Terre Haute Weekly Gazette, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 27 August 1885 — Page 9

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NEW YORK LETTER.

MCTURES OF LUDLOW STREET JAIL 1 THE DEBTORS' PRISON.

3uilt by Boss Tweed, ft Became Hit Prison—Ferdinand Ward, Wfco ltulned Grant, Living luxuriously There*

Becky Jones' Cell.

[Special Correspondence.!

NEW YORK, Aug. 20.—LucKow Street jail, in New York city, is a name as familiar to Ithe reader as that of Talmage, or the Tombs, lor Grant's doctors. It i? in the low-lying, [old, dirty part of the town on the east side.

Hero are detained the poor wretches who '.are unfortunate enough to owo monay to somebody. If till the people who owo money fin New York city were to be put into jail, however, there would not be enough lawyers I and judges left to try their cases, or policeI men to guard them. And especially there wouldn't be enough ablj journalists left to

I make a report of them. Yea, verily! Don't we newspaper men know that? I Ludlow Scroet jail is a massive brick structure. Oil the outside it might be taken for a hospital or for a schoolhouse, and it might be taken for a church. The gratings over its windows are slim and aesthetic looking, as though only meant for fly time' or something of that sort It is only when you come quite near to them that you perceive they are massive enough to turn anybody

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But here, too, in course of time, he was brought again. The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they don't let up. Tweed was brought back to Ludlow Street jail,a brokendown, miserable old man, all his jolly rotundity gone, his face showing out in all its animal ugliness. And here at length, when his time camc, he died. May his soul rest in such peaoa as it can. Behind the door above which his name was inscribed ad builder he died a wicked, duhonotedman, with scarcely a friend in the world.

INTERIOR OF JAIL.

All this is old, to be sure. But it naturally comes back to one who visits the old prison and seas that name.

Ludlow Street jail is known as the debtors? prison, though there is a popular superstition that nobody can be imprisoned for debt in the United States. That is true in one sense, not in another. If it can be proved that the debt was contracted with intent to defraud, then the guilty person can be arrested and shut up in Ludlow Street jail till he either pays up or swears lie hasn't anything to pay with. He is allowed to do that, in case of small sums, after being held prisoner three months and fourteen days. He is set free on what is called an order to vacate. The condition, "intent to defraud," however, can be stretched as thin as a politician's conscience.

One curious feature of the inmates is the large number of Hebrews among thsm. Thoy are given to lawing. Sidney Rosanleld, the enterprising manager who produced the comic opera of the "Mikado" without leave, as was alleged, is in there now. He is a talL thin, tather cood-lookinar

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a desperate burglar or

murderer with a file.

.A I/UDLOW STREET JAIL. The" building is about twenty-five years old. It was built by thd board ot supervisors of New York. A gray sandstone tablet set in the wall over the door announces that fact. The names of the supervisors are graven upon the tablet. Among them are names of politicians famous in New York city a quarter of a century gone. The visitor will notice the name of William M. Tweed among them. Without knowing it Tweed was building a house for himself when he helped construct Ludlow Street jail. Little the overgrown fraud knew what was to come in those days at the beginning of his power and riches. Yet it did come. Here William M. Tweed was brought and confined when retribution overtook him. Here, by a mysterious power to this day known only to Tweed's family and his keepers, his dungeon opened and bo walked out. There is an instance of prison doors opening by magic, recorded in the New Testament. But that was white magic. Tweed got out by black magic.

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man, with a long nose and a melancholy faoe. He paces the corridor back and forth as if he was about tired of tnis thing.

The prisoners are allowed considerable time every day in the interior courtyard. A great brilliant bed of crocuses and flowering plants is set in the center. It lights up the place in a daizling way. Several welldressed gentlemen of leisure bung over the benches in a listless way in the yard. They weren't very wicked-looking men in the main, and were olean and fashionably dressed. The fact is if you had passed these gentlemen out and iVee upon Wall street, tar Broadway, or Fifth avenue, you would never have known but they were bankers and stockbrokers and milliouairo importers, the very pillars of society, in short. I hope to be forgiven for saying it, but such is the truth. It makes a difference which side of the bars you are on. And sometimes that's the only difference.

Tho building itself is a sort of hous9 within a house. There is an outer will or shell of »Xlak work nearly two feet thick. It te pierced with many grated windows. Inside, at a distance of about three leet, another

THLL'TARD.

wall is built solid up to the roof. Within this iuuer house are tiers of calls, fifty-eight in all. The doors of the cells are open-work grating at the top, so as to admit the light and air from the outside. The walls are white-washed, and the ventilation is good. But, for all that, it is a heathesish, gloomy place in there. I never will give up, but there ought to bo a woman to superintend the cleaning in every jail and public building. A man's eye can't sea dirt. The Almighty never framed it so that it could. A woman would have had the floors mopped every day, the dust rubbed off, the steamheaters and the towel* and bedding shining white. A woman would have forbidden prisoners to expectorate upon the floor.

A woman would have had the grimy old door handles rubbed up, and the dust and black finger marks cleaned off. She would have given the debtors an object lesson in cleanliness and comfort that would last them their lives. I admit that Ludlow Street jail is as clean as masculine bossing can make it But 1 must be pardoned for adding immediately that that isn't saying muoh. A woman's eye ought to be about there.

Distinguished persons have been entertained as guests of Warden Kiernan. He has held the office twelve years, and has seen the star of many an able financier go up and down. One of theso was Richard M. Connolly, an official and millionaire of the TWOJCI ring. Yet another victim and villain alike of the last smash in Wall street was James D. Fish, ex-president of the ex-Marine bank.

FISH'S CELL.

A year and a half ago, and whoso high or so "swell" as he? Very grand society he moved in. Now he is learning the shoemaker's trade at Auburn penitentiary, with a cropped head and a striped suit. Criminals occasionally do get punished in the last year or two, you will observe, in New York. Fifty-six years old is well on in life to be learning a trade, but it is never too late to mend. An honest cobbler is a good deal more respectable than a dishonest bnnir president.

While Fish was in jail' last spring his beautiful and gifted young wife, Bailie Re* ber, died in a mysterious manner in an obscure and shabby little house in New Jersey. One fact in connection with her death is not generally known. That was that when her corpse was brought to Jersey City to be shipped west for burial it was almost without clothing. There was only a single undergarment upon the body, and that torn and soiled, and so coarse in fabric that she would never have been apt to wear such. Either she was nearly destitute of clothing pr her dead body had been robbed stripped of its garments!

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But the most notorious prisdrier now Ludlow Street jail is F«r£!&ao£ Want, cue minister's son, of 'tne old urm or -Srcr* Ward. Only for him Gen. Grant- might have been yet alive. Cancer attaoks the unfortunate, the unhappy and those broken by finanoial disaster and family troubles, an eminent medical authority declares. If on tne days immediately following Gen. Grant's death the Grand Army men could have got at Ferdinand Ward they would have torn him asunder, it is said. And small wonder. They recall with execration the man who dragged the honored name of their old commander in the dust. There were graybearded men who shed tears silently at sight of the impressive funeral pageant that attended to the grave the remains of "the old man," as they still affectionately call him. But not many tears does young Mr. Ferdinand Ward shed. Not he! He is quite cheerful, jolly indeed. He lives luxuriously in the rooms occupied by his illustrious predecessor, Tweed. If the spook of the late Tweed haunts the place that doesn't trouble him. Everything that money can buy is his to command. And Gen. Grant died of cancer, a broken-hearted man. His rooms are separated by an arch in the center, quite the fashionable thing. His wife and child com* to visit him, and one friend. Besides these he will see nobody but his lawyers, aad will not open his mouth. Not even a reporter can get to see him, although one newspaper correspondent declares that he obtained' the privilege recently. The keepers told him that the prisoner could not be got at. But then he says he tipped" one of them. This person was open to argument, if not to conviction. (Conviction is not a pretty word to use in this connection.)

Thereupon the enterprising oorrespondent

was permitted to rater a suit* of rooms which, on the outside, bore the legend: "Warden's Room. No Admittance." Th* apartment was neatly fitted up with Brussels carpet and well furnished. Ward sat there leading a newspaper and "looking exceedingly bored." So says the newspaper letter. But then nobody imows. New York journalists are, many of them, the ablest writers of fiction in the universal world.

Ward's trial will come off in October, it is laid. He gets out occasionally on court business, as a witness, etc. He is guarded on such occasions and brought back by the warden. Rumor also declares he gets out at other times, to takes drives in the park and go on little larks. But, again, nobody knows. One thing is oertain. His lawyers will not permit him to be tried till the feelings wrought up by the death of Gen. Grant have in some measure died away. It is believed he has some Of the lost millions snugly tucked away. At all events, he has plenty of money. Beside captives confined in Ludlow Street jail on account of money matters, United States prisoners are brought

FERDINAND WARD.

there to await trial. Here are kept counter feitors, illicit merchants who smuggle silks and wines, as well as the two-penny fraud who brings a bit of lace over the water in her cloak lining. Convicts also occasionally serve out short sentences here.

You have heard of the mythical person who got rich by minding his own business. Well, there was'one such a person, and it was a woman. She was caught and caged in Ludlow Street jail, and her name was Becky Jones. We were shown the cell where this marvel of a woman, who could keep her mouth shut, was kept It was a roomy compartment on the ground floor, looking*out upon the street Down a narrow strip of wall, beginning at the top, were pasted large figures, commencing at 1. Becky had pasted a numbar there for every week she had been kept in durance. The last number was 45. She was there nearly a year. To every attempt to make her tell what she knew, she would only answer: "Mr. Hamersley said to me on his deathbed, 'Becky, hold your tongue.' And I'm going to do it."

Do it she did. At last she worried the opposition out, and everybody else, and one morning a quiet order released her, and in a flash Becky was missing. She has never turned up since, although it is said she is at Ballston Spa living in very handsome style, which goes to indicate that silence is truly golden. Becky's room was decorated by herself in

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TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA, THURSDAYJAUGUST 27. 1885. TWO PARTS: PART SECOND.

fantastic manner. Pic

tures, chromos, steel and wood engravings and fashion patterns are pasted over nearly every square inch of the dark walls, from high to low. She mounted a ladder when she got above her head with this pasting work, and went on up. The room is a curious sight. Crazy quilt pictures were a favorite design, with Beoky.

There was one prisoner wnose crime 1 was puzzled to place exactly. I am uncertain about it still. A woman had sued another woman for heavy damages for alienating the affections of her husband. She had clapped tha offending rival in Ludlow Street jail. One thought if a woman who was as unprepossessing as this one could alienate the affections of any wife's husband, then what must the wife hate baen? She was a great rawboned. flop-eared womaa, who was drowning her grief by paring potatoes, or something of that sort. A. man who would allow his affections to be alienated by a woman who looked like that ought to b« shut up in Lu^Uow Street jail himself. 4 ELIZA ABCHA*D.

••4 ant Solemn. i'v Btoll River Advance.]

It Is a sad and solemn thought that Frank* Undid not discover lightning unttf iftir he was married.

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TWO CITIES BY THE SEA

ASBURY PARK AND OCEAN GROVE, (NEW JERSEY.

Twin Temperance Towns Where Prohibition Is the Manna Cliarta and Swnltary Laws tlie Moial Code.

Opening of Camp Meeting.

-.••-i [Special Correspondence.! ASBURY

PARK, Aug. 19.—I am just paying

a flying visit to these twin cities by the sea, Ooean Grove and Asbury Park. They wore born about 1870, and two such examples of rapid and healthy growth it would be hard to find. Here are two cities covering about 880 acres, with a population at present of about 40,000 people, that fifteen years ago did not contain forty. What was the attraction, you may ask, that brought theso communities together, to which might be answered, propriety. This population flocked here not for gold or for any other great find, nor for any special advantage which this spot possesses as a health resort over several hundred miles of similarly located ooast in the vicinity of New York, but bccause the founders of these colonies promised that here should be cities that would be sanitarily and morally clean, as far as town ordinances could make them.

PIONEER COTTAGE, OCEAN GROVE. Ocean Grove was built around a camp meeting, it might bo said. A floral urn marks the spot where the finit camp meeting was held at Ocean Grove. It bears the following inscription:

Site qfthe First Meeting, •"•JHeld at Ocean Grove July 31, 1809. It consisted of twenty persons.

In the beginning God."

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To-day I stood in the auditorium while the camp meeting was in progress and would judge the preacher's words reached 6,000 people.

Now, in regard to Asbury Park, an jdea of its growth and present prosperity may be gained from the fact that in 1869 Asbury Park was assessed for $15,000 while the assessed valuation in 1884 was over $2,000,000.

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KA* OF ASBURY PARK AND OCEAN GROVX. As will be seen by the above map the two cities border on the Atlantic coast for about two miles and are separated by Wesley lake. Asbury Park was founded by James A. Bradley, who was inspired with the idea of building a town in which temperance* should be the main feature and where some sanitary theories he held could be practically demonstrated. These sanitary measures are now incorporated in a printed code which would cover one page of this paper and relate to everything from food and drink to marriages, births and deaths. Just how the latter are regulated by this penal code I am not able to say, though I believe there Is no social problem that the father of this colony does not feel competent to solve. In fact, in this sanitary code is the law which governs the town.

The 500 acres on which the town is built was laid out in streets averaging 100 feet in width. The-streets leading to the ocean widen near the water, as if an immense wedge had been driven into them there and withdrawn. The lots meagnro. 50. by,JOG 'ft »v* •«.

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feet, and as tuey were originally sola wivu a proviso that the owner should build, all are occupied.

The'Cottages rang* in cost from $1,000 to $10,000, and are usually plainly built, but lnevitablj with a veranda encircling the house, and sometimes with one for each story. On these verandas, hammocks and red painted rocking chairj are the rule. Here the residents spend their time between meals, and in this connection I might state positively, the truth of a rumor current in the press that black hosiery was in fashion. At least it is on Asbury Park verandas.

The noticeable features of these resorts are the healtby appearance of the people, and the great number of doctors' Bigns the considerable darky population/and tha almost entire absence of Hebrews. Among those you meet, you will notice the well-to-do mechanic, the small iradesman, the quiet and retired merchant, and a large sprinkling of ministers. Taken all together, it r- v'.^

would be hard to find on our continent fairer repr J3entative American community.

FERRY ACROSS WESLEY LAKE. The auditorium in which the camp meet? ing is held is a handsome and airy structure with a seating capacity for 5,000 people Surrounding it on all sides are tents, one of the distinctive features of this resort Tho annual camp meeting began yesterday to last ten days. While listening to aa exhortation to-day my mind drifted back to the camp meetings of my early days held in the old Virginny woods "befo' de wah." I Could not help coptrast the earnestness and fervency of those gatherings with tha apparent indifference to spiritual consola* tion evidenced bv that vast audience to-day. The trials of those long ago camp meetings fighting mosquitoes through the day and searching and picking out of the flesh woodticks during the night, while we sat cm the sod or hard pieces of timber, growing harder the longer we sat. But theso very obstacles seemed to inspire enthusiasm and devotion. While here at Ocean Grove with every appliance for comfort that lbgenuity could suggest or money procurtf under the most favorable auspices, nothing is seen of that sudden awakening to religious conviction so common a quarter century ago. Can it be that our people are less demonstrative, or is it another illustration of the contrariness of human nature, the more obstacles between us and our desires the more anxious are we to reach them.

But then I find ou inquiry that the number of persons who embrace Christianity through the efforts of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting association for one year are about.3^0..

PISHING PIER, ASBURY PARK. No liquor is allowed to be sold within a mile of Ocean Grove or Asbury Park. One buying a lot at either place must covenant never to sell liquor on the premises. In case he breaks the agreement the property reverts to the original owner. Stiff? Cast iron isn't the word. Nevertheless, the sun is very hot and bright down there. It shines on the just with a glare only broken by the grateful shade trees. This bright, fierce sun burns the complexion scarlet Tlie nose is the most prominent feature of the face, going ahead of all the rest. The noses cf persons exposed to this light in constant outdoor life will ba baked a fiery red, bathed in crimson, so to speak. That is the reason why the nosei of the Asbury Park policemen are red, very red. This peculiar fact will impress the visitor at sight.

Your correspondent investigated the matter of liquor-selling closely. He found there was no humbug about it, unless you understood a certain Masonic formula. Then it could be bought "Suppose," said he to a good-natured policeman, "a strange newspaper man should come here and be very tired and not feel very well can you tell me^vhere he could get something that would do him good?"

The policemen looked pityingly upon the stranger and replied, "go to bed and send for a doctor."

This accounts for the numoer of toctor'a signs'you see everywhere, possibly. The reverend president of Ocean Grove is a sturdy example of the old-fashioned di vina He is a native of New Jersey, is 70 years old, forty of which have been spent in the ministry.

Tho last report of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting association felicitates the organization on the favorable tone newspaper notices of the enterprise have taken of late years. The comment once "so carpingly and so raspingly administered" is now, the report mentions, "as fulsome asauyoould wisfc.''.

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RET. I. .H. STOKES.

"An ordinance should be passed prohibiting under penalty the passing through our streets in any kind of bathing attire, unless entirely covered by & gossamer or cloak fully to the feet."

The.good man does not state who or what should be covered fully to the feet, but it is evident that his intentions are the best, and his wish should be heeded. It recalls the famous Mother Hubbard ordinance of tha Illinois sheriff.

TENT LIFE, OCEAN GROVE.

Another fashion of Ocean Grove looks a little queer to the world's people. A common siza for the tents at the campground is 13x14 feet. Beds are packed into these side by side and head to heal in the most eurious way. There doo3 not seem to be much more spaca for privacy or separation of the sexes in the notorious New York tenement houses so much complained of. The question is here: If this sort of thing is a disgrace in the tenement house, is it a credit at Oc9an Grove?

At Oceaii Grove no dancing is allowed. On Sunday the blue laws are enforced. Bathing is forbidden. Horses are not allowed to even walk its streets. As the land is only leased to the builders of cottages any regulation of the Methodist church can be carried out. Much comment was caused recently by the refusal by the president of Ocean Grove to permit the service? of the Episcopal church to be held in a private house within (he limits of the grove. The good old Dr. Stokes realized that if he should rilax the rules for one sect he would be pestered with similar applications from all the other shades of creeds to Bob Ingersoll himself, which obliged him to draw the line.

THE PROMENADE.

Aflidhg the great throng on the promenada oar good friend the Methodist is largely in the majority. Tbey are easily distinguished, though their personal characteristics arc undergoing a change. Our Methodist grandfathers wore a full beard. Their sous removed the beard from tha upper lip when they advanced in years, but the present middle-aged Methodist is inclined to t» close shaven, which is going back to the primitive fashion inaugurated by Wesley. With the three generations of femalei found on the teach you will notice the grandmother spectacled and thin, the mother uncomfortably stout, while the daughter is plump and graceful.

To close, thesa two cities are sanitarily clean and temperate, but the huddling together of people in small tents, and the fashion ladies have of promenading and being photographed in bathing costume? must be discontinued before they will reach the high moral plane. which their founders intended they should occupy.

S. H. HORQAN.

V* -Dog Cheap." fChicago Paper.]

Nothing so well shows that there is revival of business in the south as the jkct that a Florida man was able to trade artvhia nrinting ortice for a mule Either or mules are dog cheap in Florida.

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