A lawyer whom I personally knew, who was afterwards made a judge, took a thousand dollar fee from a crook who stole two thousand dollars from a woman, but refused to do anything more for him till he gave the other thousand dollars. This the crook refused to do. The result was he had to fall back on friends to get him a charity lawyer to defend him in General Sessions. Bold brazen shysters hang around the Courts of General and Special Sessions, who, with the aid of “cunning” steerers, probation officers and frequently with the help of policemen are able to rob their clients of all they have in the world, and render little or no service in return. The wonder is that the judges do not combine to put such men out of business. The city magistrates and judges of the criminal courts have known the situation for several years, but apparently refuse to do anything to stop the abuses. The evil at present has assumed the proportion of a plague—crushing out the very life of the poor unfortunates and their friends, who are compelled to come to terms with the shyster. Some of our city magistrates go into spasms over the iniquities of the professional bondsmen, but they do nothing to put down the professional shyster and harpies who are allowed to rob and ruin the unfortunates daily. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XXVII CROOKED CROOKS IN PRISON What brilliant minds are sometimes confined within prison walls! And how they work and fret and stew from morning till night and frequently from night till morning in an effort to “beat the prison.” Such men soon put certain kinds of machinery in operation which might aid their freedom, but when the authorities find it out they clip their wings, and their good conduct marks disappear. A few years ago an old crook tried to get out of the old Tombs by digging through the wall of his cell. After he had made the “hole” he found to his surprise that it would land him in the warden’s office. A man named Smith escaped from Blackwell’s Island in the summer of 1905 by swimming across the East River. He did not make the attempt till he saw a schooner coming his way, then he pretended that he had cramps and must be rescued. It would fill a very large book to tell one-half of the crooked deeds done in an ordinary prison in one year. In 1900 a young man was arrested in this city named George E. Shep. In due time he was indicted for the crime of grand larceny in the second degree, and sent to Elmira. Dr. F. W. Robertson was then superintendent of that institution, and was able after a few interviews to “size up” his boarder. It could not be denied that Shep was a young fellow of considerable ability, but all who knew him believed that he needed “watching.”