Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-02
M CALL IS DEF|ED.
COnstables BeWildered Be-
tween Duty and Policy,
BUT WILL REPORT ANYHOW
The Number of Speak-Easies in the
Returns Will be Small.
THEY DECLINE TO ACT AS SPIES,
And Add That There is Neither Money Nor
Honor in the Position.
BUT WILL REPORT ANYHOW
THEY DECLINE TO ACT AS SPIES,
HOW SPEAK-EASY OWNERS ARE CAUGHT

After the Sc constables of Pittsburg had
repeated their Now lay me" last night,
their next prayer was: From the judges
and District Attorney tomorrow, good
Lord, deliver u.s." To-day being the first
of Quarter Sessions, they are expected to
make the quarterly returns required by law
on the number Of persons in their wards or
townships who sell liquor without license.
Special Agent Mccall mas been after the
constables with a hot stick, and some
strange revelations are expected. The COM
mon belief, sustained by the statements of
police and others who ought to know, is
that there are over 500 speak-easies in active
operation in the city. This will give an
average of nearly IA violators OF the license
laws to each constable, which he must in
clude in his return.
An Alderman, who seemed to be thor
oughly posted in what to expect, said last
night that no such average would be made,
although it could be increased if so great
numberof speak-easies were not protected.
He added:
"How can constable be expected to in
vestigate such matters in a manner to secure
conviction at the munifcent recompense of
81 20 per annum. They get 81 so for each
return, and no more, whether they have
eight or so places where liquor is ille-
gally sold to report The constable
cannot report such places unless be actually
knows that they come within the meaning
of the license law, and it would take good
many times 81 so to investigate the matter
satisfactorily to the constable and the court,
l. e., to buy a drink and swear to it, pro-
viding witnesses.
A QUESTION OF POLITICS.
Take into consideration the tact that the
man who interferes with his neighbors and
residents Of his own ward, where he has
been elected and before whom he may come
again for public Endorsement has but little
chance of getting it, and the apathy of the
constable may be expected, if not eI-
planned
If the fact that this is Labor Day does not
interfere large and very much interested
audience is expected at the opening of the
courts to-day TO hear the returns made to
the Judges, and it was pleasantly suggested
by a constable last night that bv closing the
courtroom doors and arresting the whole
audience a larger haul of speak-easy pro-
prietors would be made in one hour than by
raiding their places for a month. Every
owner of these places of illegal refreshment
will be present who can be, to ascertain
whether his or her name is on the list, and
the questions Of the District Attorney based
on information he has already received, are
expected to be more searching than pleas
ant.
a number of constables were seen last
night and the majority refused to give any
indication of what their report would be or
how many they would return. The con-
stable of the First ward has not yet returned
from camp, so no report IRON there can be
looked for The Second ward will show up
few places but not by any means the
number which do business without the
formality of taking out a license. The
Third ward constable could not be found,
although several places where men went in
looking thirsty and came out looking tired
were visible.
Constable John D. Carney, of the Sixth
ward, said he would report some places in
his return. When questioned how many be
refused to state but said he would report
any person violating the low knowingly if
it were his own brother. He admitted that
the number to be reported was small, but as
the Sixth is a well-known temperance ward,
this is not surprising.
NOT AFRAID OF M'CALL.
The Fourth ward constable states that
there are no speak-easies in his ward. Pat
rick Connolly, of the Ninth ward, has no
returns to make either He said:
We hear good deal of newspaper talk about
R. S. P. Mccall; and if all he affirms is true why
doesn't he inform the ward constable where
and when liquor was sold? These idle threats
of prosecution we do not pay any attention to-
1t is quite possible that number Of persons
keep speak-easies in my district. In
deed 1 believe they do, but whenever
co into any of these houses you may be GER
tain no beer is being sold. A man may have
his house packed with beer; there is no law to
prevent him. We could not arrest him for hav-
ing it in his house, except he is caught selling
II, 1t need hardly be said that every person |
who keeps speak-easy knows the ward con-
stable, and are on the watch for his movements
This makes it extremely difficult for US to gain |
any accurate information about them.
Do people suppose ward constable can |
thoroughly investigate the ward and give mi |
mute and exhaustive return of these places |
and neglect what is much more profitable? |
Had the State Legislature passed the bill to |
pay WarQ conStableS a lair remuneration every |
month they would feel like working.
HE is OUT FOR THE STUFF.
take no notice of McCalrs threat and l will |
pursue in the future the same course as in the |
past attending to the profitable portion of bust
ness and giving the other as much time as / |
can. l am perfectly aware we take an oath to |
report all the speak-easies but we do not spend |
our time hunting them up. If anybody |
knows of a speak-easy let him come and make 4
information and we will soon arrest them.
Constable Packer, of the Fifteenth ward, |
said:
have not made out my return yet, but so |
far as can see there are five case to report.
The most of the speak-easy business is done on |
Sunday and don't work that day. A con-
stable has as much right to the Sabbath rest as
anybody else. 1 am not Law and Order de-
tectiVe and l do not propose to stoop to anv
measures that will require me to hunt around /
back alleys an Sunday. AS to Agent Mccall,
all that have to say about him is that we take
no notice of him.
Miles England, the Seventeenth ward
constable, said he will report two.
4 POPULATED RIVER.