Evening Star Newspaper, October 22, 1898, Page 17

EXPERTS IN CRIME THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1898-26 PAGES. s of Chinese Who Belong to the Highbinders. LIVE BY BLACKMAIL AND WORSE Thousan The Slave Trade as It Exists in San Francisco Today. = OF BRUTALITY STORIES w tten for The Eveuing Star. N ORGANIZED EF- fort, probably with official backing, 1s to be made by educated and influential China- men of the United States to put a stop to the loathsome slave traffic in Chi- nese girls in San Francisco, and to the / murderous, law-defy-; ing highbinders’ so-| cleties, which aid in! carrying on this traf-| ommit other crimes. Compara- w people in the United States know this slavery exists. It is confined to Pacifi largely to San Francisco, s not broken up because of the high- rs’ societies, which protect ft in every from the commission of murder to wholesale perjury. Of course the primary object of the cru- sade to be made is the breaking up of the Chinese highbinder organizations, not only because they promote and protect this slavery and vice, but because they hold in terror practically every one of the 40,000 Chinamen who lve on the Pacific coast. 1 evil influence extends even to the New York ¢ nen on Mott street and to € the United States. The I are organized for ¥ mur. blackmail, gambling on of houses of ill-fame iulent importation of Chi- -p in subjugation ble Ch with the pistol, two. and bludgeon. 2 people have ally been thre se organizations, but that te people have not been s ccounts for the fact that there has Francisco and other s the murders ned to Chinatown passiv stories Ocea city lor Halt of told by onally the officials stir victions remain to p cain rela know t that no constitution: into careless- situation b a stop to the present affairs. With f money wrung from unoffending n the societie retain and do imeny the with Ny. bed offici stigation. n of prominent hea 2 upon ¢ u of immigra > state of affair: ing if he could « would be eciated as official, may rtai recognized and these to be in be taken. The idea situation to Congress, or stringent laws. At pr ston and immigration laws sh- wderly, against { and listens to elieves to be perjured y of proving ted. Chinese girls > wives or daugh never marr: children. Then they are with a value. if young. of e forced to live lives aw-defying Chinamen, hat existence until rescued by ath overtakes them. murdered to prevent mission offi- ath overtakes them before of It can be n rescued by n Francisco. This ow extensive the traffic is. Sworn Statement ssioner Pow 1 prepare t. wrote of fmmi- ng him binders" china Hi €, learned the habits and cus- t f the le. For fifteen years he times threaten- for the fear people should been »bably ha full of he rous hat Zo, shot staten hat a large thieves Y organ- of being being mutual ben- s. Often the better class of » lent pur- but s i the xt differences by pro. 1 murderers ur courts. mber fore a yrtunates who hi blackmail exacted of t sowerful Organization ‘There are at leas’ enty inders. Th: are rivals. The ad competiti ning blac! powerful « e Kung To: H >|. Lee Chow Chun, a pretty little girl, who 17 Sere Tong, Hip Yee Tong. Quong Dock Tong and Jew Yee. The signs of these and other sc of a kindred nature hang out all over Chinatown. The meetings are held under the guise of clubs. Some of them are ifcorporated under the laws of as clubs. Gambling goes on con- ntly in these places. If the police make a raid they first have to wait until the pened. They are not allowed to a foreible entrance. get in every gambling device has dis- appeared as if by magie and the officers | find ad 1 innocent Chinamen, with bland faces, playing the “Mellican” game of ca- By the time sino, without stakes. The officers have no | more than got out before the gambling de- | Vices are replaced and the sharp Chinee on with hk Gearding Against Capture. Koe violation of the law. All through Chinatown are electrical dee vices, supplemented by certain human calls, which warn the highbinders of the ap- preaca of the police. Even white men are in the employ of the Chee Kung Jong and the various societies. They aid in prevent- Ah Yet. ing the police doing anything. At the same time they are levying blackmail on the Crinamen of all descriptions, and in a few years retire from this work rich. Some of them make as much as $00 and $6x) a week. Living in mansions in the best parts of San Francisco are men who have made thousands by protecting Chinese thie ud thugs. ‘heir business was to ascer- tain the time for raids and to notify the Chinamen. They also aided in handicap- ping the police by appearing just after a Chinaman had been murdered and declar- ing that they saw some other Chinaman commit the murder and run awé Dr. Gardner was once notified that a Chinaman had been selected to kill him. Accompanied by a police sergeant he went to the home of the highbinder, who was to carry out the decree and found him with the ccmmission authorizing him to do the deed. In the man’s rooms were found dirk knives, iron bars and other weapons. In his wanderings through Chinatown Dr. Gardner frequently sees offers of reward for the murder of tabooed Chinamen. These lacards, however, would deceive the ma- jority of those who could read Chinese. A short time ago he saw one of these, pro- mulgated by the Bing Kung Tong Society, saying that 1t would not be responsible for wkat happened to Lau Tak Ying. The Slave Trade. Dr. Gardner says that respectable Chi- nese are afraid of giving any information against violators of the law about Chinese slaves. The highbinders have watchmen to act as spies on those suspected of giv- ing information about the slave traffic The respectable merchants are forced to contribute to the highbinders. Of the slave traffic he says: ‘Chinese women and even young girls are bought and kidnaped in China and brought over here ostensibly as the wives of merchants or as children, who have been born in the United States, but went back to China on a visit. They are resold after landing here to proprie- tors and preprietresses of houses of ill feme, and held in this kind of slavery, be- ing sold and resold as Jong as they live. Dr. Gardner has submitted with bis state- ment a copy of a of sale of a Chinese girl. . Dr. Gardner rescued at different ‘times thirty-six girls, many of them _ bearing marks of violence. After these girls are rescued the highbinders trump up charges of larceny against them. When the girls are placed in jail they are visited by the agents of the highbinders and threatened with death if they do not return. When the girls are first placed in the mission homes the Chinamen are unable to get to them and resort to warrants of arrest. The m ms allow the girls in their power to marry respectable Chinamen who want wives. The highhinders have frequently resorted to the practice of having some ai- leged respectable Chinaman marry a girl, and then return her to the houses of pros- titution. Procuring Victims. The agents of the procurers go to China and tell beautiful of how Chinese girls can live as the wives of Chinese mer- stories chants. If they don’t kidnap the girls they pay the aged mothers several hundred dol- lars to secure their consent to parting with their daughters. As many as elght and ten are often brought over on one steamer. > {On the way over they are coached as to what they must say to the immigration officials. “The story is instilled into them, 1 they are told if they do not tell | these stories they will be put in jail for six months. The most likely story they are tell that maa this country and are coming back to their they were born in to lives at When th who own. uther, China’ a certain place In ship arrives the al- ged father (a highbinder) is on hand and joyfully meets his daughter or wife, what- J ever the story may he. When trouble ts found about ending at San Francisco with these stories the girls are taken to Van- couver, B. C., and then get over the bor- ders by the same kind of stories Chun Ho, one of the rescued girls, bought from her mother in China for nineteen, Mexican money. She was then ut had to represent herself as twent four. She was told to claim that she that man and her husband was a merchant named She was admitted on that claim, the alleged Tsoy appearing end swearing that Chun Ho was his beloved wife. The girl was first taken to a private house and then sold into slav- ery. A Christian friend took pity on her and reported her desire to get to the mis- sion. On pretense of going to a store a short distance from her prison a_ police sergeant met her and took her to the mis- ston. Nea: the mission is a Chinese wo- man, who is ner aunt. She has visited her nt several times, but the aunt has been threatened and does not know what to do. Saw Several Murders. Chun Ho was surrounded by guards and an old hag all the time she was confined in slavery. She witnessed several murders. One morning she saw a Chinaman murder another. When the police arrived she heard other Chinamen tell the officer that a c tain Chineman had committed the des i accused Chinaman was innocent. The | man who owned Chun a married w Ho when she was | rescued has demanded that her uncle pay | him $1,000 which Chun Ho owed him when | she got aw: Several ¢ tried to escape from the same houses Chnn Ho lived in. ‘The police | made « raid cnee, and one little girl tried | to get out of her house to go to t | old keeper put a pistol to made her hide herself. The nd 1em. her head was ced in the Presbyterian mission until she could be returned to China, saved herself in a remarks manner. She was enticed from China in the usual way, being | told that a wealthy Chinese merchant in San Francisco wanted a wife.- Her poor old mother had been suspicious and cau- tioned her te be careful. She had her stories rehearsed every day on thé steam- er. When she reached San Francisco an ugly Chinaman appeared one day and told her to look at him good, as he was to pass as her futher. She then became frightened nd told the inspector that she” did not want to be landed. The importers of the girl found out that she did not want to land said was found gration off. th ni agents to frighten her. She rying on the steamer by tmmi- als and they had her taken to yme. She was later returned to China. Beaten and Maltreated. Miss Cameron has had much expertence in the rescue of the slave girls, They earn mu money for thelr owners, and that is why the Chinamen guard them so careful- ly. She avers that 9 per cent of the girls brought from China become slaves. ; ‘They are almost daily beaten and maltreazed. They have been rescued from these homes with terrible cutis and scars on their hodies, After a rescued girl is taken to the mission the hignbinders hang around and shout to her through the windews, threatening to kill her. The mission is always protected against these highbinders. When the giris are taken to church on Sundays some %f the highbinders follow with scowls and threats. The home of which M!ss Cameron is su- perintendent has rescved over (4) girls dur- ing its existence of twenty-three years. A few months ago a pretty girl was rescued. About a week after she had been taken to the home the man carrying the morning newspaper discovered a large dynamite car- tridge leaning agains: the front door of the mission. Tt was so arranged 2s to fal! in when the door was opened and explode. A similar attempt was made on the same home about three years ago. Miss Cameron says that when the high- binders cannot get possession of a gir! by a charge of larceny they have attorneys to swear out habeas corpus papers, declaring that their wives are imprisoned. Gon Sing, Qui Ngun and Chun Wui, three Chinese girls, submit statements of their lives in the houses and of their rescue. Chun Wui was made blind by cruel treat- ment. Ended in a Tragedy. A romance of Chinatown ended not long ago in a tragedy. Dr. Bo Sun wes an edu- cated Chinese physician, In the course of his practice he found Fung Hee, a ‘little foot” girl. She had been in this country but a short time. Bo Sun fell in love with he , and proposed marriage. She told him this could not be, as Jung Jim owned her. Bo Sun finally found that the girl was h ccusin. He managed by his influence to spirit her away and return with her to China. Jung Jim hired assassins, and one day, in a narrow street of Chinatown, Bo Sun was shot down in the streets. Just be- fore he died he told the story of why he had been killed. The various officials of San Francisco have different ideas of how to break vn the slave traffic and to Kill off the different Tongs. The misston people belleve that tf tke Chinese houses of ill-repute were made Mlegal this would do away with a large in- come of the highbinders. Dr. Gardner says that ordinary legal methods will accom- plish little, and thinks the police ought to be allowed to enforce laws in a free- handed manner. Lieut. Price, for a quar- ter of a century on the San Francisco po- lice force, thinks ordinary enforcement of the law won't answer. He believes that the meeting places of the Chinese should be kept open, so that passers-by could see into them. This, he thinks, would afd the police force. Ruled With an Iron Hand. Lieut. Price is more feared than any man who goes into Chinatown. Five or six years ago he turned everything topsy-turvy there, and for three years afterward not a murder was committed. The way he ¢id it gun Seen. fs told by him: ‘When I was first sent into Chinatown hardly a day passed without a murder. One afternoon seventy-five shots were fired in a fusilade and three. men killed. I went to Chief Crowley and told him the condition of things was terrible, and that the laws could not be enforced in the regular way. ‘I can put a stop to these socleties if you will give me my own way,’ I told him. He did not at first give his con- sent, as he feared he would be sued on his bond for disregarding the laws. The Chi- nese consul at last approved of my plan, ard the chief then consented. I secured seven or eight strong, healthy officers, and we visited all the halls of the societies, taking down the numbers, so as not to dis- turb the socleties which were really organ- ized for charitable purposes. I tool: plenty of time, as I did not want to interfere with the genuine highbinders’ socte- Lieut. had everything iu readiness he got sixteen Price then relates that when he men {in uniform and a surgeon. They marched from one to another of the sacto- ties and iterally cut the rooms and furn: ture to pleces. They destroyed nearly $200,000 worth of property. They secured knives, pistols fron bars and chain and steel armor. The highbinders still have coats of steel and chain to protect them- selves. In addition to the destruction of property, Chinese found in the dens were ruthlessly kicked down stairs and treated as dogs. Sixteen or elghteer josses were destroyed, one of them being valued at $900. Frieniy Chinese were sure Lieut. Price would die within three days for destroying the josses, and told him so. They were surprised when he did not depart. The raid was hailed with satisfaction by Chinamen who were trying to do right. They afterward did all they could to ald Lieutenant Price, driving to his house at midnight to inform him about everything. They would not speak to him in the day- time on the streets. Handling the Highbinders. After his raids, Lieutenant Price went around to al) the places in Chinatown and told the people that !f he found they were aiding the highbinders in any way he would demolish their places. The plan was followed up every y, and when a Chinese society sign was put out it was demolished. The socteties went to other citles. Lieu- tenant Price was transferred to another precinct and the highbinders again began operations. Lieutenant Price estimates that 3,000 (h!- bese are used by the highbinder socteties. The socfeties meet in splendidly furnished club rooms and go over their affairs. When it is decided that a man is to be killed the men are blindfolded and draw lots. Usual- ly two men are selected. When once picked out these men cannot turn back. They must kill their man !f twenty policemen are around, although they try to do it without discovery.. Murders have been committed within the sight of policemen. The socie- tles hire attorneys to defend them and fur- nish perjured witnesses. If a man is hang- ed the society pays his relatives $500. Murder of Little Pete. The killing of little Pete was an example of how ruthlessly a doomed man is follow- ed. He was one of the wealthiest China- men in town. He belonged to the Sam Yups, the aristocratic organization. A rice of $3,000 was put on his head. He ired body guards to protect him, and they were with him for years. About 7 o'clock one evening Little Pete walked down the stairs of his house, accompanied by his body guard, a white man. He walked into the barber shop he owned. He sat down in the shop and told his body guard to go down to the corner of Kearney and Wash- ington streets and get him an evening pa- per, Chinamen had been watching him, and no sooner had the guard walked away than they attacked Little Pete and chopped him to pieces. The murderers were never brought to justice. Use Pistols Now. A Chinaman selected to murder another is usually accompanied by what they call a “juryman.”” This man belongs to the poorer classes. He follows the highbinders and carries the pistol up his bir. baggy sleeves. So soon as the shooting is done the weapon fs handed to him and he disappears. A search of the highbinder who committed the crime falls to show a pistol. Formerly most of the murders were committed with hatchets, but the highbinders use pistols to a large extent now. An auxiliary detective force, composed of Chinamen, cannot be trusted. They are afraid to serve the police, and are soon bribed or murdered. ‘The highbinders have their own detective force, = RISKED THEIR LIVES Men Who Went South During the Yellow Fever Epidemic. CONDITIONS LIKE THOSE OF TODAY Some of the Horrors ‘That Attend a Shotgun Quarantine. ONE MAN’S EXPERIENCES Exactly twenty years ago—October, 1878 conditions in many respects similar to these which now exist prevailed in Missis- sippi and other southern states as a result of the outbreak of yellow ev2r. Then, as row, the people became frenzied with ter- ror, and as many as could do so fled to the north, leaving those who remained be- hind to such protection as is affordsd by a shotgun quarantine. Then, as now, the panic was greatest in the city of Jackson. Trains were not per- mitted to pass in either direction, great ropes and chains were stretched across th> railroad tracks and tar barrels were burn- ed between the rails. It was probably sup- posed that the fumes of burning tar would asphyxiate the fever germs. Nobody who has never passed through Mississippi, and especially through Jackson, when a shotgun quarantine is in operation can have a thorough understanding of the horrible fear that seems to take possession of the people. One of the features of the great epidemic of 1878 was the frightful mortality among telegraphers. So many operators died in the infected centers that there was a pros- pect at one time that communication be- tween north and south would be absolutely cut off. The mails being quarantined, the telegraph furnished the only medium of in- tercourse. Toward the latter part of Sep- tember the Western Union Telegraph Com- Pany asked for volunteers to go to Mem- phis and New Orleans to keep communica- tion open between these important points and the north, nearly every operator in both places being down with the fever. Risked Their Lives. Seven northern men expressed a willing- ness to risk their lives in the company’s service, four of whom were employed in the Pittsburg office. Those four, the first to volunteer, were sent to Memphis, and it is a melancholy fact that all four died of the fever within a week after they reached the stricken city. The fifth man started from Philadelphia, but when he reached St. Louis, where his mother lived, he was ar- rested and sent to jail on a trumped-up charge, a subterfuge adopted by his parent. to prevent him from proceeding on his haz- ardous journey. The sixth volunteer was a Bostonian who went as far south as New York. An accidental discharge of his revolver, which sent a bullet through the fleshy part of his leg, occurred on the night of his arrival, and, of course, he was removed from ihe volunteer list. There yet remained one man, and he 1e- celved orders to proceed to New Orieans, where nineteen out of a force of twenty- one operators had gone down with the fever, of which number’ thirteen died. That seventh man went to New Orleans, remained through the epidemics of 1875 and '79, and was the only volunteer t grapher who, durirg the scourge of '7s, reached the south and returned alive. He is in Washington at the present time, and tells a thrilling story of his experiences, but modestly objects to the publication of his name. It can be said, -however, that there are few expert telegraphers more Widely known in the service than he. Here is his story, as told to a Star reporter: “I don't know why I. volunteered. Was only a boy at the time; and I suppos wanted my associates to think that I w: a very brave man. It ts certain that I did not realize what I was going into. I Wouldn't go- through tpose experiences again, however, for a controlling interest in Western Union stock. 1 e A Gruesome Journey. “My experiences began at Bowling Green, Ky., which was just within the infected area. As I was the only passenger bound southward, and was a deadhead at that, the railroad company decided to send no more trains south. I reported this action to the Western Union officials in New York, who succeeded in persuading the rail- road people to send one more train down. J had the train to myself, but [ didn't enjoy the exclusiveness much. There was a brakeman on that train who, when he learned who I was and why I’ was going south, entertained me with stories about the refugees who had died of the fever in that very car on the last trip up from the south. As I was nervous anyway those stories nearly set me wild. “The first scenes of horror were encoun- tered at Paris, Tenn., where almost the en- tire population had been wiped out of ex- istence by the ravages of the plague. A score or more of emaciated white people and negroes were lying on the station platform. Gaunt and hollow-eyed victims peered from the windows of a hotel on the opposite side of the tracks, that had been turned into a hospital. “At Milan, Tenn., I had my first en- counter with the shotgun quarantine. My tobacco was all gone, and I alighted from the train with the intention of obtaining another supply. I had not taken a dozen steps on the station platform before I found myself looking into the muzzle of a double-barreled gun held by a man who ordered me to get back on the train quick. I didn’t stop to argue, but got back as quickly as anybody could have wished. Then, from the open window of the car, I told the man that I was almost dying for want of tobacco and asked him to get me some, offering a dollar bill In payment. He refused, saying that my money might con- vey fever germs, and, besides, he would not come close enough to risk the leaping of a few athletic germs from me to him. He added, further, that if I made any more attempts to leave the train I would be ‘filled full of holes.’ A Risky Undertaking. “We had to wait several hours at Milan for a train frcm St. Louis over a connect- ing line. Late in the afternoon the crav- ing for tobacco set me to contriving expe- aients by which to get hold of some. Frem the car window I could see a sort of a gen- eral store on the top of a hill a few hun- dred yards from the station. I determined to visit that stcre. “Noticing that the half dozen armed guards had collected together at the end of the platform nearest the engine, I went to the rear of the train and selzed a favorab!> opportunity to sneak behind the depot. Keeping the cerot between’ the guards und myself as long as possible, ¥ hurried up the hill toward the store, which I”had nearly reached when the men with the guns dis- covered me. Rushing into the store, I threw a dollar on the counter and helped myself to a plug of toba¢co and half a dezen cigars before the astonished clark could utter a protest. Meanwhile, the shouting guards were approaching the front of the store, losing their wind by running 80 fast up the rather steep hill. “The store was a long, one-story frame building, and it took one’ but a moment to reach the rear door. As the guards entered at the front I ran around and,got a good start down the hill. They were soon after me, but I was quite a sprinter in those days, and men handicapped by carrying guns had no possible chance to overtake me. They flred a couple ef shots at me, though, and some of the pellets stung the back of my neck pretty sharply. But 1 reached the train all right, where I was perfectly safe, the guards being in too much fear of germz to come aboard to molest me. They kept a close watch on me after that, however, and yelled from a distance that I would be killed if I got off the train again. Obstructing the Track. “The experience at Milan, while exciting enough to rattle a northerner, was as noth- ing to those which followed at Jackson, Miss. Our -rain reached the outskirts of the city just before dark,,where It was flagged by armed guards, who informed us of the obstructions on the track and who declared that we would certainly be shot if we attempted to pass through. “We were told that if the train was backed to a siding nine miles above food and fresh water would be sent to us on & hand-car. We were all hungry, and de- cided to do as we were ordered, hoping for some favorable development of the situa- tion on the followig day. The train was run back to the siding, where there were also a water tank and coal chute, from which to supply the engine. “We waited all night for the food that was promised, but none came, and we be- came nearly famished. During the night the fireman became ill with the fever, and we made a bed for him in the baggage car with cushions taken from the passenger coaches. At about noon the engine was un- coupled and ran down to Jackson with three objects—to try to get food and medi- cines, to communicate with the train dis- patcher at Magnolia and to see just how fermidable the obstructions were. We failed in all but the last named of these purposes. I was Ssutisfied that the ropes, chains and tar barrels could not stop a train running at full speed. The chief danger was that the chains might get under the wheels ana cause derailment. “But as both ropes and chains swung high- er than the bottom of the cowcatcher and lower than the bumpers at its top 1 was convinced that the danger was not as great as it was intended to be. The Only Way Out. “After the engine had been run back and recoupled to the train we held a council of war, in which I urged the feasibility of running through the obstructions at Jack- son that very night. It happehed that my uncle was master mechanic of a big north- ern road and that I had been around loco- motives from childhood. Two of my cous- ins were engineers, and they had often let me do the running under their watchful eyes. I offered to do the firing, and my plan was adopted. “Before the darkness of night fell, how- ever, the engineer also went down with the scourge, and our plight became des- perate indeed. To remain where we were meant death by disease or starvation: for some of us at least, and when we had made a bed for the engineer similar to the one fixed for the fireman we heid another council. I offered to run the train through Jackson if one of the brakemen would do the firing. There was risk, of course, but there seemed to be nothing else to do, as our situation was becoming intolerable. One of the brakemen fianlly consented to help me, and we began our preparations. “To protect the sick men as far as pos- sible from shock when we struck the ob- tructions we piled cushions from the coaches all around them, filled the tank with coal and water and got up a good head of steam, the gauge registering 135 pounds to the square inch, which was all that the rules allowed that engine to carry. At 10 o'clock we were ready for the plunge through the darkness, and it was indeed to be a plunge through darkness. For miles above Jackson the track was perfectly straight, but it ran through a dense forest. To conceal our purpose as long as possi- ble I had decided not to light the head- light. Taking a Desperate Chance. “You may imagine that I was extremely nervous when the moment came to get un- der way. For all I knew it might be a plunge to a horrible death, but my nerves became steadier the instant that I opened the throttle and felt the great machine in motion. I realized then that our safety might depend upon my coolness. As we gathered headway I gradually eased the valves, and before two miles had been tra- versed we were dashing through the tun- nel-like blackness of the forest at a speed of fifty miles an hour. As there was quite a heavy down grade the speed constantly increased. The roadbed was none too good at that time, and the engine swayed so vio lently that I feared she would throw her- self from the rails. I was hot and cool by turns, and I know that my hair was stand- ing on end. “As we neared Jackson we could see the figures of men moving quickly about in the dim light made by the burning tar barrels. Our approach had evidently been discov- ered and was creating great excitement. The thought that other obstructions than those which we had observed might have been put in position, or a rafl removed, flashed through my brain, and for a mo- ment my heart seemed actually to stop beating. So acute was my fear that I near- ly fainted. “Fortunately, I recovered my presence of mind in time to shut off steam and throw the lever forward before we had come with- in a furlong of the ropes and chains. I kmew that this was necessary to avoid bursting flues or blowing out a cylinder head at the moment of shock, and, besides, the impetus was as great as it could have been with the steam on. A Daring Exploit. “It would be impossible to describe my sensations as we drew nearer and nearer to the obstructions. I was conscious of see- ing a sea of flames and sparks all ¢ us as we struck the burning barrels, of re- ceiving what seemed to be a heavy blow on top of my head when we reached the chains, and then all was dark. “When I recovered consciousness I found the trainmen pouring water over my head. They told me that the train was miles be- low Jackson, where it had been stopped by applying hand brakes, that my head had been thrown by the shock through the front window of the cab and that I had several scalp wounds, made by broken glass, the scars of which, by the way, will last as long as I do. All the other men were bruised somewhat, the smokestack of the engine was bent a trifle, but otherwise no damage had been done. The conductor said that when the chains and ropes were struck the train seemed to stand still for an instant, and then to rush onward even more swiftly than before. The guards at Jack- son, he said, had been too terrified by our daring exploit to do any shooting. “There were scenes of horror at Grenada, Holly Springs and Woodhaven, tn all of which places nearly everybody had died. The moon was shining brightly as the train reached the station at Holly Springs. On one end of the platform was a pile of Howard Association relief boxes and on the other a still greater pile of ready-made coffins, From out the shadow of the coffins there crept a wildly shrieking, white-haired woman, carrying a lantern. She was the only live creature and hers the only lignt that we saw in that town. We learned afterward that she had been made a ma- niac by the loss of all her loved ones. I can hear her horrible cries even now some- times in my dreams. Seenes of Horror. “We passed through places where teleg- raphers had died with a hand on a key while in the act of sending forth an appeal for help. “The officials of the road thanked me for bringing the train through and I pro- ceeded to New Orleans, where there were other scenes of horror. Net a hotel in the city was open and I spent my first night in a lodging house in the French quarter. Two dead men were taken from the house that night. Next day I got a boarding place patronized by operators. Four of my roommates died one after another in quick succession. Nineteen of the twenty- one operators in our office went down with the fever and thirteen died. Strange vo say, although I nursed and slept with men suffering with the fever, I was not sick at all, except at heart, which happened very often. “The southern people now know better how to protect themselves from epidemics of yellow fever than they did twenty years ago, and it is not likely that there will ever be a repetition of the scourge of 5 The danger would be still less, however, if they would keep cool and abolish the shotgun quarrantine for a more intelligent and decidedly less barbaric system of pro- tection.” —— Wants Quickly Filled. At this season, when so many are seek- ing situations, and, on the other hand. so many seeking employes, it ts of interest to know that advertisements under the classifications Wanted Help and Wanted Situations are inserted in The Star at a charge of 15 cents for fifteen words. suet nag anes (Copyright, 1898, Life Publishing Company.) Wilkins (about to discharge the cook)— “I'm mighty glad I saved these foot ball things of Tom's,” GETTING THE NEWS How the New York Papers Keep Tab on All Events. WORK OF THE HEADQUARTERS MAN Informed of Everything Going On in the Big Town. as MATERIAL FOR STORIES ses Special Correspondence of The NEW YORK, ( ctober 21, 1898. Old-time New Yorkers frequently express surprise over the fashion with which the New York newspapers of today dish up the criminal news. Their surprise finds various methods of expression. In the first place, they find it difficult to understand the mingled sensationalism, penny-dread- fulism and levity of the newspapers’ sentments of criminal happenings, bui mc of all they wonder how such a great muss of news concerning every possible dally occurrence that comes within the purview of the metropolitan police is sifted down, shaped up, thrown into form for readir illustrated and embodied in a_ series ore- of complete published stories in the afternoon a cor morning newspapers. A very large por- tion of the local news space of the New York papers is devoted to accounts of the performances of professional or amateur criminals, and it is natural enough ‘hat the newspapers’ constituencies should won- der a bit over the sources of the news- papers’ information as to criminal oceur- rences, thelr methods of running down criminal facts and plecing them together, the character of the men who perform this work, and so on. “Supposing some drunken longshoreman takes it Into his head about midnight to- to push his wife over to the next how do you fellows find out about it in time to have an ace. morning papers?” is an example of a qu=s- that the New York newspaper man is often asked by acquaintances to whom the making of a newspaper is an unopened volume. To avoid a long story, the New ant of it in the York newspaper man generally ‘staves off such a question by replying, “‘Headquar- ters man ‘ud cover it.” Headquarters man? Who's the head- quarters man? What headquarter: the way the layman generally follows vp his first query. “Wouldn't the editors that work nights down at your newspaper of- fice have to wait for some chap to drop in and tell ‘em about the murder before they know anything about it? If they don’t know anything about it how can they send one of you reporter people out to get an account of the murder? Or do the re- porters just drift around and hit these things accidentally?” At this point the newspaper man usually yields to the inevitable and hastily sketches the modern New York newspaper's meth- ods of “covering” police ne is Headquarters Man. The newspaper's “headquarters man” is the pivot of the system. Up to within a few years ago the headquarters man was the hardest worked reporter on a New York newspaker. He still earns his pay but he hasn't ‘had of late years so much running about to perform for it. It was the business of the old-time headquarters man to personally run down and write up every bit of police news, taken “off the hook” at the Mulberry street institution that looked promising and “worth a story,” and the headquarters man of that period was generally fit to enter a six-day pedes- trian match at a moment's notice vast was the amount of leg exercise his job ¢x- acted of him. The headquarters man of today, however, does most of his work in talking through his teleph to the city editor of his paper. He is rarely upon to “chase a story” himself, but judgment as to whether a story off hook ts worth the chasing by a reporter at his paper’s office is implicitly relied upon by the city editor. If it were not necessary to have at police headquarters a man with what Is called a “nose ter news” and a trained appreciation of the possibilities of a story,” the newspaper of today could well keep a small boy, capabl of manipulating a telephone at the central police instituticn. The crack men of the newspapers’ reportorial staffs, however, are assigned to the task of “covering head- quarters.” They are all men of great ex- perience in New York, who know practi- cally every foot of the town, from the Battery to High bridge, and several of them still in the harness have been report- ing police news for the same new ers for upwards of a quarter of a century. After Police News. Almost the entire block of ding shackle buildings across the way from the headquarters building of the New York police in Mulberry street is devoted to of- fices for the headquarters men of the New York newspapers, morning and evening. If the morning paper publishes an after- noon edition the evening paper man occu- pies his paper's headquarters office in this police newspaper row from 7 o'clock tn the morning until 6 o'clock in the evenii that is to say, when he is not out covering nearby happenings, such as day fires in the Broadway business district or other oc- currences that do not take him too far away from his station. When the evening paper man leaves the office at 6 o'clock the ram- night police man, the reporter for the morning paper, takes possession and holds down the office until he gets the “good night” from the night city editor at 4 o'clock the next morning. The night po- lice reporters of the different newspapers take their regular tricks of staying on from 4 until 7 o'clock in the morning, the hour of relief by the afternoon paper bri- gade of police reporters, so that the big headquarters building across the way is never entirely “uncovered” by a trained alert newspaper man. Sometimes the headquarters man does not enter the headquarters building across the way from his office for as much as a Week or ten days at a time. The head- quarters man’s small office boy is his thor- oughly competent medium of communi-a- tion with the headquarters building. The small boy's job consists entirely in “taking slips” from the headquarters blotter. An account of every arrest made in New York is telephoned, with details, to central head quarters, and all of this data is entered by the headquarters desk sergeant upon a huge blotter. Often these entries mount up into the hundreds in a single day. The “big blotter” ts constantly open to the in- spection of the headquarters men's small office boys. These !ads copy the entries, just as they are set down by the desk ser- geant, upon slips of paper, end carry them over to their respective “bosses.” ‘The headquarters man’s office boy makes a trip over to the desk sergeant’s office in the headquarters building every ten minvtes, and he always fetches back a few of thes: slips that he has copied from the big blet- ter. A Nose for News. The headquarters man runs over the siips and it is “up to him,” as the saying goe to determine which of the slips contain the “workable germs” of good police stories. He throws into his waste paper basket a great majority of the slips brought to him by his office boy, and the old-time headquarters men sort them out like cur- rency handlers sorting bills. He goes over a handful of the slips something like this: “Pete Jones, twenty-six years of age, of 11111 Doyer street, arrested for stealing a. pair of paints’”—waste basket. “Jo Johuski, thirty-one years of age, of 22222 Bayard street, arrested for assaulting his wife” — waste basket. “James Carmichael, forty- seven years of age, 33333 Essex street, ar- rested for trying to tear down ‘he tenement in which he lives’’—might get a fuuny story out o’ that—will telephone it im. “John Moran, nineteen years of age, 44414 Delan- cey street, a mixed-ale pug., arrested and held at sixth precinct for trying to whip seven policemen all at once’’—I'll send that in, too—John must be a corker. “Mrs. J. Murrihill, matron, forty-two years of age, of No, 53555 Madison avenue, arrested for shoplifting—there's the meat of the bunch,” and he rings up ‘his ¢ity editor—each of the newspaper's headquarters offices have private telephones running direct thereto— and telephones the data contained on such | stories, and wh worked up. The telephone man at the main office hands to the city editor the penciled information received from the headquarters man, with the suggestions the latter makes as to the best means ling and getting hold of the tories. The city editor—or the night editor, as the case may be—jooks over telephoned stips and the penciled remarks of the headquarters man, and then sends out reporters in quest of th tis and embellishmen of all the police etories the headquarters man has \oed beng worthy of investigation. So that ‘he reai editing of the New York newspapers’ datiy melange of criminal news ts dcne by the headquarters men. Used to Be a Trust. ratively few ve headquarters ov the New York newspapers used to work in what was called a “combination.” That is to say, the men who became members of the headquarters combination entered into an agreement with each other not to attempt to achieve “ ts” or “scoops their respective pap: but to work to- gether, hands {n unison, and not dependently. The combination — sys made the work of covering police head- quarters comparatively easy, for the Would take turns in going | after t one man got hold of in the way of details was the common prop- erty of all the others. When this system was in operation, the sameness of the po- lice news of New York in all of i he New York newspapers was remarkable. Each man would, of course, write up the story secured by one man of the combination in his own way, but all of the papers con- ned exactly the same police news y editors of the newspapers “fell” to the disadvantages of the combination game after it had been ked for some years, and sat down upon it sorely. The head- quarters men were absolutely forbidden to enter into an. Sort of combination with their fellows, and, as the headquarters men knew that their positions were at siak these wafnings, the combination sc Was abandoned, to the profound regret of the old-timers. Every headquarters man now works quite independently of his fel- lows, and this accounts for the variety of criminal news in the New York newsp: of the present period. Under the present system, it often happens that one news- paper will only devote two or three lines to some criminal case to which another newspaper surrenders as many colun with elaborate illustrations—the simple re- sult of the “slip editing” performed by the newspapers’ headquarters men. Some of the very best and most experienced of the headquarters men are occasionally caught napping, and pass over slips that their fellows recognize the possibilities of and work up into elaborate stories paratively young headquarters mat all of his fellows not long age, owing to the caution with which he went over tho blotter slips his office boy brought him The especial slip that he achieved his vic- tory on read something like this Scored a Beat. dith Blank, 22 years of age, of No. Blank 243d street, ted at No. #lank Pell street; charg: The new headqu remember that the . disorderly conduct rters man 1 str happened to number given on the slip was a Chinese opium tof the better sort, and he also remembered having seen the name of the young woman mentioned en the slip in the social notes ef various newspapers. He put the two facts together, followed the story up him- self without telephoning it to his city edi tor, and the next morning his paper came out with a one-page flustrated accou: sensationally written, but strictly trae, nevertheless—of the arrest of a swell young society woman in a Pell street Chinese um joint. All of the other New York papers were wholly and decisively beaten on the story, simply because, in running over the slips, the other headquarters men carelessly figured it that the young woman mentioned on the one especial slip was probably an ordinary drunk and disorderly case. Most likely every one of the head- quarters men knew that the number on Pell street given on the slip was an opium joint, but they all just happened to over- look it on this oceasion. Hence their severe beating,” and their much more severe call- ing down at the hands of thelr managing editors. Reporters as Detectives. When a really big murder case of a mys- terious sort is revealed by the discovery of a body, the headquarters man, on account of his experience in the handling of police news, is generally temporarily relieved of his headquarters duties by a reporter from his office, and undertakes the big police feature himself, to the exclusion of all other work. When the headquarters re- porter gets on to a case of this kind his work is mainly that of a detective sort, and all of the newspaper reporters who have within recent years unraveled murder cases that puzzled the police have been head- quarters men. For example, the man who, with nothing to work upon but a button with a bit of cloth clinging to it, found out the identity of the man who, after demand ing a few millions of dollars from Russel! Sage some years back, threw a bomb at the tght-fisted old millionaire and only suc- ceeded in blowing himself into kingdom come, was a headquarters man. The re- porter who discovered the {identity of the body of Guldensuppe, the Turkish bath rubber, thus leading to the conviction and execution of Martin Thorn and the life im- prisonment of Mrs. Nack, was a headquar- ters man. In the Tenderloin. In addition to the regular headquarters reporter, each of the newspapers has a “Tenderloin man.” The Tenderloin man's only duty is to cover the “Tenderloin pre- cinct,” the station of which is on 30th street between 6th and 7th avenues. The Tenderloin, of course, is the most Impor- tant station in town, located, as It fs, In the heart of New York's dizziest community. Scarcely a day or night elapses that nu- merous citizens or citizenesses of the Ten- derloin are not enmeshed in the police web, and the Tenderloin always teems with sen- ational stories. Sometimes the lerloin reporters will yawn for as much as two hours without anything big in the way of “promising” arrests occurring, but every morning newspaper in New York has, in every edition, a sufficient number of Ten- derloin stories to indicate that the Tender- loin reporters are earning their pay. There are some police stations in New York wherein the victim of an arrest, if he be of sufficient qua..y, can evade publicity, but the Tenderloin is not one of them. The Tenderloin reporters are on the outlook for the quality arrests, and the higher the quality the better they Mke it. The report- ers who cover the Tenderloin do a good deal of strolling, in the course of their long nights, in Broadway and 6th avenue be- tween 23d and 42d streets, but they make their headquarters at a neat Ittle second- floor club, off 6th avenue, where they get together and compare notes, an when Tenderloin news is dearthful, indite little imaginative gems for the morning issues of their newspapers. Each of the newspapers has its regular staff of police court reporters to supple- ment the work of the headquarters and Tenderloin men. The police court reporters are given their assignments in the order of their merit as newspaper men, the prize assignment, of course, being the Jefferson Market court, where all of the arrests made in the Tenderloin precinct are brought for trial. The reporters assigned to the less important police courts occa- sionally bring in very important stories, either of an emotional or laughable or gen- erally sensational character, and these men are promoted to more important magise trates’ courts. NAN S ia Ny? Uncle "Rastus—“Doctah! dar’s sumfin® wrong wif dat pickaninny ob mine; he’ done bin pow ful melancholy ob late. Dr. Rufus—“I spec’ dat’s most lolkly jest of the slips as he thinks are worth beiag | plain water-melancholy.”—Collier’s bee. | es