Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the WorldWooldridge, Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman)
History
Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World
Wooldridge, Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman)
Crime -- Illinois -- Chicago; Police -- Illinois -- Chicago
The two sort out the quarters, the nickels, the pennies. The heaps are
very evenly divided over two or three cheap whiskies or a couple of
bottles of five-cent beer.
Then the real finale comes. Detective Wooldridge gets busy, and a
goodly portion of the spoil finds its way out of the hands of the
sharpers in the way of a fine.
But for every one of these paralytic frauds caught there are dozens,
even scores, who get away unscathed. It is the estimate of the best
detectives that not one in a thousand of these paralytic beggars is
genuine. It is one of the most bare-faced cases of deception of the
public which comes under the notice of the police.
EASY MONEY FROM KIND HEARTS.
Charity covers a multitude of sins, almost as many backs, and quite a
bit of graft.
Thoughtless giving is almost a crime. It serve to encourage idleness,
and idleness is at the bottom of more crime than any other one thing,
unless it is poverty.
Here is a story, given in the words of the man himself, which shows
how the charity graft is worked in a number of ways. It covers several
fields, and is so dramatic that it is given as the best example of
all-round charity grafting:
"In experience in charitable work last summer I discovered
some of these truths. It was the first time in all my life
that I ever engaged in any charitable enterprise, and the
needy that I sought to relieve was myself.
"Any one will beg, borrow, or steal in the name of charity.
They may be as personally honest as a trust magnate--and
they would be horrified at the idea of begging or stealing
for themselves, but charity makes them respectable. At
least this is the theory I worked on.
"I was broke and far from home. I decided that I would
starve or steal rather than beg. Then a fellow I met
accidentally put me on to a way of making a living.
FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE HEATHEN.
"He had a lot of literature either really from a big
church, charitable organization, or fraudulently printed,
and he explained to me that I was to sell these 25 cents
a copy for the benefit of the heathen somewhere, or home
missions. I was to get 25 per cent of the money resulting
from such sales.
"About a week later, when I had received $12 besides a
little expense money from him. I discovered that he was
keeping all the money. I took the rest of the literature
and destroyed it. Three days later, when I was hungry, I
rather regretted destroying it.
"I joined a circus that was moving toward my home town in
Western Iowa, intending to leave it there and quit being
a tramp. I was then down in Eastern Pennsylvania. I was a
canvas hand. We went west by a tortuous route, and I never
could accumulate enough coin to pay my way home, so was
forced to stick to the place for many weeks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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