Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-17
NO MERCY FOR THEM.
The Police War on Speak-Easies is
Surely on in Dead Earnest.
TWOHUNDRED HAVE BEEN VISITED
And Their PrOprietors Made to Whack Up
With the City.
TIE PROGRAMME OF THE DEPARTMENT

The war against the speak-easies has no
been abated, and the husheries are being
rapidly worsted by the combined efforts o.
Pittsburg's finest" Since the 1st of May,
in is days, 200 illicit liquor dealers have
been brought face to face with stern justice,
have been weighed in the scales of the blind.
folded goddess, and have been found want.
ing. In the First district 100 speak-easies
have been closed, in the Second district So,
and in the Third district 40.
Chief Brown, of the Department of Pub.
lic Safety, said yesterday: zone of the pc.
culiar features OF our investigation into the
speak-easy nuisance is that % OF theE, in the
city have been legalized, and thereby abol-
ished as speak-easies by the License Court,
the proprietors now doing business under n
$500 license, in accordance with the provi-
Bions OF the Brooks law We have no fear
OF the institution Of original package es-
adjustments in this city. II anyone has
the temerity 10 sell liquor without a State
license we shall proceed TO arrest them un-
der the State law. Then, if they desire to
test the case they can get a special allocatur
and carry the case 10 the Supreme Court.
WILL KEEP 1T UP.
"If they attempt to continue the business
In the meantime, we will arrest them again,
and continue arresting them as often as they
sell until the highest court gives them per-
mission TO sell without a license. In few
days we shall have list of all the illegal
lquor-selling places in the city, made up
from the returns of the police officers"
Inspector McAleese explained the bene-
nts oil summary convictions OF the speak
easies as follows; "When we arrest a speak
easy proprietor his case is tried within "a
hours by Police Magistrate, and if he is
found guilty., he is fined from
$25 to 500 and costs, with the
option of 60 days imprisonment. II the
man pays his fine he is closely watched by
the police, and il he continues to sell in de-
nance OF the law he is again arrested and
fined, and this is kept up until he has no
money and has TO go TO the workhouse, or
until he learns that the Department of
Public Safety is in earnest, and will not be
trlfed with. Now, on the other hand, sup
bose we send case of this kind to court.
1t may be two or three months before it
reaches the grand jury. and it may there
strike snag and be ignored. If true bill
is returned, it may be several weeks before
the case finally comes to trial, and if we
succeed in convicting the accused, the SEN
tenee, as provided in the Brooks Law, is
three months Imprisonment and $500 fine.
IT COSTS TOO MUCH.
"All the time this case is pending we
have TO keep our witnesses at hand, and
have to 90 to a great expense in preparing
the case for trial. Then, in the meantime,
the accused may keep on selling LIQUOR,
probably in the hope of raising enough
money to make a successful fight in court
Why, we had one case, that OF Mary Ann
O'Brien, charged with keeping a speak
easy, and before the case came TO trial we
had three more informations against her for
the same ofense. If we did send all the
cases to court we would swamp the legal
machinery of the county. 1t would be i'm
possible, or almost so, for the six Judges of
the county to keep up with the criminal
business, while the civil business would
have no show at all"
At the morning hearings, yesterday.
Magistrate Gripp spent an hour fning
speak-easy proprietors, and Magistrate Nc
Kenna fined 25 of these violators.