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 Contents vii

Chapter 8 The Communication Process   142

Communication in Action   143
The Process of Communication   145
Modes of Interpersonal Communication   146
Verbal and Paralanguage Cues   147
Kinesics and Proxemics Cues   150
Symbolic Cues  152
Official Communication  153
Effective Listening  153
Empathy  155
Blocks to Effective Communication   155
Communication in a Digital Age   159
Strategies of Change   159
Conclusions 163   •   Student Checklist 163   •  
Topics for Discussion 163   •   Bibliography 164

Chapter 9 Police Discretion and Community Relations   165

Discretion in the System   166
Selective and Discriminatory Enforcement   167
Decision Making at an Administrative Level   168
Decision Making at an Operational Level   171
Justifications for Selective Enforcement   173
The Question of Professionalism   175
Legal Authority for Selective Enforcement   176
Writs of Mandamus   178
Selective Enforcement and Appropriate Guidelines   178
Structuring Police Discretion   181
Looking Toward Tomorrow   182
Conclusions 185   •   Student Checklist 185   •  
Topics for Discussion 185   •   Bibliography 186

Chapter 10 Community-Oriented Policing   187

The Evolution of Police Service Models   188
The Development of Community-Oriented Police Models   192
Technological Advances and Community Policing   197
The Current Status of Community Policing   198
Community-Oriented Policing Applications   200
Recommendations for Implementing Community-Oriented
Policing  204
Conclusions 207   •   Student Checklist 207   •  
Topics for Discussion 208   •   Bibliography 208

Chapter 11 Police–Community Relations and the Media   209

Community Relations Context   210
Commitment to Crime Coverage   211
Exploitation of Crime News   212
viii Contents

Public Reaction to Media Coverage   213

Conflict Between Media and Police   214
A Clear Need for Guidelines   217
Setting Guidelines  223
Crisis Guidelines for the Media   227
Police–Community Relations  227
Conclusions 231   •   Student Checklist 231   •  
Topics for Discussion 231   •   Bibliography 232

Chapter 12 Special Populations and the Police   233

Special Problems for the Police   234
Understanding the Young   235
Understanding the Elderly   237
Understanding the Handicapped   240
Understanding the Homeless   244
Youth, the Elderly, the Handicapped, and the Homeless: Shared
Problems  244
Youth, the Elderly, the Handicapped, and the Homeless: A Few
Contrasts  248
The Problems with Programs   249
A New Approach   249
Police–Senior Partnerships  250
Conclusions 253   •   Student Checklist 253   •  
Topics for Discussion 253   •   Bibliography 253

Chapter 13 Community Relations in the Context of Culture   255

The Cultural Context of Community Relations   256
Theories of Assimilation and the Problems of the Police   257
Cross-Cultural Factors  260
Improving Community Relations in the Context of Culture   273
Conclusions 278   •   Student Checklist 279   •  
Topics for Discussion 279   •   Bibliography 279

Chapter 14 Maintaining Order: Dissent and Conflict Management   281

Maintaining an Orderly Community   282
Policing Political Dissent: Catalyst of Progress   283
Arenas for Dissent   287
Strategies of Dissent and Response   289
Escalation and De-Escalation of Conflict   292
Outcomes  294
Crisis Negotiations  298
Hostage Negotiations  300
A Broader Concept   301
Conflict Intervention at the Community Level   306
Conclusions 309   •   Student Checklist 310   •  
Topics for Discussion 310   •   Bibliography 310
 Contents ix

Chapter 15 Community Participation in the New Millennium   312

The Concept of Community Participation   313
Police Models and Community Participation   314
Systems and Community Values   316
Two Types of Community Participation   318
Police–Community Relations in the New Millennium   324
Community Features and Social Controls   326
The Impact of World and National Events on Communities   329
The War on Terror and Impacts of Homeland Security   330
Improving Police–Community Relations in the New Millennium   332
Choosing Community-Specific Strategies   333
Conclusions 334   •   Student Checklist 334   •  
Topics for Discussion 335   •   Bibliography 335

Recommended Police-Related Web Sites   336

Index   339
 Preface

Policing society, especially a free society, is too important an aspect of public policy to be left
solely to the police. For that matter, the operation of the justice system is too important to be left
solely to the practitioners. Citizen participation is crucial to the effectiveness of the criminal
justice system. Every edition of this book has been organized around the same theme: Each
criminal justice system component (specifically the police) must develop and maintain meaning-
ful, two-way communications among the agency, its service areas, and populations served.
As the gatekeepers of the criminal justice system and the most visible representatives of
our democratic form of government, the police have the unique responsibility to engage in part-
nerships with their communities. These partnerships, once developed, can create a sense of
safety, problem solving, and good quality of life for those being served. This book addresses all
the communities the police serve and discusses past, current, and future practices that can create
and sustain meaningful and successful police–community relations.
This text is designed for use in a one-semester course on Police and the Community,
Police–Community Relations, Police and Society, or similar subject. It is an overview of the
topics covered, and much more can be said about every topic. We address the topics in the
context of community relations and encourage the reader to pursue further study in areas of
special interest.
Every edition of this textbook has had its friends. The current edition was written to address
ongoing changes since the eighth edition was released. The nation is bitterly divided on partisan
issues and the “War on Terror.” A downward turn in race relations fueled by an increasingly
hostile media has negatively impacted police–community relations (particularly with African
Americans). Political, cultural, and social changes across the nation continue. America’s civil
liberties are being challenged by proponents of both “homeland security” and “political correct-
ness.” The makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court has changed. Technological advances are ongo-
ing. Prosecutorial wrongdoing has become a focal concern within the administration of justice.
And, the police are expected to be better prepared for the challenges created by the preceding
issues.

New to This Edition

• Data and references have been updated to reflect the current state of policing and police–
community relations and we have increased coverage of practical tools that police and the
community might use to improve their relationships.
• We have provided more insights for police to examine police organization’s fit with the
­communities they serve. The objective in this first set of revisions is to provide the readers the
wide arrays of choices that are available for providing police services depending on
the ­community that they serve. In this regard, we have included two major perspectives. We
introduced the different types of communities in Chapter 3. Having this foundational knowl-
edge, we begin to present in Chapter 4 the different types of policing models that are available
and have been used. Chapter 15 ties up all these concepts on arguing for the right policing
models based on the communities and the need of the communities.
• We have enhanced the information about the dynamics of policing realities and the problems
they pose for police–community relations. We have discussed the different paradoxes in the
police use of their coercive powers and argued that such paradoxes and other challenges that
they face are responsible for the quality of police–community relations that emerge. These
were done in Chapter 5 where we talked about the dilemmas and grave implications of polic-
ing special populations.
• We have identified the different levels of communications and provide recommendations on
how to improve the communications among the police and its various clients. Chapter 8
­provides an analysis of the different levels of communications. We have also noted how
­ineffective communication might bring about distrusts and scapegoating between the police and
the public.
x
 Preface xi

• We have untangled the various relationships between the media and the police including the
implications of these relationships in Chapter 11. We have also included a presentation of how
the police department can use social media as a tool for police–community relationships. We
have also discussed in Chapter 13 how the current assimilation process of immigrants is
­presenting a challenge in the conduct of policing.
• We have merged Chapters 14 and 15 in order to capture the problems of the police in enforc-
ing order both at the macro-level (i.e., the performance of police function as agents of the
state) and at the micro-level where person-to-person conflicts might strain police–community
relations.

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Acknowledgments
The professional staff at Pearson is greatly appreciated, especially Gary Bauer and Jennifer
Sargunar. I also extend my thanks to the Rights and Permissions Project Manager Karen Sanatar
and the Project Manager Rajiv Sharma from Aptara. I would like to thank the reviewers who
provided very helpful comments: Emily Carroll, Arkansas State University - Newport/Jonesboro;
Peter Curcio, Briarcliffe College; Ivan Kaminsky, Mesa Community College; Jeffrey Majewski,
Bristol Community College; and Allan Skrocki, Schoolcraft College and Henry Ford College.
Several law enforcement officers and agencies provided information, photographs, or other
materials that greatly aided in this effort. We wish to thank Sheriff Randy Bower, Deputy
(Professor) Gary Metz, and Deputy John M. Doyle, Orleans County Sheriff’s Office; Chief
David Zack, Assistant Chief James Speyer, Lieutenant Brian Coons, Officer Paul Nazzarett,
Officer Thomas Rogers and Officer Donald Szumigala, Cheektowaga Police Department;
Dianne de Guzman-Powell, of Terre Haute Tribune Star; Chief Denise Downer-McKinney,
Assistant Chief Debbie Burnett and Kim Stone, Rome Police Department; David Graham;
Sheriff Chris Nanos and Lt. Nicole L. Feldt, Pima County Sheriff’s Department; Sheriff Clark
xii Preface

Cottem Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department; Chief A. C. Roper, Wanda Poore, Officer
Michelle Burton and Sergeant Brian Burton, Birmingham Police Department; Chief Terry
Schneider, Sergeant Rebecca Lawler, Officer Chris Wragg, Officer Candler Smith, and Officer
Ashley Still, Georgia Gwinnett College Police Department; Jennifer Arrocena and Shavon
Ferrell, Georgia Gwinnett College Disability Services; Renee Dixon of the Southern States
Police Benevolent Association; and, Captain Jeff Smith and Sergeant Barry Honea, Lawrenceville
Police Department.
We would like to sincerely acknowledge the loving support and tolerance of our wives (Vi,
Betsy and Peen) who make our lives worthwhile.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
CHAPTER 1
The Administration of Justice
and the Police

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

—Letter From Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963.
—Martin Luther King, Jr.

Key Concepts
Civil Justice Distributive Justice Restorative Justice
Civil Liberties Equality Rule of Law
Common Law Federalism Social Justice
Commutative Justice Human Rights Social Stability
Criminal Justice Justice Symbolic Reassurance

Learning Objectives
Studying this chapter will enable you to:
1. Discuss the need for justice in order for nations and their governmental components
to survive.
2. Define human rights and describe their importance to people living throughout the world.
3. Explain the importance of the Bill of Rights in protecting the civil liberties of American
citizens.
4. Identify the different agencies responsible for protecting the civil rights of U.S. citizens.
5. Define justice and describe the different types of justice.
6. Explain the mission of a justice system.
7. Identify the four kinds of justice systems found around the world.
8. Discuss the challenges of administering justice within a democratic society.
9. Explain how federalism affects the administration of justice in America.
10. Present and discuss the various components within the U.S. justice system in addition
to the police.
11. Describe how America’s police system is structured.
12. Understand where the police fit within the U.S. justice system.
13. Be familiar with the “Four C’s” of police–community relations.

1
2 Chapter 1 • The Administration of Justice and the Police

Introduction
The majority of those reading this text have completed other courses about the criminal justice
system and its processes. However, a brief refresher is provided in order to remind law enforce-
ment students that the police do not exist in a vacuum. The myriad of agencies that comprise the
“police” are integral components of a vital system of justice upon which social order and stabil-
ity depend. The purposes, roles, and functions of the police within every nation are interdepen-
dent with those of other governmental entities. Thus, to understand the police, one must
understand the other components of the criminal justice system and the concept of justice in the
American context.

The Idea of Justice

To many of us, the concept of justice is relatively straightforward—the large number of people
that comprise a society require regulation to ensure peace and stability. This idea of control is
contained in the “social contract” that members of society abide by in accepting the govern-
ment’s ability to regulate, conduct, and maintain order. In the absence of regulation, competing
interests and differing perspectives on what constitutes acceptable behavior would lead to chaos.
The weak would be victimized by the strong; violence would become the social norm; and civi-
lization would cease to exist. This idea of justice is often simplified into two words: “law and
order.” However, as we may easily note when viewing current world events that who determines
what constitutes the law, who defines the nature of order, and how their views are imposed on
the populace are not as clear-cut.

The Need for Justice

Nations and their components (states, territories, provinces, cities, counties, etc.) cannot exist
without established systems of justice. These systems must not only ensure that domestic peace
and tranquility are preserved, but they also must do so in a manner acceptable to those who are
governed. This principle is true even within totalitarian societies. While those subject to govern-
mental edicts may have little or no say in how laws are enacted and enforced, there must be a
belief that subservience to their government is preferable to disorder. The reader may challenge
this assertion by pointing to the arbitrariness and unfairness that may be found within the brutal
dictatorships that have existed (and that unfortunately still exist) within our world. We agree.
But even in those countries, one will find that those in power must present an appearance of jus-
tice. While these justice systems may be backed by repressive force, the masses of people must
still feel that they and their families can reasonably exist. Otherwise, rebellion will take place.
Regardless of the nature of a society, social stability is not enough. Citizens must also feel
that they are being treated “properly.” What is viewed as proper is determined by historical and
cultural influences. Governmental actions that would be totally acceptable in one nation would
not be seen as such in others. As humankind has evolved, its expectations and ideas have like-
wise developed. Currently, two key criteria in evaluating the world’s justice systems are the
state’s provisions for basic human rights and the extent of civil rights granted to citizens.

Human Rights In its simplest term, human rights may be defined as an individual’s right to
the basic necessities for survival. These necessities include adequate food, shelter, medical care,
and not being the victim of a government’s or government-condoned group’s efforts to commit
genocide or other atrocities. For example, efforts on the part of the U.S. Army during the 1800s
to annihilate Native Americans and by the Iraqi government during the rule of Saddam Hussein
to eliminate the Kurds are clear examples of human rights violations. Modern human rights orga-
nizations would also charge that the existence of poverty and famine within third-world nations
is another example. In recent years, human rights include providing humane treatment even to
prisoners who are suspected terrorists, as well as treatment of illegal aliens in a state.
On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and pro-
claimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Following this historic act, the Assembly
called upon all member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be
disseminated, displayed, read, and expounded principally in schools and other educational institu-
tions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories” (see ­Appendix 1).
 Chapter 1 • The Administration of Justice and the Police 3

The justice system in the United States is increasingly being held accountable to the edicts of
international organizations and, in principle, abides by the international standards of justice.
Human rights violations are particularly poignant for the police as the state’s instruments
of control. In human rights violation situations, the police normally exercise their powers outside
of the stress and exigencies of the situation. Roelofse (2013) notes that human rights violations
are inflicted in situations wherein those subjected to police control do not present any immediate
danger to the police or the public. He believes that the police cannot have any justifiable argu-
ment for using torture or enhanced interrogation techniques on their detainees as they are in
asymmetrical power positions. In addition, violations of human rights are normally done outside
the law and, therefore, have no legally justifiable basis for the use of force. The initial step in
conforming one’s conduct in accordance with the law is awareness. Thus, the police need to be
quite familiar with human rights laws for them to effectively carry out justice.

Civil Rights As the reader can see in Appendix 1, the U.N. Declaration goes beyond our defi-
nition of basic survival necessities to incorporate equal and equitable rights, freedom of speech,
and protection from government abuse. In reality, many of the world’s 191 nations do not adhere
to these standards. Even Western democracies have been slow to adopt them in their totality.
For example, despite the protections of the Bill of Rights (the First Ten Amendments to the U.S.
Constitution, written 150 years before the U.N. Declaration), it was not until the 1960s that full
enforcement of civil rights began within the United States.
We view civil rights as moving beyond the basic necessities for survival to include equal
participation in democratic elections, equal access to legal institutions, and equal protection by
the government from both governmental and private abuse. Freedoms from government oppres-
sion or intrusive practices are also known as civil liberties (we will discuss them in more detail
in a later section). The extension of these rights, based on gender and physical disabilities, was
interpreted as being covered by the Bill of Rights during the 1970s (see Figure 1.1).

FIGURE 1.1    The Bill of Rights.

Amendments 1–10 of the U.S. Constitution Amendment III

The Conventions of a number of the States having, at the time No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house,
of adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a
prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further manner to be prescribed by law.
declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added, and as
Amendment IV
extending the ground of public confidence in the Government
will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses,
Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and sei-
the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two- zures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but
thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following articles be upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and
proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amend- particularly describing the place to be searched, and the per-
ments to the Constitution of the United States; all or any of sons or things to be seized.
which articles, when ratified by three-fourths of the said Legis- Amendment V
latures, to be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the said
Constitution, namely: No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infa-
mous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand
Amendment I jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of reli- militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor
gion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, lib-
redress of grievances. erty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private
property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment II
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free Amendment VI
state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to
be infringed. a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and

(continued)
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4 Chapter 1 • The Administration of Justice and the Police

FIGURE 1.1    Continued

district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which Amendment IX
district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not
informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be con- be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
fronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory
process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Amendment X
assistance of counsel for his defense. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitu-
tion, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states
Amendment VII
respectively, or to the people.
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall
exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be pre- Amendment XIV
served, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexam- All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject
ined in any court of the United States, than according to the to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of
rules of the common law. the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any
law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of
Amendment VIII the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life,
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any
nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Note: The Fourteenth Amendment warrants inclusion here because it is the mechanism by which the Bill of Rights became applicable as
protections from state and local governments in addition to the national government.
Source: https://nccs.net/online-resources/us-constitution/amendments-to-the-us-constitution/the-bill-of-rights-amendments-1-10

Sexual orientation was included during the 1990s. To date, the United States has been
moving toward extending more civil rights to lifestyle choices such as equality on marriages and
accommodations. Pursuant to protecting these rights, criminal legislations such as the hate crime
law came about. Additionally, federal civil rights violations may be investigated by the Civil
Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),
by civil suits filed by individuals, or by complaints filed with the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights (see Figure 1.2). They may also be enforced by lawsuits and criminal prosecutions filed
under the constitutional protections of the states.

Justice Defined
While everyone has his or her own concept of justice (usually determined by what we think is
best for us), it is not as easily defined as one might think. According to Crank (2003), efforts at
clarity tend to conflict with concerns over inclusiveness. Definitions are also determined by the
perspective of the viewer. Reiman (2007) argues that our system of justice is biased against the
poor and is, therefore, not just. Lawyers tend to view justice as the obligation that the legal sys-
tem has toward the individual citizen and society as a whole. To ensure that justice is seen from
the relevant perspective of policing, we define justice as the fair and equitable application of the
rule of law by agents of social control regardless of the socioeconomic status of the individuals
concerned (Box 1.1).

FIGURE 1.2    Mission of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

To investigate complaints alleging that citizens are being color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or in the
deprived of their right to vote by reason of their race, color, administration of justice.
religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or by reason of To serve as a national clearinghouse for information in respect
fraudulent practices. to discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws
To study and collect information relating to discrimination or a because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national
denial of equal protection of the laws under the Constitution origin.
because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national To submit reports, findings, and recommendations to the Presi-
origin, or in the administration of justice. dent and Congress.
To appraise federal laws and policies with respect to discrimina- To issue public service announcements to discourage discrimi-
tion or denial of equal protection of the laws because of race, nation or denial of equal protection of the law.

Source: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

 Chapter 1 • The Administration of Justice and the Police 5

BOX 1.1
Alternative Definitions of Justice

Some satirical views of justice from Webster’s online dictionary: Justice. A mythological character whose statue has been
frequently erected. She had eye trouble.
Justice. A commodity which in a more or less adulterated
condition the State sells to the citizen as a reward for his Source: By permission. From Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary,
allegiance, taxes, and personal service. ©2016 by Merriam-Webster, Inc. (www.Merriam-Webster.com).
Justice. Fair play; often sought, but seldom discovered, in
company with Law.

Following that definition, there are six components that the administration of justice must
contain:
• Compliance with the Rule of Law. As a common law country, agents of social control
should enforce codified legal standards as well as case laws that govern human relations.
These laws must exist and must be followed. In other words, both the enforcers and the
controlled must abide by the legal standards. Observance of such standards in the law
increases the respect for the law (Kirk and Matsuda, 2011; Kirk and Papachristos, 2011).
• Equity. Laws must be applied in an equal manner to everyone subject to them. In addition,
every person must be allowed equal access to the legal system. This is a subject of great
debate in regard to the U.S. criminal justice system, and even greater debate in regard to
the U.S. civil justice system.
• Fairness. Laws, as well as their application, must be fair and not single out groups or indi-
viduals for arbitrary or unfair treatment. As with equity, fairness is not easily monitored
and can often become lost in legalities and legalese that govern the system’s operations.
Tyler (2003) suggests that the effective rule of law hinges on the fair treatment of indi-
viduals particularly in the observance of proper procedures in adjudication of cases.
• Accessibility. There must be allowances for those individuals who do not have financial
recourse to receive competent legal advice and support. This is dealt with in the criminal
justice system by provisions for indigent defense. However, this is one component in
which the U.S. civil justice system is very much lacking.
• Effectiveness. The system must work for common citizens in actuality as well as on paper.
Like beauty, effectiveness is in the eye of the beholder. How well the U.S. justice system
accomplishes this need is even more hotly debated than the previous components.
• Oversight. There must be remedies for failures or misapplications of justice to be cor-
rected. The checks and balances of the federal system, and judicial oversight in particular,
are the mechanisms designed to correct injustices that occur. While far from perfect and
frequently yielding unsatisfactory results, this process is as functional as any other that
may be found within the world community.
Critics may correctly cite examples to argue that the above components are more idealistic
than accurate. Indeed, the administration of justice (particularly within a democratic society of
more than 300 million) will always be a subject of debate.

Types of Justice
Understanding the administration of justice is further complicated by the different types of justice
found within our society and the meanings attached to them. While the police are predominately
linked with criminal justice, the other types of justice impact on both how the police are perceived by
others and how they function within society. Brief overviews of these other types of justice follow:

Social Justice Social justice is rendering to everyone that which is his or her due as a
human being. Social justice is seen by its proponents as not just emphasizing equity and fair-
ness in the application of jurisprudence but in regulating how a society’s resources are allocated
(Crank, 2003). Redistribution of wealth by the use of progressive tax systems, strict regulation
6 Chapter 1 • The Administration of Justice and the Police

of business, and extensive use of social interventions by government are principles embodied
within social justice. Social justice seeks to see that people are treated both fairly and “morally”
within all areas of society. Social justice may be either distributive or commutative.
Distributive justice seeks to distribute rewards and punishments so that neither equal per-
sons have unequal things, nor unequal persons have equal things. In other words, need is consid-
ered, but merit is rewarded. The U.S. system of welfare capitalism is based on distributive
justice. Protections exist to ensure that the tenets of civil and human rights are provided but
individual successes or failures are allowed.
Commutative justice seeks to ensure equality among citizens so that no one may gain by
another’s loss. The fair and moral treatment of all persons, especially as regards social rules, is the
part of a continued effort to do what is “right” (Crank, 2003; Reiman, 2007). Commutative justice
places a greater emphasis on need rather than individual merit. Proponents of this perspective
argue that biases due to class, ethnicity, gender, or other distinctions make capitalist societies
inherently unfair. Therefore, greater efforts by government in the redistribution of wealth and the
enhancement of life for minorities and the lower class must be implemented to address social
inequities. Until these occur, true justice is not attainable (Cole, 2004; Reiman, 2007).

Civil Justice Civil justice is the legal system that regulates the relationships between indi-
viduals. Distributive and commutative aspects do exist within the civil law system. However,
the focus of civil law is to regulate noncriminal behaviors within society. Redress for harm from
another’s actions is not by criminal prosecution but by seeking legal intervention to regain that
which was lost due to another’s improper actions and/or to prevent further harm. For example,
monetary compensation may be for the harm that was incurred due to a wrongful act. Punitive
damages may also be awarded. Due to the complexities and costs of successful litigation involv-
ing civil actions, it is in the areas of civil law that the poor and the middle class are more likely
to experience inequitable treatment.
Normally, the civil legal system is concerned with torts (i.e., private wrongs that are not
deemed to be criminal). Likewise, administrative law, rules, and regulations followed and/or
enforced by governmental agencies are also dealt with by the civil law system. Some behaviors
(such as cheating on your income tax, violating another’s civil rights, and insider trading) may
have both civil and criminal components. The police get involved as a consequence of legal
judgments in cases of evictions and foreclosures as well as in the enforcement of administrative
laws. Consequently, ill feelings and frustrations from civil actions may also lead to criminal
activities on the part of those who feel that they have been wronged as well as ill feeling toward
the police as enforcers of those judicial decisions.

Restorative Justice As the name implies, restorative justice seeks to mitigate adverse
relationships between individuals as well as certain behaviors that could be deemed to be crimi-
nal. Instead of seeking to punish based on criminal sanctions or imposing legal compensation,
restorative justice seeks to avoid formal adjudication by using arbitration to resolve conflicts
(Van Ness and Strong, 2006). Because it emphasizes the use of alternative means to restore
relationships, this concept is also known as peacemaking (Fuller, 2005). Most current practices
of restorative justice are mediations or conferences that may take place in lieu of civil litigation,
and it may also be used as an alternative to criminal prosecution.

Criminal Justice Criminal justice is the system that the readers of this text are interested
in. As we have noted above, it is not truly separate from the other systems of justice and actually
interacts with them. We utilized Rush’s (2004) definition of the criminal justice system as the
“process of adjudication by which the legal rights of private parties are vindicated and the guilt
or innocence of accused persons is established.” Please note that the criminal justice system is
concerned not only with the enforcement of laws, but with the protection of legal rights as well.
To ensure that laws are not arbitrarily imposed, the criminal justice system relies on procedural
law as well as substantive law.
Substantive law defines behaviors (and in some cases, failures to act) that are deemed to be
unlawful and establishes sanctions for their commission (or omission). Procedural law regulates
how substantive law may be applied. The famous exclusionary rule (see Box 1.2) is one mecha-
nism by which American courts ensure that a defendant’s due process rights are protected.
 Chapter 1 • The Administration of Justice and the Police 7

BOX 1.2
The Exclusionary Rule

In 1914, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Weeks v. United States There are exceptions to the exclusionary rule. In United
that evidence illegally obtained by federal officers must be States v. Leon, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “evidence
excluded from admission at trial. In 1960, this rule was extended seized on a search warrant that was subsequently invalidated
to state and local officers in the Mapp v. Ohio ruling. The exclu- could not justify the substantial costs of exclusion.” The key to
sionary rule not only prevents evidence obtained from unreason- this exception is that the efforts were, indeed, reasonable and in
able searches and seizures from admission in trials, but also good faith. Good intentions are not enough.
ensures that judicial integrity and the faith of citizens are upheld. Another exception to the exclusionary rule is the “Inevita-
The protections of the Fourth Amendment as enforced by ble Discovery Rule.” This rule was established by the U.S. Supreme
the exclusionary rule are also known as the “Fruits of the Poison- Court in Wong Sun v. United States. This rule allows the admis-
ous Tree Doctrine.” Searches, arrests, confessions, and other sion of evidence if it would have been found and discovered
­evidence-gathering activities that are obtained through improper legally at a later time.
or illegal techniques are deemed to be poisonous and must,
therefore, be suppressed to keep the entire legal process from Source: Based on Procedures in the Justice System, 8th ed. by Roberson,
becoming tainted. C. R., Wallace, H., and Stuckey, G. B. (2007)

The Core Mission and Role of the Police in

the Administration of Justice
Having reviewed several pages pointing out the complexities of justice, the reader may
­legitimately ask, “What then is the core mission and role of the police in the administration of
justice?” In a nutshell, the U.S. criminal justice system exists to apply the rule of law as a means
of providing social stability. In these regards, the police mission and function must be aligned
toward these goals. As we discussed previously, citizens must feel that their government is pro-
tecting them from crime and disorder (Tyler, 2003). While the system need not be flawless, the
public as a whole must have confidence in it (Kirk and Matsuda, 2011).

The Rule of Law

Rule of law may be defined as government’s establishment and imposition of legal processes to
protect society from crime. It may also be defined as the mechanism by which government
ensures the protection of individual rights. The police are in the frontlines in the realization and
enforcement of the rule of law. In the performance of this function, the police sometimes employ
anticipatory measures in order to achieve these criminal justice goals. In order to accomplish
these goals, policing aligns itself to the following:

Vengeance/Retribution When civilization evolved from tribal states to nation states, gov-
ernment assumed responsibility for exacting vengeance on behalf of victims of crime. No longer
would the strong be allowed to prey on the weak. Nor would victims or their families be permit-
ted to conduct blood feuds to avenge themselves on those by whom they had been harmed. To
keep citizens from “taking the law into their own hands,” agents of social control must exact
vengeance on behalf of victims. The police intervene in exigencies in order to address an ongo-
ing unlawful act and, therefore, provide immediate form of retribution (Klockars, 1985). This
retribution happens more immediately if the police could apprehend the suspect and retrieve the
loss from or prevent more harm toward a victim.

Deterrence/Prevention The fundamental premise of the classical system of justice is that

the imposition of punishment prevents further crime from occurring. Specific deterrence is the
idea that by having received punishment, the offender will decide that the crime was not worth
it. General deterrence is the concept that others contemplating similar crimes will be dissuaded
from doing so by seeing the punishment of previous offenders (Hunter and Dantzker, 2005).
The deterrent effects of the criminal justice system work along the principles of severity, cer-
tainty, and celerity. The police contribute to the attainment of deterrent effects by making sure
that anybody who commits a crime is apprehended and brought to justice. Punishments and its
8 Chapter 1 • The Administration of Justice and the Police

deterrent elements could only be achieved with the certainty and swiftness by which the police
could apprehend suspects. This ability of the police to bring to justice perpetrators of crime not only
increases the deterrent effects of the law but also inspires trust and confidence among the public
with its police. Likewise, police programs that pursue preventative measures have also contribut-
ed to the efficiency of the entire criminal justice agencies. For example, mandatory arrest policies
have been known to prevent repeat incidence of domestic violence [see, for example, Sherman
and Berk’s (1984) research in Minneapolis]. As a result, the courts and the correctional systems
have less clients that could take up their resources.

Treatment One of the emerging challenges for the police is dealing with offenders who are
afflicted with mental health issues and addicted to drugs and alcohol. As part of the system’s
concerns to rehabilitate offenders so that they may reenter society and live productive lives,
treatment is also an important component of justice in America. Latest innovations in policing
involved the collaboration of the police with mental health professionals and substance abuse
intervention experts involving arrestees with mental health and addiction problems. Several
programs such as the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) that was started in Memphis, Tennessee,
have been established to particularly address this concern. The police also play a key role in
diverting offenders who abuse drugs to the other agencies such as the drug courts and the proba-
tion offices.

Incapacitation The police play a significant role in incapacitation. Their immediate inter-
ventions in crime and disorder events disrupt the progression of disorders into more serious
incidents or crime. They may temporarily restrain an individual either to process them for pros-
ecution or just to make the offenders cool down during an incident. In this manner, they incapaci-
tate a particular offender from committing more crimes. Proponents of incapacitation argue that
while offenders may return to crime later (except in the case of capital punishment—the ultimate
incapacitation), they are prevented from doing so while under police custody. Thus, offenders are
impeded from committing more crimes on the general public.

Reparations Lastly, a more humane means of applying the rule of law is to focus on the
victim rather than society. Instead of punishing the offenders based on the harm they caused to
society, they are ordered to make reparations to the victims of their crimes. This “restorative
technique” is seen as not only helping those who have been harmed but also helping the offender.
The police could perform a key role in attaining this objective. They could start the process of
healing by communicating to the offender and making them realize the harm and gravity of the
offense they have committed against the victim.

Social Stability
Social stability is defined as the maintenance of order and the continuation of equitable social
control by government. This requires government to not only repress criminal behaviors but also
provide services (regulation of the private sector and the provision of public services) and pro-
mote activities (such as public education and social programs) designed to benefit society as a
whole.

Maintenance of Order The maintenance of order involves many activities. Providing for
democratic elections, collecting taxes, enforcing zoning regulations, collecting garbage, oper-
ating public utilities, providing crowd control at public events, enforcing parking regulations
(including the issuing of parking tickets to students), and providing emergency services are but
a few of the multitude of activities by government, many of which are performed by the police.
If these activities are not directly provided by the police, they could serve as catalyst for other
agencies to become aware of such problems of order in society (Cordner, 1997).

Equitable Social Control One of the more controversial aspects of government is the
need to address social inequities. While we may grouse at increasing government intrusion into
our lives, providing social stability within a diverse nation of 300 million requires proactive gov-
ernment actions. As civil libertarians, the authors believe that citizens should be grudging in their
 Chapter 1 • The Administration of Justice and the Police 9

tolerance of government interventions. However, we are also quick to note that these actions are
necessary to ensure that all citizens are able to enjoy “life, liberty, and property.” Government
requirements such as progressive taxation, compulsory education, mandatory minimum wages,
and protection of minority rights are examples of controversial government intrusions that are
now seen as vital to public stability.

Symbolic Reassurance The last requirement of a justice system is what Hunter (see Hunter
and Dantzker, 2005, p. 213) refers to as symbolic reassurance. Symbolic reassurance is the
view that the criminal justice system not only provides guidelines for society to follow, but also
punishes evil-doers to affirm law-abiding citizens’ belief in the system. Universal conformity is
not attained through threats of prosecution, but by reassuring law-abiding citizens that the system
of justice is working. As long as a few offenders get occasional punishment (the more severe,
the better), the public, especially the middle class, will remain compliant, even if they are not to-
tally satisfied. Taken to an extreme, this concept implies that as long as the public perceives that
“something is being done,” even if it later proves to be faulty, the public will, for the most part,
remain supportive. The police could certainly play a key role in achieving this criminal justice
objective of symbolic reassurance.

The Challenges of Administering Justice in a Free Society

We have discussed the protections of the Bill of Rights and the necessary components of a jus-
tice system within previous sections. This section will not repeat those arguments. However, we
will stress the fundamental challenge that faces criminal justice practitioners within the United
States. That challenge is quite simple: In a democratic and freedom-loving nation, how do we
control crime while ensuring due process of law?

Crime Control versus Due Process

Crime control is the emphasis of justice system resources on the suppression of crime through
the speedy enforcement of criminal laws. Advocates of the crime control model argue that the
rights of society to be protected from crime should be the primary focus of the criminal justice
system. Efficiency and effectiveness in criminal prosecutions are emphasized. In this model,
the adjudication process is viewed as being an “assembly line.” The counterpart to the crime
control model is the due process model. In this model, the emphasis of the justice system is
formal, adjudicative fact finding that emphasizes the rights of the accused (Box 1.3). The
administration of justice is a slow and deliberate process that may be viewed as being an
“­obstacle course” (Packer, 1968).

Rights of Society According to Bohm and Haley (2005), the crime-control perspective is
a reflection of traditional conservative values. Conservatives would probably agree with this
assessment but argue that they are not seeking to deemphasize the protections of due process
but to eliminate burdensome legal technicalities that neither protect individual rights nor protect
society from crime. They point to other Western democracies that utilize the Civil Law System,
in which the rights of society are deemed more important than those of any one individual. They
may also accurately argue that most courts of limited jurisdiction in the United States operate in
this manner.

Rights of Individuals Bohm and Haley (2005) characterize the due process model as being
a reflection of traditional liberal values. They point to the common law tradition of emphasizing
the rights of individuals as safeguards from government oppression. They further argue that the
protection of individual rights actually serves to protect societal rights (Box 1.4).
Balancing the Rights of Society with Those of Individuals. As with most debates, the truth
lies somewhere in the middle. Due process as defined by Roberson, Wallace, and Stuckey (2007,
p. 454) is: “Those procedures that effectively guarantee individual rights in the face of criminal
prosecution and those procedures that are fundamental rules for fair and orderly legal proceed-
ings.” In actual practice, individual rights are protected within the U.S. justice system, but the
10 Chapter 1 • The Administration of Justice and the Police

BOX 1.3
Other Justice Systems

When seeking to study the U.S. system of justice, it is helpful to of the Prophet Mohammed). Varying interpretations of this sys-
understand that our system is but one of many that exist within the tem are found in Muslim nations. How strictly the Shari’a is
world. While widely divergent in how they are comprised, most applied within individual nations depends on cultural influences
justice systems can be categorized into four distinct typologies: as well as the religious perspectives of the dominant Islamic sect
within those nations.
Common Law Justice Systems
The common law tradition evolved from the United Kingdom. Socialist Justice Systems
Nations such as the United States that were formerly British Colo- The socialist legal tradition evolved from the merger of Russian
nies tend to follow this legal tradition. Key elements of this tradi- law and Marxist-Leninism following the revolution that led to
tion are the protection of individual liberties, concerns for equity, the creation of the Soviet Union. This tradition viewed the law
reliance on legal custom, and adversarial prosecution. as artificial (meaning that rather than viewing the rule of law as
binding, the edicts and rulings of the communist party, as well
Civil Law Justice Systems as adherence to Marxist philosophy, held precedence). Despite
The civil law tradition (not the same as what is referred to as civil the breakup of the Soviet Union and the spread of democratic
law in the United States) developed in Europe from Roman law practices within its former satellites, the influence of this tradi-
and Catholic canon law. These systems are found in continental tion may still be found in many of these nations. Currently, the
Europe and in nations around the world that emerged from Euro- People’s Republic of China would be the leading example of
pean colonization. Key elements of this tradition are codified law, this tradition.
an emphasis on the protection of society, and inquisitorial prosecu-
Source: From Reichel, P. L. (2005). Comparative Criminal Justice
tions. France and Germany are leading exemplars of this tradition.
­Systems: A Topical Approach, 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/
Prentice Hall and Dammer, H. R., Fairchild, E., and Albanese, J. S. (2006).
Islamic Justice Systems ­Comparative Criminal Justice Systems, 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson/
The Islamic legal tradition is based on the Shari’a, law based on Wadsworth.
the Qur’an (the holy book of Islam) and the Sunna (the writings

BOX 1.4
The Civil Rights Act of 1871

The Civil Rights Act of 1871 (42 U.S.C. § 1983) is one of the most for an act or omission taken in such ­officer’s judicial capac-
important federal statutes in force in the United States. It was ity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory
originally enacted a few years after the American Civil War and decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable.
consisted of the 1870 Force Act and 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act. One For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress appli-
of the main reasons behind its passage was to protect Southern cable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be consid-
blacks from the Ku Klux Klan by providing a civil remedy for ered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.
abuses then being committed in the South. The statute has been
For most of its history, Section 1983 had very little force. The legal
subjected to only minor changes since then but has been the sub-
community did not think the statute served as a check on state
ject of voluminous interpretation by courts.
officials and did not often litigate under the statute. However, this
Section 1983 does not create new civil rights. Instead, it
changed in 1961 when the Supreme Court of the United States
allows individuals to sue state actors in federal courts for civil
decided Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167. In that case, the Court
rights violations. To gain federal jurisdiction, that is, access to a
articulated three purposes that underlay the statute: “1) ‘to
court, the individual must point to a federal civil right that has
override certain kinds of state laws’; 2) to provide ‘a remedy where
been allegedly violated. These rights are encoded in the U.S. Con-
state law was inadequate’; and 3) to provide ‘a federal remedy
stitution and federal statutes.
where the state remedy, though adequate in theory, was not
The statute reads:
available in practice.’” Blum & Urbonya, Section 1983 Litigation,
Every person who under color of any statute, ordinance, p. 2 (Federal Judicial Center, 1998) (quoting Monroe v. Pape).
regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or Pape opened the door for renewed interest in Section 1983.
the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be sub- Now the statute stands as one of the most powerful
jected, any citizen of the United States or other person authorities with which federal courts may protect those whose
within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights are deprived. It is most often used to sue police and other
rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution state officials who allegedly deprived a plaintiff of constitutional
and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at rights within the criminal justice system.
law, Suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress,
except that in any action brought against a judicial officer Source: Adapted from Wikipedia (2007).
 Chapter 1 • The Administration of Justice and the Police 11

sheer volume of cases require that fair and orderly proceedings be expedited in lower-level courts
and on less serious offenses. Capital cases and cases in which lengthy prison terms could be
imposed rightly receive the greatest scrutiny.
This debate will continue as long as there is a U.S. justice system. During times of unrest
and tension, the public will demand greater protections for society (the current dispute over the
combating terrorism is a prime example). Civil libertarians see government acts (e.g., Patriot Act
in the United States and the Control Orders in the United Kingdom) as an encroachment on indi-
vidual liberties. Advocates of crime control argue that it does not negatively impact law-abiding
citizens and provides needed societal protections. Regardless of where you stand on these mea-
sures, the fact remains that the U.S. justice system will always have to juggle efficiency and
effectiveness in protecting society from criminals with our traditional concern for individual
rights. By the nature of their law enforcement responsibilities, the police will remain at the
forefront of this debate (Walker, 2002).

The Components of the U.S. Justice System

The Federalist System
When discussing the U.S. justice system, one must be aware that there are in actuality several
types of justice systems. The U.S. Constitution establishes a federalist system of government in
which the national government shares power with the states and the states’ political subdivisions
(municipalities, townships, special districts, and counties). The magnitude of these systems may
be realized by the knowledge that there are more than half a million elected officials within the
United States. In addition to the state and national governments, these officials serve in more
than 74,500 local governments, 20,000 municipalities, 16,500 townships, 3,000 counties, and
more than 35,000 special districts (Fiorina et al., 2005, Chapters 1 and 3). At every level of gov-
ernment, you will find legislative bodies that make laws, executive agencies that enforce those
laws, courts that interpret and apply the laws, and correctional organizations that carry out
­adjudicated sanctions. The criminal justice process utilized by every governmental level is
displayed within Figure 1.3.

Lawmaking When we think of lawmaking within the United States, we generally think of the
U.S. Congress or the 50 state legislatures. These legislative bodies (including the legislatures of
American territories of the Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa, as well as the Common-
wealth of Puerto Rico and the council of the District of Columbia) enact laws that are known as
statutes. The decisions of these bodies have considerable impact on the lives of their citizens. But
it is at the local levels (among the approximately 74,500 local governmental bodies mentioned
above) that most citizens have direct contact on a regular basis. Each of these entities has legisla-
tive bodies (usually referred to as councils, commissions, boards, or authorities) that enact lesser
laws known as ordinances or codes (property taxes, sales taxes, zoning and building regulations,
liquor sales and consumption, garbage collection, animal control, noise and nuisance abatement,
etc.) that influence your daily life.

Law Enforcement In the following section, we will describe the police system in America
in more detail. Suffice it to say at this point that if you are in need of police services, it is most
likely that the officers who respond will be employed by a local government.

Prosecution At the national level, the U.S. District Attorneys are responsible for the pros-
ecution of federal cases within their respective jurisdictions. The numbers of cases that they pros-
ecute are a mere fraction of those dealt with by state-level prosecutors. Depending on the state in
which they serve, these prosecutors (known as District Attorneys or State’s Attorneys) may deal
only with violations of state laws, or they may also be responsible for enforcing local ordinances
within their jurisdictions. In many states, local ordinances (as well as lesser state offenses
delegated to them by the state legislatures) may be prosecuted by local attorneys (the city attor-
ney, an assistant city attorney, or a local attorney employed part-time), often known as solicitors.
In many jurisdictions, this responsibility may actually extend to the police officers who made the
arrests or issued the citations.
 EN TRY IN TO THE SYSTEM PROSE CUT ION & PRETRIAL SERVICES ADJUDICATION SENTENCI NG & SANC T IONS PROB ATI ON PR I S ON PA ROL E

TRIAL
ACQ
U ITTE
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RGE
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ICT
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IC
TE
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AT IO
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PROBATION

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AT IO
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CHA
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ED

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INVESTIGATION PRELIMINARY HEARING TRIAL

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E
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R, O
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LAW ENFORCEMENT CONVICT OUT OF SYSTEM

FIGURE 1.3    The criminal justice process in the United States.

Source: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/flowchart.htm#efiles.
 Chapter 1 • The Administration of Justice and the Police 13

Adjudication At every level within the U.S. justice system, trial courts exist to adjudicate
the cases within their respective jurisdictions. Ninety-four district courts try federal cases within
the 50 states and territories. State trial courts of general jurisdiction try violations of state laws
and civil cases within their judicial circuits or districts. These courts also try cases that are trans-
ferred or appealed from lower courts. Courts of appeal exist at both the state and federal levels.
The U.S. Supreme Court is the highest court of appeal in America. While these courts are the
ones that receive the greatest amount of media attention, it is in the courts of limited jurisdiction
in which the vast majority of cases are tried. These courts may be lower-level state courts as-
signed to try lesser offenses and ordinance violations for the counties and municipalities within
their area, or they may be separate county or municipal courts operated by those governmental
entities. It is within these courts that the previously discussed “assembly line” may be found, with
dozens of cases being tried within a single session.

Corrections Correctional institutions exist at every level within the U.S. system. Fed-
eral prisons of every security category house convicted prisoners. State courts do the same.
Municipal and county jails house prisoners awaiting trial, convicted prisoners awaiting sentenc-
ing, convicted prisoners awaiting transfer to state or federal facilities, and prisoners convicted
of lesser crimes and ordinance violations. Community corrections programs are also found at
every governmental level. Due to their costs, many counties and municipalities use private
correctional organizations to provide community supervision. Local police agencies may find
themselves supervising offenders assigned to community service and/or inmate work programs.

The Structure of the Police System in America

In America, we have many important police organizations at the state and national levels. How-
ever, we are actually a nation of local police forces. There are approximately 18,760 separate police
agencies in the United States, with approximately 940,275 employees and a combined annual bud-
get of about $51 billion (see Figure 1.4). As noted earlier, the Tenth Amendment of the Constitu-
tion reserves police powers to the states, and both federalism and American tradition have resulted
in a fragmented police structure at lower levels of government; this fragmentation is exemplified
by the separation of local police into four levels: municipal, township, county, and special ­districts.
Count totals are further compounded by problems of classification at the local level. Some
local governments are true municipalities, while others are classified as townships or villages
that may or may not have qualifying police agencies. There are a surprisingly large number of
housing districts and transit authorities in the United States (34,684 at last count), which obvi-
ously do not all consider themselves as having their own police agencies. A large number of
independent school districts also exist (13,726), which are independent of any other government
authority, and can have or not have their own police agency. Many colleges and universities,
both public and private, have their own police departments, although there is a tendency to not
count the private college agencies. With multi-branch campuses, the problem becomes one of
whether you count the police agency at every academic site as a separate police agency. Railway
police agencies are generally counted at the county level, but hospital, port, airport, and tunnel

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FIGURE 1.4    Public law enforcement

agencies in the United States.
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Henry, who was a very gentlemanly fellow, said he would mention it
to the governor; and Newsome called us to him.
“I am afraid,” said he, “you wouldn’t be of much use to me. You
have not been used to circus business, and you know nothing about
it. The general routine of a circus is very different to a starring
engagement, or a turn at a music-hall. You can’t vault, or hold a
banner or a balloon.”
‘“We should soon learn,” said Fred.
‘“Well, look here,” said the governor, “it’s as I said just now, you
are not of much use to me at present; but you are good on the
trapeze, and, on the understanding that you are to make yourselves
useful in the general business as soon as you can, I will put you on
the establishment, the engagement to be terminable at any time by
a week’s notice on either side.”
‘“I should like travelling with a circus, of all things,” said Fred.
‘“Of course, I couldn’t give you the salary you have been having
as stars,” said the governor. “The best man in the company doesn’t
get much more than I have been giving each of you. But if two
pounds a week for you and your partner will satisfy you, you may
consider yourself engaged.”
‘Of course, we thanked him, and we accepted the offer, thinking
that we should be worth more some day, and that it would be better
to have two pounds a week regular than to have five pounds for a
week or a fortnight only, and then be for several weeks without an
engagement.’
 CHAPTER XV.

Continuation of the Gymnast’s Reminiscences—A Circus on the move—Three

Months at Carlisle—Performance for the Benefit of local Charities—Removal to
Middlesborough—A Stockton Man’s Adventure—Journey to York—Circus
Ballets—The Paynes in the Arena—Accidents in the Ring—A Circus Benefit—
Removal to Scarborough—A Gymnastic Adventure—Twelve Nights at the
Pantheon—On the Tramp—Return to London.

‘The circus was near the end of its stay at Greenock when we
engaged for “general utility,” and we were not sorry to leave the
banks of the Clyde for a more genial climate. It rained more or less,
generally more, all the time we were there, and I can quite believe
the boy who assured an English tourist that it didn’t always rain in
Scotland, adding, “whiles it snaws.” There was a frigate lying in the
Clyde at the time, and whenever the crew practised gunnery down
came the rain in torrents. I don’t know how that phenomenon is to
be accounted for; but it is a fact that there was a change from a
drizzle to a down-pour whenever the big guns were fired. And then
the Sundays—not a drop of beer! But what do you think the thirsty
folks do? There are a great many people thirsty on Sundays in
Scotland, and especially in Greenock and Glasgow; for they try to
drink enough on Saturday night to last them till Monday, and that
plan doesn’t work satisfactorily. They go to a place called Gourock,
where they can get as much ale or whiskey as they can pay for. That
is how something like the Permissive Bill works in Scotland.
‘On the last night of our stay in Greenock, as soon as we had
doffed the circus uniform, and the audience had departed, we took
down our trapeze, and proceeded to the railway station. A special
train had been engaged for the removal to Carlisle of all the
company, the band, the stud, and the properties, Newsome paying
for all. Having to make the journey by night, we did not see much of
the scenery we passed through; but we had a good time, as the
Yankees say, talking, joking, laughing, and singing all the way. We
found at Carlisle as good a building as we had left at Greenock, and,
having fixed up our trapeze, and taken a lodging, we walked round
the city to see the lions, which are rather tame ones.
‘While we were at Carlisle, Hubert Mears was starring with us for a
short time, doing the flying trapeze, and doing it, too, as well as
ever I have seen it done. After him, we had Sadi Jalma, “the serpent
of the desert,” for a time, and very serpent-like his contortions are;
he can wriggle in and out the rounds of a ladder or a chair like an
eel. He is like the acrobats that I once heard a couple of small boys
holding a discussion about, one maintaining that they had no bones,
and the other that their bones were made of gutta percha. He calls
himself a Persian prince, but I don’t believe he is any relation to the
Shah. He may be a Persian, for there are Arab, Hindoo, Chinese, and
Japanese acrobats and jugglers knocking about over England, as
well as Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians; but nationalities are as
often assumed as names, and he may be no more a Persian than I
am a Spaniard.
‘It is a praiseworthy custom of Newsome, to devote one night’s
receipts to the charities of every town which he visits. It would
require more time than he has to spare to make the inquiries and
calculations that would be necessary before a stranger could
distribute the money among the several institutions, so as to effect
the greatest amount of good; and it is placed for that purpose at the
disposal of the Mayor. The amount of money which he has thus
given for the relief of the sick, the infirm, and the indigent during the
time his circus has been travelling would have been a fortune in
itself, if he had put it into his own pocket. He divides the year
between four towns, and in one year he gave two hundred pounds
to the charities of Preston, and forty pounds to the Seamen’s
Orphans’ Asylum at Liverpool, besides what he gave to the similar
institutions of the other towns which he visited that year.
 ‘Our next move was to Middlesborough, where a very laughable
incident occurred. A party of us ferried over to Stockton one day,
and went into a public-house there for refreshment. Circus men are
always courted and sought after, as soldiers are in a place where
they are only occasionally seen; and, as soon as we were recognised
by the Stockton men in the room as belonging to the circus, there
was a great disposition shown to treat us, and to get into
conversation with us. Well, a short time afterwards, one of those
men came over to Middlesborough, to see the circus again, and,
after the performance, he went into a public-house where he
recognized Sam Sault, a gymnast from Manchester, who had lately
joined us, and insisted upon treating him. Sam had no objection to
be treated, and the Stockton man was elated with the opportunity of
showing that he was acquainted with a circus man. So one glass
followed another until the Stockton man became, all at once,
helplessly drunk. Sam, who retained the use of his limbs, and some
glimmering of reason, good-naturedly took his drunken friend to his
lodging to save him from being turned out of the public-house, and
then locked up by the police. He had no sooner reached his
lodgings, and helped the drunken man up the stairs, however, than
he felt a doubt as to the safety of his purse; and, on immediately
thrusting his hand into his pocket, he found that it was gone. He
reflected as well as he was able, and came to the conclusion that he
must have left it on the parlour table at the public-house. Depositing
his helpless companion upon the sofa, he ran down-stairs, and
rushed off to the tavern, where, by great good fortune, he found his
purse on the chair on which he had been sitting, where he had
placed it, it seems, when he thought he had returned it to his
pocket.
‘While he was at the public-house Joe Ridley and I, and my
partner, who lodged in the same house with Sam Sault, returned to
our lodging, and found the drunken man asleep on the sofa,
smelling horribly of gin and tobacco smoke, and snoring like a fat
hog. We looked at the fellow in surprise, wondering who he was,
and how he came to be there. Neither of us recognized him as any
one we had seen before. Then the question was raised,—What
should we do with him. “Throw him out of the window,” says Joe
Ridley. “Take him down into the yard and pump on him,” says Fred.
“No, let us paint his face,” says I. So I got some carmine, and Fred
got some burnt cork, and we each painted him to our own fancy till
he looked like an Ojibbeway in his war-paint. By that time Sam Sault
got back from the public-house, and found us laughing heartily at
the queer figure cut by the recumbent Stocktonian.
‘“Oh, if he is a friend of yours, we’ll wipe it off,” says I, when Sam
had explained how the man came to be there.
‘“Oh, let it be,” says Sam,“ and let him be where he is; we’ll turn
him out in the morning, without his knowing what a beauty you have
made him, and that will serve him right for giving me so much
trouble.”
‘So the fellow was left snoring on the sofa till morning, when, it
appears, he woke before we were about, and, finding himself in a
strange place, walked down-stairs, and quitted the house. We never
saw him again, but we often laughed as we thought of the figure the
man must have cut as he stalked into Stockton, and how he must
have been laughed at by his mates and the people he met on his
way.
‘From Middlesborough we went to York, where the circus stood on
St George’s Field, an open space between the castle and the Ouse.
About that time, Webster Vernon left the company, and was
succeeded as ring-master by a gentleman named Vivian, who was
quite new to the profession, and whose adoption of it added another
to the changes which he had already known, though he was still
quite a young man. He had been a lawyer’s clerk, then a
photographic colourist, and afterwards an actor; and was a quiet,
gentlemanly fellow, unlike the majority of circus men, who are
generally a fast, slangy set. He had married early, and his wife, who
was an actress, had an engagement in London—a frequent cause of
temporary separation among those whose business it is to amuse
the public, whether their lines lie in circuses, theatres, or music-
halls. Joe Ridley’s wife was in London, and Sam Sault had left his
better half in Manchester. Franks, and Adams, and old Zamezou, and
Jem Ridley, and the head groom had their wives with them; but two
of the five were connected with the circus, Adams’s wife taking
money at the gallery entrance, and the groom’s riding in entrées.
‘How did we do ballets? Well, they were ballets d‘ action, such as
used to be done at the music-halls by the Lauri family, and more
lately by Fred Evans and troupe. The Paynes starred in them at one
time, but generally they were done by the regular members of the
company, usually by Alf Burgess, and Funny Franks, and Joe Hogini,
with Adele Newsome in the leading lady’s part, the subordinate
characters being taken by Marie Newsome and Jane Adams, and my
partner and I, and Charley Ducrow.
‘Who starred with us at this time, besides the Paynes? Well, there
was Hassan, the Arab, who did vaulting and balancing feats, and his
wife, who danced on the tight rope. He vaulted one night over a line
of mounted dragoons from Fulwood barracks, turning a somersault
over their heads and drawn sabres. Didn’t we have accidents in the
ring sometimes? Well, none of a very serious character, and nearly
all that happened in twelve months might be counted on the fingers
of one hand. Coleman slipped off the bare back of a horse one night,
and cut his hand with a sword. Burgess had a finger cut one night in
catching the knives for his juggling act, which used to be thrown to
him from the ring-doors while he was on the globe, and keeping it in
motion with his feet. Adele Newsome was thrown one night, and
pitched amongst the spectators, but received no injuries beyond a
bruise or two. Lizzie Keys slipped off the pad one night, but came
down comfortably on the sawdust, and wasn’t hurt at all. Fred fell
from the trapeze once, and that was very near being the most
serious accident of all. He fell head foremost, and was taken up
insensible by the fellows at the ring-doors, and carried into the
dressing-room. We thought his neck was broken, but Sam Sault,
who had seen such accidents before, pulled his head right, and,
when his senses came back to him, it did not appear that he was
much the worse for the fall after all. Then my turn came. One night,
when the performances were to commence with a vaulting act, I
went to the circus so much more than half tight that I was advised
on all sides to stand out of it, and Henry, the manager, very kindly
said that I should be excused; but, with the obstinacy of men in that
condition, and their usual belief that they are sober enough for
anything, I persisted in going into the ring with the rest. What
happened was just what might have been expected, and everybody
but myself feared. Instead of clearing the horses I touched one of
them, and, in consequence, instead of dropping on my feet, I was
thrown upon my back; and that accident, with a violent attack of
inflammation of the lungs, laid me up for two or three weeks, during
which I was treated with great liberality by Newsome, and received
many kindnesses from more than one of the good people of York.
‘My partner and I had a benefit while we were in York, but we
didn’t make more than £3 by it. The way benefits are given in
circuses is by admitting the tickets sold by the party whose benefit it
is, and of course the number of tickets a circus man can sell among
the inhabitants of a town where he was a stranger till the circus
appeared, and where he has lived only two or three months, can’t
be very great. We were thankful for what we got, however, and had
new trunks made on the strength of it—black velvet, spangled. Soon
after this we removed to Scarborough, where I had a rather perilous
adventure. I attempted to ascend the cliff, and found myself, when
half way up, in an awkward position. I had reached a narrow ledge,
above which the cliff rose almost perpendicularly, without any
projection within reach that I could grasp with one hand, or plant so
much as one toe upon. Descent was almost as impracticable as the
completion of the ascent, for, besides the difficulty of having to feel
for a footing with my feet while descending backward, a portion of
the cliff, which I had been standing upon a few minutes before, had
given way and plunged down to the beach. It seemed probable that
the ledge I was standing upon might give way if I stood still much
longer, and in that case I should go down after it. So I shouted
“help!” as loud as I could, and in a few minutes I saw the shako-
covered head of a volunteer projected over the edge of the
precipice, and heard him call out, “A man over the cliff!” His corps
was encamped on the cliff, and in a few minutes I was an object of
interest to a large number of spectators, whom his alarm had
attracted to the edge of the cliff. Presently a rope was lowered to
me, and held fast by men above, while I went up it, hand over hand,
as I did every night in the circus, when we ascended to the trapeze.
‘When we had been in Scarborough about a month, my partner
and I had a disagreement, and I left the circus, and procured an
engagement for twelve nights at the Pantheon music-hall. That
completed, “the world was all before me, where to choose!” I
thought there might be a chance of obtaining an engagement at one
or other of the music-halls at Leeds and Bradford, and I visited both
towns; but without meeting with success. By the time I arrived at
the conclusion that I must return to London I was pretty nigh hard
up. I counted my coin the morning I left Leeds, and found that I had
little more than enough to enable me to reach Hull, where I
expected to receive a remittance from “the old house at home!” I
had a long and weary walk to Selby, where I sat down beside the
river, to await the arrival of the steamer that runs between Hull and
York. Once more I counted my money, and had the satisfaction of
ascertaining that I had just one penny above the fare from Selby to
Hull. I shoved my fingers into each corner of every pocket, but the
search did not result in the discovery of a single copper more. It was
something to have that penny, though, for besides being thirsty, I
was so fatigued that I needed some sort of stimulant.
‘“I must have half a pint,” I thought, and I went into the nearest
public-house, and had it. Then I sat down again, and looked up the
brown Ouse, where at last I saw the black hull and smoking funnel
of the steamer. As soon as she came alongside the landing-place, I
went aboard, and descended into the fore-cabin, where I lay down,
and smoked my last bit of tobacco, after which I dozed till the
steamer bumped against the pier at Hull. There I was all right, as far
as my immediate wants were concerned. I dined, replenished my
tobacco pouch, and strolled up to Springthorp’s, to see if there was
any chance there. There was no immediate opening, however, and
on the following day I took a passage for London in one of the
steamers running between the Humber and the Thames.’
 CHAPTER XVI.

Continuation of the Gymnast’s Reminiscences—Circus Men in Difficulties—Heavy

Security for a small Debt—The Sheriff’s Officer and the Elephant—Taking
Refuge with the Lions—Another Provincial Tour—With a Circus in Dublin—A
Joke in the wrong place—A Fenian Hoax—A Case of Pikes—Return to England
—At the Kentish Watering-places—Off to the North.

‘Several weeks elapsed before I got another engagement. Two

gymnasts can do so much more showy and sensational a
performance than one can, that a single slang doesn’t go near so
well as a double one, and it is, in consequence, only those who
produce something novel, such as Jean Price’s long flight and Avolo’s
performance on two bars, who can procure single-handed
engagements. Knowing this to be the case, I looked about for a new
partner, and found that the Brothers Athos had separated, and that
one of them was in just the same fix as myself. When we met, and
talked the matter over, however, a difficulty arose in the fact that we
had both worked as bearers,—that is, we had supported our
respective partners in the double tricks, that require one man to
bear the entire weight of the other, as in the drop, or when one,
hanging by the hocks, holds a single trapeze for the other to do a
trick or two upon beneath him. Our respective necessities might
have urged us to overcome this difficulty if Christmas had not been
approaching, at which season unemployed gymnasts and acrobats
often obtain engagements at the theatres, as demons and sprites.
Athos got an engagement to sprite at the East London, and I was
left out in the cold.
‘Newsome’s circus had moved, in the mean time, from
Scarborough to Middlesborough, where some changes were made in
the company. Burgess and two or three more left, and my late
partner was among them. I heard afterwards one of the many
stories that are current in circuses of the devices resorted to by
circus men in difficulties to evade arrest. A friend of one of the
parties who had ceased to belong to Newsome’s company called at
the house where he had lodged, and found that he had left, and that
his landlady didn’t know where he had gone to.
‘“But I am sure to see him again,” said she, “for he has left a large
box, so heavy that I can’t move it.”
‘“Then you can have good security for what he owes you,”
observed the friend. “I suppose he owes you something?”
‘“Well, yes,” rejoined the woman, “he does owe me something for
board and lodging.”
‘Her lodger never returned, however, and his friend meeting him
some time afterwards in York, alluded to the manner in which he
had “mysteriously dried up,” as his friend called it.
‘“Ah, I was under a heavy cloud!” observed the defaulter. “What
did the old lady say about me?”
‘“That she was sure to see you again, because you had left a
heavy box in the room you occupied,” replied his friend.
‘“I should think it was heavy,” said the other. “Couldn’t move it,
could she?”
‘His friend replied in the negative, and he laughed so heartily that
he spilled some of the ale he was drinking.
‘“What is the joke?” inquired his friend.
‘“Why, you see, the box was once full of togs,” replied the
mysterious lodger, “but when I left Middlesborough such of them as
were not adorning the person of this swell were hypothecated.”
‘“What is the meaning of that hard word?” inquired a third circus
man who was present.
‘“In the vulgar tongue, up the spout,” replied the defaulter.
‘“Then what made the box so heavy?” inquired his friend.
‘“A score of bricks,” suggested the third party.
‘“Wrong, cully,” said the Artful Dodger. “I couldn’t have smuggled
bricks into the room without being observed; but a big screw went
through the bottom of the box, and held it fast to the floor.”
 ‘Another of the stories I have alluded to relates to a man that used
to look after an elephant in a circus, and put him through his
performance. He got pretty deeply in debt—the man I mean—in a
midland town where the circus had been staying some time, and his
creditor, not being able to obtain payment, and finding that the
company were about to remove to another town, determined to
arrest him.
‘The cavalcade of horses, performing mules, camels, and other
quadrupeds was just ready to start from the circus when the sheriff’s
officer appeared on the scene, and tapped his man on the shoulder.
He was recognized at a glance, and the man ran into the stables,
with the sheriff’s officer after him. Running to the elephant, the
debtor dived under its belly, and took up a safe position on the other
side of the beast. The officer attempted a passage in the rear, but
was cut off by a sudden movement of the elephant’s hind quarters.
Then he screwed up his courage for a dive under the animal’s belly,
but the beast turned its head, and fetched him a slap with its trunk.
‘“I’ll have you, if I wait here all day,” said he, as he drew back
hastily.
‘“You had better not wait till I unfasten this chain,” says the
elephant keeper, pretending to do what he threatened.
‘The officer growled, and went off to find the proprietor; but he
didn’t succeed, and when he returned to the stables, his man was
gone. That was as good a dodge as the lion-tamer’s, who, when the
officers went to the circus to arrest him, took refuge in the cage
containing the lions. They looked through the grating, and saw him
in the midst of a group of lions and lionesses. They were philosophic
enough to console themselves with the reflection that their man
would come out when he wanted his dinner; but they had not
waited long when the lions began to roar.
‘“The lions are getting hungry,” says the keeper. “If he lets them
out of the cage, you will have to run.”
‘The officers exchanged frightened glances, and were out of the
show in two minutes.
‘To return to my story; my late partner found himself in much the
same fix as myself, and this discovery paved the way for a mutual
friend to bridge over the gulf that had kept us apart. As soon as we
had agreed to work together again, we got a twelve nights’
engagement at the Prince of Wales concert-hall at Wolverhampton.
We found the other professionals engaged there very good people to
pal with, and spent Christmas Day with the comic singer and his
wife, two niggers also being of the party, and bringing their banjo
and bones to promote its hilarity. While we were in Wolverhampton,
we arranged for twelve nights, to follow, at the London Museum
music-hall at Birmingham, which has received its name from the
cases of stuffed birds and small animals of all kinds, which cover all
the wall space of the front of the bar and the passage leading to the
hall. After our twelve nights there, we were engaged for six nights
longer; and then we went down to Oldham, for a twelve nights’
engagement at the Co-operative Hall. For all these engagements,
and for all we made afterwards, the terms we obtained were four
pounds ten a week.
‘Our next engagement was with a circus in Dublin, to which city
we crossed from Liverpool. The company and stud of this concern
were very different in strength and quality to Newsome’s, and they
were doing very poor business. It is very seldom that a circus
proprietor ventures upon the experiment of an Irish tour, which more
rarely pays, both because of the poverty of the people, and the
difficulty which all caterers for their amusement find in avoiding
grounds for manifestations of national antipathies between English
and Irish. Of this we had an instance on the first night of our
engagement. I dare say you have heard Sam Collins or Harry Baker,
or some other Irish comique, interlard a song with a spoken flourish
about the Irish, something after this fashion:—“Who was it made the
French run at Waterloo? The Irish! Who won all the battles in the
Crimea? The Irish! Who put down the rebellion in India? The Irish!
Who mans your men of war and recruits your army? The Irish! Who
builds all your houses and churches? The Irish! Who builds your
prisons and your workhouses? The Irish! And who fills them? The
Irish!” In England this is laughed at, even by the Irish themselves;
but in Ireland nothing of the kind is tolerated. One of the clowns
delivered himself of this stuff in the ring, and was warmly applauded
until the anticlimax was reached, when such a howl burst forth as I
shouldn’t have thought the human voice could utter. The fellows in
the gallery jumped up, and raved, stamped, gesticulated, as if they
were Ojibbeways performing a war-dance; and everybody expected
that the seats would be pulled up, and flung into the ring, as had
been done in another circus, under something similar circumstances,
some time before. But the storm was hushed as suddenly as it
arose. It happened fortunately that our performance was next in the
programme, and that, knowing how popular everything American
was in Ireland, we had provided for its musical accompaniment a
fantasia on American national airs, such as “Yankee Doodle,” “Hail,
Columbia!” and “The star-spangled banner.” The band struck up this
music as the offending clown ran out of the ring, expecting to have a
bottle flung at his head, and the howlers in the gallery hearing it,
and seeing pink stars on our white trunks, thought we were
Yankees. The effect of our appearance, and of the music, was like
pouring oil on the waves. The howling ceased, and harmony was
restored as suddenly as it had been interrupted.
‘This was the time, you must know, when the Fenian plot was in
everybody’s mouth, and when the wildest rumours were in
circulation of an intended rising in Ireland, and the coming of
Americans, or rather Americanized Irishmen, to support it. One day,
while we were in Dublin, a superintendent of constabulary received
an anonymous letter, informing him that a case of pikes had been
buried at a spot near the Liffey, which was so particularly described
that the men who were sent to search for it had no difficulty in
finding it. When they had dug a pretty deep hole, they found a deal
box, which was raised to the surface, and carted off to a police-
station, with an escort of constabulary. It was opened in the
presence of the superintendent, and there were the pikes!—not such
as Slievenamon bristled with in ’48, but a couple of stale fishes.
‘Before leaving Dublin, we arranged for a twelve nights’
engagement at the Alexandra music-hall, at Ramsgate, which, as
you perhaps know, is under the same management as the Raglan, in
London. The Sisters Bullen, and Miss Lucette, and the Brothers
Keeling were at the Alexandra at the same time; and, as music-hall
professionals are, as a rule, disposed to fraternize with each other,
we had a very pleasant time. From Ramsgate we went to Dover, for
twelve nights at the Clarence music-hall, and then back to Ramsgate
for another twelve nights at the Alexandra.
‘Among the professionals engaged for the following week at the
Clarence was a versatile lady bearing the name of Cora Woski, and
the town, during the second week of our engagement, was
placarded with the inquiry, “Have you seen Cora?” This soon became
a common question in the streets, and at all places of public resort;
and one of the company, entering the Clarence on the day the bills
appeared, without having seen one of them, was equally surprised
and confused at being greeted with the inquiry, “Have you seen
Cora?” He was only slightly acquainted with the querist, and it
happened that he was engaged to marry the only lady of that rather
uncommon name whom he knew.
‘“What do you know of Cora?” he demanded, his face reddening
as he frowned upon the questioner.
‘“Why, she is coming here,” returned the amused querist, who saw
at once the cause of the young fellow’s confusion.
‘“How do you know?” was the next question of the bewildered
artiste.
‘“How do I know? Why, it’s all over the town,” was the reply.
‘A nudge from a friend drew the other’s attention from his
tormentor for a moment, and, following the direction of his friend’s
glance, he saw upon the wall one of the placards bearing the
question with which he had been greeted on entering the bar.
‘Engagements now followed each other pretty close. Returning to
London after our second engagement at Ramsgate, we were soon
afterwards engaged for twelve nights at Macfarlane’s music-hall,
Dundee, and six nights, to follow, at a similar place of amusement at
Arbroath, under the same management. We found the Gregories
there, with their performing dogs; and there was a ballet, in which
the pretty illusion of Parkes’s silver rain was introduced. No other
engagement awaited us in the north when we left Arbroath, and we
returned to Dundee, and from thence to London.’
 CHAPTER XVII.

Lions and Lion-tamers—Lorenzo and the Lions—Androcles and the Lion—The

Successor of Macomo—Accident in Bell and Myers’s Circus—Lion Hunting—
Death of Macarthy—True Causes of Accidents with Lions and Tigers—
Performing Leopards—Anticipating the Millennium—Tame Hyenas—Fairgrieve’s
Menagerie—Performing Lions, Tigers, Leopards, and Hyenas—Camels and
Dromedaries—The Great Elephant

Since the death of the negro, Macomo, the most successful

performer with lions and other large members of the feline genus
has been Lorenzo, who travelled with Fairgrieve’s menagerie for
several years preceding its dispersion in the summer of 1872. On the
death of George Wombwell, in 1850, his collection, which had grown
to an almost unmanageable extent during nearly half a century, was
divided, according to his testamentary directions, into three parts.
With one of these his widow continued to travel until 1866, when
she retired from the business, and the menagerie was transferred to
Fairgrieve, who had married her niece. Another third was
bequeathed to Wombwell’s niece, Mrs Edmonds, who travelled with
it until the close of 1872, when it was announced for sale. Who had
the remaining third I am unable to say; it was travelling for several
years in the original name, as the menageries of Fairgrieve and
Edmonds did long after Wombwell’s decease, and is now owned by
Mrs Day.
Fairgrieve’s group of performing animals consisted of several lions
and lionesses, a tigress, two or three leopards, and a hyena. Tigers
are not, as a rule, liked so well by lion-tamers as lions; but
Fairgrieve’s tigress exhibited as much docility and intelligence as her
performing companions. There was a famous lion, named Wallace,
with which Lorenzo represented the story of Androcles, the slave,
who, flying from the cruel tyranny of his Roman master, met in the
forest in which he sought refuge a lion that had been lamed by a
thorn. Observing the suffering of the beast, which made no hostile
demonstrations, he ventured to approach it, and was allowed to
extract the thorn from the elastic pad of its foot, the lion testifying
its gratitude for the relief by rubbing its head against him. Some
time afterwards, the fugitive was captured, and was doomed by his
master to be exposed in the arena of the amphitheatre to a recently
trapped lion. But, to the amazement of the spectators, the lion,
instead of falling upon Androcles, and tearing him to pieces, seemed
to recognize him, and, after rubbing its head against him, lay down
at his feet. It was the lion from whose foot Androcles had extracted
the thorn in the forest. The slave told the story and received his
pardon and his liberty on the spot.
The successor of Macomo was an Irishman named Macarthy, who
had previously travelled, in the same capacity, with Bell and Myers’s
circus; and in 1862, while performing with the lions belonging to
that establishment, had his left arm so severely mangled by one of
the beasts that he had to undergo amputation. This circumstance
seems to have added to the eclat of the unfortunate man’s
performances, but he had neither the nerve of Crockett and
Macomo, nor their resolution to abstain from stimulants. Whether
from carelessness or nervousness, he often turned his back upon the
animals, though he had been repeatedly cautioned that it was
dangerous to do so; and to this circumstance, and his intemperate
habits, the lion-taming fraternity attribute his terrible end.
It is to be observed that Macarthy lost his life, not in the course of
the ordinary performances of lion-tamers, but while giving a
sensational exhibition termed ‘lion-hunting,’ which had been
introduced by Macomo, and consists in chasing the animals about
the cage, the performer being armed with a sword and pistols, and
throwing into the mimic sport as much semblance of reality as may
be possible. It will be obvious that this is a dangerous exhibition,
and it should never be attempted with any but young animals. For
ordinary performances, most lion-tamers prefer full-grown animals,
as being better trained; but when lions become full-grown, they are
not disposed to be driven and hustled about in this manner, and they
are so excited by it that it cannot be repeatedly performed with the
same animals.
Macarthy had been bitten on three occasions previously to the
catastrophe at Bolton. The first time was in 1862, when he lost his
left arm, as already related; the second while performing at
Edinburgh in 1871, when one of the lions made a snap at his arm,
but only slightly grazed it. The third occasion was only a few days
before the accident which terminated his career and his life, when
one of the lions bit him slightly on the wrist. The fatal struggle at
Bolton was preceded by a trifling accident, which may perhaps have
done something to lessen the never remarkable steadiness of the
man’s nerves. In driving the animals from one end of the cage to the
other, one of them ran against his legs, and threw him down. He
regained his feet, however, and drove the animals into a corner. He
then walked to the centre of the cage, and was stamping his feet
upon the floor, to make the beasts run past him, when one of the
lions crept stealthily out from the group and sprang upon him,
seizing him by the right hip, and throwing him upon his side. For a
moment the spectators imagined that this attack was part of the
performance; but the agonized features of Macarthy soon convinced
them of their mistake. A scene of wild and terrible confusion ensued.
Three other lions sprang upon Macarthy, who was vainly
endeavouring to regain his feet, and making desperate lunges
amongst the excited animals with his sword. Presently one of the
lions seized his arm, and the sword dropped from his hand. Several
men were by this time endeavouring to beat the animals off, and to
slide a partition between the bars of the cage, with the view of
driving them behind it. This was a task of considerable difficulty,
however, for as soon as one lion was compelled to relinquish his
hold, another took his place. Fire-arms and heated bars of iron were
then procured, and, by applying the irons to the paws and jaws of
the lions, and firing upon them with blank cartridges, four of them
were driven behind the partition.
 Macarthy was then lying in the centre of the cage, with the lion
which had first attacked him still biting and tearing him. Discharges
of blank cartridge being found ineffectual to make it loose its hold of
the unfortunate man, the heated iron was applied to his nose, and
then it released him, and ran behind the partition, which had been
drawn out a little to admit him. Even then the terrible scene was not
concluded. Before the opening could be closed again, the lion which
had been foremost in the onslaught ran out again, seized Macarthy
by the foot, and dragged him into the corner, where all the lions
again fell upon him with redoubled fury. A quarter of an hour
elapsed from the commencement of the attack before he could be
rescued; and, as the lions were then all caged at the end where the
entrance was, the opposite end of the cage had to be opened before
his mangled body could be lifted out.
This lamentable affair caused an outcry to be raised against the
exhibition of performing lions such as had been heard a few years
previously against such feats as those of Blondin and Leotard. ‘The
display of wild animals in a menagerie,’ said a London morning
journalist, ‘may be tolerated, and even encouraged for the sake of
science, and for the rational amusement of the public; but there is
no analogy between the case of beasts secured in strong dens, and
approached only with the greatest caution by wary and experienced
keepers, and that of a caravan open on all sides, illuminated by
flaring gas, and surrounded by a noisy audience.’ The distinction is
one without a difference, even if we suppose that the writer
mentally restricted the term ‘menagerie’ to the Zoological Gardens;
for the proprietor of a travelling menagerie, or a circus, consults his
own interests, as well as the safety of the public, in providing strong
cages, and engaging wary and experienced keepers. It is childish to
talk of prohibiting every performance or exhibition from which an
accident has resulted. Some years ago, one of the keepers of the
Zoological Gardens in the Regent’s Park, being somewhat
intoxicated, chose to irritate a hooded snake, which thereupon
seized him by the nose. He died within an hour. Would the journalist
who proposed to exclude lion-tamers from menageries and circuses
close the Zoological Gardens on that account?
 ‘The caravans,’ continues the author of the article just quoted, ‘are
tenanted by wild beasts weary with previous performances, irritated
by the heat and the clamour around them, and teased by being
obliged to perform tricks at the bidding of a man whom they hate,
since his mandates are generally seconded by the blows of a whip or
the searing of a branding-iron. Now and again, in a well-ordered
zoological collection, some lazy, drowsy old lion, who passes the
major part of his time in a corner of his den, blinking at the
sunshine, and who is cloyed with abundant meals, and surfeited with
cakes and sweetmeats, may exhibit passable good-nature, and allow
his keeper to take liberties; but such placability can rarely be
expected from animals moved continually from place to place, and
ceaselessly pestered into going through movements which they
detest. Lions or tigers may have the cunning of that feline race to
which they pertain; yet they are assuredly destitute of the docility,
the intelligence, or the fidelity of the dog or the horse; and such
cunning as they possess will prompt them rather to elude
performance of the tasks assigned them, or to fall upon their
instructor unawares and rend him, than to go through their feats
with the cheerful obedience manifested by creatures friendly to man.
It is no secret that the customary method of taming wild beasts for
purposes of exhibition is, to thrash them with gutta percha whips
and iron bars, and when it is considered necessary, to scarify them
with red-hot pokers.’
I quote this for the sake of refuting it by the evidence of one who,
unlike the journalist, understood what he was writing about. The ex-
lion king, whose experiences and reminiscences were recorded
about the same time in another journal, and who must be admitted
to be a competent authority, says, ‘Violence is a mistake;’ and he
adds, that he has never known heated irons to be held in readiness,
except when lions and lionesses are together at times such as led to
the terrific struggle in Sanger’s circus, which has been related in the
seventh chapter. The true causes of accidents with lions and tigers
are intemperance and violence. ‘It’s the drink,’ says the ex-lion king,
‘that plays the mischief with us fellows. There are plenty of people
always ready to treat the daring fellow that plays with the lions as if
they were kittens; and so he gets reckless, lets the dangerous
animal—on which, if he were sober, he would know he must always
keep his eye—get dodging round behind him; he hits a beast in
which he ought to know that a blow rouses the sleeping devil; or
makes a stagger and goes down, and then they set upon him.’ He
expected, he says, to hear of Macarthy’s death from the time when
he heard that he had given way to intemperance; and we have seen
how a hasty cut with a whip brought the tiger upon Helen Blight.
To this evidence of the ex-lion king I may add what I witnessed
about thirty years ago in one of the smaller class of travelling
menageries, exhibiting at the time at Mitcham fair. There were no
lions or tigers, but four performing leopards, a hyena, a wolf which
anticipated the Millennium by lying down with a lamb, and several
smaller animals. The showman entered the leopards’ cage, with a
light whip in one hand, and a hoop in the other. The animals leaped
over the whip, through the hoop, and over the man’s back,
exhibiting as much docility throughout the performance as cats or
dogs. The whip was used merely as part of the properties. Indeed,
since cats can be taught to leap in the same way, without the use of
whips or iron bars, why not leopards, which are merely a larger
species of the same genus? The showman also entered the cage of
the hyena, which fawned upon him after the manner of a dog, and
allowed him to open its mouth. The hyena has the reputation of
being untameable; but, in addition to this instance to the contrary,
and another in Fairgrieve’s menagerie, Bishop Heber had a hyena at
Calcutta, which followed him about like a dog.
When Fairgrieve’s collection was sold by auction at Edinburgh in
1872, the lions and tigers excited much attention, and good prices
were realized, though in some instances they were not so great as
had been expected. Rice, a dealer in animals, whose repository, like
Jamrach’s, is in Ratcliff Highway, bought, for £185, the famous lion,
Wallace, aged seven years and a half, with which Lorenzo used to
represent the story of Androcles. The auctioneer assured those
present that the animal was as tame as a lamb, and that he was
inclined to enter the cage himself, and perform Androcles ‘for that
time only,’ but was afraid of the lion’s gratitude. There were six other
lions and three lionesses, five of which were also bought by Rice, at
prices varying, according to the age and sex of the animals, from
£80 for a full grown lioness, and £90 each for lions a year and a half
old, to £140 for full-grown lions, from three to seven years old. A
six-year old lion named Hannibal, said to be the largest and
handsomest lion in this country, was bought by the proprietors of
the Zoological Gardens at Bristol for £270; and his mate, four years
old, was bought by Jennison, of the Belle Vue Gardens, Manchester,
for 100 guineas. The third lioness realized £80, and the remaining
lion, bought by Jamrach, £200.
The magnificent tigress, Tippoo, which used to perform with
Lorenzo, was also purchased by Jamrach for £155; and the same
enterprising dealer became the possessor of three of the four
leopards for £60. As these leopards, two of which were females,
were trained performing animals, the sum they realized must be
considered extremely low. Another leopardess, advanced in years,
realized only 6 guineas. Ferguson, the agent of Van Amburgh, the
great American menagerist, secured the spotted hyena for £15;
while a performing hyena of the striped variety was knocked down
at only three guineas. A polar bear, ‘young, healthy, and lively as a
trout,’ as the auctioneer said, was sold for £40, a Thibetian bear for
5 guineas, and a pair of wolves for 2 guineas.
Rice, who was the largest purchaser, became the possessor of the
zebra for £50. The Bactrian camels, bought principally for travelling
menageries, brought from £14 to £30. The largest male camel,
twelve years old, was sold for £19; and another, six months younger,
but a foot less in stature, for £14. Of the three females, one, six feet
and a half high, and ten years old, brought £30; and another, of the
same height, and only half the age of the former, £23. The third,
only a year and a half old, and not yet full grown, brought £14. All
three were in young. A baby camel, nine weeks old, realized 9
guineas. The male ‘dromedary,’ as it was described in the catalogue,
but called by naturalists the Syrian camel, was sold for £30, and the
female for 20 guineas. Menagerists restrict the term ‘camel’ to the
Bactrian or two-humped variety, and call the one-humped animals
dromedaries; but the dromedary, according to naturalists, is a small
variety of the Syrian camel, bearing the same relation to the latter as
a pony does to a horse. The animals described as dromedaries in the
catalogue of Fairgrieve’s collection were, on the contrary, taller than
the Bactrian camels.
There was a spirited competition for the two elephants, ending in
the female, a musical phenomenon, playing the organ and the
harmonium, being bought by Rice for £145; and the noble full-
tusked male, rising eight years old, and seven feet six inches in
height, being purchased by Jennison for £680. This enormous beast
was described as the largest and cleverest performing elephant ever
exhibited. In point of fact, he is surpassed in stature, I believe, by
the Czar’s elephant, kept at his country residence at Tzarski-Seloe;
but that beast’s performances have never gone beyond occasionally
killing his keeper, whilst the elephant now in the Belle Vue Gardens,
at Manchester, is one of the most docile and intelligent beasts ever
exhibited. He will go in harness, and was accustomed to draw the
band carriage when a parade was made. He will either drag or push
a waggon up a hill, and during the last eighteen months that the
menagerie was travelling, he placed all the vans in position, with the
assistance only of a couple of men to guide the wheels.
The entire proceeds of the sale were a little under £3,000. The
daily cost of the food of the animals in a menagerie is, I may add,
far from a trifle. The quantity of hay, cabbages, bread, and boiled
rice, sweetened with sugar, which an elephant will consume, in
addition to the fruit, buns, and biscuits given to him by visitors, is
enormous. The amount of animal food for the carnivora in
Fairgrieve’s menagerie was about four hundred-weight a day,
consisting chiefly of the shins, hearts, and heads of bullocks. Each
lion is said to have consumed twelve pounds of meat every day; but
this is more, I believe, than is allowed in the Gardens of the
Zoological Society. The appetite of the tiger is almost equal to that of
his leonine relative; and all these beasts seem to insist upon having
beef for dinner. We hear nothing of hippophagy among lions and
tigers in a state of confinement; though, in their native jungles, they
eat horse, pig, deer, antelope, sheep, or goat indiscriminately. The
bears get meat only in very cold weather; at other seasons, their
diet consists of bread, sopped biscuits, and boiled rice.
 CHAPTER XVIII.

Circus Slang—Its Peculiarities and Derivation—Certain Phrases used by others of

the Amusing Classes—Technicalities of the Circus—The Riders and Clowns of
Dickens—Sleary’s Circus—Circus Men and Women in Fiction and in Real Life—
Domestic Habits of Circus People—Dress and Manners—The Professional
Quarter of the Metropolis.

Circus men are much addicted to the use of slang, and much of
their slang is peculiar to themselves. To those who are uninitiated in
the mysteries of life among what may be termed the amusing
classes, the greater part of their vocabulary would seem an
unknown tongue; but a distinction must be made between slang
words and phrases and the technical terms used in the profession,
and also between the forms of expression peculiar to circus men and
those which they use in common with members of the theatrical and
musical professions. These distinctions being duly observed, the
words and phrases which are peculiar to the ring will be found to be
less numerous than might be expected from the abundance of slang
with which the conversation of circus artistes seems to be garnished;
though it is probable that no man, not even a circus man, could give
a complete vocabulary of circus slang, which, like that of other
slang-speaking classes, is constantly receiving additions, while words
and phrases which have been long in use often become obsolete,
and fall into disuse.
There is an impression among circus men that much of the slang
peculiar to themselves is derived from the languages of Italy and
Spain, and the affirmative, si, has been cited to me as an instance;
but I have never heard this word used by them, and its use has
probably been observed only in the case of men or women who
have recently been in Italy. The few words in common use among
the class which can be traced to an Italian or Spanish origin may be
counted on the fingers of one hand. Bono (good) is used both as an
adjective, and as an exclamation of approval or admiration. Dona
(lady) is so constantly used that I have seldom heard a circus man
mention a woman by any other term. The other words referred to
are used in monetary transactions, which are the constant subject of
slang among all classes of the community. Saulty (penny) may be
derived from the Italian soldi, and duey (twopence) and tray saulty
(threepence) are also of foreign origin, like the deuce and tray of
card-players. Dollar is in constant use as the equivalent of five
shillings, and money generally is spoken of as denarlies, which may
be a corruption of the Latin denarii.
Rot is a term of contempt, used in strong and emphatic
contradistinction to bono; and of late years it has been adopted by
other sections of the amusing classes, and by young men of the
‘fast’ sort, who seem to think the use of slang a commendable
distinction. Toe rags is another expression of contempt, less
frequently used, and chiefly by the lower grades of circus men, and
the acrobats who stroll about the country, performing at fairs and
races, in the open air. These wanderers, and those who are still seen
occasionally in the back streets of the metropolis, are said to ‘go a-
pitching;’ the spot they select for their performance is their ‘pitch,’
and any interruption of their feats, such as an accident, or the
interference of a policeman, is said to ‘queer the pitch,’—in other
words, to spoil it. Going round the assemblage with a hat, to collect
the largesses of the on-lookers, is ‘doing a nob,’ and to do this at the
windows of a street, sometimes done by one performer standing on
the shoulders of another, is ‘nobbing the glazes.’ The sum collected
is the ‘nob.’
The verb ‘to fake,’ means, in the thieves’ vocabulary, to steal; but
circus men use it in a different sense, ‘faked up’ meaning ‘fixed,’
while ‘fakements’ is applied particularly to circus apparatus and
properties, and generally to moveables of any kind. ‘Letty’ is used
both as a noun and a verb, signifying ‘lodging’ and ‘to lodge.’ To
abscond from a place, to evade payment of debts, or from
apprenticeship, is sometimes called ‘doing a bunk,’ but this phrase is
used by other classes also, circus men more frequently using the
phrase, ‘doing a Johnny Scaparey,’ the last word being accented on
the second syllable. The circus is always called the ‘show;’ I have
never heard it termed the ‘booth,’ which is the word which Dickens
puts into the mouth of Cissy Jupe, the little daughter of the clown of
Sleary’s circus, in Hard Times. Gymnasts call their performance a
‘slang,’ but I am not aware that the term is used by other circus
artistes. The joke or anecdote of a clown is called ‘a wheeze,’ and he
is said when engaged in that part of his business, to be ‘cracking a
wheeze.’
Balloons, banners, and garters are merely special applications to
circus uses of ordinary English terms. A balloon is a large hoop,
covered with tissue paper, held up for an equestrian artiste to jump
through; a banner is a bordered cloth held horizontally, to be
jumped over,—what Albert Smith calls a length of stair carpet; and
garters are narrow bands held in the same manner, and for the same
purpose. When an equestrian fails to clear these, he is said to ‘miss
his tip,’ which is the gravest article of Childers’s impeachment of
Jupe, in Dickens’s interesting story of the fortunes and misfortunes
of the Gradgrinds and the Bounderbys. Dickens put two or three
other words into the mouth of the same member of Sleary’s
company which I have never heard, and which do not appear to be
now in use. Jupe is said to have become ‘loose in his ponging,’
though still a good ‘cackler;’ and Bounderby is reminded sarcastically
that he is on the ‘tight jeff.’ Childers explains that ‘ponging’ means
tumbling, ‘cackling’ talking, and ‘jeff’ a rope.
‘Cully’ is the circus man’s equivalent for the mechanic’s ‘mate’ and
the soldier’s ‘comrade.’ ‘Prossing’ is a delicate mode of indicating a
desire for anything, as when old Ben, the drummer, in Life in a
Circus, says, in response to the acrobat’s exhortation to his fair
companion, to make the best of things,—‘That’s the philosophy to
pitch with! Not but what a drop of beer helps it, you know; and I
declare my throat’s that dry that it’s as much as I can do to blow the
pipes.’ ‘Pro’ is simply an abbreviation of ‘professional,’ and is used by
all the amusing classes to designate actors, singers, dancers,
clowns, acrobats, &c., to whom the term seems to be restricted
among them. Amongst all the amusing classes, the salary received is
the ‘screw,’ the ‘ghost walks’ when it is paid, and an artiste is
‘goosed,’ or ‘gets the goose,’ when the spectators or auditors testify
by sibillant sounds disapproval or dissatisfaction. As in every other
avocation, there are a great many technical terms used, which are
not to be confounded with slang. Such is ‘the Plymouth,’ a term
applied to one of the movements by which gymnasts return to a
sitting position on the horizontal bar, after hanging from it by the
hands in an inverted position. ‘Slobber swing’ is applied to a single
circle upon the bar, after which a beginner, from not having given
himself sufficient impetus, hangs by the hands. The ‘Hindoo
punishment’ is what is more often called the ‘muscle grind,’ a rather
painful exercise upon the bar, in which the arms are turned
backward to embrace the bar, and then brought forward upon the
chest, in which position the performer revolves.
Having mentioned that Dickens has put some slang words into the
mouths of his circus characters, which I have not found in use
among circus men of the present day, I cannot refrain from quoting
a passage in Hard Times, and giving a circus man’s brief, but
emphatic, commentary upon it. Speaking of Sleary’s company, the
great novelist says:—‘All the fathers could dance upon rolling casks,
stand upon bottles, catch knives and balls, twirl hand basins, ride
upon anything, jump over everything, and stick at nothing. All the
mothers could (and did) dance upon the slack wire and the tight
rope, and perform rapid acts on bare-backed steeds.’ The circus
man’s criticism of this statement, and of all the circus business
introduced into the story, was summed up in the one word—‘Rot!’
Sleary’s people must certainly have been exceptionally clever, so
much versatility being very rarely found. There are few clowns and
acrobats who can ride, even in the ordinary, and not in the circus
acceptation of the word; and of a score of equestriennes who can
ride a pad-horse, and fly through hoops and balloons, and over
banners and garters, there will not be found more than one or two
who can perform rapid acts on the bare back of a horse.
 So far, also, from ‘all the mothers’ doing all the performances
mentioned by Dickens, there are more often none who do them. I
call to mind at this moment a circus in which seven of the male
members of the company were married, not one of whose wives
ever appeared in the ring, or ever had done so.
The picture of the domestic life of the men and women performing
in Sleary’s circus differs as much from reality as their versatile talents
and accomplishments differ from the powers exhibited by the riders,
clowns, and tumblers of real life. The company seems to be a rather
strong one, and most of the men have wives and children; yet the
whole of them, including the proprietor, are represented as lodging
in one house, an obscure inn in an obscure part of the outskirts of
the town. Such deviations from probability do not lessen the interest
of the story, which I have read again and again with pleasure; but
they render it of little or no value as a picture of circus life and
character. Circus men, if married, and accompanied by their wives,
will generally be found occupying private apartments. Riders and
others who are unmarried sometimes prefer to lodge in public-
houses, and often have no choice in the matter, owing to the early
hours at which the inhabitants of provincial towns retire to rest, and
the unwillingness of many persons to receive ‘professionals’ as
lodgers, which applies equally to actors and vocalists. But the
Pegasus’s Arms must have had an unusual number of apartments for
a house of its class to have accommodated all Sleary’s people, with
their families; and the company must have been gregarious in a very
remarkable degree.
The dress, the manners, and the talk of circus men are peculiar,
but in none of these particulars are they at all ‘horsey,’ as all Sleary’s
company are described, unless they are equestrians, and even these
are less so than grooms and jockeys. They may be recognized by
their dress alone as readily as foreigners who have just arrived in
England, and who do not belong to those social classes that affect
the latest Parisian fashions, and in which national distinctions have
disappeared. Watch the men who enter a circus by the side-doors
about eleven o’clock in the forenoon, or walk on two or three
successive mornings, between ten and twelve, from Westminster
Bridge to Waterloo Road, and you may recognize the acrobats and
rope-dancers of the circuses and music-halls by their dress; you may
meet one wearing a sealskin coat, unbuttoned, and displaying
beneath a crimson velvet vest, crossed by a heavy gold chain. He is
a ‘tip-topper,’ of course; one of those who used to get their fifty or
sixty pounds a week at the Alhambra, or who has had nuggets
thrown to him at San Francisco and Melbourne. Perhaps the next
you will meet will be a man of lower grade, wearing a brown coat,
with velvet collar, over a sealskin vest, with a brassy-looking chain
festooned across it. Another wears a drab over-coat, with broad
collar and cuffs of Astrakhan lamb-skin; an Alpine hat, with a tail-
feather of a peacock stuck in the band, is worn jauntily on his head;
a pin, headed with a gilt horse-shoe or horse’s head or hoof, adorns
his fancy neck-tie; and an Alaska diamond glistens on the fourth
finger of an ungloved hand. Further on you meet a man whose form
is enveloped in a capacious blue cloak, and whose head is
surmounted by the tallest felt hat, with the broadest brim, you have
ever seen. But you are not done with these strange people yet. You
have nearly reached the end of York Road when there issues from
the office of Roberts or Maynard, the equestrian and musical agents,
a man wearing a low-crowned hat and a grey coat, braided with
black; or, it may be, a black velvet coat, buttoned across his chest,
whatever the weather may be, and ornamented with a gold chain
festooned from the breast-pocket to one of the button-holes.
This is the professional quarter of the metropolis. At least three-
fourths of what I have termed the amusing classes, whether
connected with circuses, theatres, public gardens, or music-halls,—
actors, singers, dancers, equestrians, clowns, gymnasts, acrobats,
jugglers, posturers,—may be found, in the day-time at least, within
the area bounded by a line drawn from Waterloo Bridge to the
Victoria Theatre, and thence along Gibson Street and Oakley Street,
down Kennington Road as far as the Cross, and thence to Vauxhall
Bridge. Towards the edges of this area they are more sparsely
scattered than nearer the bridges. They are well sprinkled along York
Road, and in some of the streets between the Albert Embankment
and Kennington Lane they constitute a considerable proportion of
the population. You may enter Barnard’s tavern, opposite Astley’s, or
the Pheasant, in the rear of the theatre, and find circus and music-
hall artistes making two to one of the men before the bar.
They are, as a class, a light-hearted set, not remarkable for
providence, but bearing the vicissitudes of fortune to which they are
so liable with tolerable equanimity, showing a laudable desire to
alleviate each other’s ills to the utmost extent of their power, and
regarding leniently each other’s failings, without exhibiting a greater
tendency to vice than any other class. There is not much education
among them, as I have before indicated, and they are not much
addicted to literature of any kind. This seems to arise, not from any
deficiency of natural aptitude for learning, but from their wandering
lives and the early age at which they begin to practise the feats by
which they are to be enabled to live. The training of a circus rider, a
gymnast, or an acrobat begins as soon as he or she can walk. From
that time they practise every day, and they are often introduced in
the ring, or on the platform of a music-hall, at an age at which other
children have not left the nursery. They wander over the United
Kingdom—Europe—the world. The lads whom you see tumbling in
one of the quiet streets between the Strand and the Victoria
Embankment one day, may be seen doing the same performance a
week or two afterwards on the sands at Ramsgate, the downs at
Epsom, or the heath at Newmarket. The equestrian or the gymnast
who amazes you at the Amphitheatre may be seen the following
season at the Hippodrome or the Circo Price. They may be met
passing from one continent to another, from one hemisphere to
another, sometimes gorgeously attired, sometimes out at elbows,
but always light-hearted and gay, excepting perhaps the clowns,
who always seem, out of the ring, the gravest and most taciturn of
the race. I do not know how a moral phenomenon of such
strangeness is to be accounted for; perhaps all their hilarity
evaporates in the saw-dust, or on the boards; but I am afraid that
their humour is very often forced, their jests borrowed from the
latest collection of facetiæ, their merry interludes with the ring-
master rehearsed before-hand.
 They are, as a rule, long-lived, and seem never to become
superannuated. Stickney died at forty, I believe; but Astley was
seventy-two when he departed this life, Pablo Fanque seventy-five,
Madame Saqui eighty, and Saunders ninety-two. Constant practice
enables even gymnasts and acrobats to continue their performances
when they are far down the decline of life; and I have seen middle-
aged, and even grey-headed men, who had been ‘pitching’ or
‘tenting’ all their lives, and could still throw a forward somersault, or
form the base of an acrobatic pyramid. Both men and women
generally marry young, but the latter go on riding or rope-dancing
until they are superseded by younger ones; and their husbands ride,
vault, tumble, or juggle, until their—

———‘little life
Is rounded with a sleep.’

The human mind craves amusement in every phase of society, and

in none more than in that which is exemplified in the large towns of
Europe and the United States, where, and especially among the
commercial and industrial classes, the brain is in activity, the nerves
in a state of tension, from morn till eve. Released from business or
labour for the day, the nervous system requires relaxation; and if its
demands are not attended to, the strain of the day cannot long be
sustained. The entertaining classes are, therefore, a necessary
element of present society; and, in now taking leave of them, I
cannot too strongly urge upon all who may read these pages the
appeal which the inimitable Dickens has put into the mouth of
Sleary: ‘People mutht be amuthed. They can’t be alwayth a-learning,
nor they can’t be alwayth a-working; they an’t made for it. You
mutht have uth. Do the withe thing and the kind thing too, and
make the betht of uth; not the wutht.’ Let us indeed make the best
of our entertainers; for we owe them much.
THE END.
 INDEX.

PAGE
Abbott, the clown 247
Adams, the equestrian 62, 86
” ” clown 263
Adrian, Miss, the equestrian 203
Agouste, the juggler 110
Airec, the gymnast 162
Alexander, Brothers, the acrobats 192
Amburgh, Van, the lion-tamer 89, 97, 117
” ” ” circus proprietor 238
American circuses 223
Ames, the circus proprietor 252
Anderson’s circus 247
Angela, the female Samson 231
Arab vaulters, first in England 85
Arthur and Bertrand, the clowns 167
Astley, Philip, the equestrian 17, 28, 46, 48, 51, 53
” Mrs, the equestrian 19
” John, the equestrian 29, 33, 46, 53, 56
Atalie, the man with the iron jaw 231
Athos, Brothers, the gymnasts 280
Atkins’s lion and tigress at Astley’s 79
Avolo, the gymnast 193
Azella, the female gymnast 179

Bailey’s circus and menagerie 245

Balize, the lion-performer 246
Banks, the horse-charmer 4
Bannister, Miss, the equestrian 56
” the circus proprietor 66
Baptiste, the rope-dancer 27
Barnum, the great showman 221, 225, 226
Barr, the falconer 143
Barry, the clown 96, 109, 118, 142
Barry, the lyrical jester 212
Barrymore, the manager 55
Batty, William, the circus proprietor, 97, 100, 138
Bell, the acrobat 34
” the equestrian 211
” and Myers’ circus 92
Bellinck, the rope-dancer 57
Berrington. See Parelli.
Bibb, the clown 192, 203, 210
Blight, Helen, the lion-queen 132
Bliss, the equestrian 241
Blondin’s circus 55
Blondin, the rope-walker 157
Boleno, the clown 61
Bologna Family, posturers and rope- 39, 44
dancers
Bond, the equilibrist 165
Bonnaire, the gymnast 153
Bradbury the elder, the equestrian 55
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