Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-12-29
VISITOR
FROM THE
COUNTRY
Sees The Sights and
Hears Things at
Portland
Attends the Funeral of COun-
ty Superintendent Lyman
of ClatSOp County

Vi NldLSOp OUuHty
Portland, Dec. 2s.-(Speeial Core.
apondence to The Journal. Amy
country editor who goes to visit Port
land for a few days is amazed at the
number of 10-cent theatres that have
sprung up, at the rapid increase of the
use of slot machines. The drug and
candy stores run them, the hotel and
news stands nave them, the children
play them with pennies for gum and
chocolate, the men play them for
nickels, in the saloons men play them
for coins all the way from 20 cents
to 81. The craze for gambling is
stimulated by the female slot machine
fend. She is well dressed, fine and
stout looking, has a winning smile,
and is a smiling winner, if not a sim
ner. The young men can't wait their
turn hardly to engage in the bewitch-
ing practice of throwing their niekels
at the feet Of the blonde goddess Of
chance who presides at the revolving
wheel. In the meantime, you read a
great deal in the papers about gamb-
ling being abolished at Portland. The
mayor has done his part in interviews
and proclamations, but has never
claimed gambling could be abolished.
Administration Going Down.
It is the general verdict of street
talk that the Williams administration
of city affairs is already condemned.
The scandal, the bridge frauds,
the financial disorder, the attitude of
the city government toward gamblers,
crusades against slot machines, and
yet thousands of them running-all
these and many more-are sins laid
to the door of the Williams admins
%tration.
The Portland Press.
In the days of the Simon regime
some 1900 newspapers per day were
issued, besides innumerable other pub
locations, all pouring out condemna-
tion on the boss and the corruption
and the high taxes, and the people
were told with citation that the over
throw of the machine meant the adj
vent of the millennium in municipal
affairs. Well, it hasn't come, and the
people are ready for a change.
A Reform Wave.
From Folk in Missouri to frauds in
Alaska and indictments in Oregon,
there is a reform wave sweeping over
the country. 1t may even break out
in the Oregon Legislature and enact a
fiat salary law, and break into other
departments of state. There is a feel
ing growing that government is
costing too much, and that no serious
effort has been made to introduce
business methods.
King of Bus Drivers.
His name is Gus Gheen and he touts
for the Perkins. With a voice like
a foghorn, he can be heard above the
clamor and din of 40 cab artists and
hotel runners, and he gets more bust
ness than any of them. Gus has a big
heart in him for women and children,
and is never so happy as when he is
helping some poor lone woman with
her bundles and kids to or from a
train. He allows no one to impose on
his passengers, and that is why the
Perkins is popular,
A Popular Clerk.
Another Portland personality widely
known ON the coast is Jack Reed, day
clerk at the Perkins. He married a
pretty Salem girl, and is a good, hon
est-looking fellow himself, and has a
head for business that will some day
land him on top Of a big enterprise.
The travelling public like to see a
clean, healthy'lOoking man behind a
hotel counter, who dresses we'll, is not
loud or iashy, and is Il perfect gen
t.eman. That is laeh Reed.
A New Conriitu, ior.
when you drive q politician into a
corner and ask him il there is any
good reason why this or that graft
should not be cut, he falls back,
puts his thumbs in the armholes Of his
vest and says; Gwen, what can you
do with the old constitution in the
wayi' The supreme court has de-
cided that only one amendment can
be put through while others are pend
ing. The way to sidetraek any urgent
reform is to demand a new eOnstitu-
tion.
No Politics in It.
The friends Of Malcolm A. Moody
-strenuouslv DENY that there is any