The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-10-26
TAMmANYs WIDE oPENs CITY.
All the Work of Reform in City Govern
mont I'm done by Croker.

Ar the Work of Reform in City Govern
mont I'm done by Croker.
Franklin Matthews in Harper's Weekly. }
New York is wide open once more.
Tammany Hall has at last secured Its
"terrible revenge" Richard Croker and
his assistants have set in full operation a
system of Tammany government uhoer
which Woe fiourishes openly for price.
The old days have come agnin, and lam
many leaders are fattening their pocket
books through the privilege of selling the
right to violate law, and through extor-
ton and forced tribute. Devery, hicnaro
Cookers friend, is chief OF police. Ac-
cording to message to the legislature
from Gov. Black, he was selected for the
place "to repeat the infamous practices
which had furnished his previous career. =
Croker cannot help knowing it, and If
Mayor Van Wyck does not know it. a
short Investigation will prove it to him.
Despite the safeguarding provisions OF
the Raines liquor law, the saloons have
been seized and made part of the Tam.
many machine; gambling in all its
forms is going on. and the hackers are
paying for it; scores of pool rooms are
running in town, the most lucrative of
all the sources of revenue for certain
Tammany leaders; the profits from prize
fighting belong to other leaders, and
through the police board asmonopoly of
this business goes to a Tammany man in
Manhattan borough, and to certain Nc
Laughlin followers in Brooklyn borough;
the doors of dives swing open to throngs,
especially on Saturday and Sunday
nights, and for the delectation of their
patrons new dance diabolism be-
side which the dance imported from the
southern shores of the Mediterranean to
this country five years ago Is model OF
virtue and propriety, has been set to mu-
sic for nightly exhibition, making per-
Torrance SO depraved that it would seem
as if the lowest depths of infamy in that
direction had been reached; theatrical
performances are tolerated compared
with which those which were condemned
as indecent by the courts three years ago
would be considere refined, and the
theater at which the worse OF these is CIV
en-, conducted by State Senator Timothy
D. Sullivan, displays daily and nightly
insult to the entire nation by the appro-
priation of the name of the hero OF Ma
Mia rs it's own; the green goods men are
already in the suburbs, and are prepar-
ing to come into town again; especially
significant Is tho fact that the woman
who was used in the attempt made by
the friends of Devery to break down the
Parkhurst case against him and who,
because of It's failure, had to flee to Obi
cago, has come back again, and almost
within the shadow Of the Tenderloin sta
tion house the doors of her abiding place
are open once more, as are those OF
dozen or more of others OF her grade In
life; slot machines are running in pro-
tected places; most important of all Is
the fact that the police are demoralized.
To make sure not only that the old sys.
tenn of extortion by Tammany Is in full
swing again. but to obtain list OF prices
charged, went, under proper auspices,
to one who, because of his actual connec-
tion with the police force, knows whereof
he speaks, and who, IL were at liberty
to give his name, would be recognized as
an authority by every one who reads the
newspapers This man. so far as know
does not share in any police plunder-in-
deed. was sent to him because of that
belief-but he knows all nbout it. This
Is the rate of prices that he furnished:
Pool rooms. $500 to open, and from 800
to $500 month; gambling, from $50 to
$500 or more month, according to the
size of the receipts; keeping open dive.
$40 to $50 week; running disorderly re-
sorts, $50 to $3.50 month; selling liquor
from to a. M, the moderate charge OF
only IS month.
Turn now tosanotner source of political
revenue for Tammany-the existence of
pool rooms. There are probably 100 of
them in the present CITY limits A leader
close to Mr.. Croker is said to be the man
who must be "seen" before pool room
is opened. do not use his name because
I cannot prove any assertion against him.
ANY one who W ishes to know 1t can find
out from the patrons of the places for the
asking. 1t is necessary to go back a lit
tie to understand the significance of the
opening of the pool rooms. 1t is only a
trolled legislation at Albany and
abolished the lobby, that MIR. Croker
closed the pool rooms, with the exception
of one or two small affairs. 1t was said
to have been due really to difference be
tween certain Tammany men and GER
tain pool seller. Whatever the motive,
whatever the cause, the poolrooms were
closed, and those who wished to bet had
to go to the race tracks to do it. Curl
ously enough, Just about that time Rich
ard Croker who had been poor man,
began to take an interest in horse racing
There are those who say that the closing
of the pool rooms and the advent of MIR.
Croker in racing were mere coincidents.
and that is all. That may be SO. After
a time Mr.. Croker transferred his racing
interests to England, and the report is
common that he has no interest-that is,
personal interest-in American tracks.
After he came back from Europe this
wear the pool rooms were In full opera.
fion. in violation of law. Strangely
enough, the day after DR.. Parkhurst came
home from Europe the tip went from one
end of the town on thesWest side to close
and for part of that afternoon these places
were shut.