Evening star., 1900-12-22
NEW YORK MORALITY
Funny Things That Happen When a
Reform Wave Rises.
GAMBLERS PAY FOR PROTECTION
Spectators in Theater Seats Who
Got Badly Stuck.
: BLACKMAILING SCHEME
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star
NEW YORK, December 20 1900.
when the members of one of the spasmodic
ant-vice committees OF New York get together
at their initial meetings they make a very
great pother indeed over the matter Of Sc
Iecting agents to whom shall be intrusted
the work of getting evidence against the
forces of evil for the destruction of which
the committee is organized. This latest an
Twice committee, composed of fifteen of
New York's best citizens, which was or
ganized for the purpose of supplementing
the efforts of Bishop Potter to improve the
tone OF the town, seems already to have
fallen into sort Of desuetude on account
of the professed inability of its leaders Ito
secure sufficient evidence upon which to
act
All OF which is mystifying enough to any
Manhattante who has any sort of cogni-
;a zance whatever Of the brazen violations of
law which are being committed twenty
four hours day all the way from the Battery
TO High bridge, and equally in almost every
other borough Of the greater municipality.
II was one OF the announced purposes of
the committee to uproot the gambling evil
all over Greater New York, for example.
There appears to have already been a halt
In this particular move on account of the
SoAAihit1oO IIldDIlly 10 OBTAIN suitable
evidence" Yet there are at this moment
or writing close on to 200 pool rooms in
full blast in New York city, and the pin
headed youth who bankers to drop his
wages on the running of the winter mud
larks at New Orleans or San Francisco
finds no more difficulty in gaining access to
any of these pool rooms than does the
devotee of the Sunday cocktail in getting his
liquor In any bar room in New York. No
password or identification card is required.
Occasionally the New York papers give
accounts Of the raiding of minor pool rooms
In the poorer districts, and, on the heels
Of these accounts, they forecast the i'm
minent wtping out of all the pool rooms IN
New York. These forecasts have invari-
ably proved wrong. The pool rooms that
are ra1ded, as every man familiar with this
phase Of New York under life is aware,
are SWOoped upon and put out of business
for the sole and simple reason that the
proprietors thereof decline to stand for
the increasing demands of the police for
protection
Pay for Protection.
When a reform agitation such as is now
in progress, creates what is known as
police department scare, the captains Of
the precincts do not, except when the con-
ditions are most exceptional, pass the word
around to the pool room keepers to close
up. The pool room propretors, instead are
visited by the civilian agents of the police
increased watchfu!ness Of the reform ele-
ment of the population, the fee for pro-
teton has been increased. If the proprie-
tors submit to the additional drain on their
profits-as most of them do-well and good; /;
they are permitted to go on plucking the
motley victims of the horse bug" If.
however. they revolt, no matter If they
furnish figures proving that further police
inroads on their incomes will render Their
nefarious business improbable, and not
worth while continuing, they are put out
of business by the captains Of the precincts
in little no time. 1t is a matter of COM
mon knowledge among men with eyes to see
and ears to hear over here that one man
acts as the agent-in-chief of the police of
New York in their dealings with the gam
bling element. He eXactS from % to so per
cent of the profits of all gambling institu-
tions from the proprietors thereof, and the
quality of the police immunity he guaran-
tees them is in proportion to the amount
Of the profits that they pay When new
man desires to enter the gambling field
here and start up a plant the first man
that he sees is this agent-in-chief.
When Raids Are Made.
It occasionally happens that some man
who has ruined himself in one of these
gambling houses will forever disgrace him.
self in the eyes Of the sports by doing
what is known as the baby act''-that is.
he takes advantage Of the anti-gambling
the same which requires all money won iii
a gambling game to be restored to the
loser. and makes complaint to the police.
or sues out a warrant before magistrate
for the arrest Of the proprietor OF the
gambling establishment at which he has
los: his money. Then the proprietor Is
mysteriously tipped off," in the slang OF
the day, and when the ostentatious raid is
made by the police there is nothing do
ing" and the extent of the police capture
Is generally summed up in a few old chairs
and the sweep-up man Of the plant, who
is promptly turned loose as having been IN
no wise concerned in the violation Of the
gambling law.
A patrol wagon filled to the gun'ls with
huge cops-al of whom seemed to have
very great difficulty in keeping their faces
straght-pulled up in front of Park Row
pool room the other afternoon. This pool
room was-and undoubtedly will be again
before very long-one of the biggest estab-
lishments of its kind in the downtown dis
trict and it is a well-known fact that it
has been one of the largest sources of IN.
come of well-known East Side politician
of the sport variety for a number OF
years past.
Funnier Than a Farce.
A patron of the place who claimed to
have been the victim Of a bit of 'welching
on the part Of the managers of the plant
complained to the police, and twenty-four
hours later this wagon load of cops pulled
up in front or the entrance. Inc cups
found an old East Side character com
PLEASANTLY smoking pipe and warming his
shins before a radiator in the immense
room. The police sergeant. doing the bes'
he could to keep the grins from creasing
his features on account of the presence ot
the reporters, asked the old man the pur-
pose served by the blackboards all over the
walls. The old man covered his face with
a red bandanna for half a moment the bet
ter to conceal his mirth and then repheo
that he believed kindergarten Of some
sort or other was run in the room. Then
the gang of chuckling cops numbered on
board of the wagon again, and the raid,
ha6 been accomplished. This is the sort OF
thing that goes on year in and year out
right before the eyes of the citizens OF this
town, so that the wonder is not great that
the citizens of all political creeds only
smile saturninely in each others faces
when the ever-recurring anti-vice commit
tees make their big announcements of what
thew are going to do with such tremen-
dous flourish of trumpets.
Pat Sheedy's Views.
No professed gambler. 1t may be safely
asserted, knows more about the blackmail-
ing methods of the New York police in
their dealings with gambling plants than
Patrick Sheedy, the well-groomed and