The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-07-13
A DEATH BLOW At POLICY.
4 Wholesale Raid OF All The Shops
In The CITY.

Grand Jury-The secret or the RAID
Discovered by the Proprietors And
Many of Them Closed Their Shops
Before the oficers Arrived-A Large
Number Of Arrests Made And More
to Follow.
The policy shops must go. The bust
ness men have demanded il, the grand
jury has said it and Solicitor General
Fraser and Detective Morgan have start
out to enforce the edict
Policy" is the favorite form of gam
bling with the negroes of Savannah and
is patronized by many whites as well.
'Playing policy" amounts to a passion
with large portion of the negro popula-
tion and when there is a "shop" any
where in their neighbOrhood
they will devote every
dime to the game. Rent, grocers'
bills, and everything else must give way
to policy and many will deny themselves
a drink even, to put the money on a
policy drawing. This state of affairs is
naturally very injurious to house owners
and small business people with whom the
negroes DEAL and il is due largely TO their
efforts that summary action is being
taken in the matter.
THE FIRST RAID.
Detective Morgan raided the policy
shops with the assistance of the police
about six months ago, and a number Of
the offenders were punished by fine and
Imprisonment. This action had a very
salutary effect for a time, and the shops
remained closed for about two
months. Then they began again
and have been increasing in number ever
since until the whole city is dotted with
them. Many of the white gamblers who
do not ordinarially resort to such schemes,
have been forced by the hard times and
the consequent lack of other prey, to turn
their attention to the policy business in
order to tide over the dull summer months
by fleeing the negroes of. their small
wages.
There are said to be not less than
score of these shops, so called, scattered
over the city, the majority being in Yam
acraw and other sections where the negro
population is congregated.
CONTROLLED BY WHITE MEN
These shops are nearly all controlled by
white men, who. employ negroes to con-
duct them, while they receive the pro-
ceeds and direct the operations. Policy is
very profitable game to the operator,
and many swell sports who live at the
best hotels are the proprietors of a
''wheel" located in a little one-story, hovel
in some lane. 1t is characteristic of the
game that the poorest and most dilapi-
dated novels are selected for its opera
tions, the houses being usually in the back
lanes and alleys.
Policy is lottery game of the ALA
order. 1t is a sort of keno with only
three numbers instead of five. Tick
cts may be purchased at any price
from five cents up. The object is to
locate the winning numbers, and the sue
cessful party receives prize supposed to
be a certain percentage of the receipts
upon the game. One of the wheel owners
gave an inside view of the game in
little dialogue with a friend the other
day.
BILL" said an acquaintance, why do
you call your company the Grape-vine2"
Because, - replied Bill, sit is SO in
formally crooked"
HOW IT IS DONE.
The numbers are drawn from a wheel
which contains duplicates of all the
tickets sold. There are usually rs num-
bers on q wheel OF these, one of the
arrested gamblers said yesterday, GO
are drawn for the house
and IL for the patrons. Another one said
that the chances of winning were one in
thirty. Any way it is very hard game
to beat, as many hundreds in Savannah
can testify from experience.
The policy business is under the control
of regularly organized companies. OF
these the Charleston Company, the Ma
con Company the Big Wheel Company,
the Chatham Drawing Company and
the Grapevine Company are the most
prominent. Each company controls sew
eral wheels located in different parts
of the city,
The Charleston Company is probably
the largest. Its headquarters are in
. Ns.l
lane in the rear of the large double house
Immediately adjoining the Screven. The
place was raided by Detective Morgan in
January. The Macon Company is located
in the rear of the Marshall house There
are several other companies besides those
named.
LAYING PLANS FOR THE RAID.
Detective Morgan has been laying his
plans for grand coup for some time BY
means Of trusty assistants he located
the shops, secured the names of the
proprietors and employees and also sam
pies of tickets used at each one of the
shops. With this evidence he went be-
fore the grand jury Monday and secured
the Indictment of 40 persons, proprietors
and employees of the shops. He then
made his arrangements to raid all the
shops at one time yesterday. He decided
to employ the magistrates of the differ
ent districts in which the shops were To-
| Gated and their constables and special
officers to aid him. The matter was
kept very quiet and the magistrates were
not informed of what was
wanted until the time arrived. Never
theless the secret leaked out. 1t is
! charged that some one around the court
house gave the snap away.
THE SECRET LEAKED OUT.
| Any way when the officers made their
| calls yesterday nearly all the shops We're
! found closed and the parties desired had
made themselves scarce. The officers
| found two people in the neighborhood of
the shops expecting the raid and were
! told that the policy people We're all onto
the scheme and had closed up the day be-
| fore Only two or three shops were
! found open, but several of the parties
| against whom warrants had been issued
were arrested on the streets The raid
resulted in eleven arrests, all colored
| Justice McDermott and his constables
| in the first district were most
| successful, making seven arrests Those
| arrested were, Grant Gibbs, VIM. Mitch
ell, Spencer Davis, Reuben Morris, w
H. Coverdale, Steven Law, and Ed Nc
Graw. Gibbs place is on Wilson street
| between Little Jones and Sims, Spencer
Davis at Olive and Ann streets, Edward
McGraws and William Mitchell's oppo-
site each other on Pine between Farm
and Lumber streets.
CAUGHT AT THE GAMES.