It is a fact that the late James Fisk, Jr., was appointed
by Judge Barnard, of New York, receiver of a railway (the Albany and
Susquehanna) which lay a hundred miles outside of that magistrate’s
judicial district.
[Return to text]
Commenting on this outrage, the New York Herald said
editorially:—
“We have had too much of this meddling business—rummaging the mails
for the books of a conscientious writer like Tolstoi, suppressing the
poems of one of the gentlest and noblest of writers, Whitman, and now
taking a gentleman to the Tombs for having on his shelves a copy of
Balzac. American readers are not children, idiots, or slaves. They
can govern their reading without the advice of Mr. Comstock, Mr.
Wanamaker, or this new supervisor of morals named Britton—a kind of
spawn from Comstock, we are informed, and who begins his campaign for
notoriety by an outrage upon Mr. Farrelly.”
[Return to text]
In the New York Morning Advertiser of September 10, Mr.
Britton thus denounces the judiciary of the empire city:—
“The police are down on me, but I am not afraid of ‘em. I can prove
that the police force is subsidized to wink at crime. Nine tenths of
the crime in New York is under police protection. I can prove it, and
I could begin with the inspectors and captains. Oh, I’d strike high. I
don’t go into the courts and prove it, because every judge in this
city, and I don’t make a single exception, is subsidized.”
[Return to text]
The Morning Advertiser of Sept. 10, 1891, thus records
Mr. Britton’s embarrassing position:—
Joseph A. Britton is agent of the New York Society for the Enforcement
of the Criminal Law. Agent Britton has become so absorbed in the
enforcement of the criminal law that he has, it is said, forgotten
that there is a civil law, and defaulted on the payment of betting
debts. His creditor, in the sum of $1,085, is Robert G. Irving, a
bookmaker, who has tried to collect the debt since last fall, and
failing has resorted to the courts.
According to Irving, Agent Britton, upholder and advocate of the
majesty of the law, placed some bets with him, won, and drew his
winnings. Then Britton continued to bet, on credit, and lost; but,
instead of settling in hard cash, gave a check, which the bank
stamped N. G. when presented. Finally, Britton exchanged three notes
for the worthless check, but the first two notes have fallen due, and
have proved as worthless as the check. So the case is on the court
docket.