The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-03-03
LAW AND ORDER AROUSED
THE LEAGUE PREPARES 4 STATE
 lIENT FOR THE LEGISLATURE.

They Say That the Proposed Repeal or
 Proprietors of Brothels and Gambling
 Dens-Many Instances Cited of the Work Done by the League.
 The officers of the Law and Order league have prepared statement Of the work done during the past twenty months for the suppression of vice. The published account of the doings of the league shows that 6S5 suspected places have been investigated. The statement in full is given below:
 "A resolution has been presented to the general assembly, asking for the repeal of the charter of the Law and Order league. It will be apparent from the following statement that this move will be supported by the gamblers, brothel keepers and illegal liquor sell lers.
 We wish to call attention to the work accomplished by this society as chartered institution. During 20 months, or since May 10, 1895, the date of our charter, to January 10, 1897, this league has investigated 6S5 suspected places. We mean by that places re- ported to us as being law breaking in- stitutions, as we never investigate eX- cept upon the request Of officials, or | reputable and responsible citizens. We have caused the arrest of 232 criminals, 2l3 of them have been convicted, four | have been discharged, and the cases against four of them have been nolled. Seven cases are still pending in the courts, The fines paid by these crimin- als amount to $12,991; the costs paid by them amount to $6,466.71; forfeited bonds, $1S,925; so that the criminals brought to justice through the instru- mentality of this organization have paid for offences committed during 20 | months $33,3S271 Eight persons have been sentenced to terms in prison Under our charter our agents are | empowered to serve process and make arrests, They have made "A raids, and have been successful in all but six. | One thousand six hundred and seventy nine gallons of spirituous and intoxicat- | ing liquors, quantities of obscene ltera- ture, and seven complete gambling out | fits, valued in the aggregate at more ! than $4000, have been seized and de- stroyed
 Our last raid was that upon the TT mblers in Stamford, made at the re- f quest of Governor Coffin. In due course l these cases came on for trial before | Chief Justice Andrews and a jury in the superior court at Bridgeport. One of the managers, Thomas A. Plunkett, was put to plea and his trial begun. i The state introduced it's first witness, and was about half through with him when the court adjourned At the open ing of the court the next morning MT. | Plunkett was conspicuous by his ab sence. In other words, he had decided to forfeit his bond of $3,000 rather than stand trial It was also discovered that the other manager, Charles l.. Kent, was likewise absent. Both bonds were called, as were the bonds of two of the employees, who failed to appear All this created consternation among the gamblers: and as their cases were called, one after another, they pleaded guilty. the maximum fine of $500 being | imposed in most cases aggregating the amount above stated. At the time of these arrests more than 1,200 pounds of gamDllnB parapnernalla, lncluulnS books, records, etc, were seized and will be destroyed by due process of law.
 We exhibit in this circular a photo | graphic reproduction Of the last two pages of one of the account books. It will be noticed that it gives the record from the 1st of January to and includ-
 ing the 9th; the raid was made on the
 9th. Notice the amount of money han
 dled each day, as indicated in the col
 umn under the word handled It will
 be seen that in this one place the aver
 age amount of money handled per day
 was $3,3S151. It was estimated that
 the other place raided at the same time
 was doing a larger business than the
 one in question; but figuring on the
 same basis, here were two gambling
 places which were handling in single
 year more than s20O0,0O0. Is it any
 wonder that the gamblers should make
 a desperate effort to cripple the work
 of this league? They can afford to pay
 an immense sum to accomplish theil
 purpose.
 We believe it our duty to inform oul
 representatives in Hartford as to just
 what has been done. so that whatever | action is taken may be taken with z