THE TOMBS.

NZ Truth, Issue 152, 16 May 1908, Page 8

THE TOMBS.

NEW YORWS GRIM PRISON.

An Audacious Artist— A Comical Crook— A Septuagenarian's Self-Sacrifice— To Save His Scoundrel Son.

A PrisoH Chaplain*? Experiences of Prisons and Prisoners;

PY. DR< ZILLMANNJ

ft! r«al Yankee Hustler, who gos into trouble during my chaplaincy, was the manager of a female base-ball company, named Sylvester Franklyn Wilson. This man had once before been tried as a ticket-scalper m Philadelphia, but they found the law was on his. side, and it ;was doubtful whether there was any criminality m that sort o! trade. But this time the -Gerry Society got at him through one of his female base-ball players, who was found to be under the age o! consent, and he was arraigned under a very serious charee. Of, course, lawyers are very fond of ouoting the maxim: ?*He who is his own lawyer has a fool lor his client " but there was something mit as regards Wilson. He had employed Howe, of the firm of Howe and Hummell, celebrated CRIMINat. LAWYERS,

of New York, and one of the ablest pleaders I ever listened to, to . defend him. but under the influence oi what seemed an insane craze, prompted by inordinate vanity. Wilson jumped up m the midst of the trial, declaimed against his lawyer for his indifference m the case, dismissed him there and then, and appealed to the Judge for permission to conduct the case himself during the remainder of tlw trial. This he attempted to do. hut m the war- of words with the prosecuting attorney he was as a babe m the hands of a giant. He gave himself completely away, and created such a nrejudice against himself that the verdict of "guilty" was a foregone conclusion, but the sentence, ll five years' penal servitude.'' was hardly expected. He aupealed. and then I had a benefit for the next five or six months. Wilson set up a '

KEQULAR EDITORIAL SANCTUM m his -cell, had a naper printed, "Wilson's Wecklv World," devoted to the abuse of his enemies and to the rehearsal of his own trials and sufferings. At length a> generous old lady bailed mm out. but lie only enjoyed his comparative freedom^ for a few weeks when he was brought back to serve his sentence, as his appeal had not been successful. His was a rplief to -me when he left the prison, for if ever good nature was imposed upon it was m my endeavoring to comply with many of the exacting, demands of this, Derijinacious gentleman. ■ Wbai it is to be a man of effrontery and audacity, and c\f real resource, was once illustrated 'in my intercourse with a well-educated and very well-read younf EnV3}s"bm^p.. He had Dlayed- many a rrolfe f m AmericaV. that Paradise of adventurers, before he drifted into the managership . of a strolling company of actors. Driven, on one occasion, into the very extremity of last resourc2h',. ; and completely stranded with "his company, .he called them together . and addressed them "Ladies and gentlemen, will you trust me. and I'll ret. yoi' aU out ol tbis tisht qorner ?" "We 1 will.' they unanimously responded. "Well, then, shell .out to the very last coat-". They did. The net result was ion .dollars. "With this," he said. "I went over io . a neighboring town, presented myself at\ the hotel, paid a few days m advance, then

SPENT EVERY CENT si*— «,. — -—v-^i.w.iuidiij-.ina— «»C_a«lvertisinjr. ' I painted the town red, white, blue," and every other color with my handbills and j large placards and . pictures. I then went to the hotelkeep^r, told him to advance me the money, to fetch over mv ! company. He didr so., 1 *rot them ovar. But wJiat was,! to lo now 1 ? An idea struck me. The Salvation Army were; having ai.' camp meeting Jus,t outside the town on the banks ,6f the river, over which . there was a bridge. ' Well, two of my company were., spoony on each other. I told them we must have a deplorable accident, and a brave rescue. The young lady was to. fall over the side/ of the bridge on which she h.A-1 been fleanin." righ.t before the Salvation Army camp meeting, .and, he was to jump over and rescue her "frpnv a watery grave. " The Whole thing Was: done as I planned : the accident took place, the young fellow Was over m a trice, and. caught her' as she j . WAS, SWEPT AWAY, by the rapid current down stream.- The Salvation Army all came down to the river bank shouting 'their applause ; a general stir all around ; newspapers, full df it next day ; the young fellow" feted by the town at a public meeting"; and bur company sent on a career of prosperity, which helped us for months after, and made us all prime . favorites everywhere." This is the substance of the story as told to Tne by a young fellow vito -was now m prison on a very serious charge. His entrance, and the, husband's arrival at the wife'.s private chamber into which they almost simultaneously entered by separate doors, had a very ugly look, especially when the wife screeched, and called out.

"HELP ! HELP ! ! BTJRG-JLARS ! ! !" but the young man. cocllv informed me: '•"it was planned, and she expected me, and it was not our first meeting by a ; long way." The wife had suffered' too ' much from the effects <oi the shock to give evidence at the Police Court: and at the trial her husband had skipped over into Jersey to avoid giving cvi- : dence. The iury believed the story and ■ acquitted the gentleman. A man who gave himself great airs and ! manners, who claimed to he a man of' considerable social distinction and wealth, ; and who informed me that he was a, 5 graduate at Harvard Unfversitv. was anfj inmate of one of the old Tombs Prison: i cells for nearly the •whole of the period i "during which I was th-2 chaplain^ He had been prosecuted >>y his wife ; he was I charged with having obtained money from i her under false pretences. He vjas found j guilty, but raised points of law which j • BAFFLED THE AUTHORITIES ' m carrying out his sentence, and I never did hear how it all ended. The wife, at any rate, who was a lady of culture and refinement, informed me "that her 50,000 , dollars had, m less than two years, been ! .■wheedled out of her by his tricky and j oily gammon ways. He regularly exchanged her good money lor bogus Wallr street serin, which he placed 111 her own hands, under the pretence of having invested the money m valuable securities. When too late, she found that instead of being a millionaire, as she was led to believe she had become, she was penrii- j Jess, and she informed me, "'midst sighs and sobs," "I, wrjh my daughter, who had been brought up gently, was left to struggle alone, while he did not even attempt to lieln 'ii'^i^^gmnathise

a book. He wrote letters {to me In a stylo of which •

A CHESTERFIELD OR X JOHNSON might have approved. He could recite apothegms, maxims, proverbs, to suit any subject, or for any occasion. When he returned from Sing Sing his indignation was dreadful to behold. Apropos of this, m a letter addressed to mo the day after my visit, when he had returned from Sing Sing, he' quoted from the poet Pope :—

A generous fierceness dwells with innocence. And conscious virtue is allowed some pride.

And he reminded me of a couplet which the Duchess L,ongueville gave to Cardinal Froissard, Archbishop of Paris. Several cases which would have served as studies of unique developments m human nature might be enlarged upon with interest, but I will only venture to refer to a few briefly. A young fellow, an artist, with his pen and brushes, was convicted of forgery, and sentenced to a couple of years. The hearing of his appeal had been posiponed time after time for more than the period of his sentence. I believe his conviction was at last upheld, and the two years had then

TO BE COMMENCED. He once showed me an invitation he had copied of. an envelope they had passed through the post office drawn m ordinary red and black ink. Stamp, postage marks, 'and everything were so perfectly copied I could not have distinguished it from the original. I have a letter of his before me now giving me "an outline of his case." His cousin, he wrote, was his exact double, and had twice committed forgery by copying signatures to cheques. For , the first time he had spent a year at Elmira for the crime his cousin had committed; for the second, it was two year^ 'm a State prison, again for the crime his cousin had committed. "My cousin," he wrote, "was too cowardly to tome and save me. I have lain' here now close on two years. My health,; is .shattered, and were it not for my mother I. would not care what, became -of me." I never bejicved this story but I think it was a shame that the lawyers should have taken his money (rather, his mother's money) and carried <on hopeless apneals over the time that 'would : have seen him free again.

A GOOD-NATURED CROOK, and a real Humorist, though here waiting over eight months for his trial to come on, was at length tried,' convicted, and sentenced to seven Years m Sing Ping. I never laughed more than I did over Abe Coakley's/ yarns, puns, and jokes. During his trial he had judji.e, jury, lawyers, and audience m a •■<»rpctual simmer of merriment. It was impossible lor anyone to resist the genial atmosphere of Abe's humorous propensities. And yet he had committed serious offences against the law. He was one. of a gang who had broken into the Manhattan Savings Bank and appropriated all the available money and contents. He escaped prosecution and punishment for that crime by- "peaching on his Dais" (to use an English slang,), and on several other . occasions he did the same thins, until he seemed to think he was necessary to the police. He came out of each transaction richer, if not wiser andi Wetter. At last his fault was too rank, and smelt of daring criminality to an extent that the detectives got on his track with a warrant, but before they could serve it Abe was off for tbe land or the golden fleece. In California he set up m an honest way of obtaining a living, biit his wife and six little ones continued to live near New York on property held m his wife's name. 'Several visits incognito had been made to his family m New York, and as' four years had passed, Abe was less cautious about Being seen m some of his old carters. He was, however, noticed by a detective who was aware of the unserved warrant. He was arrested, and for eight months .occupied apartments at the! old Tombs Frison. His wife and children came often to see him, and never could there have ''appeared a. more devoted husband and loving father. After his .imprisonment, I visited his family and friends m their beautiful home, which might have been the home of a well-to-do churchwarden instead of a convict at Sing -Sing. I visited Abe himself at Sing Sing later on. where, m the prison secretary's room, some dozen or mor/ of old Tombs inmates were permitted to come m and pay their . "respects to me.?* Several of these unfortunates thanked, me with tears m their eyes for past sympathy and kindness, and jolly Abe Coakley's last word's to me were, "I am taking my gruel, like a man, and, please God, will never go back to the old ways." Long, ere this , I hope he has earned his release, and is now a lawabiding citizen fully redeeming the past.

'AN EXTREMELY OLD and venerable gentleman (he looked 70) was an inmate of the cell m the old Tombs Prison for- about a year during the time of my chaplaincy. His case, on a small scale, was very similar to that of poor, 1 old De-Lesseps, of Paris, famed m connection vith tbe Panama Canal frauds. The scoundrel of a son had loaded the old man with the responsibility of frauds m financing various plans and speculations, and had unloaded the father's credit of valuable assets and securities. This old gentleman m the prisons could have made a very good, if not -a complete defence, by exposing .the criminality of his son, but he would not do that. He would not hear of his wife and daughters, highly cultured and refined "ladies! of New York society, coming withing the precincts of the, prison to see him, though they had repeatedly wished to do so. He nreferred to suffer alone. It was never, thought that had he been tried he would .have been found guilty, but he would run no risks, and to avoid the possibility of'i exposing his son's disgrace he at length chose to plead guilty. Considering the j time he had already been m prison, it i was thought tha.t he would escape with a merely nominal punishment. I do not believe that had he been tried any jury would have brought m a verdict of guilty. The Judge, however, sentenced •him to two years' imprisonment. Oh, how often I have wished that I could j give Judges a taste of the miseries which they inflict upon others. They seem to i revel m the delights of breaking hearts and. desola.ting homes. It has all come, ' or .well nigh so, from the calvinistic the- J ology of the Puritans, who describe the joys ' of the elect and saved as being en- I hanced by contemplating the agonies of the damned. There are, Lyerily believe, Bj^fedge? a s&& feel , when a prisoner escapes, ** has missed its victim ';■ ' . 4 *P?' f > ' : '■ spring, and their special ■';,".-■ 7 ■'- y • -A, to get some harmless -'-' • ... '"\ within their ravenous ■.'■■-. . / „.•■■„ . ■ h = ■' ; - ••'■■' y a blushing