Newspaper Page Text
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t
W8&8S
<joe and the truck-horse.
DETECTIVE
THE BURGLARS
GARSON ft
P" THE ^
MAN )
WITH
THE
, MAXIM
\5ILENCERT
\ ❖ J
TAb CBOOK
longs for more excitement | with two inches of your orchestra
pta the final exploit which | chair if they let you cling to the seat
.pills t'..e leans.” aa they in front. IJut In the midst of the bur-
“Eng- glary Mary Turner arrives, striving to
Griggs, with whom he for- | prevent it. Joe discovers that he is in
trap, surrounded by police, who
,-aiting in the next roora and at the
!reet door. He learns that “English Ed-
ie“ is a stool pigeon who is about to
ignal to his blue coated confederates.
Showing the Curious Character
Study of Joe Garson,“TheMan
With the Maxim Silencer
In “Within the L.
T here are
crooks.
By far the greater number
of criminals In the world i
defectives. They aro born with some
thing laoking—without a fair share
of intelligence, without the proper
physical strength for the battle of life,
without a natural sense of right
wrong, always without something vital
which is required to tako advantage
of that opportunity which has been
called "tho meaning of the republic.*'
If not bred to it from infancy they
drift naturally to tho underworld and
eventually form the bulk of tho prison
population. Just becauso they i
fectlves—lessor, weaker, abnormal mon
and women--!ho rout of society Is not
Interested in them, though they may be
pitied and on occasion feared. They
are the special study of the psycholo
gist, the criminologist, tho penologist.
But thore la another sort of crook—
the one who leads a criminal life from
choice. He is the Interesting type be
cause a struggle Is always interesting.
He deliberately pits himself against i
ciety and gambles on his superior abll-
he does win, because society is much
more ruthless than the criminal which
attacks It. Almost Invariably he pays,
and pays double, though It may be a
deferred payment But every now and
then a man of this type “gambles
magnificently.”
Now, a curious thing about this
crook from choice—nine times out of
ten and deep down in his heart he is a
deep dyed,, inveternto sentimentalist.
Few people who don't know crooks—
and In the very nature of things few
of us can afford to have a wide circle
of cronies among criminals—believe
this. But those who foully understand
ths criminal know it is so.
Ths Sentimental Touch.
In the first place, the crook from
choice has to have Imagination. He
couldn’t start out with the idea that he
could make the world over if he wasn't
a little top heavy with Imagination,
because he marts out, with ima-
uflnme. after something he
possib:/ gt't—that Is, a single
|||||||^PIIK£d victory over the rest. of the
^^^>Porld—he Is forever longing for all the
othsr things he can never have. Your
fa*" smug little, methodical little clerk
SOfely snsconced in his New York fiat,
Stikrotindcd by his children, adored by
his dutiful wife, never loved his h.
half as much as your high
loves tho imaginary home he knowi
Will never see. We appreciate all
things in this life by contrast. Who-
evor heard of a burglar, for Instance,
hurting a child? Every now and then
you see in the newspapers some “hu
man interest'' story of a housebreak
relinquishing a rich “bunch of swag”
because he happened to be interrupted
in his work by some innocent child.
Generally the papers point to Incidents
like this as remarkable, quite not to be
.. expected, as it were. To one who un-
' demands the Sentimental Crook it Is
tho most natural thing in the world.
Ever since Victor Hugo wrote his
' drama of “Hernanl." the bandit who
tried to make a lone fight of it against
the rest of mankind, the crook from
i choice has been a favorite theme of
playwrights. But no playwright has
“he Is only afraid of what he cant
see." Accordingly he goes to work l.k»
a brass buttoned Bciasco to etag t; a
little scene for the special benefit of
Joe Oarson.
Getting a Confession./
The Inspector's office opens by three
long windows upon a corridor
with cells. He removes from tho room
all the chairs except his own and on,
other. This other stands facing
corridor. The Inspector gives direc
tions that while he is interviewing
Garson. Joe's accomplices one by one
be placed in the cells outside.
When Joe is brought In the Inspector
appears to be writing, and he greet*
the slayer in a casual tone. Juo nit*
down nervously and while trying to
make some effort at connected convvr*
sation sees his pals one by one shut
behind barred doors. The effect iajust
as expected. His nerves give way, on ,j
he becomes violent, demanding his re
lease. The Inspoctor suddenly pro.
duces the revolver with its sll. ru ,. r
accusing Joe of the murder. Garson
it tempestuously. Sudden!) tl„
Innnc«*tor takes another tnek -.p
to admit that Joe is innocent ana ac
cuses Mary Turner, who is at once
brought before him. At this tense nio.
ment one of his underlings (as pr. vi-
ouly instructed) steps in with the an
nouncement that Joe's accomplices
have “squealed," evidently meaning
that they have also accused Mary.
This Is too much for Joe.
It!", he almost scream*
Deceived by his imagination, tricked
through his sentimentality!
It is in tho more complete confession
that follows that Joe’s character ns the
Sentimental Crook appears in shining
verisimilitude. Before he will utter
another word Joe stipulates that Mary
and her young husband, who is also
held In the toils, shall go free. As soon
as he expresses a disposition to con
fess, the Inspector, true to his own
type, has lost all personal nnimn-ity
against the slayer and is ready
enough to agree to anything.
angry thought t!
of Jlfo. He is u creation, mixed with
the very elements of Hie.
Reporter Versus Crook.
Mr. Veillcr before ho took to writing
plays did newspaper work from coast
to coast- from San Francisco to New
York. It is tho reporter who learns the
truth about the criminal classes. The
policeman either hunts them or takes
graft from them, tho criminologist
gathers facts about them, but the re
porter becomes acquainted with them,
chats with them, sometimes even
*'pals" with them when they happen to
bo honorable, upright, self respecting
ertjoks. The policeman wants to know
where the crook is or “how much he's
got." Tho scientist wants to know
why he steals or kills, who his family
were and whether or not ho has the
right sort of lobes to his ears. Tho
reporter seeks to learn what ho thinks
and feels—that is. he does If he has
any ambition above recording the mere
sensation of the day and longs to
writo humanly, comprehendingiy and
truly. And Mr. Velller happened to
be that sort of reporter.
YVdOE’S
^S/FINAL
PARTING WITH MARY
Wu» «• V vI
artist. It pleased him more to do such
artistic pleco of work In raising a
check that he couldn't bo convicted
than to get the more money involved.
In fact, Joe never had been convicted.
Tho police knew all about him, but
trap In time, and the bird al
tered Jauntily away. Ironical!
ing his fingers fr»:
haps. In the case of a bird It would be
better to say stretching his wing from
his beak. When Detective Cassidy—
“the truck horse detective with the!
eighteen collar and the six and a half'
'*—springs Joe’s record of arrests
him and tells him that he hus to
“beat It" away from N%w York the
forger calmly usks:
You haven’t got anything there
about a conviction, have you?"
8aved by a Criminal.
Joe first appears in “Within the
aw" as the rescuer of Marv Turner,
the department store girl, who was
wrongfully convicted of theft und sent
to prison. When she served her term
and came out tho poliro hounded her
so thut one dark night Nhe tried to
writ© “finis" to her career by jumping
into the North river, lfut Joe Garson
happened to be around and, acting on
a sudden, generous impulse, plunged,
In and dragged her out. j ^
When Joe saved Mary Tumor he
saved a very superior brain. In tune j
Mary, burning for revenge against her the truth of It, Just
former employer, worked out a scheme
for coaxing other people's money out
of their pockets that for returns and
safety had anything Joe had ever tried
"hacked up on a spur," as little Aggie
Lynch, the serio-comic blackmailer or
the play, would have expressed it It
simply demanded that the gang of
which Mary was constituted the head
should stay '‘within the law." never
work without the adviye of an experi
enced attorney who would point out
the perilous path 10 immunity and in
general conduct their operations in
much the same way as our brilliantly
essfai. but noue too scrupulous,
ENGLISH EDDIE LAYS HIS PROPOSITION BEFORE oOE AND MARY
In the case of
Aggie, was that it wasn’t
ugh for him. He needed
i of taut stretched nerves,
nd daring chances
high financiers.
ever bad a more sympathetic under- Now*, the curious part of it all is that.
Standing of the Sentimental; Criminal despite the money coming In and the
Bayard Veiiler, who wrote the in- helpless chagrin of the police. Joe
,1 success "Within the Law." j soured on the game. He said he was
Joe Garson, "the man with the i worried about the “cops’’—afrahl the
to make his work a real pleasure to
him—an artistic pleasure.
The *axim Silencer.
Otherwise, why did he get the Maxim
silencer? Tho work he did for Mary
Turner was perfectly safe; he wouldn't
need a revolver in a thousand years.
But it was an artistic pleasure for Joe
to bo the Unit crook in history to huve
his revolver fitted with the littlu^n-
:■-trument that put tho ^ t in qulejl It
was made for a professor hi Yal/wliu
wished to conduct some experiments
with it. but Joe got it at a “fence" In
Boston, where it had been disposed of
after the professor’s house hud been
burglarized.
he second act of “Within the
with more pride than Mr. Houseandlot j tential thievea\ would have a pretty
could iH*s«ii»ly exhibit In parading his good chance to escape prosecution—
first automobile before the neighbors, the millionaire would incriminate hlm-
Incldentally this Is one of the best ; self in complaining against them, but
pieces of “planting." as it is technically j Mary doesn’t like the look of the* thing,
called, the recent stage offers. It is the j It is breaking the law, and that is Just
playwright s purpose to show that. ; what she is determined not to do. Con-
•llence'*." U *u> r^la fleet lop ; would “framr" Mary and all t^t But I Law" Joe *hows Mary treasure
fitted with tHist curious instrument, a
revolver can l>© discharged without a
sound. Joe makes that claim for it,
hut Mary doesn't believe him. He in
sists upon proving it to her and offers
to bet her the best pa% of the con
tents of a candy store that she can't
tell when he fires It. He makes good.
Standing across the room of their lux
uriously appointed apartment, ho aims
the weapon, and then suddenly, with
out a sound from the pistol, without
oven a puff of smoke, a vase on the
tabic opposite bursts into fragments.
It’s rather uncanny.
And Just because Joe frets under the
restraint of Mary's system of onera-
S'-ouently she promptly turns down
•'English Eddie's” proposition. Not so
Joe.
Mistaken Zeal.
Behind Mary's back he goes Into the
scheme, laboring under the highly Im-
uginuiive delusion that ho can get
away with it and make enough out of
the “trick” to build nice marble cot
tages on Easy street ror Alary, him-
pclf and Aggie. Perhaps way down
under the surface he is also yearning
for a chance to test the new silencer.
Ho certainly gets that. The third
act of "Within the Law" Is far too ex
citing to tell about—a swift, compel-
l 1 "* i**»#.rval that makes you content
volver with its silencer—-well, there la
no use saying It "barks." for there Isn’t
a sound. but the stool pigeon flings his
arms into the air, whirls once and
crumples to the floor.
The police hear nothing, of course,
but the silence of the murder saves
Joe only a little while. He escapes,
but the police collar him the next day.
In the meantime . Mary Turner has
been arrested and Is held, ostensibly
for the murder, though the Police In
spector has a pretty shrewd idea that
Joe is the real slayer. His pet stool
pigeon being dead, however, he can’t
even prove that Joe Garson entered
the house. A confession is the only
thing that will serve his purpose. *
And right at this point Air. Veiiler
does a bit of playw righting which
shows him familiar with police meth
ods clear down to the ground. The
Inspector knows that Joe is “a crook
*ith imagination," and be figures that
“I shot 'English Eddie' because li*
was a skunk and a stool pigeon,” says
Joe. "I croaked him Just as he was
going to call the bulls with a police
whistle.- • t had a gun with smokeless
powder. It had a Maxim silencer on
It, so that It didn't mal^e any noise.”
Here he pauses. His next sentence
!s nothing less than the boast of the
artist:
"Say, I’ll bet It’s the first time a guy
was ev%r croaked with one of them
things! Ain't it?"
The Artist's Pride,
When the Inspector gravely agrees,
Joe adds:
"Some class to that, eh? Ray, that
thing cost me 580, and it’s worth **v»-rvr
cent of the money. • • • Why. they'll
remember me aa the first to spring "tie
of them things, won't they?'* /
It occurs to Joe that his exploit
though it will cost him his life, will
get him a lot of notoriety in the papers.
He remembers that his last picture tn
the Rogues' Gallery is ten years old.
taken when he was wearing a beaM.
With considerable pride he arrant
with the Inspector to have sonic n« w
ones taken. It is the first of his final
(prangements that he thinks of.
But it is 1q his parting with Mary
that the True Sentimentalist crops up.
The girl, conscious at last that >!•"
can't “beat the law,” as the Imq>'” r
puts it, and with the full realization <-f
what her most loyal lieutenant is t** •
ing, breaks down completely.
“That's all right, Mary! That's •»!!
right,” Jpe .ipummrs rather huski•>.
patting her hand and Indicating l* r
husband. "He’ll take cafe of > '"•
He’ll look after you! Why, I’d llk« t<>
see the two of you with about thre*
kiddles playing round the house."
And with this domestic picture *
picture be bad never bd*a aide to p’ ,int
for himself, glowing before bis *i n‘
eyes, he summons all his sartg fr**»J.
throws back his shoulders snd with i
simple “So long!" stalks out of t* 1 *
room to spend ths rest of bis 1101*-’ •“
earth in a cell.
He Is the Sentimental Crook to the