The age-herald., 1901-05-12

lars during a course Of twenty years service on the force on a salary ranging form sl2OO to sSoo0 per annum.
 
 The raids of the vice committee and the exploits of Justice Jerome have filled the papers until the public has become weary and caused Deputy Commissioner Devery no end of wearlness. This extra ordinary evidence of officialism support ed by a political pull affords taxpayers and citizens an amusing and pitiable spectacle. Recently he dismissed the charges against policeman found guilty in the courts because Justice Jerome had presided at the trial but his action was reviewed and his decision reversed by Commissioner Murphy. The trials of po- lieemen by Devery are looked upon as rivals to circus performance, when the clown Is in the center of the ring. Dew cry Is filled with indignation at the in- terference of the Committee of Fifteen, who obtain evidence against gambling houses, secure warrants from Jerome, raid the places, destroy property and ab- solutely undermine the theory that po- lice protection can be purchased at schedule prices
 Pool room proprietors driven out of business in New York city have decided that no betting shall be allowed on the race tracks. The battle royal began at the Morris Park track. Betting In pool rooms Is drowned down by the very ele- ment who patronize the race course It is a singular fact that the moral senti- ment of the community opposes the pool rooms, where those who cannot go to the track back their favorites and in dorse, nay avocate, the betting box at the track. Where the moral distinction in I naf e enough, however. to appreciate the fact that every man who bets in a pool room and does not go to the track saves his entrance money and tends to lesson the value of the betting booth privilege which Is sold by the racing association. When, a few years ago. betting was stopped at the track a hue and cry went up because the attendance was so greatly diminished. Horse racing as sport has its lovers, but not 10 per cent. of the attendance would go five miles to see race If to the interest was not allowed the excitement of making him a money carrier
 It may shock the rigid moralist for me to state that I believe in the wide-open town. If pool rooms, gambling houses and houses of ill-fame could stand wide open and exist subject to certain laws, the lnIaHlOuS system Ol OiliCidl piaSh mail would stop, the public would not be Ictmized, and proprietors of such places. to protect their licenses. would diminish the personal or individual in juries now being done on all sides. As sume for moment a gambling house to be licensed All players compelled to buy for cash such checks as they de- sired no orders on banks to be accepted, and no checks negotiated, no credit given, under penalty of revoking H. cense Also no minors allowed to play. All the damage done by play would stop The heavy losses are made by men who. in the fever of gambling, exhaust their cash and fall back on credit. Pool rooms could also be controlled Suppression Is impossible. You may close them for awhile, but they will not stay closed. Mankind must be made over anew be- fore the things which they have always done will be abandoned.
 singular scene, one more readily equared in the pages of the imaginative writer than in the columns of news paper, was enacted in New Jersey. A child was kidnapped. The cries of the child attracted the attention of Salva- tion Army soldier and lassie. They beat the drum and shook the tambourine, giving chase to the kidnaper. He drop ped the child and pushed on. A running crowd pressed on his heels, and the drum beats and the jingle of the tam bourine jarred on his nerves. He leap ed into a swamp and was captured Wo- men and men cried for rope, and the