The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-08-14
RAISING THE WIND
ALL KINDS OF SPIES GETTING IN
THEIR WORK IN TOWN.


Fully as Anxious to Bleed Their Victims
Nearly all of Them are Supposed to
be Bogus but that Does not Make Much
Diffcrence-They are Working the
Joints and Bootieggers to a Finish blu,
They Cannot Reach the Ciubs-A Cru.
SADIE of Booditng Inaugurated.
The spy and the boodler are abroad
In the land contesting and contending
with the jointist and the bootlegger.
The expected has happened but ii was
not expected that it would happen so
soon.
Yesterday two well-known saloon
men, one on East Douglas avenue and
one little off Douglas avenue were
approached for Doodle. One OF them
gave it up and the other one refused
although the place and time TO the very
minute at which he violated the pro-
hfbitory law were cited to him with ac-
curacy.
The spy was corrpted in one instance
to the tune of SO, but whether the re-
fusal in the other instance viii cause
him to institute proceedings is not
known.
1t was doubtful in the mind of the
Douglas avenue man whether the spy
was an authorized spy and that was the
reason he did net give him the money
he demanded.
There is no means of feeling who is
Or who is not an authorized spy and
the dealers in liquor are somewhat in
pickle. They would just as soon buy
up the spy as anybody else as he is gen
orally cheaper, but they do not care,
they say, 20 buy UP every man in town
who represents himself as acting for
the law and order league.
1t is said that there are already more
than "A dozen alleged spies working,
some of whom have been well paid for
their time.
1t is strongly suspected that most of
them are frauds in az much as they
are only self-constituted spies but the
bootleSger not knowing who is or who
is not genuine spy is bothered. His
tribe are thinking about organizing a
force OF spies TO watch the other spies.
OF course the law and order league
people are not going to tell the joint
lst Who their spies are and hence there
VIII be an opportunity for every man
VINO so desires to pick up ten dollar
bill here and there at the business.
They can't do much except among
the bootleggers and the key joints The
majority Of the drinking viii be done
In the clubs where the average SPY,
genuine or fraud, cannot very well
reach and if they do succeed in getting
on the inside the business is 50 clever
y operated that ii is doubtful whether
evidence can be secured to convict
In the first place no one can get into
a club room who is not a member and
as all the members have TO be recon-
mended by two friends and voted upon
mo- lar- Of I.a In
present at the regular meetings, man
who is mot all right" is not very apt
to get in
Then again these clubs are modelled
after the clubs of Topeka, of which
there are said to be twenty three in
that city, and ii is a well known fact
that they are proof against the law
They are so in the capital city and there
Is no reason why they should not be in
Wichita.
One of these clubs has already a men,
bership of 240 men, all of whom have
been voted for and in an examination
of the entire list by the executive com
mittee yesterday therewas not adoubtful
man among them. II is estima ted that
this particular club will have 900 MEM
bers inside Of three weeks. including
farmers from the county and men from
the surrounding towns
Men who visit here, or in other words,
men who do not live in town but come
here occasionally regard the club sys-
tenn with more favor than the open Sa-
loon. All of them do not always want
to he in town. as every news reporter
who has experience knows, and the
club suits them exactly. Then, again,
there is q better chance to make socia-
BILE acqt~intances in a club than in an
open saloon and this is feature that
enhances the popularity of the club.
ln vfSff y Gil Al
only ones who regard the club system
with favor. IT is said that the whisky
men like it better than the old way
There is more money in it-more sure
money-and far less danger Of board
ing in the county Jail. Spies and Doodle
are the only things that will have to be
studied and that will be an easy matter
for them to overcome at comparatively
lttele cost.
II may be somewhat surprising TO
know that three places of the kind are
controlled by women. These women. ii
is said, have a tight grip on certain
strings and can pun them to their own
advantage and greatly to the disad-
vantage of certain other people in an
emergency involving the prosperity Of
their places of business. Everybody
seems TO be getting their work in the
most cold blooded manner under the
new arrangement which has completely
changed things and developed most in
teresting characters and conditions.
So far the spy is the leading figure. or
at least the man who pretenGS to he a
spy. If he was an honest spy his head
would have been cracked before this
perhaps, hut he is gentleman who
deals and nerotiateS on reasonable
terms and he win probably get along
ali right ON the principle that he has
everything to make out of the situation
and nothing TO lose.