Satan's Invisible World Displayed or, Despairing Democracy

was engaged all day long in playing a gigantic Confidence Trick upon the citizens. The gold brick which the swindlers sold to the credulous

partnership between the law-breakers and the law officers as was revealed in this Green Goods swindle. The rascality of the rogues was so audacious that it provokes a laugh. For it is possible to carry impudence to a point where indignation is momentarily submerged by the sense of the ludicrous. Sheer amazement at the existence of such preposterous villains begets such a sense of its absurdity,

a work is not to be envied. The Report of the Committee is a very striking illustration of the wickedness of issuing books without indexes. Here we have five bulky volumes of evidence without even an index of the names of witnesses. There is no subject-inde

ver-issue of certain denominations of paper money by the Treasury, or that the plates have been s

years ago as a bully who was kept by a prostitute. He swindled out of all her money a mistress of his who kept a resta

, which enabled them not merely to carry on their swindling with impunity, but also stood them in good stead whenever a victim had to be bullied and driven out of the city. King McNally was, unfortunately, not availabl

d been employed for three years as one of the gang. He began when nineteen as a circular-folder, for which he received 8s. a

ine dollar bills, which are shown to the victim. He receives fifty per cent.,

ewspaper-cuttings, etc., are enclosed. He receives the other fifty per cen

istant from the city. He is the messenger who gives the victim the pass-word, and then leads hi

says nothing, but who sits solemnly in the Joint when the

son of the old man, and does the selling o

dexterously replaces the good money shown in the bank ro

, for the purpose of bullying any victim who discovers he has been swindled, and ret

y successfully. McNally used to take as much as ￡1,600 in a single day. Fortunes of ￡40,000 were

of newspapers, the same with intent to deceive, the slip being carefully written by Mr. McNally, or some member of his gang, for the purpose of giving the reader to understand that the offer of the circular was bona fide and reliable. These were sent out by thousands, the printer executing orders for 200,000 sets at a time. A slip was also i

ing an application for the money offered him at such tempting terms. This victim would belong to the writer of the circular by which he had been caught. Having thus hooked a victim, he had to be landed, and for this purpose he had to b

s. For less than 650 dollars he was told he could not have the "State rights." The monopoly for his own State was promised to the favoured individual, whose 650 dollars had to be paid down

described by the witness Applegate

es; do you recognise thos

es,

boxes used i

es,

d a fourth one; what were

e behind the partition, and in the duplicate box there would be a brick and some paper, and they would put the money in this box here on the desk and lock it up before the victim; it would be on the back of the desk like that, and then Billy Vosburgh would sa

ou this fifth box; w

used for t

e-is there a fa

here is

l brought into play the

s; it would be laid there. There was supposed to be 8,200 d

you if those were the packages there w

were, as we calle

how they we

ime, "We will measure the packages together, and, instead of counting each and every bill, we will put the packages together," and the victim would think there was the same amount of money in each one, and then, through sleight-of-hand, he would put these in the box, and the good money on top; and i

that we now exhibit, instead of the package

es,

y of those in use

elastics off these; we would just t

h a heavy weight; se

he would get for his 650 dollars; for a 300 dollar deal he would get half a brick; for

money. "Here," said the Steerer to the Guy, "is the picture of what you will get in reality." The effect upon his imagination of these painted representations of enormous treasure in gold and silver predisposed the victim to part freely with his mo

describe the operati

uy coming to the carriage, there would be

the ca

put the money in the satchel, a duplicate satchel to the one that had the brick in it; he would put the money in the satchel, and after the guy had paid Haines his money so-we never received theirs before we gave them ours, and after he made the deal and every

hich they discovered the fra

n we were working the carriage rac

at is

n would have to go with the guy and keep the satchel and see the guy on the

ve the facilities as

ntil he got on the train, and would say, "We wi

the habit of givin

nd told him to cut it open; not with the

esign in giving th

him the key whi

hey got on t

e some combination on it, and he will get the w

ure to give him a key th

that fits the box with the money in, and that would not

once they are hooked, they can be played with to almost any

ic faith, on

alsehood, hugs

come back the third time and do another deal, and see them checked at the station with his ticket. The baggage-man is accused of stealing the money, and the guy comes up for a fourth time. In this final purc

unreasonable to a man who knows that he is engaged in a more or less fraudulent transaction. It is the knowledge o

he cognizance of, but with the active co-operation of the police. This partnership was so close that in McNally's case all the business was carried on in conjunction with a police captain of the name

"Business carried on as usual during alterations" might have been posted up over every police-station in New York; but in the case of Green Goods men, their business was too profitable to be lost by the captain who had once got hold of it. The consequence was that, when the shake-up took place, and Captain Meakin was transferred from the "down-town precinct" to Harlem at the other end of the island, he carried all the Green Goods men with him up to his new station. As soon as the order was given that the shake-up was to be enforced, Captain Meakin sent word to McNally that he must follow him to Harlem. McNally thereupon told all his writers

essary was, therefore, to find out a saloon that would be available for the purposes of the gang. Captain Meakin was a man of resource. He and his wardman met McNally at a drug store, and arranged with

levated Railway. As soon as the arrangement was fixed up with the King and the Captain and the Saloon-keeper, the signal was given, and the victims, who were planted at various saloons in the neighbourhood by the Bunco steerers waiting until the Poli

ent to the thieves by Detective Charlton. He told them that they would have to quit, but at the same time he obligingly suggested that the saloon of a man named Day in the immediate neighbourhood would be quite as convenient, and would serve equally well as a plac

, and advised him to remove all the stuff before the police arrived. This timely hint was promptly acted upon, and when the place was raided nothing was found. The Green Goods men in the meanwhile had transferred themselves to Jersey, which, being a foreign State, was beyond the jurisdiction of the Superintendent. But everything was done to make their sojourn in Jersey ple

to the level of a fine art, there was a further development. If any of the writers were behind in their payments to the King, McNally promptly denounced them to the Captain, and the defaulting writer was as promptly arrested. By this means discipline was enforced in the gang and

ble, the first man he sent for was Hanley; and Hanley was always sent for." He represented the Detective Bureau, and his services were necessary when any unfortunate victim, discovering that he had nothing but a brick in his box, came back to the city and made complaint. A considerable number of the guys, or the victims, never c

ould always seem to be the detective that would get the man in charge; the man would be brought up town to try and identify the people, which he never could do; then we always got the tip to go away; the man

e usual course to Hanley, who took him up town to the saloon where he had been robbed, to see if he could find the Bunco steerer who had inveigled him into the Joint. Applegate himself acted as the go-between on that occasion. He warned the Steerer to keep out of the way, and then asked Hanley to bring the Guy down past the windows of the saloon, where the men who had swindled him could have some fun in watching him as he was trotted about the street on a false scent. By some strange mistake, and d

u can do almost anything with him." It is certainly not difficult, whe

ing time in gaol when he was caught, had a rough experience of the murderous possibilities that the Green Goods man has to face. On one occasion a Tennessee detective made himself up as a country bumpkin. When the critical moment came, he clapped his revolver at the head of Appo, shot out his eye

and shows his goods, take your gun, stick him up, and take his money away from him. If he goes to make a kick, shoot him; he cannot do that much; the law will protect you; see how Tony Martin got killed there in Brooklyn; them men got out; it was co

t in case any Guy were to discover that he had been swindled, and make a fuss at the station, he could be promptly arrested for holding counterfeit money,

rendered it impossible for him to appear in the witness-box. Perjury to an unlimited extent was familiar enough to the police captains, but the evidence about the Green Goods gang was too strong

e reported on the

r protection, shared a large part of their ill-gotten gains with the police.... The evidence indicated that the first step in the in

ordinarily found, and that those who were receiving protection plied their trade unmolested, while others, who had not been fortunate enough to establish relations with

th the criminals of the type of the Green Goods gang, it was entirely in keeping with the

Committee

ered by the owner on condition that he repay the pawnbroker the amount advanced on the stolen property. In almost every instance it also appears that the detective, a

em in some detail. The police, she said, were able to make robberies in what were known as panel houses, safe for the thief and profitable to themselves. When a man was robbed and went to the station-house for redress, the Captain usually sent down a wardman to the house, who made it his first duty to represent to the victim the prudence of saying no

e wardman goes to the house, and isn't it a rule that

since I have been round;

n you steal 180 dols.; wher

d have received 90 dols. of the 180 dols., and I

madam for

es,

s, in this case, fifty

hat is so.-Vol

been into to which the rule as to payment of

e that ever

ow m

zen, I guess.-V

y: What you say i

mmon oc

t of fifty per cent. to the wardman, o

Y

should ge

es,

o all these twenty-fo

e I went into of that k

times suspected and accused of winking at the raids of bandits in consid

, who, of course, paid quit rent for his district to the police. The understanding was that the policeman was to be free to arrest the thief if there was a complaint made by the victim, but that so long as no complaints were made the policeman would "close the other eye," and allow the pickpocket a free

y touching. The New York police appear to have been a

ONIC