The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-10-29
DoNovAN's ASSISTANT LOOKING
FOR REAL TIGER.
HUNT EXTENDS TO BILLINGS
Beyond Finding Some Old LARS
Searcher After Big Game
Sees Nothing.
From Sundays Daily Gazette.

From Sundays Daily Gazette.
Having purified the morals of the
big ones to the extent that it is now
necessary to have the pass word and
be vouched for as in good standing
before any one wishing to coquet
with Dame Fortune may be permitted
to pass through the doors that sep
arate the faro and roulette layouts
from the outer World, the attorney
generals Office has found time to pay
a little fatherly attention to the
smaller of the cities and towns of
the state and take a reef in their
morals. AS is well known the attor-
ney general makes a speciality of N
forcing that moral institution known
as the gambling law, not caring to
take heed of any attractions of other
statutes that may cucumber the penal
code, leaving that part of the work
of reformation to others of lesser
rank in the states official family.
Some how or other Mr.. Donovan
has arrived at the conclusion that
gambling has been going on in this
city, evidently having COMPOUNDED
Billings with that wicked little burg
down at the mouth Of the majestic
Tongue. Be this as it may, yester-
day H. D. Moore, first assistant to
Mr.. Donovan, was in the city making
an investigation of the reports which
have reached Helena that the festive
tiger was permitted to roam about in
this neck of the woods without any
one making any effort to compel him
to retire into the secret Businesses
of his native jungle and cease disport-
ing his lithesome form to the immin-
ent risk of those whom curiosity
might prompt into a closer inspection
of his sinuous form and ~attractively
v~ari-colored skin. Mr.. Moore was
taken under the guidance Of Chief
Warner and made a tour of the city,
dropping into such places as it was
thought might afford a retreat for the
animal for which he was hunting. OF
course the quest proved fruitless.
It is true that evidence was
found that in times past such
a thing as gambling may have
been one of the recognized diversions
of the community, the same as old
buffalo wallows are still to be found
on the prairies as evidence that some
time in the misty past such animals
roamed the plains and found existence
pleasant and life a happy dream of
bunch grass and alkali holes. But ev-
e n as the hunter exterminated the
buffalo SO has the law and the attor-
ney generals vigorous enforcement
of it exterminated gambling and only
the discarded tables and other para
p%hernalia that entered into a we'll
equipped gambling house may still
occasionally be found, silent remind.
ers of times and things gone never
to return.
Later in the day Mr.. Moore was
seen by The Gazette and said that he
found the people of this city no differ
ent than those of others-they enter
tanned the same divergence of opin-
ions as to the existence of things and
persons. Some to whom he had talk
elk declared with the utmost posi-
%tiveness that there was no gambling
in the city, while others with the
same evident sincerity and certainty
said that the first were mistaken and
that gambling was as common and
open as the sale of calico to the
thrifty house wife from the country,
For a stranger, he declared, it was
difficult to get at the real facts, es-
pecially if that stranger had no more
time for research at his disposal than
he found himself possessed Of.
Chief Warner, who was present
took occasion to place himself On rec
ord as belonging to the class which
says there is no gambling in Billings.
He said that after they had been fined
at the ratio of $40 for 81 games the
gamblers had concluded the business
did not pay and since then the click
of the check and the whirr of the
roulette wheel had not been heard
within the corporate limits of the
city.
Later in the day Mr.. Moore was
again seen and said a letter. from a
woman directed to the attorney gen.
erals office had been the cause of
bringing him here. He said the writer
of the letter had declared that her
sons were being led astray by gam
bling and unless some n interfered