e station, the arrests being the result of the ignorant zeal
or malice of the patrolmen, and the prisoners being guiltless of any
offence.

The population of New York is unlike that of any other American city. It
is made up of every nationality known to man. The majority of the people
are very poor. Life with them is one long unbroken struggle, and to
exist at all is simply to be wretched. They are packed together at a
fearful rate in dirt and wretchedness, and they have every incentive to
commit crimes which will bring them the means of supplying their wants.
It is a common habit of some European governments to ship their criminals
to this port, where they have a new field opened to them. The political
system of the city teaches the lower class to disregard all rights,
either of property or person, and, indeed, clothes some of the most
infamous criminals with an amount of influence which is more than
dangerous in their hands, and shields them from punishment when detected
in the commission of crime. All these things considered, the wonder is
not that the criminal class of the city is as large as it is; but that it
is not larger and more dangerous.

The truth is, that the class generally known as Professional Criminals
number about 3000. Besides these, there are about 5000 women of
ill-fame, known as such, living in 600 houses of prostitution, and
frequenting assignation and bed-houses, about 7000 rum shops, 92 faro
banks, and about 500 other gambling houses, and lottery and policy
offices, within the limits of the City of New York.

The professional criminals are those who live by thieving, and who
occasionally vary their career by the commission of a murder or some
other desperate crime. They rarely resort to violence, however, unless
it becomes necessary to ensure their own safety. Then they make their
work as simple and as brief as possible. They form a distinct community,
frequent certain parts of the city, where they can easily and rapidly
communicate with each other, and where they can also hide from the police
without fear of detection. They have signs by which they may recognize
each other, and a language, or _argot_, peculiar to themselves. Those
who have been raised to the business use this argot to such an extent
that to one not accustomed to it they speak in an unknown tongue. The
following specimens, taken from the "Detective's Manual," under the head
of the letter B, will illustrate this: