Sluggers and Politicians

THE GANGS OF NEW YORK--An Informal History of the Underworld--Herbert Asbury--Knopf ($4.00).

That five gangsters have recently threatened the life of Author Asbury, who also wrote Up From Methodism, indicates the deadly accuracy of his exhaustive history. Fortunately for Mr. Asbury, he knows the gangs of today have lost their former prowess, that their reputation is falsely bolstered by the sporadic brawls and killings of quite another species--the bootlegger and dope-dealer.

With the first great wave of immigration, a century ago, the gangster appeared in Manhattan's congested "Five Points" and "Paradise Square," near the Tombs of today. Collect Pond was draining so poorly into the canal that is now a street, that respectable citizens left the swamps to low-class Irish and Negroes, companions in debauch. Fighting in their undershirts, with brickbats, bludgeons, paving stones, knives and guns, the sluggers ganged up: Plug Uglies, Dead Rabbits (then slang for rowdy toughs), Shirt Tails, Roach Guards, Gophers. Besides aimless roughhouse, just for the hell of it, they conducted elaborate hold-ups with prostitutes as decoys, robbed ships in the harbor, pilfered the Hudson coast villages, wreaked vengeance on interfering rival gangs, and assisted forcefully at Tammany elections. This valuable service was munificently rewarded by police connivance, practical immunity from prison, and a generally healthful atmosphere for thugs and thuggery.

Hardly less contemptible than the politicians were well-meaning preachers who hired gambling dens for prayer-meetings, and bribed notorious gangsters to attend. Amused and contemptuous, the gangs whirled merrily on down the broad way that leadeth to destruction, their activities culminating in the wholesale looting and burning and carnage known as the 1863 Draft Riots (Lincoln's conscription decree).

This vivid expose of gambling dens and brothels, with their picaresque inmates, falls short of melodrama without losing excitement. The faithful account of all the greatest gang leaders sometimes runs to a monotony of horrors, but is soon varied with naive tong wars, and prosperous "fences"--fat women who bought and sold the loot of robbers.