It is a fact that the late James Fisk, Jr., was appointed by Judge Barnard, of New York, receiver of a railway (the Albany and Susquehanna) which lay a hundred miles outside of that magistrate’s judicial district. Return to text

Commenting on this outrage, the New York Herald said editorially:—

“We have had too much of this meddling business—rummaging the mails for the books of a conscientious writer like Tolstoi, suppressing the poems of one of the gentlest and noblest of writers, Whitman, and now taking a gentleman to the Tombs for having on his shelves a copy of Balzac. American readers are not children, idiots, or slaves. They can govern their reading without the advice of Mr. Comstock, Mr. Wanamaker, or this new supervisor of morals named Britton—a kind of spawn from Comstock, we are informed, and who begins his campaign for notoriety by an outrage upon Mr. Farrelly.” Return to text

In the New York Morning Advertiser of September 10, Mr. Britton thus denounces the judiciary of the empire city:—

“The police are down on me, but I am not afraid of ‘em. I can prove that the police force is subsidized to wink at crime. Nine tenths of the crime in New York is under police protection. I can prove it, and I could begin with the inspectors and captains. Oh, I’d strike high. I don’t go into the courts and prove it, because every judge in this city, and I don’t make a single exception, is subsidized.” Return to text

The Morning Advertiser of Sept. 10, 1891, thus records Mr. Britton’s embarrassing position:—

Joseph A. Britton is agent of the New York Society for the Enforcement of the Criminal Law. Agent Britton has become so absorbed in the enforcement of the criminal law that he has, it is said, forgotten that there is a civil law, and defaulted on the payment of betting debts. His creditor, in the sum of $1,085, is Robert G. Irving, a bookmaker, who has tried to collect the debt since last fall, and failing has resorted to the courts.

According to Irving, Agent Britton, upholder and advocate of the majesty of the law, placed some bets with him, won, and drew his winnings. Then Britton continued to bet, on credit, and lost; but, instead of settling in hard cash, gave a check, which the bank stamped N. G. when presented. Finally, Britton exchanged three notes for the worthless check, but the first two notes have fallen due, and have proved as worthless as the check. So the case is on the court docket.

Agent Britton admits the debt, and its nature. Return to text

Chicago’s Dark Places. Return to text