The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-05-09
POLICY DEALERS HELD.
Five Men Caught in Super
intendent Smiths Spas
modic Raid and Fur
nish ST, 900 Bail.

Superintendent Of Police Smith de-
tailed two detectives. attached to Police
Headquarters, to make raid on all the
policy shops they could find open shortly
after noou yesterday. At least that was
the interpretation of the arrest Of fire
policy dealers in this city yesterday.
To call the arrest of these men raid is.
however. misnomer. II real live raid
was contemplated few men know how TO
go about it better than, sup erintendent
Christy Smith. But the idea of sendin
out couple of detectives With
instructions to arrest every policy dealer
in the city strikes the average mortal
as being very humorous. There
were at least score of these pens within
a radius of ten blocks of Police Head
quarters. and IL is notorious fact that
tine principal shops and the headquarters
of the policy dealers were not molested at
ALL From this it would appear that the
detectives had otner instructions than The
one which was said to be given them.
But. Then, in spite of this, people are
disposed to give the Superintendent
credit for what he has accomplished. Or
course it was not much, and may only
prove to be one of these spasmodic
raids which Chief Donovan, of Hoboken,
worked off on the people of that
city until they became disgusted with
law. But, as the grand jury, has demon
strated iu the cases of the Hoboken
policy dealers, has lately shown dlspo-
suion to indict policy men. and Justice
ODonnell required each OF the prisoners
to furnish bail i'll the sum OF 81, ,00O Tor the
grand jury, the raid may mean something
after all.
THE RAID BEGUN.
I5 was shortly after noon that De-
tectives Dalton and Doyle were sum-
moned into Superintendent Smiths OIL
fice The detectives were in the of1lce
with the superintendent ABOUT half an
hour, and when they left they wore Tue
usual look OF lmportaace aud secrecy
pracriced by detectives when they are on
some case outside of routine work.
The detectives walked around to No.
22O Henderson street. passing Il couple OF
policy shops on their way. Whether
these shops were open or not is not
known. If they were not open the
proprietors certainly must have received
a tlp from some one ION the inside"
AT No. 220 Henderson street James
Solomon operates a shop. He does not
do a heavy business, aud most of his
plays are two, three and five cent gigs
played by the poor people III the neigh
borhood. When the detectives reached the
place, Solomon was behind the desk Writ
ing slips, There was crowd of about
fifteen men and women in the place.
Owing to the electrocutlon OF Carlyle
Harris at Sing Sing, the dead gig. was
being played at d furious rate, which
Threatened to bankrupt the dealer II the
gig came out.
When the detectives entered the place,
the crowd made Il wild rusn for The
doors, The detectives did not erdeavor
to stop them. They were after the pro-
-prietor. Solomon was placed under ar
rest. and taken to Police Headquarters
and locked in cell. lie took bis arrest
cody.
GO TO LAFAYETTE.
The detectives then proceeded to No.
2S6 Henderson street. where they arrested
August Price. Price was taken to Police
Headquarters aud locked in a cell ad-
1oining Solomon's. The detectives had
TO travel all the way to the Lafayette
section of the CITY TO make the next ar
rest. Here they arrested Charles Foster
at No. 81 Maple street. Then they ar
rested Thomas Gaffney and George Dex-
ter at No $50 Montgomery street, and,
with satisfied air, reported back TO the
Last night all five of the policy men
were bailed by Justice of the Peace Mar
tinez to appear before Justice O'DonnelI
this morning.
This morning Justice O'Donne!l's
court room was crowded when the pris-
oners were arraigned. In the crowd We're
many policy dealers. All the policy
dealers waved examination and Justice
O'Donnell fixed the bail at $1,000 Ill each
case. The bail was promptly furnished
and the dealers were released.
Just what prompted the Superinten-
dent to make his so-called raid can not be
learned Further than TO say that he
ordered the raid the Superintendent will
not commit himself. The policy dealers
in this city have not been molested for
some time.
WHAT FASTENED THE RAID.
The fact that the policy dens i'll Hoboken
were wiped out, and the Indictment of
the Hoboken policy men is the
probable cause Of the arrest. 1t
is said that report TO the
effect that some Court House constables
were coming down to help Supt. Smith
fird some of the policy shops hastened the
arrests.
Anyone who wanted to could play a
gig in the lower part of the city this morn
ing, however. Some of the shops did busi-
ness openly. but the majority of them
transacted their business in quiet way.