The Secrets of the Great City: A Work Descriptive of the Virtues and the Vices, the Mysteries, Miseries and Crimes of New York CityMcCabe, James Dabney
History
The Secrets of the Great City: A Work Descriptive of the Virtues and the Vices, the Mysteries, Miseries and Crimes of New York City
McCabe, James Dabney
New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel; New York (N.Y.) -- History
As soon as the Court is opened, the prisoners are called up in the
order of their arrival during the previous night. Here drunkenness
without disorder, and first offences of a minor character, are punished
with a reprimand, and the prisoners are discharged. These cases
constitute a majority of the arrests, and the number of persons in the
dock is soon reduced to a mere handfull. The more serious cases are
either held for further examination or sent on trial before a higher
court.
All classes of people come to the Justice with complaints of every
description. Women come to complain of their husbands, and men of their
wives. The Justice listens to them all, and if a remedy is needed,
applies the proper one without delay. In most instances, he dismisses
the parties with good advice, as their cases are not provided for by
the law.
A SAD CASE.
Some of the cases which are brought up before the Tombs Court are
deeply interesting. We take the following from the report of the
General Agent of the New York Prison Association:
The case referred to is that of a woman indicted for burglary and grand
larceny. She was guilty, and she felt and acknowledged it. She had
lived in a neighboring city for the last six years, and for the last
three years on the same floor with the complainant, and the consequence
was they were very friendly and intimate. Her husband sustained a
severe injury from a fall, and has since been in declining health,
earning nothing for the last eighteen months. At length his mind gave
way and his friends advised his removal to the Lunatic Asylum. He had
been an inmate for six months, and his wife frequently visited him,
always contributing to his wants and comforts. He improved so rapidly
that the doctor informed his wife that on the following week, if the
weather proved clear and fine, he should discharge him. The wife felt
anxious to make her home more than ever cheerful and her husband happy,
but she had no means. She thought of the abundance of clothing her
neighbor possessed, and that some articles could be spared for a short
time, probably without detection; and if she should be detected before
she could redeem them, her friend would excuse her. She devised means
to enter, and conveyed to the pawnbroker's two parcels of clothing,
upon which she realized nine dollars; she made some purchases for the
house, redeemed a coat for her husband, and then started for the asylum
for the purpose of fetching him to her home. But on her arrival there,
the physician told her that he had left a few hours before, that he was
well and happy, and that she must keep him so. On her return home the
larceny had been discovered, and the property found at the
pawnbroker's; it had been pledged in her own name, and where she was
well and favorably known. An officer was waiting, and she was taxed
with the crime; she had destroyed the duplicate. The complainant gave
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