The Dread Whitechapel Murderer Hung in Effigy on De Kalb Avenue
If by any combination of circumstances the chief of police of London, Inspector Byrnes of New York and the dread Jack the Ripper could have been standing at the corner of De Kalb avenue and Debevoise place for about half an hour yesterday morning, they would have been impressed with the opinion that the boys of that neighborhood have heard of them. The boys had, no doubt, read the account of the Ripper's thirteenth victim, and had made up their minds to show just what they would do should that worthy appear in Brooklyn. So Saturday night they borrowed a nondescript suit of clothes and with some old paper rigged up an effigy which for fierceness and dirt went way ahead of anything that Whitechapel could produce. This effigy made its appearance first on Willoughby street, but by some medium found its way to De Kalb avenue on Sunday morning. It was hung to a convenient telegraph pole and suspended from its neck was a placard inscribed "Jack the Ripper." At the back was another card marked "Inspector Byrnes." It was in full view of the worshippers of the catholic church of Our Lady of Mercy as they came out of church. They were greeted to an exhibition of antics on the part of the boys which rivalled anything on or off the stage. About fifty of them surrounded the figure and shouted derisively.
The whole neighborhood was in an uproar, the residents being convulsed with the comical aspect of the figure and the motions through which it was put. Finally Sergeant Maher of the First precinct appeared, and in two minutes the only thing remaining of the effigy was a pile of waste paper in the middle of the street.
