The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-12
ANT|-L0TTERY CRUSADE.
The Police Spreading a Big
Net for PeddIerS and
Agents.
CAKES WAS CAUGHT MAPPING.
Chief Crowley Issues an Order
Prescribing the Bicycle
Rattle Clubs.

Cakes, the San Francisco agent of the
Honduras Lottery, is the latest victim of
Detective Wright, who is trying to carry
out Chief Crowley's orders to stop the
lottery traffic in this City. Mr. Cakes was
caught mapping the other day, which is to
say that Cakes was unwise and sunwary
enough to sell lottery tickets to stranger.
He was arrested forthwith. This made
Cakes, alias Hoag, very unhappy. He
was indignant and thought it very rude
for the officers of the law to interfere with
his business of plucking pigeons in and
around the Palace Hotel
Yesterday morning, in the Police Court,
he pleaded guilty to the charge and paid
his fine of $40. Cakes had previously
promised to get out of the business. Now
he will find it to his financial advantage to
keep that promise. If Cakes should
be arrested regularly about once week
and upon the third arrest given the maxi
mum fine of $500, he would doubtless find
it more profitable to be honest. And this
is about what will happen to Cakes
unless he does aban don the lottery bust
ness in this City rather speedily, for the
police are now thoroughly in earnest and
are determined to break up the lottery
traffic.
Arrests and rearrests will be made from
now on, and even the women and cripples
who have heretofore been exempt from po-
lice interference will be gathered in the
general net that Chief Crowley has cast
over the whole City for the purpose of
catching all the lottery traffickers The
meshes of the new net are exceedingly
small and many that hitherto wormed
their way out of the meshes will now be
taken in the drag unless they give up their
fraudulent business.
Epson and his gang are still at large,
still flooding the market with counterfeit
lottery tickets. Epson is now under bail
and the sentence of the Police Court. He
has appealed to the Superior Court and
will fight Judge Lows sentence of three
months imprisonment and 5000 fine. He
will make his fight on the plea that his
tickets are fraudulent and counterfeit and
are therefore not lottery tickets. But his
chances are slim, because the statute reads
cor what purports to be lottery ticket"
Certainly Upson's counterfeit tickets
"purport" to be genuine, or else so many
of them, or, indeed, any of them, could not
be sold. Epson and his gang are every
smooth people, in police parlance. There
fore it is difficult to catch them. They
keep their tickets in bank vault and sell
only to those personally known to them.
1t is difficult to catch the big dealers and
agents, for the wholesaler, who keeps his
wares in the bank vault and sells only to
the peddlers he knows and can trust, is
practically secure from police interference.
For this reason the police have lnaugurated
a new plan of procedure. Now everybody,
even the small peddlers, will be arrested.
Thomas Harris of Twenty-first and Mis-
sion streets was the first of the peddlers to
be arrested this week. He has been selling
counterfeit and genuine lottery tickets in
the Mission for the past year or more. He
gave bail in the sum of 500 when arrested
and then forfeited his bond. Mr.. Harris
was a patron of Epson and Cakes. He
also sold Mexican tickets. But for every
genuine ticket he sold he also placed three
counterfeits. Mr.. Harris will be compelled
to seek an honest vocation, the chances
are.
frost has gone East. This means that
the Fox & Co. swindle has been broken in
this City, It isn't to Kansas City that Mr.
frost, alias Lloyd, alias a good many
names, is going, for the police drove him
out of there Just before he landed here.
Wherever he goes he will not find as COM
PLEASANT public as he did in this City for
over a year. THE CALLS exposures and
the activity of the police finally ended his
career as q cheap swindler in this City.
No one is weeping for his going.
Yesterday Chief Crowley gave orders
that the bicycle club rattle ust be stopped.
This is the very latest agony in games of
chance and within the past six months
has grown to considerable proportions. 1t
takes the place of suit clubs, but is far
more popular than they ever were.
The plan is to sell $50 tickets, ranging
in price from 1 cent to 81 so. The tickets
are chosen by chance and the purchaser
must pay whatever sum he finds marked
on his ticket when he takes it from its en-
velope Then when all the tickets are
sold the rattle takes place and the bicycle
is awarded to the lucky man. Chief Crow
ley says this is clearly against the law and
it has grown to such dimensions that he
| means to stop it.
Some of the larger bicycle club men have
| combined and will contest the law. An
arrest will be made, and if conviction is
secured, as Chief Crowley feels confident
there can be, then the bicycle club will be
known to be under the ban of the law.