AN EPIDEMIC OF CRIME.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8546, 2 October 1907, Page 3

AN EPIDEMIC OF CRIME.

INFURIATED POPULACE. The epidemic of crimes against "women and children in New York has had the effect of lashing the whole city into a fury whicli is finding vent in a number of attempts at lynching. Innocent and guilty are suffering alike before the storm of blind rage, and many deaths are likely to result. On Sunday, August 4th, a woman, -seeing a youth seize her 14 year-old sister and try to force her down an -alley, rushed into a crowd of excursionists who had just landed from a steamer. Gesticulating wildly, she shrieked, "Save my sister. Lynch that man." Everybody started to run, and soon cries of "Lyneh him!" rang through the entire neighbourhood. A young man at the head of the crowd, .Louis Concanuh, who was participating in the pursuit, was mistaken for the assailant. He was knocked down, -kicked, and mortally injured before the mob discovered that the real assailant of the little girl was a 15-.year-old boy named Tony Dolesio.

A still more serious outbreak occurred about the same time in East 29th Street, George Kestner, a Swede, being nearly put to death. According to the police, the man is a maniac, and this knowledge, coupled with the suspicion that Kestner had ill-treated two little girls, aroused the quarter where tne Swede lived. Kestner swore that he was not guilty, but he lived in the district where children had been maltreated. The children's father, a man named Hamburg, suspected Kestner, and that was enough. The cry went through the neighbourhood like wildfire; men and women came from the big tenements, and on every side there was the same yell: "Kill the fiend! Lynch him!" The women joined the men in the attack, throwing stones and spitting at the shivering wretch. THROWN UNDER A TRAM. When Policeman Walsh came the men fell back, but the women tore Kestner from the constable's grasp. If Kestner is a lunatic he was not mad enough not to appreciate his danger. Spitting blood, his teeth gone, his body covered with cuts and bruises, ha stood by ,the policeman trembling with fear. The mob wanted this assailant of children to die without the law's delay. A policeman's son appeared with the club his father had once swung, and attempted to assist Walsh. The club was wrested from him and he was beaten with it. Walsh was cast aside as though he had been an infant. The big Swede was taken up in the arms of the men and carried to a fast-approaching tramcar. "Hurl him under it! Grind him to bits!" the men yelled. Just at this moment the driver brought the car to a standstill. The mob surged about the car, the passengers tried to leave, fearing personal harm, but it wa<s impossible so great was the crowd ' about them. They were .hemmed in.

Someone came with a rope, and the yell .went.-up," "Now, we'll hang him." The Swede was dragged to the nearest lamp-post, stumbling, begging and shrieking from fright. Then came the police reserves. Every head that showed was hit with a club. It was a hard fight these reserves had, but they fought as •trained men. The mob fell back, ■with the exception of the three leaders. They were arrested. Kestner was taken to the station. There the mob gathered again. Kest■ner was then removed to the Presbyterian Hospital, more dead than alive. The three leaders of the mob were also attended by an ambulance surgeon, and then carted down to the police court, where the simple charge was made against them of "trying to take a prisoner from the police." JKestner is not expected to recover. HATPIN AS DEFENCE.

' At Williamsburg, late in the evening, Miss Sadie Hasenflug, a tall and attractive girl of nineteen, mete of Senator Hasenflug, was walking in a lonely street with her fiance, MiMichael Cann, when the couple were assailed by two Italians. The gin pluckily drew a hatpin and stabbed her assailant so vigorously that he shrieked with pain. The Italians fled, .and after a hot chase 'were captured by.-Policeman Drum, with the aid of .a big crowd. But when Drum was about to lead the prisoners to the police station, the mob, led by Mr August Goebel, a wealthy butcher, interfered, demanding the instant .execution of the men on the nearest; lamp-post. Not until Drum levelled his revolver was he allowed to ■escort his captives to the station. From police records it appears that altogether thirteen women ana children were attacked on one day in the etreets of Greater New York. Indignation at the apparent supineness of the authorities is everywhere at white heat. One sees examples of private vengeance on all sides. For instance a motor 'bus crowded with sightseers ran over and killed a boy on the Bowery. Mobs surrounded the car, attempted to set fire to it, and threw bottles at the occupants, in whkh people in the windows of neighbouring houses joined. The panicstricken tourists fled for their lives, chased by an army of Greeks, Germans, and Poles. The same afternoon saw several other instances of the temper of the people. Miss May Mace, aged twenty-six, was standing in the doorway of her home in Seventh Avenue, when she was invited by a stranger to accom--1 pany him to a restaurant for an ice. On her refusal he promptly kissed her, and then fled. He was pursued by a crowd through several streets, knocked down and was being kicked to death when a squad of police charged to his rescue, and conveyed him to the hospital. There is a noticeable increase in the number of cases of hysteria under treatment by the doctors, and this is accounted for by the excitement under which nervous women are labouring in the poorer quarters of the city.