_On the Outside Again._
My time on the second bit was drawing to a close. I was eager to get
out, of course, but I knew way down in my mind, that it would be only
to graft again. I made a resolution that I would regain my health and
gather a little fall-money before I started in hard again on the Rocky
Path.
On the day of my release, Warden Sage called me to his office and
talked to me like a friend. He did not know that I was a second timer,
or he might not have been so kind to me. He was a humane man, and in
spite of his belief in the stool-pigeon system, he introduced good
things into Sing Sing. He improved the condition of the cells and we
were not confined there so much as we had been before he came. On my
first term many a man staid for days in his cell without ever going
out; one man was confined twenty-eight days on bread and water. But
under Mr. Sage punishments were not so severe. He even used to send
delicacies to men chained up in the Catholic Chapel.
I should like to say a good word for Head Keeper Connoughton, too.
He was not generally liked, for he was a strict disciplinarian, but I
think he was one of the best keepers in the country. He was stern, but
not brutal, and when a convict was sick, Mr. Connoughton was very kind.
He was not deceived by the fake lunatics, and used to say: "If you go
to the mad-house, you are liable to become worse. If you are all right
in the morning I will give you a job out in the air." Although Mr.
Connoughton had had little schooling he was an intelligent man.
I believe the best thing the community can do to reform criminals
is to have a more intelligent class of keepers. As a rule they are
ignorant, brutal and stupid, under-paid and inefficient; yet what is
more important for the State's welfare than an intelligent treatment
of convicts? Short terms, too, are better than long ones, for when
the criminal is broken down in health and made fearful, suspicious and
revengeful, what can you expect from him? However, in the mood I was in
at the end of my second term, I did not believe that anything was any
good as a preventive of crime. I knew that when I got on the outside I
wouldn't think of what might happen to me. I knew that I couldn't or
wouldn't carry a hod. What ambition I had left was to become a more
successful crook than I had ever been before.
Warden Sage gave me some good advice and then I left Sing Sing for New
York. I did not get the pleasure from going out again that had been
so keen after my first bit. My eye-sight was failing now, and I was
sick and dull. My only thought was to get back to my old haunts, and
I drank several large glasses of whiskey at Sing Sing town, to help
me on my way. I intended to go straight home, as I felt very ill, to
my father and mother, but I didn't see them for several days after my
return to New York. The first thing I did in the city was to deliver
some messages from my fellow convicts to their relatives. My third
visit for that purpose was to the home of a fine young fellow I knew
in stir. It was a large family and included a married sister and her
children. They were glad to hear from Bobby, and I talked to them for
some time about him, when the husband of the married sister came home,
and began to quarrel with his wife. He accused her of having strange
men in the house, meaning me. The younger brother and the rest of the
family got back at the brother-in-law and gave him better than they
got. The little brother fired a lamp at him, and he yelled "murder".
The police surrounded the house and took us all to the station-house
in the patrol wagon. And so I spent the first night after my return in
confinement. It seemed natural, however. In the morning we were taken
before the magistrate, and the mother and sister testified that I had
taken them a message from their boy, and had committed no offense.
The brother-in-law blurted out that he had married into a family of
thieves, and that I had just returned from Sing Sing. I was discharged,
but fined five dollars. Blessed are the peacemakers,--but not in my
case!
I passed the next day looking for old girls and pals, but I found few
of them. Many were dead and others were in stir or had sunk so far
down into the under world that even I could not find them. I was only
about thirty-two years old, but I had already a long acquaintance with
the past. Like all grafters I had lived rapidly, crowding, while at
liberty, several days into one. When I got back from my second bit
the greater part of my life seemed to be made up of memories of other
days. Some of the old pals I did meet again had squared it, others were
"dead" (out of the game) and some had degenerated into mere bums.
There are several different classes of "dead ones":
1. The man who has lost his nerve. He generally becomes a whiskey
fiend. If he becomes hopelessly a soak the better class of guns shun
him, for he is no good to work with. He will not keep an engagement, or
will turn up at the place of meeting too late or too early. A grafter
must be exactly on time. It is as bad to be too early as too late, for
he must not be seen hanging around the place of meeting. Punctuality is
more of a virtue in the under world than it is in respectable society.
The slackest people I know to keep their appointments, are the honest
ones; or grafters who have become whiskey fiends. These latter usually
wind up with rot-gut booze and are sometimes seen selling songs on the
Bowery.
2. The man who becomes a copper. He is known as a stool-pigeon, and is
detested and feared by all grafters. Nobody will go with him. Sometimes
he becomes a Pinkerton man, and is a useful member of society. When
he loses his grip with the upper world, he belongs to neither, for the
grafters won't look at him.
3. The man who knows a trade. This grafter often "squares" it, is apt
to marry and remain honest. His former pals, who are still grafters,
treat him kindly, for they know he is not a rat. They know, too, that
he is a bright and intelligent man, and that it is well to keep on the
right side of him. Such a man has often educated himself in stir, and,
when he squares it, is apt to join a political club, and is called
in by the leader to help out in an election, for he possesses some
brains. The gun is apt to make him an occasional present, for he can
help the grafter, in case of a fall, because of his connection with
the politicians. This kind of "dead one" often keeps his friends the
grafters, while in stir, next to the news in the city.
4. The gun who is _supposed_ to square it. This grafter has got a
bunch of money together and sees a good chance to open a gin-mill,
or a Raines Law hotel, or a gambling joint. He knows how to take care
of the repeaters, and is handy about election time. In return he gets
protection for his illegal business. He is a go-between, and is on good
terms with coppers and grafters. He supplies the grafter who has plenty
of fall-money with bondsmen, makes his life in the Tombs easy, and gets
him a good job while in stir. This man is supposed to be "dead," but he
is really very much alive. Often a copper comes to him and asks for the
whereabouts of some grafter or other. He will reply, perhaps: "I hear
he is in Europe, or in the West." The copper looks wise and imagines he
is clever. The "dead" one sneers, and, like a wise man, laughs in his
sleeve; for he is generally in communication with the man looked for.
5. The sure-thing grafter. He is a man who continues to steal, but
wants above everything to keep out of stir, where he has spent many
years. So he goes back to the petty pilfering he did as a boy. General
Brace and the Professor belonged to this class of "dead ones." The
second night I spent on the Bowery after my return from my second
bit I met Laudanum Joe, who is another good example of this kind of
"dead one." At one time he made thousands of dollars, but now he is
discouraged and nervous. He looked bad (poorly dressed) but was glad to
see me.
"How is graft?" he asked.
"I have left the Rocky Path," I replied, thinking I would throw a few
"cons" into him. "I am walking straight. Not in the religious line,
either."
He smiled, which was tantamount to saying that I lied.
"What are you working at?" he asked.
"I am looking for a job," I replied.
"Jimmy, is it true, that you are pipes (crazy)? I heard you got buggy
(crazy) in your last bit."
"Joe," I replied, "you know I was never bothered above the ears."
"If you are going to carry the hod," he said, "you might as well go to
the pipe-house, and let them cure you. Have you given up smoking, too?"
he continued.
He meant the hop. I conned him again and said: "Yes." He showed the old
peculiar, familiar grin, and said:
"Say, I have no coin. Take me with you and give me a smoke."
I tried to convince him that there was nothing in it, but he was a
doubter.
"What are _you_ doing, Joe?" I asked.
"O, just getting a few shillings," he replied, meaning that he was
grafting.
"Why don't you give up the booze?" I asked.
I had made a break, for he said, quickly:
"Why? Because I don't wear a Piccadilly collar?"
All grafters of any original calibre are super-sensitive, to a point
very near insanity. Laudanum Joe thought I had reference to his dress,
which was very bum.
"Joe," I said, "I never judge a man by his clothes, especially one that
I know."
"Jimmy," he said, "the truth is I can't stand another long bit in stir.
I do a little petty pilfering that satisfies my wants--a cup of tea,
plenty of booze, and a little hop. If I fall I only go to the workhouse
for a couple of months. The screws know I have seen better days and I
can get a graft and my booze while there. If I aint as prosperous as I
was once, why not dream I'm a millionaire?"
Some grafters who have been prosperous at one time fall even lower
than Laudanum Joe. When they get fear knocked into them and can't
do without whiskey they sink lower and lower. Hungry Bob is another
example. I grafted with him as a boy, but when I met him on the Bowery
after my second bit I hardly knew him, and at first he failed to
recognize me entirely. I got him into a gin-mill, however, and he told
how badly treated he had been just before we met. He had gone into a
saloon kept by an old pal of his who had risen in the world, and asked
him for fifteen cents to buy a bed in a lodging-house. "Go long, you
pan-handler (beggar)," said his old friend. Poor Bob was badly cut up
about it, and talked about ingratitude for a long time. But he had his
lodging money, for a safe-cracker who knew Hungry Bob when he was one
of the gayest grafters in town, happened to be in the saloon, and he
gave the "bum" fifteen cents for old times sake.
"How is it, Bob," I said to him, "that you are not so good as you were?"
"You want to know what put me on the bum?" he answered. "Well, it's
this way. I can't trust nobody, and I have to graft alone. That's one
thing. Then, too, I like the booze too much, and when I'm sitting down
I can't get up and go out and hustle the way I used to."
Hungry Bob and I were sitting in a resort for sailors and hard-luck
grafters in the lower Bowery, when a Sheenie I knew came in.
"Hello, Jim," he said.
"How's graft, Mike?" I replied.
"Don't mention it."
"What makes you look so glum?"
"I'm only after being turned out of police court this morning."
"What was the rap, Mike?"
"I'm looking too respectable. They asked me where I got the clothes. I
told them I was working, which was true. I have been a waiter for three
months. The flymen took me to headquarters. I was gathered in to make
a reputation for those two shoo-flies. Whenever I square it and go to
work I am nailed regularly, because my mug is in the Hall of Fame. When
I am arrested, I lose my job every time. Nobody knows you now, Jim. You
could tear the town open."
I made a mental resolution to follow Mike's advice very soon--as soon
as my health was a little better. Just then Jack, a boyhood pal of
mine, who knew the old girls, Sheenie Annie and the rest, came in. I
was mighty glad to see him, and said so to him.
"I guess you've got the advantage of me, bloke," was his reply.
"Don't you remember Jimmy the Kid, ten years ago, in the sixth?" I
jogged his memory with the names of a few pals of years ago, and when
he got next, he said:
"I wouldn't have known you, Jim. I thought you were dead many years ago
in stir. I heard it time and time again. I thought you were past and
gone."
After a short talk, I said:
"Where's Sheenie Annie?"
"Dead," he replied.
"Mamie?" I asked.
"Dead," he replied.
"Lucy?"
"In stir."
"Swedish Emmy?"
"She's married."
"Any good Molls now? I'm only after getting back from stir and am not
next," I said.
"T'aint like old times, Jim," he said. "The Molls won't steal now. They
aint got brains enough. They are not innocent. They are ignorant. All
they know how to do is the badger."
I went with Jack to his house, where he had an opium layout. There
we found several girls and grafters, some smoking hop, some with the
subtle cigarette between their lips. I was introduced to an English
grafter, named Harry. He said he was bloomin' glad to see me. He was
just back from the West, he said, but I thought it was the pen. He
began to abuse the States, and I said:
"You duffer, did you ever see such pretty girls as here? Did you ever
wear a collar and tie in the old country?"
He grew indignant and shouted: "'Oly Cobblestones! In this ---- country
I have two hundred bucks (dollars) saved up every time, but I never
spend a cent of it. 'Ow to 'Ell am I better off here? I'm only stealin'
for certain mugs (policemen) and fer those 'igher up, so they can buy
real estate. They enjoy their life in this country and Europe off my
'ard earned money and the likes of me. They die as respected citizens.
I die in the work'us as an outcast. Don't be prating about your ----
country!"
As soon as I had picked out a good mob to join I began to graft again.
Two of my new pals were safe-blowers, and we did that graft, and
day-work, as well as the old reliable dipping. But I wasn't much at
the graft during the seven months I remained on the outside. My health
continued bad, and I did not feel like "jumping out" so much as I had
done formerly. I did not graft except when my funds were very low, and
so, of course, contrary to my plans, I saved no fall-money. I had a
girl, an opium lay-out and a furnished room, where I used to stay most
of the time, smoking with pals, who, like myself, had had the keen edge
of their ambition taken off. I had a strange longing for music at that
time; I suppose because my nerves were weaker than they used to be. I
kept a number of musical instruments in my room, and used to sing and
dance to amuse my visitors.
During these seven months that I spent mainly in my room, I used to
reflect and philosophize a lot, partly under the influence of opium.
I would moralize to my girl or to a friend, or commune with my own
thoughts. I often got in a state of mind where everything seemed a joke
to me. I often thought of myself as a spectator watching the play of
life. I observed my visitors and their characteristics and after they
had left for the evening loved to size them up in words for Lizzie.
My eyes were so bad that I did not read much, but I took it out in
epigrams and wise sayings. I will give a few specimens of the kind of
philosophy I indulged in.
"You always ought to end a speech with a sneer or a laconic remark. It
is food for thought. The listener will pause and reflect."
"It is not what you make, but what you save, that counts. It isn't
the big cracksman who gets along. It is the unknown dip who saves his
earnings."
"To go to Germany to learn the language is as bad as being in stir for
ten years."
"Jump out and be a man and don't join the Salvation Army."
"Always say to the dip who says he wants to square it; Well, what's
your other graft?"
"When a con gets home he is apt to find his sweetheart married, and a
'Madonna of the wash tubs.'"
"He made good money and was a swell grafter, but he got stuck on a
Tommy that absorbed his attention, and then he lost his punctuality and
went down and out."
"Do a criminal a bodily injury and he may forget. Wound his feelings
and he will never forgive."
"Most persons have seen a cow or a bull with a board put around its
head in such a way that the animal can see nothing. It is a mode of
punishment. Soon the poor beast will go mad, if the board is not
removed. What chance has the convict, confined in a dark cell for
years, to keep his senses? He suffers from astigmatism of the mind."
"I am as much entitled to an opinion as any other quack on the face of
the earth."
"General Grant is one of my heroes. He was a boy at fifteen. He was
a boy when he died. A boy is loyalty personified. General Grant had
been given a task to do, and like a boy, he did it. He was one of our
greatest men, and belongs with Tom Paine, Benjamin Franklin and Robert
Ingersoll."
"Why don't we like the books we liked when we were boys? It is not
because our judgment is better, but because we have a dream of our own
now, and want authors to dream along the same lines."
"The only gun with principles is the minor grafter."
"The weakest man in the universe is he who falls from a good position
and respectable society into the world of graft. Forgers and defaulters
are generally of this class. A professional gun, who has been a thief
all his life, is entitled to more respect."
"In writing a book on crime, one ought to have in mind to give the
public a truthful account of a thief's life, his crimes, habits,
thoughts, emotions, vices and virtues, and how he lives in prison and
out. I believe this ought to be done, and the man who does it well must
season his writings with pathos, humor, sarcasm, tragedy, and thus give
the real life of the grafter."
"Sympathy with a grafter who is trying to square it is a tonic to his
better self."
"The other day I was with a reporter and a society lady who were
seeing the town. The lady asked me how I would get her diamond pin.
It was fastened in such a way that to get it, strong arm work would be
necessary. I explained how I would "put the mug on her" while my husky
pal went through her. 'But,' she said, 'that would hurt me.' As if the
grafters cared! What a selfish lady to be always thinking of herself!"
"Life is the basis of philosophy. Philosophy is an emanation from our
daily routine. After a convict has paced his cell a few thousand times
he sometimes has an idea. Philosophy results from life put through a
mental process, just as opium, when subjected to a chemical experiment,
produces laudanum. Why, therefore, is not life far stronger than a
narcotic?"
"I believe in platonic love, for it has been in my own life. A woman
always wants love, whether she is eighteen or eighty--real love. Many
is the time I have seen the wistful look in some woman's eye when she
saw that it was only good fellowship or desire on my part."
"In this age of commerce there is only one true friendship, the kind
that comes through business."
"An old adage has it that all things come to him who waits. Yes:
poverty, old age and death. The successful man is he who goes and gets
it."
"If thy brother assaults you, do not weep, nor pray for him, nor turn
the other cheek, but assail him with the full strength of your muscles,
for man at his best is not lovable, nor at his worst, detestable."
"There is more to be got in Germany, judging from what Dutch Lonzo
used to say, than in England or America, only the Dutchmen are too
thick-headed to find it out. A first class gun in Germany would be
ranked as a ninth-rater here."
"Grafters are like the rest of the world in this: they always attribute
bad motives to a kind act."
"From flim-flam (returning short change) to burglary is but a step,
provided one has the nerve."
"Why would a woman take to him (a sober, respectable man but lacking in
temperament) unless she wanted a good home?"
"If there is anything detestable, it is a grafter who will steal an
overcoat in the winter time."
"'Look for the woman.' A fly-cop gets many a tip from some tid-bit in
whom a grafter has reposed confidence."
* * * * *
I did not do, as I have said, any more grafting than was necessary
during these seven months of liberty; but I observed continually,
living in an opium dream, and my pals were more and more amusing to me.
When I thought about myself and my superior intelligence, I was sad,
but I thought about myself as little as possible. I preferred to let
my thoughts dwell on others, who I saw were a a fine line of cranks and
rogues.
Somewhere in the eighties, before I went to stir, there was a synagogue
at what is now 101 Hester Street. The synagogue was on the first floor,
and on the ground floor was a gin-mill, run by an ex-Central Office
man. Many pickpockets used to hang out there, and they wanted to drive
the Jews out of the first floor, so that they could lay out a faro game
there. So they swore and carried on most horribly on Saturdays, when
the rabbi was preaching, and finally got possession of the premises.
Only a block away from this old building was a famous place for dips
to get "books", in the old days. Near by was Ridley's dry-goods store,
in which there were some cash-girls who used to tip us off to who had
the books, and were up to the graft themselves. They would yell "cash"
and bump up against the sucker, while we went through him. The Jews
were few in those days, and the Irish were in the majority. On the
corner of Allen and Hester Streets stood the saloon of a well-known
politician. Now a Jew has a shop there. Who would think that an Isaacs
would supersede a Finnigan?
At the gin-mill on Hester Street, I used to know a boy dip named Buck.
When I got back from my second bit I found he had developed into a
box-man, and had a peculiar disposition, which exists outside, as well
as inside, Graftdom. He had one thousand eight hundred dollars in the
bank, and a fine red front (gold watch and chain), but he was not a
good fellow. He used to invite three or four guns to have a drink, and
would order Hennessy's brandy, which cost twenty cents a glass. After
we had had our drinks he would search himself and only find perhaps
twenty cents in his clothes. He got into me several times before I
"blew". One time, after he had ordered drinks, he began the old game,
said he thought he had eighteen dollars with him, and must have been
touched. Then he took out his gold watch and chain and threw it on the
bar. But who would take it? I went down, of course, and paid for the
drinks. When we went out together, he grinned, and said to me: "I pity
you. You will never have a bank account, my boy."
The next time Buck threw down his watch and said he would pay in the
morning, I thought it was dirt, for I knew he had fifty dollars on him.
So I said to the bartender: "Take it and hock it, and get what he owes
you. This chump has been working it all up and down the line. I won't
be touched by the d---- grafter any more."
Buck was ready witted and turning to the bartender, said: "My friend
here is learning how to play poker and has just lost eighteen dollars.
He is a dead sore loser and is rattled."
We went out with the watch, without paying for our drinks, and he said
to me: "Jim, I don't believe in paying a gin-mill keeper. If the powers
that be were for the people instead of for themselves they would have
such drinkables free on every corner in old New York." The next time
Buck asked me to have a drink I told him to go to a warm place in
the next world. Buck was good to his family. He was married and had a
couple of brats.
Many a man educates himself in stir, as was my case. Jimmy, whom I ran
up against one day on the street, is a good example. He had squared
it and is still on the level. When I saw him, after my second bit, he
was making forty dollars a week as an electrical engineer; and every
bit of the necessary education he got in prison. At one time he was
an unusually desperate grafter; and entirely ignorant of everything,
except the technique of theft. Many years ago he robbed a jewelry
store and was sent to Blackwell's Island for two years. The night of
the day he was released he burglarized the same store and assaulted
the proprietor. He was arrested with the goods on him and brought to
General Sessions before Recorder Smythe, who had sentenced him before.
He got ten years at Sing Sing and Auburn, and for a while he was one of
the most dangerous and desperate of convicts, and made several attempts
to escape. But one day a book on electricity fell into his hands, and
from that time on he was a hard student. When he was released from stir
he got a job in a large electrical plant up the State, and worked for
a while, when he was tipped off by a country grafter who had known him
in stir. He lost his job, and went to New York, where he met me, who
was home after my first term. I gave him the welcome hand, and, after
he had told me his story, I said: "Well, there is plenty of money in
town. Jump out with us." He grafted with me and my mob for a while,
but got stuck on a Tommy, so that we could not depend on him to keep
his appointments, and we dropped him. After that he did some strong arm
work with a couple of gorillas and fell again for five years. When he
returned from stir he got his present position as electrical engineer.
He had it when I met him after my second bit and he has it to-day. I am
sure he is on the level and will be so as long as he holds his job.
About this time I was introduced to a peculiar character in the shape
of a few yards of calico. It was at Carey's place on Bleecker Street
that I first saw this good-looking youth of nineteen, dressed in the
latest fashion. His graft was to masquerade as a young girl, and for
a long time Short-Haired Liz, as we called him, was very successful.
He sought employment as maid in well-to-do families and then made away
with the valuables. One day he was nailed, with twenty charges against
him. He was convicted on the testimony of a chamber-maid, with whom,
in his character of lady's maid, he had had a lark. Mr. R----, who was
still influential, did his best for him, for his fall-money was big,
and he only got a light sentence.
I heard one day that an old pal of mine, Dannie, had just been hanged.
It gave me a shock, for I had often grafted with him when we were kids.
As there were no orchards on the streets of the east side, Dannie and I
used to go to the improvised gardens that lined the side-walks outside
of the green grocers' shops, and make away with strawberries, apples,
and other fruits. By nature I suppose boys are no more bothered with
consciences than are police officials. Dannie rose rapidly in the world
of graft and became very dangerous to society. As a grafter he had one
great fault. He had a very quick temper. He was sensitive, and lacking
in self-control, but he was one of the cleverest guns that ever came
from the Sixth Ward, a place noted for good grafters of both sexes. He
married a respectable girl and had a nice home, for he had enough money
to keep the police from bothering him. If it had not been for his bad
temper, he might be grafting yet. He would shoot at a moment's notice,
and the toughest of the hard element were afraid of him. One time he
had it in for an old pal of his named Paddy. For a while Paddy kept
away from the saloon on Pell Street where Dannie hung out, but Paddy,
too, had nerve, and one day he turned up at his old resort, the Drum,
as it was called. He saw Dannie and fired a cannister at him. Dannie
hovered between life and death for months, and had four operations
performed on him without anæsthetics. After he got well Dannie grafted
on the Albany boats. One night he and his pals tried to get a Moll's
leather, but some Western guns who were on the boat were looking for
provender themselves and nicked the Moll. Dannie accused them of taking
his property, and, as they would not give up, pulled his pistol. One
of the Western guns jumped overboard, and the others gave up the stuff.
Dannie was right, for that boat belonged to him and his mob.
A few months after that event Dannie shot a mug, who had called him
a rat, and went to San Antonio, Texas, where he secured a position
as bartender. One day a well-known gambler who had the reputation
of being a ten time killer began to shoot around in the saloon for
fun. Dannie joined in the game, shot the gambler twice, and beat the
latter's two pals into insensibility. A few months afterwards he came
to New York with twenty-seven hundred dollars in his pocket; and he
enjoyed himself, for it is only the New York City born who love the
town. But he had better have stayed away, for in New York he met his
mortal enemy, Splitty, who had more brains than Dannie, and was running
a "short while house" in the famous gas house block in Hester Street.
One night Dannie was on a drunk, spending his twenty-seven hundred
dollars, and riding around in a carriage with two girls. Beeze, one of
the Molls, proposed to go around to Splitty's. They went, and Beeze and
the other girl were admitted, but Dannie was shut out. He fired three
shots through the door. One took effect in Beeze's breast fatally, and
Dannie was arrested.
While in Tombs waiting trial he was well treated by the warden, who
was leader of the Sixth Ward, and who used to permit Dannie's wife
to visit him every night. At the same time Dannie became the victim
of one of the worst cases of treachery I ever heard of. An old pal of
his, George, released from Sing Sing, went to visit him in the Tombs.
Dannie advised George not to graft again until he got his health back,
suggesting that meanwhile he eat his meals at his (Dannie's) mother's
house. The old lady had saved up about two hundred and fifty dollars,
which she intended to use to secure a new trial for her son. George
heard of the money and put up a scheme to get it. He told the old woman
that Dannie was going to escape from the Tombs that night and that he
had sent word to his mother to give him (George) the money. The villain
then took the money and skipped the city, thus completing the dirtiest
piece of work I ever heard of. "Good Heavens!" said Dannie, when he
heard of it. "A study in black!" Dannie, poor fellow, was convicted,
and, after a few months, hanged.
Another tragedy in Manhattan was the end of Johnny T----. I had been
out only a short time after my second bit, when I met him on the
Bowery. He was just back, too, and complained that all his old pals
had lost their nerve. Whenever he made a proposition they seemed to
see twenty years staring them in the face. So he had to work alone. His
graft was burglary, outside of New York. He lived in the city, and the
police gave him protection for outside work. He was married and had two
fine boys. One day a copper, contrary to the agreement, tried to arrest
him for a touch made in Mt. Vernon. Johnny was indignant, and wouldn't
stand for a collar under the circumstances. He put four shots into the
flyman's body. He was taken to the station-house, and afterwards tried
for murder. The boys collected a lot of money and tried to save him,
but he had the whole police force against him and in a few months he
was hanged.
A friend of mine, L----, had a similar fate. He was a prime favorite
with the lasses of easy virtue, and was liked by the guns. One night
when I met him in a joint where grafters hung out, he displayed a split
lip, given him by the biggest bully in the ward. It was all about a
girl named Mollie whom the bully was stuck on and on whose account he
was jealous of L----, whom all the women ran after. A few nights later,
L---- met the bully who had beaten him and said he had a present for
him. "Is it something good?" asked the gorilla. "Yes," said L----, and
shot him dead. L---- tried to escape, but was caught in Pittsburg, and
extradited to New York, where he was convicted partly on the testimony
of the girl, whom I used to call Unlimited Mollie. She was lucky, for
instead of drifting to the Bowery, she married a policeman, who was
promoted. L---- was sentenced to be hanged, but he died game.
I think kleptomania is not a very common kind of insanity, at least
in my experience. Most grafters steal for professional reasons, but
Big Sammy was surely a kleptomaniac. He had no reason to graft, for
he was well up in the world. When I first met he was standard bearer
at a ball given in his honor, and had a club named after him. He had
been gin-mill keeper, hotel proprietor, and theatrical manager, and had
saved money. He had, too, a real romance in his life, for he loved one
of the best choir singers in the city. She was beautiful and loved him,
and they were married. She did not know that Sammy was a gun; indeed,
he was not a gun, really, for he only used to graft for excitement, or
at least, what business there was in it was only a side issue. After
their honeymoon Sammy started a hotel at a sea-side resort, where
the better class of guns, gamblers and vaudeville artists spent their
vacation. That fall he went on a tour with his wife who sang in many of
the churches in the State. Sammy was a good box-man. He never used puff
(nitro-glycerine), but with a few tools opened the safes artistically.
His pal Mike went ahead of the touring couple, and when Sammy arrived
at a town he was tipped off to where the goods lay. When he heard that
the police were putting it on to the hoboes, he thought it was a good
joke and kept it up. He wanted the police to gather in all the black
sheep they could, for he was sorry they were so incompetent.
The loving couple returned to New York, and were happy for a long
time. But finally the wife fell ill, and under-went an operation, from
the effects of which she never recovered. She became despondent and
jealous of Sammy, though he was one of the best husbands I have known.
One morning he had an engagement to meet an old pal who was coming
home from stir. He was late, and starting off in a hurry, neglected
to kiss his wife good-bye. She called after him that he had forgotten
something. Sammy, feeling for his money and cannister, shouted back
that everything was all right, and rushed off. His wife must have been
in an unusually gloomy state of mind, for she took poison, and when
Sammy returned, she was dead. It drove Sammy almost insane, for he
loved her always. A few days afterwards he jumped out for excitement
and forgetfulness and was so reckless when he tried to make a touch
that he was shot almost to pieces. He recovered, however, and was
sent to prison for a long term of years. He is out again, and is
now regularly on the turf. During his bit in stir all his legitimate
enterprizes went wrong, and when he was released, there was nothing for
it but to become a professional grafter.
During the seven months which elapsed between the end of my second, and
the beginning of my third term, I was not a very energetic grafter, as
I have said. Graft was good at the time and a man with the least bit
of nerve could make out fairly well. My nerve had not deserted me, but
somehow I was less ambitious. Philosophy and opium and bad health do
not incline a man to a hustling life. The excitement of stealing had
left me, and now it was merely business. I therefore did a great deal
of swindling, which does not stir the imagination, but can be done more
easily than other forms of graft. I was known at headquarters as a dip,
and so I was not likely to be suspected for occasional swindling, just
as I had been able to do house-work now and then without a fall.
I did some profitable swindling at this time, with an Italian named
Velica for a pal. It was a kind of graft which brought quick returns
without much of an outlay. For several weeks we fleeced Velica's
country men brown. I impersonated a contractor and Velica was my
foreman. We put advertisements in the newspapers for men to work on the
railroads or for labor on new buildings. We hired desk room in a cheap
office, where we awaited our suckers, who came in droves, though only
one could see us at a time. Our tools for this graft were pen, paper,
and ink; and one new shovel and pick-axe. Velica did the talking and I
took down the man's name and address. Velica told his countryman that
we could not afford to run the risk of disappointing the railroad,
so that he would have to leave a deposit as a guarantee that he would
turn up in the morning. If he left a deposit of a few dollars we put
his name on the new pick and shovel, which we told him he could come
for in the morning. If we induced many to give us deposits, using the
same pick and shovel as a bribe, we made a lot of money during the
day. The next morning we would change our office and vary our form of
advertisement.
Sometimes we met our victims at saloons. Velica would be talking to
some Italian immigrant who had money, when I would turn up and be
introduced. Treating all around and flashing a roll of bills I could
soon win the sucker's respect and confidence, and make him ante up on
any old con. One day in a saloon in Newark we got an Italian guy for
one hundred and fifty dollars. Before he left the place, however, he
suspected something. We had promised him the position of foreman of
a gang of laborers, and after we got his dough we could not let well
enough alone, and offered to give his wife the privilege of feeding
the sixty Italians of whom he was to be the foreman. I suppose the dago
thought that we were too good, for he blew and pulled his gun. I caught
him around the waist, and the bartender, who was with us, struck him
over the head with a bottle of beer. The dago dropped the smoke-wagon
and the bartender threatened to put him in prison for pulling a rod on
respectable people. The dago left the saloon and never saw his money
again.
About this time, too, I had an opportunity to go into still another
lucrative kind of swindling, but didn't. It was not conscience either
that prevented me from swindling the fair sex, for in those days all
touches,--except those made by others off myself--seemed legitimate.
I did not go in for it because, at the time it was proposed to me,
I had enough money for my needs, and as I have said, I was lazy. It
was a good graft, however, and I was a fool for not ringing in on it.
The scheme was to hire a floor in a private house situated in any
good neighborhood. One of the mob had to know German, and then an
advertisement would be inserted in the _Herald_ to the effect that
a young German doctor who had just come from the old country wanted
to meet a German lady of some means with a view to matrimony. A pal
of mine who put such an advertisement in a Chicago paper received no
less than one hundred and forty five answers from women ranging in age
from fifteen to fifty. The grafters would read the letters and decide
as to which ladies they thought had some money. When these arrived at
the office, in answer to the grafters' letters, they would meet two or
three men, impersonating the doctor and his friends, who had the gift
of "con" to a remarkable degree. The doctor would suggest that if the
lady would advance sufficient money to start him in business in the
West it would be well. If he found she had plenty of money he married
her immediately, one of his pals acting the clergyman. She then drew
all her money from the bank, and they went to a hotel. There the doctor
leaving her in their room, would go to see about the tickets for the
West, and never return. The ladies always jumped at these offers, for
all German women want to marry doctors or clergymen; and all women are
soft, even if they are so apt to be natural pilferers themselves.
When I was hard up, and if there was no good confidence game in sight,
I didn't mind taking heavy chances in straight grafting; for I lived
in a dream, and through opium, was not only lazy, but reckless. On one
occasion a Jew fence had put up a plan to get a big touch, and picked
me out to do the desperate part of the job. The fence was an expert in
jewels and worked for one of the biggest firms that dealt in precious
stones. He kept an eye on all such stores, watching for an opening
to put his friends the grafters "next." To the place in question he
was tipped off by a couple of penny weighters, who claimed it was a
snap. He agreed with them, but kept his opinion to himself, and came
to see me about it. I and two other grafters watched the place for a
week. One day the two clerks went out together for lunch, leaving the
proprietor alone in the store. This was the opportunity. I stationed
one of my pals at the window outside and the other up the street to
watch. If I had much trouble with "the mark" the pal at the window was
to come to my assistance. With red pepper (to throw, if necessary, in
the sucker's eyes) and a good black jack I was to go into the store and
buy a baby's ring for one dollar. While waiting for my change, I was
to price a piece of costly jewelry, and while talking about the merits
of the diamond, hit my man on the head with the black jack. Then all I
had to do was to go behind the counter and take the entire contents of
the window--only a minute's work, for all the costly jewels were lying
on an embroidered piece of velvet, and I had only to pick up the four
corners of the velvet, bundle it into a green bag, and jump into the
cab which was waiting for us a block away. Well, I had just about got
the proprietor in a position to deal him the blow when the man at the
window weakened, and came in and said, "Vix." I thought there was a
copper outside, or that one of the clerks was returning, and told the
jeweler I would send my wife for the ring. I went out and asked my pal
what was the matter. He said he was afraid I would kill the old fellow,
and that the come-back would be too strong. My other pal I found a
block away. We all went back together to the fence, and then I opened
on them, I tell you. I called them petty larceny barnacles, and came
near clubbing them, I was so indignant. I have often had occasion to
notice that most thieves who will steal a diamond or a "front" weaken
when it comes to a large touch, even though there may be no more danger
in it than in the smaller enterprises. I gave those two men a wide
berth after that, and whenever I met them I sneered; for I could not
get over being sore. The "touch" was a beauty, with very little chance
of a come-back, for the police don't look among the pickpockets for
the men who make this kind of touches, and I and my two companions were
known to the coppers as dips.
Just before I fell for my third and most terrible term, I met Lottie,
and thought of marrying. I did not love her, but liked her pretty
well, and I was beginning to feel that I ought to settle down and
have a decent woman to look after me, for my health was bad and I had
little ambition. Lottie seemed the right girl for the place. She was
of German extraction, and used to shave me sometimes at her father's
barber shop, where I first met her. She seemed to me a good, honest
girl, and I thought I could not do better, especially as she was very
fond of me. Women like the spruce dips, as I have said before, and even
when my graft had broadened, I always retained the dress, manners and
reputation of a pickpocket. Lottie promised to marry me, and said that
she could raise a few hundred dollars from her father, with which I
might start another barber shop, quit grafting, and settle down to my
books, my hop and domestic life. One day she gave me a pin that cost
nine dollars, she said, and she wouldn't let me make her a present. All
in all, she seemed like a sensible girl, and I was getting interested
in the marriage idea. One day, however, I discovered something. I
was playing poker in the office of a hotel kept by a friend of mine,
when a man and woman came down stairs together and passed through the
office. They were my little German girl and the owner of a pawn-shop,
a Sheenie of advanced years. Suddenly I realized where she had got the
pin she gave me; and I began to believe stories I had heard about her.
I thought I would test her character myself. I did, and found it weak.
I did not marry her! What an escape! Every man, even a self-respecting
gun, wants an honest woman, if it comes to hitching up for good.
Soon after I escaped Lottie, I got my third fall for the stir. The
other times that I had been convicted, I was guilty, but on this
occasion I was entirely innocent. Often a man who has done time and is
well-known to the police is rounded up on suspicion and convicted when
he is innocent, and I fell a victim to this easy way of the officials
for covering up their failure to find the right person. I had gone one
night to an opium joint near Lovers Row, a section of Henry Street
between Catherine and Oliver Streets, where some guns of both sexes
were to have a social meeting. We smoked hop and drank heavily and told
stories of our latest touches. While we were thus engaged I began to
have severe pains in my chest, which had been bothering me occasionally
for some time, and suddenly I had a hemorrhage. When I was able I left
the joint to see a doctor, who stopped the flow of blood, but told
me I would not live a month if I did not take good care of myself.
I got aboard a car, went soberly home to my furnished room, and--was
arrested.
I knew I had not committed any crime this time and thought I should
of course be released in the morning. Instead however of being taken
directly to the station house, I was conducted to a saloon, and
confronted with the "sucker". I had never seen him before, but he
identified me, just the same, as the man who had picked his pocket.
I asked him how long ago he had missed his valuables, and when he
answered, "Three hours," I drew a long sigh of relief, for I was at
the joint at that time, and thought I could prove an alibi. But though
the rapper seemed to weaken, the copper was less trustful and read
the riot act to him. I was so indignant I began to call the policeman
down vigorously. I told him he had better try to make a reputation on
me some other time, when I was really guilty, whereupon he lost his
temper, and jabbed me in the chest with his club, which brought on
another flow of blood from my lungs.
In this plight I was taken to the station house, still confident I
should soon be set at liberty, although I had only about eighty dollars
for fall-money. I hardly thought I needed it, but I used it just the
same, to make sure, and employed a lawyer. For a while things looked
favorable to me, for I was remanded back from court every morning for
eight days, on account of lack of evidence, which is almost equivalent
to a turn-out in a larceny case. Even the copper began to pig it
(weaken), probably thinking he might as well get a share of my "dough,"
since it began to look as if I should beat the case. But on the ninth
day luck turned against me. The Chief of detectives "identified" me as
another man, whispering a few words to the justice, and I was committed
under two thousand dollars bail to stand trial in General Sessions. I
was sent to the Tombs to await trial, and I knew at last that I was
lost. My character alone would convict me; and my lawyer had told
me that I could not prove an alibi on the oaths of the thieves and
disorderly persons who had been with me in the opium joint.
No matter how confirmed a thief a man may be, I repeat, he hates to be
convicted for something he has not done. He objects indeed more than
an honest man would do, for he believes in having the other side play
fair; whereas the honest man simply thinks a mistake has been made.
While in the Tombs a murderous idea formed in my mind. I felt that I
had been horribly wronged, and was hot for revenge. I was desperate,
too, for I did not think I should live my bit out. Determined to make
half a dozen angels, including myself, I induced a friend, who came
to see me in the Tombs, to get me a revolver. I told him I wanted to
create a panic with a couple of shots, and escape, but in reality I had
no thought of escape. I was offered a light sentence, if I would plead
guilty, but I refused. I believed I was going to die anyway, and that
things did not matter; only I would have as much company as possible on
the road to the other world. I meant to shoot the copper who had beaten
me with his club, District Attorney Olcott, the judge, the complainant
and myself as well, as soon as I should be taken into the court room
for trial. The pistol however was taken away from me before I entered
the court: I was convicted and sentenced to five years at Sing Sing.
Much of the time I spent in stir on my third bit I still harbored
this thought of murder. That was one reason I did not kill myself. The
determination to do the copper on my release was always in my mind. I
planned even a more cunning revenge. I imagined many a scheme to get
him, and gloat over his dire misfortunes. One of my plans was to hunt
him out on his beat, invite him to drink, and put thirty grains of
hydrate of chloral in his glass. When he had become unconscious I would
put a bottle of morphine in his trousers pocket, and then telephone to
a few newspapers telling them that if they would send reporters to the
saloon they would have a good story against a dope copper who smoked
too much. The result would be, I thought, a rap against the copper
and his disgrace and dismissal from the force would follow. Sometimes
this seemed to me better than murder; for every copper who is "broke"
immediately becomes a bum. When my copper should have become a bum I
imagined myself catching him dead drunk and cutting his hamstrings.
Certainly I was a fiend when I reflected on my wrongs, real and
imaginary. At other times I thought I merely killed him outright.