204 The New York Police Force 



a few bureaus which were administered with more 

 or less efficiency, although dishonestly. But the 

 corruption had become so widespread as seriously to 

 impair the work of administration, and to bring us 

 back within measurable distance of the days of 

 Tweed. 



The chief centre of corruption was the Police De- 

 partment. No man not intimately acquainted with 

 both the lower and humbler sides of New York life 

 for there is a wide distinction between the two 

 can realize how far this corruption extended. Ex- 

 cept in rare instances, where prominent politicians 

 made demands which could not be refused, both pro- 

 motions and appointments toward the close of Tam- 

 many rule were made almost solely for money, and 

 the prices were discussed with cynical frankness. 

 There was a well-recognized tariff of charges, rang- 

 ing from two or three hundred dollars for appoint- 

 ment as a patrolman, to twelve or fifteen thousand 

 dollars for promotion to the position of captain. 

 The money was reimbursed to those who paid it by 

 an elaborate system of blackmail. This was chiefly 

 carried on at the expense of gamblers, liquor-sellers, 

 and keepers of disorderly houses ; but every form of 

 vice and crime contributed more or less, and a great 

 many respectable people who were ignorant or timid 

 were blackmailed under pretence of forbidding or 

 allowing them to violate obscure ordinances and the 

 like. From top to bottom the New York police force 

 was utterly demoralized by the gangrene of such a 

 system, where venality and blackmail went hand in 



