erring humanity.

Afterwards I spent much time visiting the old prison, as I had the opportunity, and I found it a splendid place for the study of human nature, and especially the criminal side of life.

When speaking to New Yorkers of the scenes I had witnessed in this prison, I found them to be densely ignorant of its history and management. Why should they take any interest in the old Tombs? New Yorkers are too busy in commercial pursuits to give much time to such trifles! I found, however, after they were aroused on the subject of abuses they wished to know everything, and they wondered like myself why politics should be allowed to have such a controlling power in the City Prison.

At this time I was a lay missionary. My field of labor was the old “Red Light District.” This part of New York was not as densely populated as now. It contained a large number of people, mostly of the thrifty Irish and German class. It had many large tenements which contained from eight to twelve families, which were veritable “bee hives” of the human species.

While visiting, not far from Essex Market Court, a lady informed me that a member of my Sunday School was then in the Tombs, and asked me to go and see him. This was new work for me and I confess, I did not know how to go about it. I called to see the boy’s mother, who kept a beer garden in the neighborhood. But I could get nothing out of her, and came away feeling that my labor was all in vain. The woman was so much absorbed in her saloon business and so benumbed and besotted with beer that she seemed devoid of all motherly instinct and feeling. And she seemed not to care the snap of her finger about her boy.

After a good deal of difficulty I made my way to the Boys’ Prison in the Tombs, which was in the rear of the building. To my amazement I found a crowd of young thieves and pickpockets huddled together, and this Sunday School lad in the midst. In those days the authorities made no attempt at segregation or discrimination. The boys were all together, cursing and howling like a lot of devils! I was pained beyond measure, and I regret to say when I returned to the City Prison after nearly twenty years, almost the same condition existed. I found the Boys’ Prison in a filthy condition—damp and foul, more fit for hogs than human beings, and this besides the continual noises, yelling, howling, cursing, swearing and cat-calls in ten languages!

I made a hurried investigation and saw the authorities, after which the boy was discharged and returned home. He never forgot his experience in that gloomy old prison! I kept watch of him but I do not think he was ever the same person. Those few days in the Tombs as the companion of thieves and pickpockets not only marred his future life but came near blasting his usefulness forever!

I kept up my interest in the poor, gaunt, ill clad, badly fed and poverty stricken unfortunates of the old Tombs, a large number of whom were criminals simply because of their social conditions and for no other reason. I was a frequent visitor till my graduation from Union Theological Seminary in 1880.

In 1897 I again took up my residence in New York. I felt my interest in prison labors come back with the freshness of youth, and at once gave my Sundays to the prosecution of the work.

I have found that the Boys’ Prison has always been the hardest department to manage in the entire Tombs system. Sometimes a keeper was placed in charge who knew how to handle boys. But in later years the conditions were worse than ever. We knew one keeper who was a common scold. He swore at the boys and they swore back at him, using the most vulgar and lurid profanity. Then they would steal from each other, fight among themselves like old time pugilists and they could always depend on outsiders to smuggle in cigarettes and blood curdling dime novels. On account of the lack of discipline, the Boys’ Prison became one of the most proficient Schools of Crime. Here they learned to become expert pickpockets under the very nose of the prison authorities!

I have often told my friends when showing them around the building I would rather bury a relative of mine than have him spend a week in this dirty, immoral pest hole. During the past five or six years there has been an average of 75 to 80 boys a day in this prison, and shocking to relate, one-half have frequently to be treated for venereal disease. If you want your boy to be a full-fledged degenerate and outcast send him to the Tombs Prison, for only a few days, and when he comes out of this School of Crime he will dare anything in the line of criminality!

It is a fact that cannot be denied that in this prison some of the boys plan crime and execute it on the outside. This has been proven scores of times, when these young crooks return to the prison on fresh charges. If you question them they will admit that they received their incentive to do crooked deeds while in the Tombs. Those who are sent to the Protectory and the House of Refuge are seldom improved when they come out. Barney McGill, who had been a lieutenant in the Navy during the Civil War, was one of the best and kindest of keepers. He was in the Department of Corrections for many years and was noted for his outspoken fidelity. While in charge of the Boys’ Prison a few years ago, he wore a gold watch and chain exposed to view. Some of the “kids” thought it was a “dead-easy” thing to get Barney’s watch. An East Side boy named Mickey Cohen, promised to secure it without much trouble. One morning this young crook called Barney to his cell and said, “Keeper, I want to speak to you. Excuse me, I am afraid to speak loud ‘cause if some of dese kids hear it, dey will kill me.” “Speak out, my little man,” said Barney, “I will see that no one harms you.” Then he told Barney a “fake” tale of some boys who intended to escape. While he was doing this he stole Barney’s watch, leaving the chain dangle in front of his vest. In half an hour Barney missed his gold watch. After threatening to “kill” a half a dozen of the suspicious crooks, the guilty one confessed. Afterwards the watch was found in the cell mattress.

When Jimmy Hagan was boss of the Tombs he took Billy Evers from Murderers’ Row and sent him to the Boys’ Prison for some trifling offence. Billy was a good keeper and a favorite among the boys. He had a fatherly way of getting around them and into their affection. He never swore at them! Whenever I made trips to Sing Sing in after years in the interest of the discharged prisoner and met any of the old boys they were sure to ask after Billy Evers.

Then there was Larry Creevy. Some boys were afraid of him but he knew how to keep them in their place. Then there were John O’Conners and Mike Breen, two most excellent keepers. Under John E. Van De Carr, who can truthfully be called the Prince of Wardens, the Boys’ Prison was carried on above reproach!

It is needless to say that some of these boys were the children of well-to-do parents who allowed them to be sent to the City Prison for the “scare” it would give them. But it had no apparent effect on most of them. Many times a mother in silks and satins with a full display of jewelry would visit the Prison. One day a mother went to one of the judges to ask clemency for her boy who was up for sentence. The judge was disposed to be lenient with the lad as he was not a thief. But the Court had made inquiry and learned that the parents were more to blame for his downfall than the boy. I was glad the judge spoke as he did, before he got through that mother’s face was crimson. “Woman,” said the judge, “why don’t you look after your boy? You are responsible for his disgrace. You go out at night to the theatre and other social functions, and while you are having a nice time your boy is going to the Devil! If you promise to stay at home and try and bring up your boy the proper way, I will suspend sentence.” She did.

For several years after I went to the Tombs there was a man who acted as school teacher and probation officer, whose vile relations with the boys in his rooms on Chrystie street, was scandalous. Several had confessed to me as well as to Father Smith, the Catholic Priest. As soon as I learned that the shocking information was true, I sent the boys and their parents to Commissioner Hynes, and with the aid of Justice Meyers of Special Sessions he was “bounced.” The general opinion at the time was that the brute ought to have been sent to Sing Sing for twenty years. Warden Van De Carr deserved great credit for the help rendered on this occasion. These and similar abuses have been going on in our prisons for years, but no body is willing to stop them or expose them? The present missionary mollycoddles would not dare to speak against them, and as far as the Tombs abuses are concerned the Prison Association has been dumb on these and similar subjects. The courts find it hard to secure the right kind of Probation officers. This is especially true in regard to Boys. A loud mouthed, untruthful grafter should not be allowed to manage boys under any circumstances. There are two notable exceptions, one in Brooklyn and the other in New York—both reliable men, Messrs. Baccus and Kimball.

CHAPTER I
WHAT I KNOW ABOUT THE TOMBS

No prison on the American continent has had such an unsavory reputation as a corrupt grafting institution as the New York Tombs. This has been especially true when City politics had decreed it to be in charge of the House of Grafters on Fourteenth Street.

In giving my personal experience of what I have beheld with my own eyes in America’s greatest criminal barracks, I do so with the sole object of letting the light in, and making it easier, if possible, for future unfortunates who may be domiciled here for any length of time.

For many years the Tombs Prison has been the happy hunting ground for graft and “rake-offs” of various kinds, given in return for all kinds of privileges. Money has always been used to awaken the darkest passions in man, those who are mad for the “dough” take all kinds of chances to secure it.

To the daily visitor who comes to the City Prison, everything looks beautiful and serene on the outside. But the careful observer sees things in a different light and as he reads between the lines he can detect the spurious from the genuine.

In endeavoring to carry on the work of a prison from a business standpoint we must rid ourselves of everything romantic and deal only with facts and common sense. It is not a pleasant task to expose infamy, no matter where it is found. And you can rest assured that the one who dares do it will be rewarded with invective, abuse and slander. On the other hand, to pass it by without making some effort to change the wretched conditions is cowardly.

The stories told of the abuses of the Tombs seem as strange as the Arabian Nights! But most of them were true and would have made fine reading for the average New Yorker, but graft kept them out of the newspapers and from publicity.

One of the earliest “bombs” that struck the City Prison, was hurled by an inmate named Ruth Howard during the sitting of the Mazet Committee, in 1897-8. The Committee threatened to make an investigation and expose the vile conditions which then existed. In her letter to the Committee, Mrs. Howard describes the place as grossly immoral and, of course, excoriated several of the officials by name. It was the general opinion at the time that if the case had been pushed against these Tammanyites they would soon be wearing striped suits either in Sing Sing or Blackwell’s Island. After this the Commissioner refused to allow certain ones to inspect the Women’s Prison.

For a number of years charges have been made at various times against the Tombs Prison in general and the Department of Corrections in particular, which many of our City newspapers and a score of criminal lawyers who have come in contact with the conditions have known to be true, but nothing has been done to clean out this sink of iniquity.

Whenever any person has had the courage to call attention to the grafting abuses, common assaults, whiskey and dope smuggling and other unseemly conduct of the Tombs officials, the usual response was “Traitor, humbug, liar,” and a volley of anathemas! Such an answer sufficed for the time being. Frequently these officials would resort to a “white wash” paper, signed by missionaries and other hangers-on in the building who would be compelled to affix their names to the document or else be “bounced.” It seems to me all such whitewash “buzzards” were no better than the real inmates of the cells!

I recall now when I first went there that there were two Wall Street swindlers in the old Prison who were said to be rich. They had sumptuous privileges. One of these crooks fought for his liberty in the state and federal courts but did not succeed, but as he had the ready cash on hand he found a good cell in the annex. He had everything he desired. The other man who was convicted, but had appealed for a stay, fought against being bled any longer and was removed to an inferior cell. I remember he sent out for reporters that he might give them a tale of oppression, but they were not allowed to see him. The “grafters” told the newspaper men that the fellow was crazy.

In those days some of the abuses were of a gross sensual character and had been going on for years but who would dare speak against them? And so the grafters had everything their own way!

I have nothing but kind words for the excellent work of the Hon. Thomas W. Hynes, who was an ideal Commissioner during the Mayor Low administration. Mr. Hynes was an honest, upright and fair Commissioner and sought in every way to keep his department clean. He removed Warden Flynn and it would have been well if the Courts had left him out as he certainly has made a poor Warden.

Whiskey, Gambling and Other Privileges

When Warden Bissert was an involuntary inmate of the Tombs in the fall of 1901, he had so many privileges and such an old-fashioned good time that many persons rightly concluded that he owned the City Prison. Not only did he eat, drink, smoke the best Havanas and play cards at the Warden’s table, but he was allowed to receive from ten to thirty plain clothes policemen as his visitors daily! They had no passes whatever when they came to the Tombs, but these were not necessary. All they were required to say to the gateman was, “We are the Wardman’s friends.” On Sunday afternoons, when everything was quiet, a woman was allowed to pass through the front gate, enter a cell and be with a prisoner for immoral purposes! The Keeper had orders to allow her pass into the prison. I watched her enter the corner cell in the annex, which had a gas jet, she came every Sunday for weeks and usually stayed an hour. Nor was this an uncommon occurrence. Francis J. Lantry was Commissioner of Corrections, James Hagan, Warden, and William Flynn, the present Warden, was head keeper. Did I speak about it at the time? Certainly. And an investigation was promised but like all of Tammany’s investigations it never came!

The city cops that came daily to see the wardman always brought a plentiful supply of whiskey. And judging from the number of empty bottles found around the ten-day house, the quantity consumed on the premises was enormous. And often keepers, “trusties” and prisoners were found more than half drunk.

In these days Joe Williams, ballot-box stuffer, who was afterwards sent to Sing Sing for a term of years, had special privileges. Joe was seldom locked in his cell night or day. Many months afterwards when I personally visited Auburn Prison, I found a man who had been at that time in the “hall” with Williams; he informed him that the reason Williams had so many privileges bestowed on him was on account of being the “graft collector” in the ten-day house.

Williams, “Jimmie” Maguire and other trusties, were often “paralyzed” drunk in the tiers with the whiskey brought in for Bissert’s benefit. “Jimmie” Maguire had been in the Tombs no less than twenty times to my knowledge for drunk and disorderly conduct, and worked most of the time in the kitchen under the colored chef.

Every afternoon when the visitors had gone, keepers and inmates in various parts of the prison sat down and boldly “picked out” the winners of the races. And some made “books.” Then an official would be dispatched to a pool room opposite the Criminal Court Building, said to be over Tom Foley’s gin mill. This kind of gambling was kept up in the Tombs daily, Sundays excepted, for years under Tammany Hall. The prisoners saw the officials gamble and they in turn made “pools” and sent their money where it could do the most good.

This gambling became such a nuisance that it became known on the outside. A gentleman well known around the Criminal Court Building told me afterwards that to make sure of the rumor he sent a betting “commissioner” to the pool room over Tom Foley’s saloon and he waited there till the Tombs runner came and laid several bets on the ponies.

When I saw how the poor unfortunates were being robbed and ruined, by the prison gamblers, I made bold to go to Lantry and asked him to stop it. I saw at once that I touched him, for he got red in the face. He called Warden Flynn over the telephone and gave him a “roasting.” What he said after I left the room, I have no idea, but when I reached the Tombs I found that some persons had been struck by a cyclone. Thanks to Mr. Lantry, the regular pool room messenger had been “fired” to Blackwells Island and for several weeks the gamblers in the prison went out of business. But in a short time the crooked work went on as brisk as ever. At any rate, I relieved my conscience of a painful duty in the matter and stopped the mean business for a season. I wish now that I had called on Mr. Jerome and he might have sent the “bunch” to the Penitentiary.

From that time on these gambling officials became my Nemesis. They hated to see me around the Tombs. Commissioner Lantry afterwards told me that I was the only person among Catholics, Jews and Protestant missionaries that ever personally complained against the rotten conditions in the Tombs. But then cowards are afraid to tell the truth!

Steerage

The way that lawyers have been robbed of their clients the past few years in the City Prison has become a public scandal. Almost every day there is a fight in the vicinity of the Counsel Room. It is the old story, some reputable lawyer is fighting for his rights because an official has stolen his client and given him to a “shyster.” It is said that thousands of dollars a year have been passed to certain ones, who have been the real “steerers,” and not the keepers. The Bar Association should investigate and remedy this evil. There are a dozen reputable lawyers in New York who are ready to furnish satisfactory evidence of this bare-faced thievery and grafting. These corrupt officials should be bounced, and a new Diogenes sent around the State with a searchlight under his wing in an endeavor to find some honest men to take their place.

Old time “steerers” in the palmy days made plenty of money in securing lawyers for prisoners. I recall a man who had secured a lawyer through one of his friends while in the District Prison. It was a homicide case. When he came to the Tombs one of the keepers persuaded him to give him up. The keeper approached him, thus, “Say, who is your lawyer?” “So and So,” was the reply. “Well, let me tell you, he is no good. You will have a chance of going to the Chair or away for life!” “It’s only manslaughter, my lawyer says.” “Don’t make any difference,” said the keeper, “I am telling you for your own good. Give him up. Why don’t you get Mr. ——?” So he secures Mr. —— and that keeper gets the graft from the lawyer.

When a certain politician was the boss of the City Prison, it was said by the knowing ones that all homicides as soon as they gave their pedigree at the desk were marched to the warden’s office where they were privately catechised to know whether any “steerer” of the prison had been giving them information about lawyers, and then informed that it was not necessary for them to go to Court to get counsel, that he would out of the goodness of his heart look after their interests and assign them a lawyer. Two or three shyster firms had the murder cases during this “regime,” at $500.00 per head, which was the amount of money allowed by the State for the defence of every murderer, less one-half, which went to the “grafter.” Thanks to Judge Rosalsky, who has made it a rule that no prisoner in the Tombs can change his attorney without the consent of the court.

The Prison Food

The bread given to the prisoner comes from Blackwell’s Island. It used to be said that it was an inferior quality to that given to the “cons” in the penitentiary. It was often so black that it had to be thrown away, and frequently the dogs would not eat it. The tea and coffee was colored water and the daily soup was mighty poor stuff. When I asked a wise official to explain, he said, “Can’t explain; some guy is getting rich.” It used to be a prisoner could get a small piece of meat once in a while if he paid the captain of the tier five cents! The Friday clam soup used to be horrible! They said it stank like the devil! Holy angels, what stuff to give to human beings. Hear the profane expressions of disapproval from the prisoners as it is taken to the cell doors. “D—— that chowder, take it away at once. The first time I ate it, it nearly killed me.” Perhaps from another tier could be heard as they passed the stinking stuff along, “Not for me. Send for the coroner and the grand jury, call Jerome.”

Abusing the Unfortunates

Some officials shamefully abuse the prisoners for a small offence and in turn the prisoners curse them in the vilest profanity.

In the early morning of July 4th, 1906, a colored man named Cambridge called loudly for help. A night keeper responded. When he reached the cell door he said, “What do you want?” The sick man replied, “Keeper, get me a doctor, I am very sick.” The answer of the official was, “Go to hell and put a cloth around your head.” In the morning Cambridge was carried to the hall where he died the following day. When I spoke to an official about it he said it was nobody’s damned business. But this was common treatment toward moneyless unfortunates!

Special Privileges

When a West Side gambler was in the Tombs charged with murder, he had a fresh bottle of whiskey brought to him almost daily and he made no bones of the matter. Of course, it could not come into the Tombs without money, of which B. had an abundance. One of the keepers said to me that he saw the warden drinking whiskey with the murderer in his cell. But this was nothing!

Scotty Young, who had spent two years in the Tombs awaiting trial, was another prisoner that had special privileges. Scotty bragged that he had his whiskey daily and none dared molest him. What kind of a “pull” he had, never could be learned, as he was never known to have any more money than he required for his personal needs. That “Scotty” had special privileges none can deny; when a keeper tried to take away a large piece of broken mirror, a pocket knife, a razor and other deadly things from him, he was told that the warden gave him special permission, and of course, that ended it.

The Grand Jury

Every month at the close of the term the Grand Jury pays a visit of inspection to the Tombs. This has been their custom for many years. As the warden knows they are coming he puts everything in a “spick and span” order. They receive unusual attention on all such occasions, the discipline is up to the highest pitch and the warden as a rule shows them around. But to the man who can read between the lines this is all “make believe.”

If the Grand Jury should visit the Tombs like a thief in the night, that is, unexpectedly, they would then see the place as it is and would not be imposed upon any longer. If the Grand Jury came to the Tombs on Friday and refused to be led around by the warden, but by a Court official, their eyes would be opened. Perhaps they could be induced to wait around till the noon hour, when they would have an opportunity of at least “smelling” the stinking chowder which the unfortunate inmates are compelled to eat or starve.

If any of the Grand Jury tried to eat some of this unpalatable stuff they would become so deathly sick that a doctor would have to be called and if they ever recovered we fear they would indict the warden on the spot!

Of course the monthly visit of the Grand Jury is known in advance. They are carefully piloted around through the halls where the floors have been mopped that morning and everything made to look “shiny” and neat for the occasion. As a rule they are taken through the new prison and down into the cellar where may be found the machinery all polished and bright.

I would like to lock some of these gentlemen in one of the cells for an hour or two. As is well known, many of these cells are “reeking” with vermin and filth. Not of the Tombs only, but some of the district prisons. I have seen men in the Tombs and in other prisons of the City, who had hardly become inmates before the vermin would literally be found crawling over them.

In summer time when the weather is warm and oppressive, the “Annex bug” (where the misdemeanants are kept) which is said to be an “Asiatic” brand of bug, comes out of the porous brick by thousands and for two or three months have their “fill” of human gore. I think the main trouble is with the bedding. It is sent to the Workhouse and washed about twice a year in ordinary water, instead of being boiled in a vat of carbolic acid or aqua fortis, and beaten for a few days with clubs. Not infrequently visitors and missionaries find vermin crawling over their clothing after they have returned to their homes.

Politics and the Prisons

I hope the time is not far distant when the prisons of greater New York will be conducted by the State authorities, as is the case in nearly all other countries. They are the proper custodians of the prisoner. It seems to me that this is the only cure for the rank abuses that have existed in these prisons for half a century. Under Tammany as everybody knows, the warden or other official could get as drunk as a lord, abuse everybody in sight and yet be considered a hero! Some men have been suspended for a few days but when the district leader took a hand in the matter that ended it.

Last election day, November, 1908, two members of the State Prison Commission visited Hart’s Island and found it deserted. The keepers and orderlies were scattered all over greater New York trying to pile up Tammany votes. For more than two years the Workhouse end of the Island has been in a state of pandemonium. Under Tammany Hall, politics always cuts a wide swath in prison matters. A keeper who refuses to work for votes on election day is considered “no good” and is recommended by the district leader for dismissal. If this cannot be done, “fake” charges are presented against him and unless he repents and returns to the “fold” he is bounced. One of the most intelligent keepers the Tombs ever had was Frank Smith. He knew his business so well that he was an authority on the various kinds of commitments. When Flynn became warden he was sent to Blackwell’s Island. If Frank told all he knew about the Tombs’ grafters there would have been a sensation! The old Book says “resist the devil and he will flee from you, but resist the Tammany grafters and they will fly at you!” As soon as any one tries to reform such a place he gets mud and filth thrown at him!

When W. R. Hearst ran for Mayor of New York, he had several warm friends among the keepers. At first they were not afraid to speak in his favor, but this was soon changed. Spies were sent to the prisons and the unlucky wights that favored him were given to understand that if they deserted Tammany they would lose their jobs, and the civil service law would not save them. Notwithstanding this “scare” a large number of the most intelligent keepers voted the Independence League ticket, but kept it to themselves. I have nothing but kind words for the rank and file of the keepers in the Tombs and the other New York prisons. I believe most of them try to do their duty faithfully.

After the scandalous sale or “give away” of Kings County Penitentiary, for one-sixth of its real value, the grafters said that it was done for economy’s sake, which is untrue, for soon after—from sixty to seventy keepers were transferred to the District Prisons of New York and Blackwell’s Island, where was an over supply already. The result was that ever since there have been two Wardens and two deputy Wardens in the New York Penitentiary, besides a superfluous number of keepers and orderlies in all penal institutions of greater New York.

At one time Hart’s Island had something like sixty extra men who were classed as stablemen and orderlies. They had absolutely nothing to do except to draw their pay and help the district leaders. Bitter complaints were made from time to time against a brother of the deputy who ran things with a high hand. If anybody complained against these scandalous conditions he would soon be “fired.” Tammany has no use for reformers. I do not think it possible to paint the New York prisons as black as they have been until recently. If a day of judgment ever comes when all the scandalous conditions shall be exposed to public view the people will be astonished.

CHAPTER II
AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF AMERICA’S MOST FAMOUS PRISON

For more than two centuries after the arrival of the early Dutch settlers on Manhattan Island the land for a considerable distance on all sides of the present Tombs prison was a fresh water lake known to the people of that day as the “Kalchhook” or Collect Pond.

It seems almost incredible that less than a century ago the visitor to Manhattan Island could have stood at the juncture of Park Row and Centre Street, and looking north might behold a beautiful fresh water pond hidden between the hills. This lake had been a favorite resort of the Indians for hundreds of years prior to the arrival of Henry Hudson and the Half Moon in September, 1609, or even before the discovery of America. On the Broadway side was an Indian settlement where the red man pitched his wigwam and when not hunting or fishing smoked his pipe of peace.

The name given to this pond had a curious history. It seems that the Indians had been in the habit of carrying oysters from the North River in their canoes; afterwards they dumped the shells in heaps at the side of the pond. What name the Indians gave to this sheet of water before the coming of the white man we have never been able to learn. The Dutch settlers called it “Kalchhook” or the Shell Point, from a large deposit of shells found along its western shores.

After the erection of the original Tombs Prison, the authorities experienced great trouble with water flooding the cellars, which clearly proved that there were springs underneath the main building.

With the aid of some old maps now in possession of the Lenox Library, the exact location of the Collect Pond can be readily described. It was bounded by Pearl Street on the south, half way between White and Walker Streets on the north, Elm Street on the west and Mulberry Street on the east. Centre street as now laid out ran directly through the pond. It had a navigable outlet to the North River, through Canal Street.

It is said that William IV, who was then the Duke of Clarence, came to New York during the Revolution and was in charge of Admiral Digbie on whose ship he was an officer. He was fond of skating on the Collect Pond when off duty, and would have drowned there on one occasion, having broken through the ice, were it not for the quick action of Gulian C. Verplanck, one of New York’s distinguished citizens. Mr. Verplanck was afterwards President of the Bank of New York, which position he filled for twenty years. He died in 1799.

In 1805 the City Council gave orders that the Collect Pond should be filled in with clean dirt from the hills that surrounded it, as it had become a menace to the health of the city because of the filth that had been dumped into it for several years. But little had been done towards carrying this order into effect.

The winter of 1807-8 was one of great distress and poverty in this city. To add to the misery of the poor, business was at a standstill and hundreds of men were out of employment. In January, 1808, the unemployed made a demonstration in front of the City Hall and called upon the Mayor and Common Council to give them bread for themselves and their families who were then in a starving condition. After a thorough discussion of the situation money was appropriated and several hundred men put to work to fill in the Collect Pond as a public improvement. After many months the work was completed.

In the year 1830 the Common Council again took up the matter of erecting a new prison. The population of the city had increased by this time to over 200,000. The old Bridewell which had been erected before the Revolution, situated west of the City Hall, had become a nuisance and was unfit any longer for use as a prison. For several years the agitation was kept up without any definite results. At last in 1835 the erection of the Tombs Prison on a part of the old Collect Pond was decided upon and work begun.

For over a year the construction of the new building was slow, as the filling in of the pond had not been properly done. The ground was so wet and “springy” that the foundation of the new prison had to be laid on pine logs fastened to the ground by spiles.

The old Tombs was said to contain the purest specimen of Coptic architecture outside of Egypt and was admired as a splendid work of art.

The style of this prison was decided on soon after the publication of a new book of travels by John L. Stevens, of Hoboken. Mr. Stevens had just returned from a visit to Egypt and the Holy Land and had given to the public the result of his impressions abroad in a handsome volume. As the author was well known in New York, his book became widely popular. On the front page was a picture of an Egyptian Tomb. Some suggested that the new city prison be built after this design. The Common Council accepted the suggestion. Ever since the city prison has been called “The Tombs.”

Strange to say, this new prison was erected in the midst of a neighborhood that has ever since run riot in every form of crime and wickedness. For over sixty years some of the blackest and bloodiest murders, robberies, assaults, hold-ups and other deeds of darkness were committed in this neighborhood or within a stone’s throw of the prison.

In early days that part of the old Tombs building fronting Centre Street was known as the Halls of Justice, as it contained the Court of Special Sessions and the First District Police Court. For several years after the Tombs was opened the Sheriff of the County had charge of the building and all of the prisoners from the time of their committal till they were safely landed in the Penitentiary or State Prison.

The old Tombs Prison was an oblong building 142x48 and contained four tiers, having one hundred and forty-eight double cells. As far as safety and economy were concerned, it was one of the best in the country. It was so constructed that one man on the fourth tier and one man at the desk could see everything going on in the building.

Forty years ago there was a stone building at the corner of Franklin and Centre Streets which for years was known as “Bummers’ Hall.” It was used principally for drunk, disorderly and crazy people. After a time it became dilapidated, filthy and overrun with rats. A young tough named Mahoney and some boys who were detained with him for some minor offence, made their escape from “Bummers’ Hall” through a window. After it was demolished, a brick building was erected known as the New Prison, which is now called the Annex. When the Tombs was first built it contained a cupola over the main entrance, which was burned on the day set for the execution of John C. Colt, November 18th, 1842. The original Tombs Prison was opened for business in the early part of 1838.

Retrospect

If the stones and iron grating of this dismal old prison, now no more, which for two-thirds of a century stood with its back toward Elm Street, and its front entrance facing Centre Street, could only speak out its experience and tell its woes, what a heart-rending story of crime it would tell; what bitterness of soul, dashed prospects, guilty consciences that presage horrors, together with the breath of a fetid atmosphere, where like hades, the smoke of their torment rises continually! It would also be a story of blood and tears!

For over sixty-five years the “old Tombs” prison has been the scene of so many tragedies and the grave of innumerable buried hopes, once most promising, but long since crushed under the iron heel of fate! And these realms of darkness, cold, damp and forbidding cells, clammy and foul with the sweat and tears of a past generation, remind us of the cruel dungeons underneath the Mamertine prison of the Caesars!

When we think of the number of cold-blooded murderers, the burglars, highwaymen, forgers, swindlers, gold-brick men, green-goods operators and hundreds of others possessing dark criminal records, that have lain here for many months, coming from every State and part of the globe, our blood curdles within.

What hideous characters have domiciled in this prison during these two generations, who afterwards paid the penalty of the law for their bloody deeds! Think also of the conglomeration of forces that actuated and bore them into their doom like driftwood going over a Niagara as merciless as fate would have them!

Men and women that came from noble sires, scholars and specialists with trained minds that would have shone in any department of life, lawyers, teachers, business men, bankers, brokers and even men of letters, all under the cruel hand of fate, succumbed to the tempter in a weak moment and fell; alas! some never to rise again.

“Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years,

I am so weary of toil and tears.”

But, alas, it is too late. The die is cast forever!

Our young men and women should learn ere it is too late, or even before they launch forth on a career of crime, that we cannot break the divine law without punishment. “Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap,” is a law that is as true in the moral world as it is in the realm of nature. Our large cities are full of the whirlpools of vice that carry multitudes swiftly over the rapids of destruction into the maelstrom of eternal death.

The New City Prison

After many years of agitation the plans for the new Tombs Prison were prepared and approved during the Strong administration, which went into power on a reform wave in 1894.

The new City Prison contains three hundred and twenty steel cells arranged in four tiers in the men’s and four in the boys’ prison, with parallel corridors. There are forty large cells on each tier, arranged back to back, with all the recent improvements, which consist of running water, electric light, toilet, wash basin, hung table and cot. The new building is said to have cost over one million dollars.

On September 30th, 1902, the old offices on Leonard Street which had been in use since the front building on Centre Street had been torn down to make room for the new structure, were abandoned and the books and other important documents removed to the offices in the new building. This new building, however, was not entirely ready for use, but the first step had been taken and the occasion was hailed with joy. The second step in the entire occupation of the new City Prison took place Tuesday, January 6th, 1903, when the contractors handed over the entire structure to the City authorities and it was formally opened to the public by Mayor Seth Low and Commissioner Thomas W. Hynes in the presence of a number of invited guests. A few days afterwards the prisoners were transferred from the old prison to the new, and the work of demolishing the old Tombs was begun.

When the new Tombs was opened in 1901, John E. Van De Carr was Warden. And a kinder and more obliging man never lived than he. Both under the administrations of Mayors Strong and Low he was the official head of the city prison, and cared for the inmates of the prison as if they were his own family.

For many years the city prison has been noted for some of its semi-official inmates, who lived on perquisites and tips, and one of this class was old John Curran, the official guide of the prison. Old John had served in this capacity for many years, and knew every nook and cranny of the old structure. Roland B. Molineaux had a good opportunity of seeing old John at his best, and has kindly spoken of him in his book, “The Room with the Little Door.” Whenever John waxed eloquent, in describing the places of interest within the Tombs yard, he revealed a strong Irish brogue, that made his descriptions witty. You could not help smiling when you heard John, as he was wont to do, point out the last remaining beam of the old Tombs gallows, on which a score or more of persons were hung. “Gintlemens, thems th’ last and true part of old galleys of New Yark, on which so many famous chaps wint to death.” As he turned toward “Bummers’ Hall” with his visitors in the rear, he would exclaim, “Gints, thems the way to the exodus” as he would point to the back door of the new prison.

Soon after the opening of the new prison John disappeared from history as if the earth had opened its mouth and swallowed him out of sight. Where did he go? No person seemed to know. Mr. Sullivan, who was known as the Captain of the Bum Brigade, and was known as John’s confidential adviser, said that as soon as the old fellow secured his “pile” he vanished. I afterwards learned that John had a daughter living in Maine, and without communicating his plans to any one in the prison, removed thither, where he purchased a farm and now resides, happy and contented, ever and anon dreaming, how he had lived so long in the old Tombs and how he had so long fooled the visitors with his “Corkonian eloquence.”

After John’s disappearance the redoubtable Billy Gallagher added to his already onerous duties of prison messenger, that of official prison guide. After a while Billy learned the “lingo” and became as proficient as a “Bowery drummer” or a Coney Island “barker.” When the Commissioner had learned that John Curran had made a fortune as Tombs guide, he prohibited Billy Gallagher from asking fees for his services. Billy was a favorite with everybody, and could always be depended on for his veracity. Apple Mary who knew Billy for many years used to say, “God bless Billy Gallagher,” to which everybody would say Amen.

Billy Gallagher devoted more time to the Bowery bums who so often infested the ten-day house, and they took advantage of his generosity.

They frequently palmed off on him a lot of “fake” jewelry on the strength of which he paid their fines. After a time Billy had a carpet bag full of tin watches and paste diamonds, on which he had made small loans. Charley Sheridan, who was one of Frank Lantry’s district captains, was “boss” of the ten-day house for several seasons. He was tender hearted and often talked to the fellows from the Bowery and Mulberry Bend in a fatherly way and more than once paid their fines. Of course they “beat” him in the end as they do everybody who trusts them. They go on the principle that they have everything to gain and nothing to lose by a lie.

CHAPTER III
MODERN EXCUSES FOR CRIME

Modern penologists tell us that a large number of our present day law breakers possess criminal instincts and in a sense are not entirely responsible for the unlawful deeds they commit. What generates these instincts it would be difficult to say. Perhaps early training, erratic temperaments or mental diseases of various kinds may account for them. We are inclined to think that much of our modern criminality is nothing less than old fashioned depravity. By nature most of us are so cross-grained that we find it easy to go wrong, and there is no telling where evil tendencies may lead to. Sometimes it needs only a spark to draw out the crookedness in man and make him a full-fledged criminal.

While the matter of self restraint should be kept continually before the minds of young people, the question of how far one should be allowed to tempt another to the committal of a crime is one of vastly greater importance. In this we believe the State should draw the line. This is in accordance with Gladstone’s well known dictum, “That it should be the duty of every well organized government to make it easy to do right and difficult to do wrong.” There is no mistaking that the present is a fast age. More than that, the competition for human existence, education, wealth and social standing is so great as to be unhealthy, because of the nervous strain which it creates. These conditions have developed an army of moral defectives in almost every walk of life.

Placing temptations before such people is simply making them criminals in advance. A vast number of men and women are unable to resist evil, as they lack the moral stamina. Many of this class, having been brought up in homes of vice and evil environments, can no more stand the temptations of the present day than a hungry dog can resist taking a piece of unguarded meat from a neighbor’s door.

The dipsomaniac, kleptomaniac, morphine, cocaine, cigarette users, and high livers, generally all belong to this class, many of whom are on the way to the madhouse!

It has been ascertained by long study of the subject that those who possess criminal instincts have little or no resistive power when tempted to commit crime. If the judge on the bench, before passing sentence on a convicted felon, had the insight or perception to see the moral deformities and lack of will power existing in the individual before him, we are inclined to believe that he would send the prisoner to a sanitarium for treatment rather than to prison for punishment. And it is our candid opinion that there are hundreds of moral defectives in all the penal institutions of this and other States who ought to be under the care of a physician rather than a jailer.

Sometimes the police disguise themselves, then induce gamblers to play roulette and other games of chance for the purpose of securing evidence, after which they arrest them for violating the law. This may be good ethics from the police standpoint, but we question it. It is absurd to think that we have any moral right to tempt a person to commit a crime against the laws of God or man.

Not long since a city magistrate reprimanded two plain clothes policemen for inducing a German saloon keeper to open his store on Sunday morning and give them a drink. They succeeded in doing so only under false pretences by saying they were sick. After they had secured the evidence, they placed him under arrest. In this way they compelled him to break the law. A woman was tried in the Court of General Sessions, some time ago for keeping a disorderly house. It was proved that she kept a boarding house, but there was no evidence to show that she or any of the inmates were immoral or that impure language was used on the premises. The police, however, suspected the house and sent a plain clothes officer who stayed on the premises for a day or two. After a time by the skillful use of money he was able to tempt the woman to place herself in a compromising position and in this way secured evidence against her. Now the law says that any person who directly or indirectly induces or procures another to commit a crime is as bad as the principal.

As an unusually large number of persons had passed the examination for positions on the City Police and Fire Departments some time ago, the Civil Service Board became suspicious. It occurred to them that somebody was stealing the examination papers. Two detectives were put on the case. They secured the services of an athletic instructor to prepare them to pass the examination for a position on the Fire Department and offered him $400 for his labors. He promised to do so, provided he could secure the stolen examination papers. The instructor secured the papers and both men passed. When passing sentence the presiding Judge commented unfavorably on the large money temptation placed before the defendant which was in the nature of a bribe and was the one thing which made the crime possible.

It is a question in our mind how far valuable property, such as gold, diamonds and other jewelry, should be exposed on the counters of large stores. Multitudes cannot view these things without secretly trying to carry some away. Nor should people expose money unnecessarily before the gaze of strangers; for in doing so, many a man has been robbed and some have lost their lives.

The fair sex are sometimes at fault in this respect and indirectly responsible for certain kinds of crime. When they go shopping they carry in their hands wallets or pocket-books containing small amounts of money. In former years they carried their money in their dress pockets. By exposing their pocket-books they tempt the moral defective to commit crime. Men and women also tempt the instinctive criminal, when they carry, exposed to public gaze, watches and jewelry on the person. It is true that this is our right. But we must not tempt men. I believe that the crimes of pocket-book snatching and larcenies from the person would be few and far between if people carried their valuables concealed from public view.

Frequently we meet people who possess a morbid propensity to commit crime. On some things they are perfectly rational, on others they are incapable of acting correctly. You can safely say, they are mildly insane!

Here is a lady on the street with a chatelaine bag dangling around her waist. The thief presumes that it contains money and other valuables. The owner is unconsciously tempting a poor weakling. From our standpoint this is a dangerous expedient. By and by there comes along a poor, hungry, homeless, penniless creature. He possesses criminal instincts. He sees the pocket-book in the lady’s possession. It is a well known fact that the sight of money awakens the worst passions of men. An evil impulse takes possession of him. He seizes the money and runs away. This is not an exceptional case. The criminal annals of New York can furnish hundreds of such cases, where men were seized with an impulse to commit a crime that sent them to prison for many years.

We knew personally the cases of two young men, bank messengers, who were bonded in a surety company for five thousand dollars each, but had only a salary of eight dollars per week. They were entrusted with large sums of money daily, which they received in collections. Both claimed at different times, to have been seized with an evil impulse to abscond with the money, which they did. The first took $5,000 and left the city. He went to Chicago, then to a southern city. Here he considered what he had done, in the light of cold reason. He sent a dispatch to the bank, saying that he would return with the money in two days. He did so. He accounted for all he took away except the railroad fare and hotel bills, which his people made good. That young man had always borne a splendid reputation for honesty and truthfulness. When I asked him why he left the city with other people’s money, he replied, “An irresistible impulse came over me and for a time I was like a crazy man under a spell. It is all a dream to me. I cannot understand it.”

The second lad had gone away with $56,000, $6,000 of which was in hard cash and the balance in bonds. He returned the bonds to the bank by a messenger. They were really useless to him. When he had spent nearly all the money he concluded to give himself up.

A poor unfortunate who was sent to prison for a long term for pocket-book snatching explained his conduct by saying, “I was cold and hungry. All at once I was seized with an uncontrollable impulse to take by force what did not belong to me. It came over me like a spell.”

Under ordinary circumstances, I am not inclined to take much stock in this “spell” theory. I think that in most cases, we can restrain ourselves when these impulses come over us.

A Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge, who is noted for his outspoken good sense, while sitting in a neighboring city trying criminal cases, severely rebuked some rich people for carelessly tempting working men employed on their premises. It seems that while certain persons were employed as painters and decorators in the home of a millionaire, that jewelry and other valuables were left carelessly within their reach. The result was that one of the men stole some of the valuables, and was sent to prison. It was shown at the trial that this workman was not a criminal and had always borne a good reputation. But the jewelry which lay around so carelessly in this home appealed to him. Such temptations arouse in men the worst passions, and even prey on their minds.

A young man whom I met in the Tombs broke down and wept as he told me the story of his disgrace. He loved a young woman and desired to seal his engagement to her with a gold ring. He went down to a Maiden Lane store. He explained the object of his visit to the salesman. He had nine dollars in his pocket and was willing to pay a fair price for what he wanted. The salesman went to a case and took therefrom a handful of gold rings and placed them before him on a velvet cloth and then went away. As the young man examined the rings alone the temptation seized him to secrete one and conceal it on his person. He did so with the result that the salesman saw him. He had not only tempted him but he concealed himself and watched all his movements with aid of a mirror.

Another way in which both men and women are frequently made criminals is by the present instalment system. For example, persons purchase watches, jewelry, typewriters, clothing and furniture and agree to pay for the same by weekly or monthly instalments. The buyer is compelled to sign an agreement in which he waives his right to his property till the last payment is made. If he has purchased a watch or suit of clothes and defaults on a payment he is compelled to surrender the property or be liable to an indictment for grand larceny. The trouble is, our legislature, to accommodate commercial sharpers, changes what has always been considered a civil suit into a criminal offence. Any one who sells another a typewriter takes chances to get his money back, the same as the baker who sells him a loaf of bread. If he is unable to pay that debt honestly the seller has no right to have recourse to an indictment to force him. This is all wrong.

Just where our State or local authorities can draw the line between an insane and a rational criminal, it would be hard to say. And how far people who possess criminal tendencies should be allowed to roam at large is also important. But how far individuals and corporations should be allowed to tempt moral weaklings to commit crime is a question for the twentieth century statesman and penologist to decide.

CHAPTER IV
HOW CRIMINALS ARE MADE

Since the close of the Civil War, crime of every kind has made enormous strides, not only in our large cities but also in our sparsely populated districts. Various reasons have been assigned for this condition of things but the reasons given are not entirely satisfactory. One thing, however, is certain, the temptations of modern times, which engulf and enslave so many of our young people, were never more numerous or more alluring than they are to-day. And the saddest thing of all is that very little is done to take the temptations out of the way or reduce them to a minimum.

I believe bad homes are largely responsible for many of the moral shipwrecks of our day. A report of the superintendent of Elmira Reformatory states that fifty-two per cent. of all the inmates of that institution came from positively bad homes and only seven per cent. from positively good homes. Without going any further into this discussion, it would be well to find out what makes bad homes and, if possible, furnish a remedy, so as to save our young people from becoming criminals. By all means find out the disease and then apply the remedy. This is the only rational thing to do, and to this method of treatment few persons can object.

The fact that crime increases faster than the ratio of population should come to our statesmen with startling effect and set them thinking to know just what methods should be used to change the evil currents of the times.

As long as fierce temptations are allowed to surge around our young people, especially in large cities, so long may we expect to see them in the police net and afterward filling prison cells. Crime is a menace to our republican institutions and in the end will reduce a free people to anarchy or serfdom.

One of the crime makers of our time, as is evident from everyday facts and figures, is the liquor traffic. From fifty to seventy per cent. of all convicted felons have been ruined by it. Many a man who is behind the bars to-day never would have been there were it not for strong drink that robbed him of his senses in a weak moment, and made him a criminal and a fool. In states where the rum power is under the ban and prohibition strictly or even partially enforced, jails are usually empty except for a few petty offenders.

Some men say that immigration is largely responsible for the criminality of to-day. That there is some truth in this statement we have no doubt whatever. But to hold immigrants responsible for the criminality of this age is unfair and uncharitable. That some parts of Europe send people to this country who are expert criminals and others full of criminal instincts, is true in part. That people without means and employment drift to the United States from every land and when in want naturally attack property under the spur of necessity, coupled, of course, with low ethical standards and lacking a sense of moral obligation, and perhaps possessing weak resistive powers, is also true.

Often persons are driven to crime by motives generated in a vicious nature, and as they are too weak to resist they soon lose their liberty, and society to protect itself simply places them behind the bars. Criminality is simply the darkened side of a reckless, sinful life, showing itself in deeds of wickedness and rebellion against God and man. Any one with such an impulse will dare to commit the most atrocious crime on record and will not think of the consequences!

The small army of boys that are committed to prison in this city every year between the ages of sixteen and twenty, for every crime on the calendar, shows the trend of the rising generation toward delinquency. In these figures we leave out of consideration several thousands of boys and girls who are disposed of by the city magistrates, many of whom are sent to the Reform School, Juvenile Asylum and the House of Refuge, while others are discharged on suspended sentences, with a warning to keep out of bad company.

I believe the first and foremost cause of crime in our large cities, as I have intimated, as well as the degradation of the poor man’s home, is the American saloon. Nor will there be any material decrease in the volume of crime till the power of the saloon has been crushed. Our stupid, thick-skulled, short-sighted reformers and state legislators forget that the soul-dishonoring and God-defying gin mill is the great crime generator of the twentieth century. The one primary cause of crime to-day is alcohol, and as a well-known authority says: “The decrease in the use of alcoholic drink must ever remain the great aim of anti-criminal legislation as well as of future moral and social reform.” A mass of absolutely correct statistics could be given in support of this statement, if necessary.

In many of the crimes committed by young men which we have personally investigated, it has been a question with us who has been the greatest criminal, the state, the parents or the boy. Many a young man would never have reached prison had his parents placed around him any reasonable moral safeguards. When I remember that hundreds of boys who get into the Tombs every year come from homes of poverty, misery, drunkenness, profanity and vice of every name, I do not wonder when I see crime written on their pale faces.

If Gladstone’s dictum were to actuate our state legislature, laws would be forthwith passed, making it a crime to sell to minors the blood-curdling novel, tobacco or cigarettes, or intoxicating liquor in any form. Boys should be prohibited from going to prize fights, the race course, gambling hells, theatres, billiard halls, or even from staying on the street after nine o’clock at night. This might seem harsh, but if strictly carried out we have no doubt whatever that crime would be reduced thereby.

It was a law in the Commonwealth of Israel, promulgated long before their settlement in Canaan, that when they built a house in the promised land they must put a railing or battlement around the roof to protect their children from injury by accidentally falling off. If the state were to make it difficult for our young people to do wrong by erecting around them moral barriers, there would be less criminality among boys and young men, and fewer human shipwrecks in after life.

When young men are admitted to prison for the first time, efforts should be put forth to save them. The work of isolation, separation and classification should then begin. If the authorities were to sift and separate the good from the bad, the precious from the vile, I am positive there would be fewer recidivists who are now compelled to repeat the same prison experiences several times over.

The new Tombs prison.

The open corridor of the women’s prison of the Tombs.

The old Tombs entrance on Leonard street.

Hundreds of boys who are sent to the Tombs enjoy the novelty immensely. It is a new experience to them, and as such is exciting. In prison they are huddled together as a band of incorrigibles. There seems to be no punishment in such an experience. Some of them are better off there than they would be in their homes. They get enough to eat. In some prisons they can smoke all the cigarettes and read all the dime novels they please. If up till this time they have been ignorant of the ways of pickpockets and sneak thieves, when they come out, after a few weeks’ incarceration, they are expert crooks, and fifty per cent. of them are soon back in prison.

In order to reduce crime among boys we must take away the operating causes. There is no other way to reach the desired end, and the sooner we get our eyes open to these facts, the better for ourselves and everybody else.