The San Francisco call., 1898-12-24


 right here in San Francisco, and he
 is not grateful for the knowledge.
 The expose in The Call yesterday morn- ing of the faro and roulette games in the Palace Hotel. almost directly over the spot where the antiquated Chief nightly sits and dreams of his forty years serv- ice in the department, and the crap games that flourish on Market street without a show of police interference, gave the old man a severe shock. How ever, in view of the open assertions of Joe Harvey's touts that the game was under police protection, there are many who believe that the shock was merely an outward manifestation conjured for effect, or, if it was genuine, 1t was due to the exposure of his own complicity. Later in the day the Chief regained his composure in a measure, and, according 10 an evening paper, made light of the affair, being credited with these words:
 There may be spasmodic games start ed here one day and close the next, but there are no regular ones running. Two years ago Joe Harvey did run game in the Palace Hotel but it was raided or driven away. We maintain too careful a watch for any game to run very long. A faro layout may be located anywhere for night or two, somebody passes the word around and those who are looking for that form of amusement are likely to find it. Same way with crap games. You can find players, get them together in few minutes and find a plSce to play. But there are no games ruEning regu- larly anywhere in my district. Sergeant Donovan has charge of this detail and would likely ind out something about it."
 Chief Lees made practically the same statement to a Call reporter Thursday night, and at the moment he was talking HarYey's game was in full blast in the very place where it had been conducted nightly for several weeks. It was no "spasmodic game; it was fully estab- lished, well known to almost everybody in town except the police and there it would have remained unmolested indefi- nitely had not The Call exposed it. So far as that part of it is concerned, Chief Lees can take his choice of one of two opinions. Either he must acknowledge his woful incompetence by reaffirming that he did not know Harvey was dealing faro every night in room 937 of the Palace or he can admit that he knew what every body else knew and by so doing substan- nate aafses -eets aeei1rations that s3fHeF t3~s pasH tC tue p1lice for i'm ntlsnitr rom gcolestatioa
 tlrt when the Chief so-cmHly asserts that 51aryrys game rG the Palace was raided tWO .- ITS ago LrC he has no knowledge of tls having been opened reg llarly since lnrOadS of mental decay or Willfully states what he knows is not true. Chief Lees knows, unless the fact has faded from his mem ory that all last winter and spring up to several weeks after the close of the racing season, Harvey conducted his game in the Palace regularly, and only closed it when an up-country capitalist lost a large sum at faro and made an uncomfortably loud talk about it.
 The same paper that interviewed Lees yesterday quotes Sergeant Donovan as as follows:
 Some reporter in search of a sensation may have run against an ephemeral game, but I defy him to point out any that is continuous. l know all the places mentioned and many more on which we keep a watch, where games have occa- sionally been played. but that is all there is to it
 Perhaps Sergeant Donovan has his eye on Billy Schreiber's game at O'Farrell street. If he has it would not be a bad idea for him to get his hand on 1t as well. Schreiber conducts poker rooms over Ca ley Roeder's at the corner of Grant avenue and O'Farrell street. His rooms are centrally located and well patronized by poker players. Occasionally, however his visitors express wish to vary the monotony of poker, and all they have to do is to express the wish and Schreiber is ready to accommodate them. He has a complete faro layout handy and whenever their pleasure, profit-and loss. Or if craps are preferred the little worries are soon rolling merrily over the table.
 It may be the Chief will seek to escape the investigation before the Commission CTS that now seems inevitable by claiming that it was though his vigilance that the faro game until very recently conducted in the Royal Eagle, over the Pabst cafe was closed, but such claim would be false. The game was only run occasion ally and was closed for want of patron age. But there are other games besides Schrieber's that are running right along, seemingly without the least fear of po- lice interference, but they are all likely to suspend for time now.
 Police Commissioners Gunst and AL word were greatly surprised to learn through the disclosures made by The Call that faro and roulette were running full blast in the Palace Hotel and had been for the past three or four weeks, and other games were in full bloom elsewhere throughout the city. Their manner indi- cated that they were more surprised that Chief Lees should seek to protect the gamblers by denying the existence of the game after the proof of their operation had been established by incontrovertible evidence. While they did not say so in so many words they intimated that the