Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-25


fects In the joke line, and his talks are
absolutely extemporaneous. but he can
crowd more genuine fun into a hundred
word Paragraph than most of the noted
after-dinner speakers of recent years could
stun into an entire address. Some of these
same noted after-dinner talkers-no names
need be mentioned-are so childishly jeal-
Gus OF Mr. Fords capabflity and popularity
as post-prandial orator that they will not
attend banouets to which the hotel man ia
invited. Simeon Ford really belongs to the
list or American humorisss. Big induce
mentS have been offered him within the
year to go on the lecture platform but he
viii not even consider such propositions
he prefers running his hotel to anything
else In life. Down in his district they want
TO run him for Congress. for mayor for
controller. for all sorts of Offices and he
can only silence these solicitous friends by
threatening to disappear of the map alto
sether II they don't let him alone.
Arrest Of ssPolicy King"
The meanest proprietor of gambling en-
terprise that ever appeared in a New York
criminal court was convicted the other day.
He Is "Af' Adams, the policy king" He
has made S5o00.Oo0. mostly in the pennies
OF the degraded and hopeless poor. He
started the policy game going over here
soon after the war and has been al /. eyer
since, despite the-at timeS-earnest efforts
OF the authorities to break him up. He has
hundreds of agents all over New York and
brooklyn. mostly in little cigar stores in
the poorer districts. What is known as
straight policy" is bad enough with its
overwhelming and unbeatable percentage
against the foolish player of the game but
1t has been known for years that the brand
OF policy dished out by the Adams syndi-
cate has been swindle, pure and simple.
Yet the game still goes on in spite of
ADAMS arrest and conviction, and all of
the concentrated efforts of the reform adj
mlmstrauon to stamp 1T out have failed
fh.>vy tl,.A
the Adams policy outfit cleans up $1,000 n
DAY on the game In the chicken-feed coin
OF servants and tenement inhabitants
Adams case has been appealed of course.
AFTER a Few years it will probably reach
the highest court to which it can be sent
1t is a pretty safe wager that Adams will
never see the inside of a prison, conviction
or no conviction. He says that he won't.
anyhow, and he ought to know. He has
just So.0U,OOO worth of know a pretty
potential asset in this neck of the woods
Agitation Over Dogs.
There will shortly break upon tins town
the same kind of a storm that enyeloped
Washington few years ago when il was
decided by the Commissioners that all Of
the dogs in the District would have to go
muzzled- The aldermen are going to pass
a dog-muzzling ordinance, they have an
nounced. and already the dog owners are
beginning to utter low growls over the pros
pCCt. IHeTe are SAID TO De SuD,NO dog
ers In Greater New York so that 1t will
be seen that if they all get together on this
dog-muZzifng ordinance they will be able
TO give vent to considerable of a screech
The aldermen have got busy on the dog
question for the reason that few stoned
or hea-bitten dogs of the streets have late
iy been observed to snap and snarl at their
human or insect tormentors. so that New
York 8 annual mad dog panic has set I'm
unusually early this year The aldermen
had lot of medical men and dog experts
before them in a preliminary examination
into the dog problem the other day Sew
eral renowned physicians stoutly main
tanned that there is no such thing as hy-
drophobia. One of them went so far as to
state that "hydrophobia is one of the left
over superstitions Of the dark ages"
Then l suppose Pasteur was bughouser'
was the slangy retort of another medical
man who Is against the dogs.
One Of the doctors said that for thirty
four years he had been earnestly hunting
never found a single. solitary case of it.
He said that dogs occasionally had rabies
but that they don't communicate the thing
called hydrophobia to human beings A
veterinary surgeon who makes a speciality
Of dogs stated that~during the past quar-
ter of a century he had been bitten forty
seven times by dogs, some of which had
rabies. and that he had never had anything
remotely resembling the thing known as
hydrophobia to follow.
Your correspondent does not know wheth-
er the dog muzzling law in the District
has been repealed or not although he
observed no muzzled dogs while on a re-
cent visit to Washington. 1t will be
good deal harder to enforce a dog-muz-
zling law in Greater New York than it was
in Washington 1t will be recalled that the
dog owners Of Washington held Indignation
meetings over the law to protest against it.
In New York the dog owners have got
votes to enforce their protests. and If the
aldermen persist in framing up this dog
mnZZlinQ ordinance III wouldn't he SlIrDriS-
ing If the thing developed into political
issue.
Smoking Barred in Women's Retiring
Rooms.
For a couple of years past the womens
retiring rooms in a good many of the the
aters of New York have borne a conspicu-
ously placed mo smoking sign on their
walls The signs were necessary. Women
addicted to the use of cigarettes had hab-
it of repairing to the retiring rooms be-
tween the acts and putting away at cigar
cites. to the scandal of their more con-
sentative sisters. Now one of the Broad
way theaters has established "Women's
smoking room" 1t hasn't been a success
so far. but the manager predicts that the
smoking women will be making of 1t
in time. after a few of them make the
opening break While women are not al
lowed to smoke as yet in the better class of
New York restaurants the proprietors of
these places are meditating the establish
ment of separate dining rooms in which the
women will be privileged to smoke their
after-dinner cigarettes without unduly
female patrons who do not go in
for that advanced" sort Of thing.
Gov. Odells st. Louis Trip.
Gov Odell did not make much of hit
for himself by getting through the New
York legislature an appropriation of $50
600 wherewith to defray the expense of
sending himself and party and a huge out
fit of New York escorting militfamen to the
opening exercises of the st. Louis worlds
fair Several special trains are going to
be fitted up for the transportation of Gov.
Odell and his outfit, and more than thou
sand soldiers are to comprise the escort.
The cry of 'extravagance" is going up
over this matter even from supporters of
the man who has for years been attempting
to wrest the reins of power from the grasp
of Senator Platt. but 1t is too late for the
governor to lend heed to the cry. for the
has already gone through and
all of the arrangements made. Gov. Odell
will probably go to the St Louis fair sur
by a good deal more pomp than
the President, which is one of the reasons
WHY conservative people protesting