Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-03-11
ANTl-POOL SELLING BILL.
IT'S EXPECTED FROM THE COM
MITTEE TODAY.
Measure to Be Recommended for Pass
age, Says a Gentleman Who Has
Watched Fight on It.

Madison, March 8.
Jesse Stone, chairman of the assembly
committee on state affairs, said Monday
evening that his committee will probably
report the Wylie anti-pOOl selling bill to
the house today. The committee in
tends at least to take a vote on the
bill today he said, and if an agreement
can be reached the measure will be at
once laid before the house for disposal
Mr.. Stone declined to state for publ
cation what the committees report will
be. A gentleman who is one of Mr..
Stones intimate friends, however, says
that the bill will be recommended for
passage.
The last issue of the Breeders Gazette.
published in Chicago, has this vigorous
editorial on pool selling in Wisconsin:
The Gazette did not miss its guess
that Wisconsin would resent being
made the dumping ground of Cnicago's
racetra2k gamblers. ScCurged success
sively from Illinois and Indiana by the
wrath of an aroused people crystallized
into legislative act, judicial decision
and executive enforcement this race
track refuse inPUde ntly moved
across the state line into Wisconsin
and set up Ideal Park where the merry.
go-round revolyes necessarily and the
sucker can play at any of the skin
games continuously run in the name
of sport at San Francisco, New Or
leans and elsewhere. Wisconsin had
endured taste of prolonged racing and
foreign pCol-selling in Milwaukee cen
Quoted by the local push without being
stirred to action, but when it was
made the dumping ground for the back
door SweepingS of other states its
pride was naturally touched to the
quick and it is making a determined
effort to rid itself Of this unwelcome
garbage. l. is needless to recite the
history OF the continuouS-race gamblers
of Chicago. Driven from this city and
state they did not hesitate to impose
their pestiferous presence upon Indiana
and they builded az Roby complete
machinery for the skinning Of suckers,
from which they were dislodged only
by the indomitable perseverance of
governor, who, thorough sportsman and
speader of fast horses, understood
full we'll the hollowEess of the claim
that they stood for public sport.
After the exercise Of every
ingenuity that the cunning of jack-Ieg
lawyers could invent the Chicago
gamblers wer driyen-'skates, jockeys,
book-makers and al,-out of Indiana
Nearby and helpless Wisconsin invited.
A track was soon thrown up, railways
placed swift service at their disposal
and matter Of sixty miles is now
quickly comprised between Chicago
and Ideal Park-aptly named, indeed,
as it is an ideal place to bankrupt men
in purse and reputation; to start train
of actions that lead to forgery and
theft; to wreck the lives of those whose
temperaments render them easy prey
to games of chance. To this low
depth has the sport of kings de-
scended. Stung by the unlimited pres
ence Of this scum of a great city the
Wisconsin legislature proposes to purge
the state Of the contamination. AS
semblyman George Wylie has intro
duced a bill in the house to prohibit
pool-selling on any race track in the
state. This is drastic. Another bill
permits racing and pool-selling for a
period of fifteen days., and yet an
other extends the limit to thirty days
This latter, we understand, will be ac-
-ceptable to the Roby race-track crowd