degree of comfort.

Literary men and women are even more numerous in the metropolis than
lawyers or doctors. They are of all classes, from the great author of
world-wide fame to the veriest scribbler. The supply is very largely in
advance of the demand, and as a consequence, all have to exert themselves
to get along. A writer in the _World_ estimates the annual receipts of
New York authors at about one million of dollars, and the number of
writers at 2000, which would give an average income to each of about
$500. As a matter of course, it is impossible to make any reliable
estimate, and there can be little doubt that the writer referred to has
been too generous in his average. Authorship in New York offers few
inducements of a pecuniary nature. Men of undoubted genius often
narrowly escape starvation, and to make a bare living by the pen
requires, in the majority of instances, an amount of mental and manual
labor and application which in any mercantile pursuit would ensure a
fortune.

XLIII. PROFESSIONAL CRIMINALS.

I. THE THIEVES.

The criminal class of New York is very large, but it is not so large as
is commonly supposed. In the spring of 1871, the Rev. Dr. Bellows stated
that the City of New York contained 30,000 professional thieves, 20,000
lewd women and harlots, 3000 rum shops, and 2000 gambling houses, and
this statement was accepted without question by a large portion of the
newspapers of other parts of the country. New York is a very wicked
place, but it is not as bad as the above statement would indicate. The
personal character of the gentleman who made it compels the conviction
that he believed in the truth of his figures; but a closer examination of
the case makes it plain that he was singularly deceived by the sources
from which he derived his information.

It is very hard to obtain accurate information as to the criminal
statistics of this city. The reports and estimates of the Police
Commissioners are notoriously incomplete and unreliable. They show a
large number of arrests, but they deal mainly with the class known as
"casuals," persons who merely dabble in crime, and who do not make it a
profession, and the larger proportion of the arrests reported are for
such trifling offences as drunkenness. Indeed many of the arrests
reported ought not to be counted in the records of crime at all, as the
persons apprehended are released upon the instant by the officer in
charge of th