The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-23
please. so cents. 81, $50 81. % cents or
| nickel. to go and risk and jeopardize and
/ hazard his money

Wnom IL should be the effort OF every rlSnt-
thinking person to protect.
Now those games have been eliminated
Some one else says such and such a place
runs game, and such place runs game
Easy statements to make; hard statements
to controvert. Nothing is so easy as to
charge things; nothing so difficult as TO dis
prove them, because in these instances the
guiltless are called upon to prove them
guiltless and must remain guilty until
proved guiltless. 1 say TO you now. knowing
cities as cities go, having had some expert
ence in my life in almost every large city.
having as result OF my occupation years
ago been employed in almost every city be-
tween the Missouri and the Alleganies and
the ohio river and the lakes, because
printer is almost like a Methodist preacher,
changing his residence more frequently Tor
merly than now-as municipalities go, lndi-
annapolis is a clean, wholesome city, any one
else's statement to the contrary notwith-
standing, and above all that statement
should be an impersonal one and not the
ex parte statement of interested parties.
DIFFICULT TO DO.
Now, / said that this sort of thing had
been eliminated-faro absolutely, roulette
absolutely, craps absolutely. No, and why?
All the paraphernala in the world that is
needed to play that game is the possession
of the necessary coin, two little dice and
a smooth surface-three things to be found,
the smooth surface almost everywhere, the
money frequently, the dice always, because
the interested party carries them with him.
In the time between the visits of the police
department, and the superintendent Is here
TO verify the statements, every day and eV-
cry night without warning, to go through
every establishment in the city having the
reputation of being gambling -place-in the
interim of the visits of the police depart
ment ask you, as reasonable men, how
easy is it for the smooth surface the money
and the dice to come into connection and
how easy 1t is for them all to disappear IL
an effort is made to reach them.
But besides that the records of the po-
lice department will show you that near
ly three times as many arrests have been
made in indianapolis in the last eighteen
months for this one Offense of gambling
as for the eighteen months prior. L ask
you If you associate with those gentle
men and ask any professional gambler IL
he is satisfied with this administration. he
will tell you not; that he would like to
have a change.
PLAYING AT PERIL.
Now, these games are played at odd
times, and we come back to the other
game of poker, game which was invented
by, 1 think, United States minister of
the court of St. James, or at least he was
a standard authority-that game is played
in indianapolis, 1 take it, not with the con-
sent or connvance of the police, but de-
spite the efforts of the police to reach it.
Through those efforts the public places
which formerly stood open, with runners
and cappers-if / may use the word of the
inspired independent press-with their run
ners and cappers out bringing these people
in, but to-day If they are running poker
game in the city of Indianapolis they are
running it at their peril, with instructions
from the Board of Public Safety and my
self, with nobody having a string between
US, our instructions being to bring those
men in and punish them without fear, favor
or ma rtiality
THAT game is played L take it, and that
game will be played under those conditions
and circumstances. But the doors are
locked. The police are never permitted to
get within hearing distance without every
thing becoming innocuous. These men are
Just as smart and little smarter than
some men. And that condition is prevalent
in the city to-day. That is the truth. the
unvarnished: truthful statement OF the con-
dition in this city of ours as it applies to
the proposition of gambling.
FOR POLITICAL POWDER.
"Oh, 1 have been in the newspaper bust
ness I have followed out this line of
practical attack. 1 know some of the little
pitfalls and surprises that you lay in or
der to embarrass the man, they think, when
they burst upon him suddenly, and know
how easy 1t is for a newspaper to say
that Yesterday a member of the police de-
partment said,' yesterday prominent cit
lien, who did not care TO have his name
! used, remarked yesterday leading Re-
publican politician stated
II know how easy it is to create those
creatures of a fertile brain. But after
twenty years experience in the business,
familiar with the quips and the terms, L
say to you that in ninety-nine cases out of
one hundred that that member of the po-
lice department who said, that other man
who remarked and the other man who
stated, had no existence other than in the
fertile brain of the man who wrote it.
and who had put his creation at the door
of some other person. Hence, when the po-
lice department says that. if left alone,
the laws would be enforced, the inference
\ is, If the rule of ratio applies, that there
"But, now, in this public way, in order
that there may be no question, In order
that there may be no doubt, in order that
there may be no evasion, or escape; say
TO any and every member of the Indian
apolis police force that may be charged
for the present with the control of the af-
fairs of indianapolis and answerable for
the peace and good order Of the community,
that he shall never be molested nor shall
he ever be Disseminated against for the
plain, unvrnished discharge Of duty in ap-
not who he may be. do not know how
l can reach that proposition other than
| in this way"
MINIMIZING EVIL.
Here the mayor suggested he might be
| taking too much~of the ministers time
and there were cries of mo, no." and "go
on" and he proceeded.
I'VE come now to the question of the
| liquor laws. 1 would be ashamed of my
self if 1 would come to you gentlemen, in
| telligent you are and must be in this
twentieth century TO occupy the positions
| that you hold would be ashamed of my
| self TO come to you and say and expect
| you to believe that no illegal liquor sales
| are made in Indianapolis from week end
| to week end, and if L did say it, L would
| expect to forfeit not only your respect as
prize very much-but L would forfeit that
! which value more than / value my life.
| L would forfeit my own self-respect and
whatever else happens to me in the posi-
| ton L occupy, l say to you, my friends,
| that the 18th of October of this year if il
| is the will of the people that L shall fold
| up my tent and walk through the door of
| my room in the courthouse with one man
| and his respect-that man will be myself
and that respect his own self-respect. Con-
| sequently L am not coming to you with any
| statement that L would not be willing to
make to hold your good will and esteem.
| Everywhere violations of law will occur
| SO long mankind has implanted within
| his breast the weaknesses and frailties of
mankind. But what you must do I'm a
municipality is to minimize those viola atoms
and to bring the ones that do occur down
10 the point where they are the least Often
| sive TO the people that do not believe in
| drink.
THE NICHOLSON LAW.
1.-THE Nicholson law of Indiana provides
| penalties and punishments for people de-
tected in the violation of that law, but /
| have never contented myself in this Office
with the penalties and punishments pro-