Sistersville daily review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1905-1907, 1905-06-05
REFORM COMING
Cleveland, Okla, May Have Blue
Laws--Future Shadowy and Un'
certain-OiI Town One Of LaWless
Ones of the West.

he mouse turns uOWH nO mOlleH {,
however small the amount. There
is nothing to fear in the stronger.
He receives a corteouS greeting
and if he starts away without
playing he is invited to "come in
again when the crowd has thinned
out" Among the gamblers To-
ledo, Cincinnati. Cleveland, Column
bus and Dayton are well repre-
scented.
The dance halls are only mem
DRY now, as they closed a month
ago. Their end was a concession
to reform which had just begun,
hesitatingly, to protest. The
gamblers looked ahead. The
dance halls were attracting too
much attention and they made the
open town vulnerable. If they re-
manned all might be lost.
"That kind of thing won't 60
in this country" said a gambler.
"'There was too much talk. One
night a woman was struck in the
head with a bottle and it took a
doctor an hour to bring her back
again. That settled it, we closed
them all. "
The reformers tried to get pos
session of the town government
but failed. At an election for
councilmen two weeks ago their
platform was aimed largely at the
gambling houses. The saloons
were not threatned. "No gamb-
ling, no Sunday whiskey, no IN
reference with legally conducted
Saloons" were the issue upon
which the candidates of the re-
form party made their fight. The
reformers. in page advertisements
in a weekly paper here. charged
that the candidates on the other
ticket stood ':for a continuance
of the present lawless conditions. "
and they were the tools OF the
gamblers. Reform was merci-
lessly defeated at the polls.
The reformers then appealed to
the officials of Pawnee county and
the sheriff notified the gamblers
to quit, and this they did for about
ten days. The reformers might
make trouble; besides the grand
jury was in session at Pawnee,
Saturday morning word came
over the telephone from Pawnee
that the danger had passed and
that afternoon Cleveland once
more became the "wide open"
town. The reformers say they
will keep up the fight and that
soon something will happen. The
gamblers admit their days in
Cleveland are numbered. Bus
mess men and some Of the oil pro-
ducers have organized the reform
element.
The lawlessness of an oil town
is not that of a mining camp. Oil
men drink whiskey and gamble
and let it 90 at that. There has
been only one killing in Cleveland
since the oil pool here was opened
and that was a cowardly murder.
A contractor was "held up" in
the night and his money demand
ed. He resisted, was shot twice
and died in few hours. A man
was arrested and is now in Jail at
Pawnee. The shootings here ore
of the kind which occur in any
community and few of them have
been more than ordinary bar room
fights.
Cleveland believes it's boom has
come to stay and is planning for
the future accordingly. A large
hotel and several twOstOry bus
mess blocks are building, work
will be started soon on a theatre
and many dwelling houses are go
ing up. The advance Of the town
has been checked to some extent
by speculation, which has set the
price of building sites to absurd
figures. The oil pool is three miles
long by half mile wide, and has
1876 wells producing $4,000 barrels
of oil a day. In the pool are 246.-
600 barrels of wooden oil tank
age and 100000 barrels Of iron
4onl,nnn full nf oil