Show = RIVER PIRATES U11dergronnd Labyrinths for Thieves and Bobbers r AgY1ATS IN NEW YORK Horrible Features of Lire or the 020 tn he ctrulwlis An Old pollcema Experi enee There arc no more desperate danger irreclaimable criminals utterly lind uS York lawbreakers of New he Junolg i1deed any large city than those or as wharfrats and known yariou31T The distinction sug riVer pirates employment of two names te by the lCitcd is merely nominal for class > their for to belly Sough the rat is supposed i wretch lly a thief and the pirate a Who will kill to rob the fact is that the be expected if mur always rat may to serve his ends to perpe rfer seems the slightest hesitation trate it without rcompunction of conscience Generally General-ly the rats are young hough among the hordes of them there are many gray headed rascals who have never happen win the distinction of becoming ed to aiurderers The wharfrat rarelv it ever is pro from any other class than those duced haunt the vicinity of the rivers that thieves either because they lack Drylaud dexterity in managing boats skill Jack in swimming and all the cunning in t or because their criminal tiatercrait i confine them to other nefari association Industries seldom become wharf stis The ranks of the wharfrats are Constantly rats filled from among the nude who in the sultry summer youngsters weather may be seen on the ends of the and about them in the water piers yelling Hi Patsy 1 Cheese it shrilly acomin 1 The policeman is The their cops beta noir They fear and hate him Diving under the water > instinct by and y hiding under the piers to escape they learn the existence of an infinite him of finite number of mysterious pla es eoitoihuent of which weople who walk em dry ground above are quite ignorant t murky retreats tin = j mi 1 MIU ia those the acquaintance of older aivi iire practiced rascals who enlist them in their oredatory enterprises There are waterways and sewers for boats that penetrate practicable very far und2r the city the full extent and ramifications of which ar > known io none r but the river pirates 1io in est them The harbor police have a general of these places or at al idea of some least know where their entrances are them It to explore but do not venture would indeed be almost certain death for them to do so for the pirates are numerous desperate and always on h rises their guar against sur ptiov asked upon being A veteran policeman said about these retreats what he knew ia reply hI suppose Iknow as much as except the pirates who haunt them anybody but my knowledge is not much the har on good many Ive been a years bor squad and have learned that the surest as well JtS the safest way to get one of those scoundrels when he is wanted Is to lay for him to come out and grab him on the street instead of visiting bib haunts uninvited I never tried to hunt a pimte in his lair but Im once That was in 67 and though u willing to stand up to the rack of duty as most other men Im free to say it Rill be at least sixtyseven years before I volunteer for such a job again Not far from the foot of lbirteenth street UieNorth river an opening under a on pier that nine people out of ten would by unnoticed gives access to a pass perfect labyrinth of1 jterranean w ter branch of which I and sewers a 1 Trays am assured islarge enough for boats to 1 a distance of a nule anda half from the entrance At least two thieves dens above ground communicate directly with it The keepers of both of them are known to be r ncet but it is almost impossible to catch them dead to righs because of the facilities they of anjoy for shifting swag by means boats in the continual midnight of that Underground labyrinth I tell you those scoundrels nave dow tthere a sort of caves some of them conJ taecting with above ground where they 1 drink gamble and divide their plunder and quarrel and kill each other without mny but themselves knowing anything about it Ifs a blessed thing that the dampness and the sewer gases give them Tfaeomatism and other ailments to jfhorteu their lives and sometimes drives them up to the streets where we can get bold of them There is hardly an Imaginable depredation depre-dation upon property or a danger to human e in the vicinity of the water frtfuts or on board vessels lying in the j tor North riversa danger from 1 personal violence far nefarious ends IJ mean tiat these river pirates are not j ready to inflict and have not indeed 1 1 been guilty of innumerable times J Many of the corpses dragged from the 1 water and theres at least one floater a day the yea roundhavbeeu donej to death by these wretches forthe sake of a petty robbery Watchmen on docks and vessel are often Sandclubbed i shot and stabbed by them eitEer I I defer fhe way for Bunder or to efiect escape when caught infne perpetration bf their nefarious business Deckloads on vessels tied up it the New York and Brooklyn wharves or valuablaproberty on the wharves or on Teasels floating in midstream are what the river pirates go for most They steal alongside in their swift lowdying black or slatecolored boats that seldom are seen out of the deepest shadows alongfthe margins of the streams and are propelled by muffled oars Their ild9f plunder has been selected in the dc time the modes approaclrcare fully marked the numbers and habits jC any guardian likely to be encounter The wl o ed have been learned Thepuateq are well armed always and bold rascals mount to the vessels deck or the wharf With the agility of cajts work with the uoiselesness of shadows and almost magical celerity and if discovered fight Eke the desperadoes that they are not only to effect their escape but to carry off their booty as well If one is shot Jus companionsfor two or three of them pet erally work together get him into ther boat and together lie and f 4 they uiish undqrj ome Wharf and areas are-as completely lost to pursuit as iT the t earth hud opened and swallowed them tin r I 1 1 i I I J 1ver1cuin4n1 iiUivr 4cu llhe ri r P rot nrc ier 1nlD t and some of the atorles told of their 1 p common exploits almost challenge the the belief of those who do not Know them well They have been knownto put up a job to get the watchman on a hermaphrodite brig blind drunk and while no was laid out stiff have taken away all the running rigging and sails of the vessel A very common trick of others is when they find barrels of liquor on a wharf that they can get under with a boat to tap the liquor by boring up into the barrels with long augers and fill up other barrels in their boat below with the descending stream I |