The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-11-02
LET THEM ACT OR QUIT.


man who participated in a pistol duel
in the depot at Raleigh during fair
week by which the lives of many
hundreds of people were endangered,
is the not surprising fact that the
trouble eliminating in the shooting
and the death of the man Smith
started in a house of ill fame, in the
section known as East Raleigh. Had
these places been closed. as this paper
has been insisting they should be,
there would have been no trouble and
no shooting. To that extent the au
mitted these places to keep open in
spite of the law and with but spas
modic effort to prosecute their keep
ers are responsible for the tragedy
which shocked the city and caused
widespread Indignation through
out the State.
In the taking of evidence it was
stated positively by half a dozen
witnesses, one of them a detective at
that time in the employ of the city
of Raleigh, that the two men, Lillis-
ton and Clarke, were at the house of
ill-fame of Mollie Trimbie which is
put down in the city directory as ex-
listing at No. 522 E. Davie street; that
they gambled there, quarreled and
had fight of which the police receiv-
ed so far as known no inkling until
after the shooting on Saturday. 1t
may be said in this connection that
the city doubtless employed the detec-
tive. G. H. Nipple, on good recon-
mendations and is not to be charged
with his failure to report the fact
that gambling was proceeding at the
house or the nature of the house it
self. So far as Nipple is concerned,
it may also be stated that he testified
that, although he was employed by the
city, he had not been given authority
by the Chief of Police to stop the
game of dice, or to make an arrest
What was the scope of Mr. Nipples
employment in the absence of these
two usual incidents to detective SER
vice is an interesting question but not
german to the present matter, as was
the implication which seems to be
carried by his testimony that the fact
of the gambling and the fight was
known in police quarters but he was
not given authority to stop it,
The report of Nipples and other
testimony was as follows:
There was a large number of wit
nesses introduced lestifying substan-
TALLY alike. The first was e. NJ.
Nipple. of Norfolk, Va, private de-
teclve, who was employed by the
city during fair week. he saw the
trouble between Clark and Lilliston
in the house of Mollie Trimble, ii
occurred on Friday night October
10th, between nine and ten o'clock.
The two men with others were play
ing craps, and the stakes were large.
Somebody said that the dice were
crooked and Lilliston threw them
against the wall. He jumped to the
door, and Charlie Smith was there,
money too, and would hold the door
seeing that nobody got out, while Lii
liston should look for the missing
dice. Lilliston struck a man named
English Tommy when the latter
exclaimed: Il haven't got your
money: there's the man who's got it,
pointing to Clark. 1t was said that
English Tommy" was that this man
had called out Blow which means
get out when Lilliston had lost $50,
all he had except $40, and would not
play further Smith, the deceased, al
so lost about $50. When Lilllston
delivered the strike Clarke exclaimed:
THAT'S one punch you'll not get
away with. BY God. Lilliston, if |
had my cannon, I'd kill you and
kill Lilliston.
"Hipple said he had been employ
ed very loosely bv the city, and that
although he knew the dice game was
being played in violation of law, he
was not given authority by the Chief
of Police to stop the game, or to
make an arrest.
"Other witnesses were George Har-
rbs, of Norfolk; w. NJ. Spence, of
South Mills, n. c.; w. M Wood, of
Petersburg, Va, and j. A. Wynne, of
Norfolk.
"Lilliston spent the night at Mollie
Trimble's house, coming up town at
2:3O O'Clock in the afternoon. He got
a quart of whiskey, and proceeded
to the depot with several of his
friends"
What the gist of this matter
is that the house in which the trouble
started has been known by reputation
for what it is for more than score
of years in Raleigh. In an evil way
it might be said to be an established
institution 1t is duly registered in the
Directory under the name of the Wo-
man who keeps it. In former years
there was actually placed beside the
name a word descriptive of the trade
that is there carried on. To say that
the house is not known of the police,
that the Trimble woman is not known
by them as we'll as a majority of the
inmates would be to argue the police
both deaf and blind. While there
are on the nolice force some excel
lent men who doubtless only await
proof of the sympathy of the admins
tration to act from the Chief of
Police to the newest recruit among
the patrolmen, the nature OF this
house. the identity of the inmates, the
general run of the habitual frequent