The Savannah morning news., 1901-06-29
WAR ON EVIL BEGUN
NEW GOOD GOVERNMENT LEAGUE
BEFORE THE GRAND JURY.
10 PARTIES WERE PRESENTED.
ONE GAMBLER AND EIGHTEEN
SUNDAY LIQUOR SELLERS.

ing a Gaming House,. A. GaIina,
owen Travers and George and
Henry Schroeder Among Those
Charged with Keeping Open IA
Tipping House on Sunday-Three
Indictments Against T'rRvers and
Two Against Observation-Disclosures
Men Give /Evidence-Grand Jury
Got Tired, or There Would Have
Been More indictments.
The representatives of the new move
ment for the suppression of public gam
bling and Sunday liquor selling in Sa-
vannah with the assistance of some I'M
willing allies, whom they had caused to
be summoned, had their first innings in
the fight. before toe grand jury of the
Superior Court yesterday afternoon.
AS a result of this hearing before the
grand jury nineteen indictments against
alleged violators of the two laws that the
effort is being made specifically and par
ticulariy to enforce were returned. There
was one indictment for keeping and main
tanning gaming house. the defendant be-
ing Samuel Jacobs, and eighteen for keep
ing open tipping houses on Sunday. The
defendants in these latter cases include
Joseph A. Gahna, Owen Travers. George
Schroeder, Henry Schroeder, John Meyer,
Dan Deignan and others.
Those who are indicted for keeping
open tipping houses on Sunday, with
the exception of two or three of those
whose names are given above are pro-
prietors of corner grocery stores, prin-
cipaHy in the sections of the city remote
from the business quarters. 1t was get
ting late last evening when the indict-
ments of the grand jury were returned,
and 1t was impossible for the officers Of
the court to serve last night all the
bench warrants that were issued for the
arrest of the defendants. Those who
have not been already arrested, will be
this morning.
Against j. A Galina the grand jury
returned two indictments charging him
with keeping open his bar on Sunday,
June 16. and Sunday, June %. Against
Owen Travers there are three indict-
ments, for keeping open his place one
Sunday in May and two in June These
are the only proprietors of well-known
places whom the grand jury indicted.
Several well-known citizens were pres
ent as witnesses against Galina, having
been summoned by the grand jury, at the
instance of Mr.. H. E. Wilson of coun-
sci for the committee that is behind the
movement to appear and tell what they
knew of the sale of liquor on Sunday at
Galna's place.
The indictments are by special present
ment of the grand jury in every case,
however, and there are no witnesses
names written on the backs of the indict-
nlents. BY whom the state expects to es-
tabish the truth of its charges and the
correctness of its contentious will only
appear when the cases are tried.
1t was expected that the grand jury
would return at least twice as many in
dictments and this would have been done,
doubtless, had not some OF the grand ju-
rors been anxious to catch a train for
Tybee. This required them to leave the
Court House before they mad much more
than half finished the work that had been
cut out for them. Among those who were
to have been indicted, but were not, are
some eight or ten proprietors and at
taches of gaming houses.
oven at that Mr. Wilson did not seem
perfectly satisfied with the showing that
he was going to make. He said, while
the grand jury was still in session and
he still thought that nine or ten indct-
ments for keeping gaming houses would
be returned. that he had found ii unex-
pectedly difficult to secure evidence in
these cases. The gambling rooms were
open, all right enough, but there was so
little doing that it was difficult to tell
who was in charge. Oftentimes a specta-
tor would be in one of the places for
quarter OF an hour, without ever having
seen any actual gambling in progress. The
agitation in favor of the complete sup
preston of public gaming has at leas.
served temporarily to put the business
ION the pig" The gamblers say that
themselves.
There will be other work for the grand
jury to do when 1t convenes next Fri
day and other indictments will be return
ed There will be a number of gamblers
and still others charged with keeping
open tipping houses on Sunday against
whom indictments will be found
Mr.. Wilson has gone into the work with
hearty and jealous enthusiasm He
was at the Court House yesterday while
the grand jury was conducting it's inves-
tigation, advising with the solicitor gen
eral as to the manner in which the EVIL
dence should be presented. All the cases
IN which indictments were returned have
been assigned for hearing in court on
next Thursday. It is not at all likely
that all of them will be tried on that
DAY, but some of them WILL probably,
and the others will be assigned for trial
on other days in the near future. There
is nothing at all slow about the way in
which the campaign for the suppression
OF gambling and Sunday liquor selling is
being conducted.
No attention is being paid by the new
good government organization TO minor
and trifiing violations of the Sunday ob-
servance laws What it is after are
those who keep open bars and sell whis-
ky on Sunday, and its representatives
have no hesitancy in saying that these
scalps will dange yet at their girdes.