The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-19

ago. Fewer people are selling them.
Some of the agents have gone out OF the
business and turned honest. Others are
being forced out by the police. Cakes of
the Honduras has announced his intention
OF retiring. THE business is getting too
dangerous" he says. what with the police
constantly DIGGING ones footsteps and this
confounded agitation in the CALL the
business is getting to be unprofita Die, and
am now closing up my accounts"
Whether he is or not remains to be seen.
At all events, his business is done very
carefully and very secretly these days.
Frequently the police search his premises.
OF course, they find nothing but some old
circulars, but the constant surveillance
makes the business more difficult and. con-
seouentIv. less profitable.
Up in Wells, Fargo & Co.'S big express
building is the general Office of the Little
Louisiana, the bank where the tickets are
caShed and the agents dealt with. 1t is
quite concern in its way, employing a
force of clerks, typewriters and stem
ographers and bookkeepers. Metzger &
Franklin are the responsible men of the
concern and Chris Buckley is said to be
their hacker; maybe he is not their
hacker. Black sheep are often blamed
for sins of others, but it is pretty certain
that he used to be. if he isn't, and most
people who know about lotteries and
things think he is.
Yesterday the police searched the Office
of Metzger e. Franklin in the Nucleus
building upon information furnished bv
the CALL. Franklin has declared that he
was going out of the business. That was
when the police drove him from 26L
Kearny street. Now the peddlers and
dealers in lottery tickets go to room 81 in
the Nucleus building for their Little Louis
lana tickets.
1t is bare, uncarpeted room, furnished
with only desk and one chair. Detec-
tive II. j. Wright, who made the search
Yesterday, spent a good deal of time in
going through that desk, in sounding the
walls and baseboards and looking for secret
places in the floor, in the window frame
and in every conceivable nook and corner
where experience had taught him lottery
tickets might be hidden. All he found
were a lot of old lottery irculars and an
nouncements of drawings that had taken
place. This is not legal evidence. A short
and stout, well-dressed man, who was con-
siderably excited when the search warrant
was read to him, openly admitted in his
conversation that he was in the lottery
business, and had been for years. But
that is not legal evidence. Very likely this
excited little man had few hundred
tickets in his pockets. 1t is still more
likely that he has a secret place in his
room, or, possibly, a closet downstairs or
somewhere else in the building where his
stock in trade is kept. He and his part
ners may escape for time, but Chief
Crowley is thoroughly awake on the Ques-
ton, and the police will give these gentle
men deal of trouble, if nothing else.
Detective Wright has charge of the lot
tery detail now. He is young man, full
of energy, and has done some effective
work, but it is hard to secure the legal evil
dence, and since the penalty is only fine
at most it takes a good many arrests to
drive an agent out of the business.
There is the case of Epson, for example.
He is one of the counterfeiters. The charge
against him is swindllng. Judge Low has
sentenced him to six months lmprison-
ment He has appealed to the Superior
Court, is out on bail and at his old tricks
The police seized his counterfeit tickets and
the plates from which they were printed.
He has had new plates made and is even
now flooding the market with counterfeit
lottery tickets of all kinds.
Inspector Erwin OF the Postoffice Depart
ment is now working with the police. I'm
doubtedly good many tickets are passing
fhrouph the mails. i'If we can only get
the rascals down in the Federal courts, !"
saws Chief Crowley. 1--WE can do something
with them that will tell. The violation OF
the Federal law is crime, and convic-
tion in the Federal courts means some
thing"
Behold. there is a counter-crusade. A
lottery-ticket seller has started an agita-
ton against the United States law on the
lottery traffic. Down in Texas there is
published the Monthly Review, on the in
Ide pages of which are printed the month