about thirty men and women, engaged in smoking
and drinking. The room is dimly lighted by a couple of tallow candles,
stuck in bottles; the walls are black with dust and smoke, and the
aforesaid table and a few benches constitute the entire furniture of the
room. The general frequenters of the cellar are not admitted to this
place, it being especially reserved for the use of those ladies and
gentlemen who gain their living on the principle of an equal division of
property--or in other words, _thieves_. In this room, secure from being
overheard by the uninitiated and vulgar crowd, they could "ply the
lush," and "blow a cloud," while they talked over their exploits and
planned new depredations. The room was called the "Pig Pen," and the
society who resorted there classed themselves under the expressive tide
of "Grabbers." Although not a regularly organized association, it had a
sort of leader or captain whose authority was generally recognized. This
gentleman was called "Jew Mike," from the fact of his belonging to the
Hebrew persuasion; he was a gigantic, swarthy ruffian, with a long,
black and most repulsive features, and was dressed in a style decidedly
"flash," his coat garnished with huge brass buttons, and his fingers
profusely adorned with jewelry of the same material. He had recently
graduated from the State Prison, where he had served a term of ten years
for manslaughter, as the jury termed it; although it was universally
regarded as one of the most cold-blooded and atrocious murders ever
committed. To sum up the character of this man in a few words, he was a
most desperate and blood-thirsty villain, capable of perpetrating the
most enormous crimes; and dark hints were sometimes thrown out by his
associates in reference to his former career; some said that he was an
escaped murderer from the South; others that he had been a pirate; while
all united in bearing unqualified testimony as to the villainy of his
character and the number and blackness of his crimes. He could not plead
_ignorance_ in extenuation of his manifold enormities, for he possessed
an education that would have qualified him to move in a respectable
sphere of society, had he been so disposed. Upon his right was seated no
less a personage that "Sow Nance," the hideous girl who had that day
entrapped poor Fanny Aubry into the power of Mr. Tickels; she was much
intoxicated, and by the maudlin fondness which she displayed for Jew
Mike, it was easy to s