The Savannah morning news., 1900-08-09
RAID NEVER PHASEO THEM.
POLICY PLAYERS TURNED THEIR
WHEELS AND CURSED THE OF
FICERS.

Usual Crowd of Negroes Gathered at
the Usual Hours in Congress Lane
and There Was no Apparent Inter
ruption i'm the Progress of the
Game-When Not Thus Actively
Engaged in Their Regular Bust
ness the Gamblers Spent Their
Time DcnOuncIng the Sheriff and
His Observation-Disclosures Hartridge
Turned the Bunch of Seventeen
over 10 Superior Court.
Despite the raid made by the sheriff and
his deputies on Tuesday evening, a raid
which resulted in the arrest of four of
the alleged principals and thirteen lesser
lights of the policy lottery business in Sa-
vannah, drawings were repeated yesterday
to have taken place altogether as usual.
Custom prescribes thet the dra wings
shall take place at 2:30 o'clock in the af-
ternoon and 7:SO O'Clock in the evening of
eadh day, and the custom has passed in
Savanna into an institution, so long and
so faithfully has it been observed. Yes
terday there was certainly no apparent
change in the situation, for at the stated
hours the section of Congress lane, be-
tween Bull and Drayton streets, was
thronged with the usual assortment of ne
groes. 1t was generally reported that the
drawings had not failed to take place and
the evidence of appearances, at it was
presented from the streets, confirmed the
trutbfulness of this report.
1t will be interesting to watch the ac-
tions of the grand jury and the further
course it will pursue in this matter. An
other meeting of the jury has been an
nounced for next week, though the day
has not been selected. The conjecture has
been and being hazarded by many of the
alleged knowing ones that the next meet
ing will be signalized by the same sort
of raid that followed the last though pos
sibly some new point of attack will be Sc
lected.
Many and deep were the curses bestowed
yesterday by the section of the gambling
fraternity that had fallen into the meshes
of the law, upon Sheriff Sweeny and his
force of deputies. The gamblers never
seemed to realize that the sheriff was do
ing his duty and his deputies theirs, and
that they were earring into effect only the
direct and imperative orders of the grand
jury. They were not proceeding on their
own initiative, and with any unnecessary
harshness or publicity, as, from the viru-
lence and strength of the anathems pro-
nounced upon them by the gamblers,
many of the latter seemed to think
1t is clear that the sheriff was not in a
position to follow any other course than
that he did actually pursue. While he is
not in any sense the executive officer of
the grand jury, that body is vested un-
der the law with very extensive powers
and among them that of special present.
ment. 1t would scarcely he healthy for
the sheriff of the county, who is par ex-
cellence the conservator of the public
peace, to refuse to take action when a
member of she grand jury points out to
him open and fragrant violations of the
law and suggests that he make an arrest
But the gamblers have apparently been
unable 10 see the matter in this light
and they have broken the necks of the
walls of their wrath and emptied the con-
tents upon the heads of sheriff and depu-
ties alike. The ordinary devotee of for
tune, even, possesses a broad and pictur-
esque vocabulary, and some of those ar
rested are not ordinary gamblers at au
Consequently, when they came to discuss
the action of the sheriff, they were in a
position 40 do the subject what they
thought fun justice and they damned him
with an exuberance of diction and a
strength of emphasis that would have
sufficed fully in a better and juster cause
1t is just possible that in condemning the
sheriff and his officers in this sweeping
and wholesale fashion the gamblers are
not acting with their accustomed wisdom
and sagacity. Acting with perfect regard
for their duty and the obligations of their
oaths, the sheriff's officers are vet fire.
quently in a position 10 treat gamblers
who have been arrested with consideration
and leniency and not to rush them off to
jan merely because they are not in a DO
sitlon TO get a bondsman by lifting their
voices. 1t is not pleasant 10 be abused in
the thorough and painstaking manner in
hich the gamblers have abused the Off
GERS, and the latter may remember it on
some future occasion, when endowed with
some share of legal discretion, they will
do their duty just as we'll by taking the
course that would make it hardest for the
gamblers, as by taking that which would
make ii easiest. If they should chance to
think on one of these occasions of the va
rious uncomplimentary epithets that have
been bestowed upon them, it may very
likely be that they will choose the former.
The four white and thirteen colored men
arrested were arraigned before Recorder
Hartridge in the Police Court yesterday
morning. Mr.. r. l.. Colding and Mr. w.
F. Slater represented the defendants and
in behalf of their clients, these gentlemen
waived the preliminary examination. With
this question out of the way the Recorder
remanded the bunch of seventeen for trial
in the Superior Court, bonds for their ap-
pearance being furnished Immediately
a-%-
AS IN NORTH GEORGIA.