Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1858 — the Illustrated Gallery of New York Rogues. [ARTICLE]

the Illustrated Gallery of New York Rogues.

How their Portraits are Taken. ! j The Rogues’ Gallery is growing into an f important institution. The collection of I portraits known by that name and exhibited iat the Detectives’ Rooms in the General i Police head quaiters, corner of Broome and j Elm streets, now numbers nearly two hun- | dred and forty. The advantages of the idea (are daily illustrated, in enabling persons to (identit y burglars, pickpockets and other vil- : lains by whom they have suffered. Yesterjday fdr instance, a man whose house was j broken into by a fellow whose face he had ; seen, but who had escaped arrest, looked ■ over the gallery and instantly spotted the ( perpetrator; anil another person who had his pocket picked, recognized the “Knuck” ! among the portraits, ana officers were at ( once put. on the track of the guilty parties. ; By a frequent examination of these photographs, ihe detectives become so familiar with them that they easily identify the originals on the street; and the regular members of the Department, as far as they choose derive a similar benefit from the exhibition. i Sometimes criminal refugees from other ( cities are picked up in this way. For exain- ■ pie, not' long ago a fellow was arrested here (on suspicion of being a pickpocket, and his ; face was added to the gallery. A Boston policeman happening to be n town shortly afterwards, recognized this man as a burglar who had escaped from his city, and by that means succeeded in procuring his arrest, and he was taken back to Massachusetts and put in the Penitentiary for ten years. Mist men do not object to the exhibition of their portraits in public places; but rogues are decidedly averse to lending their facile ornaments to this gallery, and most of them require a little gentle compulsion before they will consent to sit for pictures. There is a variety of ingenious ways for bringing them to terms. One is, to . fasten placards on their backs, and parade them on Broadway till they give up, out of pure shame—a feeling which is probably not altogether extinct in the breast of the worst of men. One obstinate fellow was escorted up and down Broadway, some, time ago, with a large label “pickpocket” upon him. He held out well for a while, and endured the comments and jeers of the public with a high stoicism, but finally burst into tears and expressed a willingness to have his portrait taken. Another and'rnore common process is to pass the contumacious chap from one station house to another, showing him up to the men at roll call, until he has made the entire circuit of the precincts, unless he gives in at an early stage of disgraceful progress, which he generally does. The rascals, when placed before the camera, sometimes screw up their faces into forms of hightened ugliness, so as to prevent subsequent identification; but they are promptly informed that such grimaces will not be allowed, and that they will be detained till they assume a natural countenance. — Journal of Commerce.