Do you conscientiously believe that, notwithstanding these revelations, notwithstanding the situation that we are brought face to face with now, and what has occurred, there are police officers to-day in this city who accept blackmail?
But he was speedily convinced that the revelations and the terrors of exposure had only reduced the amount of the blackmail levied by reducing the number of those who could be compelled to pay. The evidence of Captain Meakin’s collector, Edward Shalvey, was conclusive on this point. He swore in the witness-box that he had gone on collecting, without making the slightest change, right down to September:—
Q. You collected from these several places, liquor dealers, policy shops, and houses of ill-fame as you did under the previous captain?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you ever meet with any refusal to pay from people engaged in this class of business, or did they all pay as matter of course?
A. They all paid as matter of course.
Q. So that, officer, even beneath the terrible frown of the Lexow Committee, the collections went on just the same?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. The old, old story continued, is that not so?
A. Yes, sir.