The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-09


had one feature that struck the North
erner as unusual, unless he came from
MOO 1awk, and that was the club
houses. Signs on their outer doors read.
: thought he had struck it this time, sure
enough; for your Northern club is as
nard TO break into as bank, and even
II you 90 get in you are Stunned and
pointed at and whispered about and in
quirIes are made Respecting your ances-
try and motives and secret visits are
you can be idientFffed. Nothing ike that
here. The CLUB was just plain gambling
saloon and that was why strangers were
invited You could go in and play poker,
and black ana white and the
races and youf would 4 be lin per
feetly respectable looking comRa-
ny and nobody would say word to you
Ger OF the place was as much better
than that in a5 Northern political meet
ing as you can 1 rimagine; Young fools
blew them in at roulette without a muir
nur standing possibly one chance in
thousand to make a cent. Fhe games
appeared to be perfectly square, but,
after all, there are defects in license
system, since 1t makes 1t so easy for
young fools to begas foolish as old fools,
ana " opens the doors wide when they
shouId be only half open. Hypocrisy is
tpe tribute that vice pays to virtue and
1t has not hurt Arkansas to be hypo-
critic a little, for it's gambling was over
conspicuous. This business has been
done away with in the last few days,
and ten carloads of gamblers have left
town, faced toward kinder cliLnes. The
antl-gambllng law has passed, but the
law to label all drinks and to sell no
Ilquor except to men who can show q
Label hangs fire.
1t ought to be that in place where
vice is legalized the police would be dis
abled from their faVorite occupation of
collecting blackmail. But an official of
high standing in Hot Springs tells me
some things about it's constabulary that
make one Deileye that perhaps after an.
New York isn't so awfully worse than
the average. He says that the boss-ne-
gro gambler in the place made $4,000 last
year, ana would have made more, only
the police needed money and would raid
him every time they wanted 500 for L
poker game in the Station-for the pot,
the kitty, the rake-off, the stakes, or
Whatever the name IS, On what charges
they raided him l do not know, but when
a~poer policeman is desperate for money
he does not need to make any, espe-
cially ie the man to be arrested. is black.
When all the money that has been talk
en- in for the gambling houses and the
pool rooms-there are pool rooms for
women, but not many women for the
pool rooms-and the saloons, 1t would
seem as If Hot Springs might lay out
little more on repairs and improvements
ana tear down some of the shantleS and
better its sidewalks and put down stone
for woodland clean up a bit The fine
hotels and their surrounding gardens and
lawns and the delightful mountain parks
ought to be an inspiration to the natives,
but instead of that they say to one an
other: This here5 United States across
the street is a good thing. Let's let her
pay all the bills.
There is no rowdyism worth mention
ing in Hot Springs There is no active
villainy among the people. and as to the
strangers-the game-legged, bent-backed,
crook-armed. stiff necked immigrants,
with canes and. cr1tches and shades over
their eyes, they are harmless Here
comes one of them now. Listen to him.
Say, my frien', I'd like to get you to
help me to get a dr-to get a dinner, this
mornin'. Huh? will yer? I got to get a
dinner or l can't get a wash. You can't
wash in this water till you have dinner,
or it won't act on your system"
And you give a dime to him and he
skips glaefullySoveE to Arkansas on the
other sidewalk! eand fills his system. With
hot water? Not!