The herald., 1896-10-27
THE LOTTERY DENS MUST GO
New Tactics to Be Employed Ia Their
Eradication
Property Owners to be Prosecuted for
Leasing to the Celestials-Seventy-
three Joints Found Up Town.

A new move has been made by the
chief Of police in his attempt to eradicate
the Chinese lottery ticket sellers, and
this time the ak will be applied at the
root, and the property owners who rent
to the Chinese the back rooms and
shanties where the dens are conducted
are to be brought to task. There is a
section of the penal code Of this state
which makes it a misdemeanor for any
person to permit any portion of build
ing owned or controlled by him to be
used for the purpose of drawing a lot
terry or selling or disposing of the tick
cts.
Under this section 1t Is proposed to
proceed, and since it has been found i'm
possible to suppress, much less prevent,
the sale of tickets the property owners
who allow the Chinese to occupy their
buildings will be prosecuted. For over
week Special Officer Fowler has been
making canvass of the lottery dens
and has secured the names of seventy
three places outside of Chinatown and
mostly in the business section of the city
where the business is conducted. He
has secured not only the name of the
proprietor Of the joint but the owner of
the building or lessee who sub leases 10
the Chinese.
Yesterday he made out the first batch
of twenty-four notices in duplicate,
twenty-five of which he served on prop
erty owners They read as follows:
OFFICE OF CHIEF OF POLICE,
Los Angeles, Cal, Oct 26. 1885
Mr.. --, you are hereby notified
that the building at No. - street, Los
Angeles city, Los Angeles county, state
of California, owned and let by you, is
being used for the purpose of selling and
disposing of lottery tickets: and you
are further notified that If after the ex-
piration of five days from the service
of this notice you further let said build
ing or permit the same to be used for the
purpose Of selling or lisposing of lottery
tickets you will be prosecuted under sec
ton 1926 Of the penal code of the state Of
California. JOHN M. GLASS,
Chief Of Police.
Note-The section above referred to is
as follows:
Section 326-Every person who lets,
or permits to be used, any building or
vessel, or any portion thereof, knowing
that it is used for setting up, managing,
or drawing any lottery, or for the pur-
pose of selling or disposing of lottery
tickets, is guilty of a misdemeanor
Five days notice Is given to resident
and ten days to nonresident owners to
cause the Cinnamon to vacate, at the ex-
piration of which time If the celestials
are still found in possession complaints
will be filed. Among the property own
ers on the list are some of the most
prominent men in the city, who know
ingly or otherwise permit the heather to
occupy their premises and carry on their
nefarious business. Such names as
these appear: H.W. Hellman, j. E.Wise-
man, George Shafer, j. b. Lankershim
(two places), o. w. Childs jr., (three
places). and ]. H. Jones Give different
buildings). All these are outside of
Chinatown.
Officer Fowler met with a cordial re-
ception in nearly all the cases where he
served the notices yesterday, but there
were two exceptions. A. ]. Jonas,
tailor at 125 South Spring street. back
Of whose place a lottery den Is situated,
Is accused by the officer Of abusing him
shamefully when he served the notice.
The paper was torn up and scattered in
fragments on the floor and the entire
police force roundly denounced in the
harshest terms. A second case was at
221 West Fourth street, where Col. A. B.
Hotchkiss, attorney for Mrs. Mary
Mooney, who owns the premises at 219
West Fourth street, in the rear Of which
is a lottery den, verbally assaulted the
officer for his temerity in daring to serve
the notice. Nothing further than words
came OF it, however, and no arrest was
ties served expressed their willingness
to comply with the law and said they
would at once oust the obnoxious Chi
nese.
Chief Glass was seen in regard to the
matter and expressed himself as fol-
ows: II am going to run the Chinese lot
terry joints out IL I can-if there is any
power to do 1t. Il am really surprised at
the magnitude Of the industry as devel-
oped by the recent Investigations.
Spring and Main streets are honey
combed- with the dens, which are con-
Quoted in the back rooms Of saloons. the
rear of cigar stands and everywhere
space exc can be secured. We have
made over 200 arrests in the past nine
months OF lottery ticket sellers, and in
the majority of cases secured, a convic-
tion, but fines Of only about SO on the
average have been imposed which has
really been little more than license and
has not served to check the evil in the
least. Now I am going to make move
In q different direction, and good results
are promised. Men that will rent their
property for such purpose should be
prosecuted and I intend that they shall
be-"
Today the work Of serving the notices
will go on and within Z week 1t IL prob
able that 1t will be difI1cult 70 buy q lot
terry ticket anywhere up town. e