Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-07-24

The Council Committee on Petitions
and RESPONSIVENESS held a meeting
last evening, and suddenly came to the
conclusion there were "off color" sa-
looms and things OF like nature in the
Second ward.
This conclusion is so strange that
it is worth chronicling.
For two or three years past the
saloon district of the Second ward,
between Tenth street and Eleventh,
on Market, like alley c, between the
same streets, has been becoming worse
and worse, and some collateral evils
have been going the same way.
It's nothing new. Poker rooms.
crap games, policy joints, disrtPutable
places where liquor is sold, with back
room and state room accommodations
for females, and occasionally bed
rooms for the joint occupancy of both
sexes. have tlourished in this Locality,
to the great injury of people who are
doing a legitimate business, and to the
general scandal of the city and neigh
borhood. The facts have been perfect
" we'll known to the authorities, but
under the system of everything wide
open." nothing has even been done
about it. Occasionally the Council
Committee on Petitions and Remon-
strances-of the late reform" Council
as we'll as the present-has made a
great ado about refusing license 10
some one person, mostly in other parts
of the city, but the Second ward joints
have gone on, and poker rooms thlniy
disguised as barber shops and crap
dens and designation houses run In
connection with saloons, have never
had any serious trouble, while pros
titutes. colored and white, have had
the run of that part of town, In sa-
looms. in restaurants, and on streets
and alleys. Occasionally, to be sure,
girl has been arrested for being TOO
boisterous, but the permanent and
worst features have never been both
cred until to-day the section or the
ward between alley B and alley c, and
Tenth and Eleventh streets, is motor
ious for what it should not be. Thls
is particularly true of place on
Eleventh street, between Main and
Market, over a barber shop, of den
on the west side of Market street, be-
tween Market alley and Eleventh
street. with entrances front and rear,
and of other places on the east side
of the market house, almost too
numerous to mention. AT two or three
of these places gambling goes on the
entire twenty-four hours, at others
girls from out of town and in town can
find accommodations with male friends
at any time, and at numerous places
there are drinking facilities for wo-
men, although there is a specific city
ordinance against women being al
lowed in saloons or on the premises
where liquors are sold.
This whole matter came up before
the Committee on Petitions and Re-
monstrances, last night, on the appli-
cation for the transfer Of the saloon
license at No. 234S Market street, to
McFadden & Smith. Members of the
Committee alleged that the place mad
been a notorious resort, with accom-
modations for women, etc, and the
Chief Of Police was called in. After
his statement had been made, the
Committee passed a resolution that
the license at the number be annulled
and the money refunded, and that
hereafter no license be issued for a
saloon on the premises, no matter
who the applicant might be.
After the matter was settled Mayor
Butts said the manner in which some
places had been run in the Second
ward was an outrage against decency,
and held that the trouble largely arose
because women had been driven from
Eoff street, south of Seventeenth, TO
various rooms and houses in the Sec
ond ward. He said they had become
so scattered that it was impossible,
practically, to keep track Of them, and
that while renting rooms and receiy-
ing male friends privately, the police
could not raid them or regulate them
as they when they were all in regular
houses in one section Of the city The
Mayor was somewhat surprised TO
learn of the gambling resorts and crap
games which flourished in the Second
ward, and said he intended to do what
he could to root them out and suppress
the entire business.
Some publication made come out OF
this spasm Of virtue at the City Hall,
but it is doubtful. This thing is Of too
long standing, and privatA> influences
are too great to succumb t0\any but
the most vigorous and energetic meas
ures. To expect any lasting Reform
in the market house neighboA hood
would be to expect too much. ~
THE MEETING PLACES.
At last nights meeting of the Csrr.V