Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-20
WAR ON GAMBLERS
District Attorney Jerome
Making Strong Fight.
DIFFICULT JOB AHEAD
cANFIELD HAS MONEY TO SPEND
IN CONTEST.
Declares He Will Put SIS, oOo, 900 in
the Scale Against Enforcement
Of the Law.
DIFFICULT JOB AHEAD

SAS NS0AS A6 d1AxSt OkSChASAe
Of the Law.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
NEW YORK, December 49, 1902.
The battle between the gamblers and the
reformers is on. 1t is going to be long
fight The experts are manifesting will
ingness to lay 2 to 1 that when 1t Is
all over the reformers will be in full retreat.
1T has been stated" said newspaper
reporter to Richard Garfield the head-lilec
among all American gambling house pro-
prletors, who is at the head OF the gam
blers' fight. that you and your associates
are ready to spend million of money. il
necessary. to win out in this contest"
THAT statement" laconically replied NJ.
Garfield. lis inexact. We are ready to
spend five millions"
The hardihood Of District Attorney Je-
rome in precipitating this huge fight Is only
| equaled by the amazing audacity of Can
field and the rest OF the gamblers In in
stantly accepting the challenge.
You are maintaining gaming tables, and
therefore you felons under the code, -
Is, In essence, Jerome's attitude toward the
| gamblers
I'VE are maintaining gaming tablef. and
| we are gcing to continue to maintain them
| hang the codei" Is the extraordinarily
| frank stitude OF the gamblers toward Je-
roma.
And now, upon that basis, they are going
to fight 1t out in the courts-have already
begun to do SO, in fact Both sides are
| already talking dlzzily of carrying the fight
to the United States Supreme Court II nee
| essary. There Is going to be no quarter
| asked for or accepted on either side 1t
may be taken for granted that Jerome VIII
q f7Rhf 10 wi q ff.1sv
for his own continuance as a political fac
| tor, not for tie reform administ alton of
Mayor Low. Indeed. the Low adrailistra-
| ton Is slIeady hopelessly ruined, III the
opirion OF the most unbiased non-partlslus-
Jerome's Prospects of Success.
Upon the character of the fight that
Jerome puts up with the gamblers will de-
pend his success or failure in the future in
this town. This young man has not been
| able, for many reasons. to fulfill even fair
percentage Of the magniloQuent promises
| that he made on the stump to the people
! Of New York during the last municipal
campaign. AS district attorney Of New
York he has encountered obstacles and OBJ
structions Of a sort to discourage even SO
brave an optfmist as he is. He is resolved,
now, to make sort of forlorn hope assault
| against Garfield and Canfield's hosts. He
| probably does not expect to win, but he
does unquestionably intend to wage a war
the estimation Of his former great train of
followers, lately grown rather lukewarm.
Jerome is young, adroit and able. His ac-
cidental association with the reformers
hasn't made him pruneS-and- priSmS young
man, either. Before he was elected to his
position he made rather bald announce
ment on the stump.
"If go into the district attorneys Office"
he said, Il am going to put the gamblers
out of business-mark that. Not only the
little fellows but the big ones. And before
1 leave the district attorneys Office I'll go
after and get Dick Canfield-stick pin
in that and remember it,
This, of course was rash talk. and for
givable as such, proceeding, as it did, from
the lips Of quite young man. He hasn't
got the gamblers yet, little or big. and one
can count on one hand the names Of those
even OF the small fry that he has put out
of business. Nor has he come anywhere
near getting '.Dick" Garfield. On the
contrary the old-timers who have been
watching these things in New York for four
or five decades are saying that Garfield has
a good. deal better than an even chance of
getting Jerome.
In the meantime, the situation is pic
turesque. The cheek Of the gamblers en-
gagged in this singular fight is no longer
astonishing. 1t has become simply anus
Ing. To maintain gambling house in
New York Is felony. Housebreaking in
the night is also a felony. Surprising the
burglars were to beard Jerome and say
unto him, YES we are burglars. and,
what's more. we are going TO continue in
business and we're going to fight you on
that issue, taking the thing, if necessary.
to the Supreme Court of the United States.
If this were to happen. the situation could
not, as matter of fact be much funnie.
than it is now But the burglars are not
organized, and they're consequently not
ready ito spend five millions" That's the
difference. Another difference is that there
is no public demand for burglary, as there
is for gambling. 1t is authoritatively stated
that there are 100000 clients in New York
city alone of the public gambling houses,
including many men of distinction, and, in
addition, there are $1,000 transients at the
hotels all the time who take frequent
flyers at the gaming tables of New YORK.
New York's Unemployed.
It is estimated by the department Of char
tiles that for the first time in good many
years at the beginning of winter there are
now only 10000 men out of work in New
York Practical socio.ogists maintain that
out of these 10000 idle ones fully 80 per
cent don't want to work. and there are
good grounds for believing that their con-
tention is substantially correct. 1t has been
shown time and again that almost any sort
of a man. no matter how badly he has been
reduced by dissipation or other causes, can
secure some sort of life-supporting job in
New York at any season of the year If he
goes after it with will. Newspaper re-
porters have been frequently sent out by
their chiefs to prove this fact. They have
makeup of hoboes in the last stages of
olsreputabiity, and yet every one of them
has contrived to pick up work of some sort
or another within a day or so. They haven't
been able to mail bank presidents biets."
as one of them slangily put the matter in
writing the account of his job-hunting adj
ventures, but they have managed to get
jobs as longshoremen, street laborers. fruit
packers, teamsters, porters in warehouses
and fair-paying berths of that chara cter
Almoners in the employ of rich men and
women of New YORK have also undertaken
Investigations along these lines, and all of
them have stated their conviction that
there is no need for any man who really
wants work to remain out of employment
in New York for any length of time. The
town is huge and active enough to absorb
and take care of every man possessing a
wiling pair of hands.
A short time ago rich young New York
er, noted for his practical charities and his
philanthropic spirit, made up his mind that
he would like to find out something about
the fellows who spend their days aimlessly
seated on City Hall Park benches, staring
into vacancy and reading old scraps Of
newspapers. So he gave two or three
dozen of them dollar each to tell their
little stories to him as he sat alongside of