Omaha daily bee., 1897-04-15
PREPARATIONS FOR OPENING NEW DIVE,
Sunday Devoted to Constructing Poker and
Wine Rooms.
"TlN-HORNS" MAKE UP A CAMPAIGN POI
Howell, who Plays n StiT Game Him~
self, In Full sympathy with
the Movement that Has
Been Started.

While the good people OF Omaha were on
| their way to divine worship last Sunday
| carpenters were hard at work constructing
| wine and gambling rooms in the building
above the notorious dive on Fourteenth
| street, between Farnam and Douglas. man
| aged by Jack Norton.
The saloon over which Norton presides as
manager is said to be owned by Walter Noise,
chairman of the democratic city central COM
mittee. Noise conducts wholesale liquor
establishment adjoining the Norton shop
That the men who are managing the
Howell campaign should at this time be
converting all available space in their
establishments into gambling and wine drink
ing apartments reveals only too plainly what
promises Howell has made to secure election.
The chairman of the democratic campaign
committee must have had a full and
thorough understanding with Howell, else
he would not at this time have a crew OF
carpenters at work fitting up gambling
rooms and wine stalls is being done by
him over the Norton saloon. There are four
small rooms and one larger room in prepara-
ton. That the rooms in question are to be
used for this purpose, all the attaches OF
the dive admit. Jack Norton himself has
been openly boesting that If Howell were
elected, the rooms over his resort were to be
converted into a gambling house
GAMBLERS RAISING DOODLE.
All the professional and tin-horn gamblers
in the city are hard at work in Howel's be-
half. Tom Foley is said to have contributed
$500 to Howell's campaign fund. When
Foley lets go Of anything it is safe to wager
that he has something as good a contract
insuring him full equivalent for every dollar
he pays out. Foley knows from experience
what prolific source of revenue a good pull
is. Foley of course expects that Howell will
be elected, as he has endeavored to lease the
rooms over his place to several we'll known
gamblers, particularly to Dick Berlin and
Tom Haley Of South Omaha. IL he didn't
know that Howell's election means open
gambling, provided the authorities wink at It.,
he would not contribute dollar to the cam
paign fund, and he would not be looking
for renters among professional gamblers.
Nor is Foley the only professional who
has an inter est in Howell's election. Bibbins,
White and Morrison, all three we'll known
gamblers of Omaha, are among his most
active supporters. 1t is reported on I'M
questioned authority that White and Bibbins
have contributed or agreed to contribute a
large sum to Howells campaign. These are
the men who were behind the Howell gam
bling bill in the legislature Howell's fond
ness for roker playing and his raging ambi-
tion to be mayor have brought to his sup
port the entire element with which he has
been intimately associated
HANDY WITH THE CARDS.
II may not be generally known but 1t Is
fact, to which Howell's associates in the
fraternity will attest, that Howell is no
novice at the table He is an inveterate
poker player and. among the gamblers of
the city he is counted as one of their set
Not only Is he somewhat better than an
amateur, but he has at one time OF another
been eligible to the class of professionals.
1t is not so many years ago that Howell
was closely associated with one Charley Rood
in the proprietorship of poker and gambling
rooms over Oerter's saloon on Douglas street.
Subsequent to that, about three years
ago, he ard a man named Hall were cur
rently recognized as the joint proprietors
of gambling rooms over the Tuxedo saloon,
In the alley near the postcffice.
1t was while helping Hall preside over
these poker rooms over the Tuxedo that
Howell turned the little trick on George
Mills, about which Mills has told a number
of his friends. Howell inveiged Mills into
ii game WIN himself, nan ana another man,
who was presented as a sleeping car con-
ductor. As his money began to disappear
in huge chunks Mills discovered that there
was some crooked play between the visitor
and Howell and. declaring that the game
was not straight, pulled out. He afterward
learned that the visitor was a professional
gambler from Chicago and that Howell had
gotten him to put on conductors uniform
In order to helm rome Mills in
1t is said by local gamblers that Howell
rarely plays unless he is in with the take
off," which Is equivalent to being one OF the
proprietors, SO far as profits are concerned.
The gamblers and dvekeepers are all hard
at work and are stalking their future and
their furtunes on Howel's election.