New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-05-14
RAID THROUGH SIDEWALK.
POLICE HAMMER Il HOLE.
Then They Go Up-Poolroom q
Maae of Steel Doors.

One Of the most strongly fortified and most
eaborately fitted up poolrooms that they have
discovered in this city, the police say, was
raided yesterday. 1t was in four story house
in West 3d-st, between Greene and Wooster
SITS. Acting Captain Bourke of the Mercer-st-
station, under the direction, by telephone OF
Police Commissioner McAdoo and aided by ten
plain clothes men and twenty-five uniformed
men, made the raid.
Acting Captain Bourke and Commissioner
McAdoo have been prevented from raiding the
place hitherto by temporary injunction OBJ
tanned from Justice Scott by the alleged pro-
prietor, said to be John Cullen, well known
sporting man. a few days ago man went 10
Commissioner McAdoo and offered to give evt-
dence that the place poolroom, that he
had played the races there, and to identify the
men who managed it. Captain Bourke yesterday
| secured four warrants from Magistrate Cor
| nell.
Captain Bourle, when all was ready, walked
! along in front of the house with a messenger
| boy as a blind. When he reached the entrance.
| in front of which the sidewalk consists OF glass
| and cast iron lights he had idea. One Of
| his patrol wagons with squad of men armed
! with axes and sedge hammer arrived just then.
| The captain seized of the hammers and
| smashed a hole in the sidewalk lights big enough
for him and two of his plain clothes men, O'Con-
nell and Suttings, to drop into.
Meanwhile other detectives went to the reer
| of the house and began battering away on the
door there with hammers and axes.
The captain and plain clothes men found
| themselves in a small room, under the sidewalk
from which a narrow passage led to the
| Of the cellar. Before they had gone ten feet
| they encountered massive oak, steel armored
| door, four inches thick. When they broke
! through they were in a small room fitted up
| with a most elaborate electric switchboard con-
| tanning nearly a hundred switches. These
| switches, the police say, worked lights. disap-
pearing blackboards, pictures and devices for
| indicating racing dope"
/ Captain Bourke and his two followers next
| met door fully seven inches thick. But they
were the inside. and all they had to do was
| TO lift the heavy bar of the lock and open IT..
| Ten feet further was another door. Here
| large room. in the middle of which was stove
| with fire in It, Captain Bourke says that as
! he opened the door two were showing racing
sheets into the stove. He succeeded IN getting
part OF the stuff.
Leaving these two In the custody Of other
policemen who had followed through the hole
| in the sidewalk. Captain Bourke went upstairs,
after opening many doors. On the ground floor,
| the captain says. room in which an
iron barred nclosure looking like a bank cage
and behind which several men were putting
away money and destroying everything they
could Beyond this was a large room, finely
| furnished. devoted to the patrons of the estab-
| lshment. There were nearly three hundred Of
these when the captain entered.
Here the captain says a man. standing on a
chair. taking down a blackboard, on which
were chalked odds of the races at Belmont Park
| and elsewhere, and putting in its place a large
| picture. which swung by weights from a
recess in the wall When the picture replaced
the blackboard it fitted the surroundings SO
closely that no suspicious would be excited that
it a blind.
Captain Bourke tore the blackboard from the
| mans hands whereat half dozen of the men
| In the room tried with their handkerchiefs to
erase the chalk figures. The captain drew his
revolver and stood them off. Then someone
| turned off the lights and in the darkness the
crowd rushed the captain again in attempt to
get the blackboard. At this moment Detec-
tives Eberle. Davis. Farley Conway and O'Brien
reached the captains side, the lights were
switched again, and resistance ceased.
Captain BOurke says that the usual apertures
| for passing money TO the cashiers through the
| wall of the general room into the money in
| closure were like ships portfolios. Hinged to
| each a circular cover on one side of which
We're lists of entries, selections, and other
| dope" while the other was a brass medal
lion. inscribed with some motto verse. When
the covers were up, the dope" sheets were Wis
| ibe; when they were down, only the neat brass
medallion showed. The pictures worked by a
similar arrangement. sinking back into recess
in the wall when the proper switch was turned
and giving place TO a blackboard for racing in
! formation.
The entrance TO the alleged poolroom for its
patrons. Captain Bourke says. was through a
cigar store in front From this lead two pas
sageways. blocked at short intervals by mas
sive dOorWays, electrically controlled
The man who made the affidavit on which
the warrants were issued and who will be the
chief witness, is William Brady, stenographer
living in the St Paul Hotel. at 60th-st and
Columbus-ave.
The prisoners said they We're Arthur Sheridan
circus helper OF No. 93 Fairmount-ave., New
ark; jeremiah Mullen. clerk, Of No 100 NIadi-
son-st.: Andrew Spinett, clerk, Of No 351 Hud-
son-st.; James McCabe, clerk. Of No. T49 9th
ave, and George Alfred, real estate dealer OF
No. 242 West 32d-st.
Captain Bourke said Commissioner McA doc
had been kept posted TO the movement Of
the raid and did much 20 advise how it should
be made.
The police estimated that ii cost at least $40
600 TO equip the place The three hundred
patrons we're freed after their 'pedigrees" had
been taken.
PEARY CHARTERS STEAMER