Disgraceful

New York, 1895

Three Hundred Prisoners in the Jail.

FOUR-FIFTHS ARE TRAMPS.

Liberated in Gangs Before Sentence Has Expired.

TO MAKE ROOM FOR OTHERS.

Are Justices Bribed to Send Vagabonds to Jail?

SHERIFF DOHT'S SHARP GAME.

Trying to Make the County Pay for Deputies' Badges that He Sells for $5 Apiece and Pockets the Money.

SOME OTHER IMPOSITIONS.

A disgraceful state of affairs has arisen in this county since Henry Doht became Sheriff.

Tramps have been taken out of the county jail, appointed deputy sheriffs, invested with the badge of office, armed with revolver and club, and sent to Maspeth and Ridgewood to do duty as policemen.

The county has been charged, and has paid, $3 per day for the services of these tramps as peace officers. Sheriff Doht broke the law when he liberated these vagabonds. He disgraced civilized methods when he made them officers of the state. What right had he to charge the county for the services of convicts?

Here is another disgraceful state of things. There are 300 or more prisoners in the county jail. That is 200 more than the jail can properly accommodate. Four-fifths of the number are tramps. Certain Justices of the Peace are making as many as 50 commitments a month. They show as much ardor in crowding the jail as if they were getting an extra fee. It was once the practice in this county for a certain Sheriff to give justices a private fee of 50 cents for each tramp committed. We have no proof that that is being done now, but never were so many tramps committed as now.

Only the other day the Sheriff, it is alleged, turned a lot of tramps and disorderly persons out of the jail before their terms had expired. Some had been in jail but a few days, it is said. Some had been sentenced from Jamaica. They came right back to this town, and sought to be committed over again. Doubtless the same thing happened in other towns. No doubt many of them were recommitted. Why should Sheriff Doht turn these prisoners out to let in others? He broke the law when he did so.

It costs $8 to $12 for each tramp committed. If the tramps that to-day are committed for 30 days should be let go one week hence, and should then be recommitted for another 30 days, and this practice should be continued, the county would be robbed of thousands of dollars. It does seem as if this is what is being done.

The late Grand Jury in the Court of Oyer and Terminer, Judge Bartlett presiding, made an investigation of the jail, and presented the following strong condemnation of some things that astonished them. The organs that are bribed by patronage to make excuses for the Sheriff and abuse THE FARMER will have trouble to get around this. The Grand Jurors say:

COURT HOUSE, Queens County, Jan. 28, 1895.

To Honorable Willard Bartlett, Presiding Judge:

DEAR SIR — We, the undersigned Grand Jurors, drawn and empanelled to serve at a Court of Oyer and Terminer held at the Queens County Court House, Long Island City, Jan. 7, 1895, do make the following presentment as to the sanitary condition, management, &c., of the county jail, as instructed by the court and as the law directs:

First — We have carefully gone through the jail and inspected the different wards, cells, corridors, kitchen and yards, and find them in as clean and good sanitary condition as the over-crowded condition of the jail will allow, and do so report.

Second — We also find that there are now confined within said jail nearly THREE HUNDRED PRISONERS, committed either for criminal offences or vagrancy. Fully four-fifths are able-bodied vagrants. We find it the practice of the town constables to arrest them, take them before a justice, who commits them to the County Jail for terms varying from thirty days to six months, where they are boarded and lodged at a weekly expense of three dollars per head to the county. When their term expires the same process of commitment is repeated at a cost to the county of about $8 for each commitment. To keep this army in good health, the Supervisors of the county provide crude rock for them to break into fragments, suitable for builders or roadmakers' uses, which, when duly prepared, is sold for a less sum per cubic yard than the crude rock cost the county delivered at the yard.

Third — In view of the fact that this county is now taxed heavily for the purpose of building new roads and repairing those already constructed; also for building and repairing the various county institutions, and the average taxpayer has to labor hard and practice the closest economy to meet this tax, while these lazy drones are reposing in this public hive in idleness, it is the opinion of this body that the board of Supervisors should devise some measures to correct this growing evil, and to provide some employment whereby vagrants may be made to contribute to their own support, and benefit the county, and if not within their powers to do so, to try and devise some legislation that would cover the ground, clear this county of this horde of tramps, who terrorize the inhabitants during the summer months, and then have to be supported by this county during the winter months in idleness.

JAMES MALCOLM, Foreman.
JOHN T. WOOLLEY, Clerk.

What the Grand Jury say about the stone breaking abuse is precisely what THE FARMER said several weeks ago. The Grand Jury might have gone farther and stated that very much of the broken stone was stolen from the county. Contractors who got the stone said they had paid certain Supervisors for it. The Supervisors denied it. The county never got a dollar for the stone.

At the last meeting of the board of Supervisors a bill was presented for audit for making Deputy Sheriffs' badges. The county has no right to pay such a bill. Sheriff Doht sells badges to Deputy Sheriffs at $5 apiece and puts the money in his pocket. If the county must pay for making the badges, then the profits, about $4.60 on each badge, should accrue to the county. No other sheriff ever sought to make the county pay for his badges. The bill should be thrown out.

If the badges were needed for the tramps who were made policemen, the county should not pay the bill. The Sheriff charged the county $3 per day for the services of these convicts, therefore the Sheriff should pay the badge bill.

Sheriff Doht has had a bill audited in his favor for $3,000 for the services of deputies at Ridgewood and Maspeth during a part of the strike on the city railroads. If some tax-payer would bring an action to restrain the payment of this bill the court would knock a big chunk out of it. The sum of $3 per day is charged for the service of these deputies. It is a notorious fact that most of them received but $2.50 a day. The sheriff is not entitled to a profit of 50 cents a day on each deputy. He is simply entitled to have what he pays out returned to him, and to be personally compensated for his services.

In another matter the county was made to pay $194 for services to the sheriff that the county was not liable for at all. The sheriff got the benefit of it personally. The tax-payers are being imposed upon unlawfully and unreasonably, and the Supervisors should make a stand against it.

We see it stated in the Long Island City Star that the Sheriff wants the board of Supervisors to pay out of the public treasury for an inside watchman, an outside watchman, and a jail keeper. There is not a jail in the state of New York where the Sheriff does not pay these expenses himself. In Mr. Norton's time two watchmen were employed for a time, and later but one, and the county paid them, but it was all wrong, and THE FARMER said so at the time. Sheriff Norton did not ask the county to pay his jail keeper, nor has any other Sheriff ever asked such a favor. As well might the county pay the Under Sheriff, and the Chief Clerk, and it may come to that, under Mr. Doht.

The board of Supervisors should stand as a barrier between the tax-payers and the greed of the Sheriff's office.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 1.

Tramps As Policemen

New York, 1895

The Sheriff Throws Open the Doors of the County Jail.

THE FARMER has received information of a serious kind respecting Sheriff Doht. It is to the effect that after the Deputy Sheriffs went on strike for $3 a day, Sheriff Doht took a number of tramps out of their cells in the County jail, made them Deputy Sheriffs, and sent them to do duty as officers at Maspeth and Ridgewood. THE FARMER prints the information for what it is worth.


(From Tuesday's Brooklyn Eagle.)

The strike for more pay by Sheriff Doht's special deputies, who were appointed for service in protecting the trolley cars in Queens county and were detailed to duty at Ridgewood takes a ridiculous turn when it is asserted that the sheriff is selecting men from the vagrant cells in the jail to act as deputies. Three men who took a train for the field of action wearing deputy sheriff badges were recognized as vagrants who had recently been sent to jail by Judge Wallace of Rockville Centre. The fellows, who were thinly clad, were heard to remark that it would be necessary for them to fight to keep warm.


(From the New York Sun.)

The deputy sheriffs employed by Sheriff Doht of Queens county to protect the Ridgewood power house and depot of the Brooklyn, Queens County and Suburban road joined the strikers last night and took their night sticks with them. The regular pay of a deputy sheriff is $3 a day.

The railroad company paid the men yesterday and gave them only $2 a day. The day force quit, and when the night force under Capt. Baker heard of it they said they'd quit too. Sheriff Doht read the riot act to them without avail.


(From Tuesday's Brooklyn Times.)

Yesterday afternoon forty of the special deputies on duty at the Maspeth stables on Grand street decided to go out. They marched to the County Court House in Long Island City and presented their grievances before the sheriff, complaining that the pay was too small for the number of hours' work. The men were getting $2.50 per day. They demanded $5 for every day and night they were on duty. The men said they had been kept on duty twenty-four hours at a time, and wanted pay for that time.

Sheriff Doht declined to accede to the men's demands, and stripped them of their clubs and badges of authority. Some refused to give up the badges until they were paid for the work already done, and were unmoved by the sheriff's threats to imprison them.

Officer Gildersleeve was around Hempstead village last night in search of twenty deputies to fill the places of those who struck for $5 a day at Maspeth. He had numerous applications, but when they learned of the mission only six were willing to take the positions. The amount offered was $2.50 per day and meals.

If it is true that the tramps in the county jail were taken out, invested with police authority, and sent to Maspeth to preserve the peace, it is easy to understand why the officers showed so much sympathy with the strikers that the railroad company notified Sheriff Doht that he would be held personally accountable for damage to the company's property.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 12.

Deputy Sheriff Is Peeved At Pink Pajamas

1915

Does Not Appreciate Thoughtfulness of Hotel Proprietor for Late Transients

Oakland, Cal. — Trouble reigned in the Hotel Crellin — and all because of a pair of pink pajamas. If Proprietor Louis Aber hadn't invented a new way to accommodate transient guests, or if he had made the pajamas blue or green, perhaps all would have been well — but Edward Squires, deputy sheriff from Nevada, will not wear 'em pink, that's final!

Aber had started a new scheme. Many belated dwellers in the outskirts of Oakland had appeared at his hotel, after missing their last cars, for night accommodations. Aber thought that it would be a clever concession to provide them with all the comforts of home — so he ordered that pajamas be furnished along with pillow cases and the rest of a hotel room's adornment.

Squires appeared to announce that he had missed a last boat to San Francisco. He wanted a room. Dash Katona, chief clerk, showed him to a room and left.

A few moments later the Nevada sheriff appeared in the office, red and angry, and with a pair of pink pajamas suspended scornfully from thumb and finger.

"Say," demanded the deputy sheriff, "isn't it bad enough to put me in another man's room, without putting me in a room with a pair of pink silk nightpants? I'm sore!"

The matter was explained, and the sheriff returned mollified, to sleep. But he didn't wear the pajamas!

Topsy, Best of Bloodhounds is Dead

Iowa, 1914

Topsy, one of the most valuable of the bloodhounds in the Shores & Strumpfer kennels, was found dead yesterday morning. She was in her kennel on the premises of Sheriff Shores. Her owners had refused $800 for her.

Saturday evening, when the dogs were fed, Topsy displayed no symptoms of illness. She ate her portion of the evening meal.

An autopsy yesterday showed that death had been caused by acute indigestion.

Topsy was seven years old and was trained by H. G. Strumpfer at Springfield, Ill. She was one of the best criminal trailers in the country, having made a large number of catches. She could trail a man or a horse. Her first work in Waterloo was running the trail of the men who tried to burglarize the safe of the Hudson bank a year ago last autumn.

Her last work was on New Year's day.

Topsy was almost human in her genius for man-trailing. She also was good-tempered and displayed an affectionate nature, which is not common with bloodhounds.

Sheriff Shores has several other man-trailers, but heavily feels the loss of Topsy.

—Waterloo Evening Courier, Waterloo, IA, Jan. 5, 1914, p. 2.

Two Women Stopped Selling Books, Feared Pro-German

Ohio, 1918

GIRL STUDENTS WERE CANVASSING FOR A PRO-GERMAN BOOK

Sheriff Charles Swank was called to Hanover last Friday to make an investigation of two young women, of Mt. Vernon, who were selling a book, said to be pro-German. They were in the village in the morning of that day and the sheriff did not receive the call until the afternoon and by that time they had left.

Yesterday they were again reported to him and he found them on the road between Hanover and Purity. He gave them orders that no more of the books were to be sold in Licking county. Both of the young women were students and were canvassing to make a little extra money during the summer vacation, and were perfectly innocent of doing anything out of the way. Upon the advice of the sheriff they returned to Newark with him and returned to their homes at Mt. Vernon from here.

The title of the book was "A World In Perplexity," and the substance of it was that the American people wanted peace at any price. The book was put on sale by J. C. Castle, head of the Ohio Tract Society. They also were taking orders for another book, "The Prophesies of the World," but had no copies of it in their possession and were selling it from a prospectus. The Sheriff carefully examined this but found nothing that pointed to the fact that this was pro-German, nevertheless the sale of both books will be prohibited in this county hereafter.

—The Newark Advocate, Newark, Ohio, June 11, 1918, p. 5.


TWO MORE GIRLS FOUND SELLING FORBIDDEN BOOK

Sheriff Charles H. Swank was called to the south-eastern part of the county yesterday afternoon to make an investigation of two young women who were selling books in that vicinity. He met them one-half mile north of Brownsville and found they were selling the same books as the two girls found near Hanover, Monday. They gave their names as Earline Trapp and Violet Murphy, both of Mt. Vernon, and were working for the same people as the other two girls were.

The books are being put out by J. I. Castle, head of the Ohio Tract society of Mt. Vernon, and the one book, "A World in Perplexity," has been found to have pro-German tendencies and the sale of the same has been forbidden in Licking county. The other book, "Our Day in the Light of Prophecy" was carefully examined by the sheriff and he found it to be alright, with nothing in it detrimental to the government and gave them permission to continue selling it.

The girls were entirely innocent of any wrong doings and were very much overcome when the sheriff told them that the one book was pro-German. The had sold a number of copies of the book, which met the approval of the sheriff and as soon as the information spread over the community, orders were canceled over the telephone practically at the very house they stopped at. The girls had worked hard in making the sales as they have walked the entire distance over the county and to find that their work had been all in vain was quite a blow to them.

Sheriff Swank gave them one of his personal cards, stating that the text of the latter named book was alright and that it met with his approval and allowed them to continue the sale of the same, but the distribution of the other book will be prohibited in this county.

—The Newark Advocate, Newark, Ohio, June 13, 1918, p. 6.

Note: "A World in Perplexity" was by Arther G. Daniells, published by Pacific Press or Review and Herald, which are names for the Seventh Day Adventist church folks' publishing house. The other, "Our Day in the Light of Prophecy," was by William Ambrose Spicer, same publishing info. I don't know these particular books, but I've seen books like them, in which they size up all the bad news of the day as signs of God's work of judgment and final deliverance. Even "progress" is seen for its negative aspects, how families are broken up, girls go off the the city and are disgraced, etc. I would guess they would portray Germany as being very formidable, lots of men, lots of armaments, since these big battles at the end of the world can't be minimized, and that's the problem for the Sheriff, and that they don't actually take a "pro-German" view. Their business was religion and conversion, not politics or sedition. As for Brother Castle, the one article definitely gives a "C" for his middle initial, the other is hard to read but looks like an "I."

At Mauch Chunk, Four Men Hanged This Morning

Pennsylvania, 1877

AT MAUCH CHUNK

How Kelly, Doyle, Campbell and Donahue Met Their Fate.

MAUCH CHUNK, June 21. — The condemned men went to bed a little after midnight. This morning they arose at 4 o'clock, and dressed themselves with scrupulous care. At 6 o'clock the counsel for Kelly bade him goodbye. Kelly thanked him for his legal efforts. Donahue said he had nothing to say to his counsel, and said, "Get out of my cell."

The other two men shook hands with the counsel. The stores in the city were all closed. At 9 o'clock the Easton Grays, of the Fourth Regiment, with 35 guns, were stationed outside the jail. The prisoners passed the greater portion of the night in praying, and candles were given them to read their prayer books. Donahue prayed alternately with his book and rosary. Kelly and Donohue were dissatisfied with the sickly glare of the candles, and blew them out. Campbell and Doyle kept theirs lighted. Campbell said Captain Linden and the Shenandoah "Herald" reporters knew he was an innocent man, but they were afraid to admit it.

ON THE SCAFFOLD.

All the arrangements for the execution were made at 10 o'clock. Shortly after the Deputy Sheriffs, reporters and other assistants entered the corridor. The Sheriff adjusted the ropes and called his assistants to him. In a few minutes Campbell's cell door was opened and he appeared, accompanied by the priests. Campbell walked quickly to the scaffold, ascending with a light step. The priest read the prayers for the dying, the prisoner responding and repeatedly kissing the crucifix, and turning his pale face upward, his lips slightly moved in prayer. Doyle was next brought out. He walked upon the scaffold unassisted. John Donahue walked boldly out and up the steps of the scaffold. Kelly came last, and seemed quite strong. They were each attended by a priest. None of the four evinced very much nervousness. The priests prayed for several minutes, the prisoners kneeling and responding.

THE FATAL FALL.

After the priests left the scaffold Sheriff Raudenbush and two assistants adjusted the ropes. The Sheriff examined each prisoner carefully, and then asked if they had any thing to say. Campbell replied that he forgave everybody, and continued, "I have not an enemy in the world at this moment." Doyle spoke for some time, but his words were inaudible, except to the Sheriff and priests. Donahue had nothing to say, and Kelly recited after the priest a plea for forgiveness. The Sheriff left the scaffold, and in half a minute pulled the rope which let the trap fall.

The doomed men fell at 10:54. In a moment the bodies began swinging. Kelly, Doyle and Campbell died easy. Donahue drew himself up and struggled for two minutes. Doyle's heart ceased to beat in 12 minutes, Campbell's 14 minutes, Donahue's in 6 and Kelly's in 7½ minutes. From the beginning to the end there was not a mistake.


WILKESBARRE, PA., June 21. — Lanahan, the Molly Maguire, was executed here at 10:40 this morning.

—The Indiana Progress, Indiana, Pennsylvania, June 28, 1877, p. 1.

The Insane Fighting Farmer Taken Through Disguise

Harlan, Iowa, 1903

The Fighting Farmer Taken

Sheriff Stewart and Aids Garbed As Farmers, Capture Arthur Sherlock Near Harlan

Harlan, March 14. — Sheriff Stewart, Ed Parker and Stod Wick went out to Polk township and nabbed the fighting insane man, Arthur Sherlock. He did not know Parker and Wick, who dressed as farmers and made him a proposition to purchase his cattle. Watching their chance the young men overpowered the insane man and put irons on him. He struggled so hard that he broke the first ones put on him. A revolver was found on his person. After the man was taken he laughed about the matter, saying that he had suspected the boys, but that his suspicions were a little too late. Sherlock has been at large on his place for some time, heavily armed and anxious to put cold lead into the sheriff and his deputy, whom he knew. He was taken to the state hospital at Clarinda.

List of Criminals Cleaned-Out, They're Headed for Prison

Iowa, 1903

EXODUS OF BAD CHARACTERS FROM DAVENPORT

Four Departed Yesterday and More Go Today — Pope Starts Sentence.

There was an exodus of bad characters from Davenport yesterday and while it was not planned or voluntary on the part of the exiles, yet it will probably not hurt the city much. Sheriff McArthur left yesterday morning for Fort Madison taking with him James Pope, sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime of rape committed on his 13-year-old daughter; and Fred Gross sentenced to two and one-half years at hard labor for receiving stolen property, he being implicated in the Gross case. W. D. Petersen accompanied the sheriff on the trip and they expect to return today.

Deputy Sheriff Eggers left yesterday morning for Anamosa, where he takes Daisy Lister and Gertie McDonald for terms of five years each in the woman's ward of the penitentiary. The women were convicted of robbery from Simon Myerson, a rag buyer. The Lister woman, on account of extenuating circumstances and a probable evidence that she was of better former character than her co-partner, was promised the assistance of the judge and county attorney if she showed at the end of year's time that her behavior at the penitentiary had been good, in securing parole.

This cleans out the list of criminals sentenced regularly during the last term of court. Young Frank Boswell, who made such an astonishing confession of the crimes that he had been guilty of, will be taken to Eldora either today or tomorrow to enter upon the service of his sentence in the state industrial school for boys situated there.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, March 4, 1903, page 7.