am
streets.

The name, Peter Funk, is said to have been that of the founder of their
system; but I know nothing more of his career. At this date, in 1862,
the system was in a high state of organization and success, and included
the following constituents:

1. Eight chief Funks, or capitalists, and managers, whose names are well
enough known. I have them on record.

2. About as many more salesmen, who took turns with the chiefs in
selling and clerking.

3. Seventy or eighty, rank and file, or ropers-in. These acted the part
of buyers, like the purchaser whose delight over his watch helped to
deceive the minister and the other bidders on that occasion. These
fellows dressed up as countrymen, sailors, and persons of miscellaneous
respectability. They bid and talked when that was sufficient, or helped
the managers thrash any troublesome person, if necessary. Once in a long
time they met their match; as, for instance, when the mate of a ship
brought up a squad of his crew, burst into one of their dens, and beat
and battered up the whole gang within an inch of their lives. But, in
most cases, the reckless infamy of these dregs of city vice gave them an
immense advantage over a decent citizen; for they could not be defiled
nor made ridiculous, and he could.

4. Two or three traders in cheap jewelry and fancy-goods supplied the
Funks with their wares. One of these fellows used to sell them fifty or
a hundred dollars' worth of this trash a day; and he lamented as much
over their untimely end as the Ephesian silversmiths did over the loss
of their trade in shrines.

5. A lawyer received a regular salary of $1,200 a year to defend all the
Funk cases.

6. The city politicians, in office and out of it, who were wont to
receive the aid of the Funks (a very energetic cohort) at elections, and
who in return unscrupulously used both power and influence to keep them
from punishment.

All this cunning machinery was brought to naught and New York relieved
of a shame and a pest by the courage, energy, perseverance, and good
sense of one Yankee officer--Russell Wells, a policeman. Mr. Wells took
about six months to finish up his work. He began it of his own accord,
finding that the spirit of the police regulations required it;
prosecuted the undertaking without fear or favor, finding not very much
support from the judicial authorities, and sometimes actual and direct
discouragement. His method was to mount guard over one auction s