Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1900-08-04


speciality Is the suppression of gam
bling and pool selling to exercise their
gifts than Is presented in the goodly
rity Of New York at the present time.
For both gamblers and pool sellers
are 1ourishing to a greater degree and
doing business" more openly in New
| York just now than at any other time
within the memory of man. The diff
| ficulty in the way Of doing anything to
| restrict their operations lies In the in
difference Of the public and the press.
! The public has bigger things than the
! closing of poolrooms and gambling
| joints to think about these days, just
as there are bigger things for the news
papers to print news about. And as
long as neither the people nor the
newspapers will give attention to re-
! form in these directions the police au-
thorities will certainly decline to inter-
est themselves.
Wide Open PooIrooms.
Nearly all the poolrooms in both
Manhattan and Brooklyn were shut
| tight last year when the Mazet COM
mittee babe fair to amount to some
! thing" said professional gambler to-
day. "But they all opened up again as
soon as the committees inability to
accomplish results became apparent,
and today the situation is quite salts
| factory to the fraternity everywhere in
| New York. On Manhattan Island alone
! there are more than so buildings that
shelter pool selling establishments,
while Brooklyn has more than 80 such
| places. They are for the most part
| situated over saloons and are generally
arranged SO that you must pass
| through at least three doors-the street
door, a hall door and an inner door,
| opening into the poolroom itself A
/ spotter is stationed at each of these
doors to keep out undesirable patrons
and to give warning to the gang in
| case of trouble.
! mo, trouble is not feared from the
police in any circumstances. Far from
/ it. but in the face of a callous press
and a callous public the Parkhurst So
ciety is still keeping close tab on pool
| selling through its chief detective
agent and his helpers and is thought
| likely at any moment to step in and
make all sorts of complications There
is no probability that anything last
| ingly serious could be brought about
| by parkhurst raid, but such raids
| cost the poolroom keepers involved a
lot of money besides loss of time.
! Moreover, raids tend TO rouse the peo-
pie, temporarily at least"
Pool Selling as an Industry.
1t takes about a dozen men alto
gether to manage a well regulated pool
room and these include, besides the
spoilers or doormen, telegraph operat-
! ors. "outsde men," whose business it is
! to circulate among the patrons and So
! licit bets bookkeepers, etc. 1t is against
! the rules of the "house" for any en-
ployee to place" any of his own money.
They are paid well for their services,
in consideration of the risks they take
and to insure them from 'squealing."
All these poolrooms are controlled
by ring of II or - men, who have
their headquarters in a very business
like suit of offices on the Rowery.
! These offices are connected with every
poolroom in the city by telegraph and
telephone, and at the close Of every
business day the headquarters tele-
graph and telephone operators are
kept on the hustle receiving reports of
the business done in each room since
! morning.
These reports are all kept straight by
a corps Of bookkeepers. who. at stated
times, in turn, report the earnings of
each poolroom, together with the total
of all, to the magnates. These reports
must often be extremely gratifying,
Judging from the fact that on the day
of the recent Brooklyn Handicap one
poolroom alone found itself about
$1,000 to the good. But it is not al
ways thus Sometimes, of course. they
have losses TO report. The men at
headquarters do all the hiring, and il
is always understood that the ring"
will take care of any employee in case
he Is caught in a raid or otherwise de
prived of his liberty. 1t is rather hard
10 say just how many names there are
on the pay rolls of the ring. If, as my
informant AYERS, there are at least a
. dozen men to every poolroom, and
there are about 100 poolrooms in Man
haitian and Brooklyn, the total IS over
1900, not counting those at headquar-
tiers, which must surely bring it up to
hundred more at least. The weekly
salary list must amount to thousands
Poo,rooms For Women.
Some time ago number Of pool
rooms for women We're raided, and II
was then announced that such estab
. lishments would be tolerated in future
under no circumstances whatever
, This announcement has not beer
. made good, there being at least three
poolrooms for women in operation n
. the present time. one is located in the
midst of the shopping district, its en-
= trance being covered" by what j,