The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-05-04

4
ON until my soul was sick unto death.
| .IIl. RICHARD CROKER.
Our legislature has recently had O
| spasm of virtue most remarkable, and
| they have given us bill to close the
poolroolns, Cor which we devoutly thank
| God. We would net deceive ourselves,
however, as 10 the cause thab produces
| this remarkable piece OF legislation.
| The reason we succeeded in getting il
was simply that Mr. Richard Croker, our
| boss, has himself decided to go into the
race track business, He has recently
| purchased, so report declares, the fa-
| nous Belle Meade farm Of race horses in
| Tennessee for $500, 900. Besides this
| amount, the distinguished Tammany
chieftain is known to have spent $3.50, 900
in the purchase Of race horses last fall.
| The source Of this marvellous wealth,
! pouring from man who never followed
any regular business except Office hold.
ing in the city, is Of course one of the
modern miracles as yet to be explained.
The poolroorhs were in full blast up to O
| short time ago, when Mr.. Croker or some
| one else in power determined to close
I them. The poolrooms are Of course the
enemies Of the owners Of race horses and
the owners Of race tracks.
| We hope that between these two rivals
we may at least reduce the evil while the
fight continues. But no one who has
/ any knowledge of the condition of our
cities today will believe for one moment
that the poolrooms can ever be sup
pressed 60 long as the race tracks are
legalized by our lawmakers It is un.
| fair, it is unreasonable, and it is legis.
lation for disreputablo portion of the
community. The whole race track bust.
| ness is of the same piece. tits gambling
| pure and simple. There is not race
1 track in America thai could live one year
without gambling.
l charge tho race track with the fact
| of lowering the tone Of the nations life
at its centeT5, and Of lowering it to a
degree of debt and conscienceless eff.
| frontery never before known in our his
tory. This fact was aptly illustrated re-
| Gently when Alfred Tennyson, the poet
laureate Of the English world, was buried
in Westminster abbey. Tennyson was
the matchless songer who paid that
wonderful tribute to Albert the good,
the father of the present Prince Of
Wales. Thus he sang Of Albert:
l Who reveronced his conscience as his king;
| Whose glory wGs redrcssing human wrong;
| Who spoke no slander-no, nor listened to It;
Who loved one only, and who clave to her.
| Not swaying TO this faction or to that
| Not making his high place the lawless perch
OF winged ambitions, nor q vantage ground
For pleasure, but through all this tract of years
Wearing the white flower of q blamele,s life,
Before q thousand peering lttlenesses,
| In that 1lerce light which beats upon throne
1 And blackens every blot!
So sang the bard Of the consort of her
who sits upon the throne and worthily
and with dignity impersonates the power
of the English people. And yet while
they were burying the great poet and
while the whole world stood with un-
covered head, even outside Of England,
the Prince of Wales, instead Of going to
the burial, preferred to spend the day at
the race track. The contrast between
the Prince of Wales and his father is a
very clear expression of the contrast be-
tween the tone of national life today
and what it was during the life of Al.
bert. And for this lowering of charac-
ter and Of manhood the face track has
played one Of the mightiest roles.
THE POLICY SHOP.
Second-The power Of the pestilence
we observe in the development Of the
policy shop of the modern city. Our
streets are honeycombed with these in.
stitutions, in which boys as we'll as young
men are ruined from Gay to day. The
bootblack anu the newsboy begin their
downward career from the time that
they can earn three pennies on the
streets. The extent to which this bust
ness is carried on is something appalling
to those who have ever investigated it.
A recent defalcation in lawyers Of
fee of trusted clerk revealed the fact
that he had stolen $125, 900 and lost it all
in the policy shops of New York city. In
these shops workingmen spend their
hard earnings and leave their families
to starve. Boys, catching the spirit that
breathes through them, can be seen on
any street in the city, where they con.
gregate, tossing up their pennies and
gambling until the last cent of their
earnings is lost, and until the last cent
Of what they can steal is staked. What
the harvest will be when these young
gamblers have grown to manhood it
takes no prophet to foretell.
Third-We see the tremendous power
of this evil in our city in the daring and
defiant gambling holes themselves. There
arc always from so to 100 gambling holes,
with all tho apparatus Of their species Of
chance game, running in full blast in the
city or New \ ork. These are the Illus
tration Of the daring of the gambling
spirit. Tho 0number Of these institutions
and tho number Of their immediate pa
irons in no sense measures the actual
gambling eva Of the city. We have
5000 barrooms, for instance, in New
York, and in every one of these bar
rooms there is room dedicated to the
gamblers, and there is not night in the
year that there is not gambling in prog
| reSs in these barrooms. These are the
feeders to the 80 or more grand central
institutions in which the professionals
ply their trade. Many Of these gambling
institutions are as well established and
as well known as the great dry goods es-
Establishments on Sixth avenue, and some
of them are older. Some were estab-
lished as far back as 1885 and have been
running continuously, with Brief inter
ruptions of few weeks, during all the
years since their founding and at the
same stand in the city.
DALY's GAMBLING HELL.
In one Of these institutions it is said
that one man lost in a single night $11s,-