The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-04-24
ZOO COPS RAID CHINATOWN.
Guided M HTP SING MEN, THEY
SMASH INTO ~ JOINTS.
jim NanE ana I'arKhurst Men Help EEEers
--slcuths In Chinese RiE-Ralders In
Coaches and Armed With Axes stole
March--About $50 Gamblers Ragged

What looked like a funeral without a
hcarss rolled slowly into Mott street at a
quarter to o'clock last night. There
we're twelve fine closed coaches followed
10y a big automobile. The quarter was
unusually alive at the hour. the streets
being filled with Cinnamon strolling and
gabblinR, East Side youths and girls out
for walk, and folks from uptown who
we're viewing the illuminatlon7' or comm 2
from the chop suey places. They looked
wonderingly az the procession, which
halted near Pel street. A church is near
by and it was suggested that there was
going 20 DO a Crane wedding.
But doubt lasted only an instant after
tie carriages stopped The doors opened
cul out Of each coach came from six to
eight men, one Chinaman in each party
and two axes to each bunch.
II was the beginning Of the biggest raid
Chinatown ever knew.
At the head Of the raid were Mr.. Howell,
secretary to Police Commissioner McAdoo;
detective Sergeant Eggers who is the
commissioners confidential agent, and Jim
Wang, Chinese interpreter, police help-out
anda leading spirit Of the Hip Sing Tong,
Behind these were nearly 100 plain clothes
organized into thirteen groups for stimuli
taneous raids on thirteen gambling houses.
Zach group knew just where to go when
the police left the obnveyances and they
oil went to their work with a rush
In Mott street they raided rooms at Nos.
!, "A, II, IS, 10, 20, %, "a. 2e and 30. In
Pell street they rnided Is and rs and in
Doyers street II.
Twn man euyttpa oVaa e., % oh gr,p, -
raiders. They were fine new axes, with
blades and spikes Headquarters had
bought them for the occasion at s. apiece
and the wielders had more fun with them
than a boy with a new knife.
The noise started all at once and the
crash and bang echoed through the quarter
and brought every denizen to the street or
the windows. The three narrow blocks
filed up like magic. Eggers had antici-
pated this and just as he and his men rushed
into the suspected stores and Easements
more than 100 bluecoats, the reserves from
every police station south OF Fourteenth
street swamed into the excited triangle.
They arrived in patrol wagons, jumped
out and began clearing the crowds The
wagons were backed up TO the places en-
tered by the raiders The beautiful glass
hacks went away.
There Is remarkable similarity about
the gambling houses Of Chinatown. All
have very strong doors, heavily barred
and strongly looked. In no case we're the
police admitted by the Chinese within.
This was cause for great Joy among the
axmen, all OF whom were husky fellows.
They used the tools in a way that would
have made Col. Roosevelt envious had he
been there. Holes we're hacked around
locks in doors four inches thick. In other
places, where the doors were reinforced
with iron, the cops cut squares out Of the
walls stuck revolvers through and forced
the Chinese TO unlock the doors.
The Cinnamon were very shy in the matter
Of outlets. In only one case was there a
zeal escape and that was at "a Mott street.
where, when tho door was smashed in.
the police found gambling utensils. but
only one ChinAman, who was 90 scared that
he hadn't dared run.
AZ II Mott street only one Chinaman
bad the nerve to try to break away. He
jumped on the fire escape and was found
sprawling in the courtyard, not very much
hurt.
When the cops broke into IA Mott street
three Cinnamon skipped down the back
stairs and bid under mattresses. Two Of them
gave up without a struggle, but when De-
tective Hamilton pulled the third out by
the leg he faced the longest, bluest re-
volver in the Chinese quarter. Hamilton
gave the Chinaman a hard slap ano got the
gun.
The SWEETEST establishment in tn, district
was found at IS Pell street II PROVED to be
a Chinese Canhelds, with electric lights
and fans and finer furniture and outfts :hsn
any Of the other places. Some Of the On
Ieong long beauX were playing there and
about twenty prisoners we're taken
Everywhere the police went there was
great Cabling among the Chinese, but
beyond the instances noted, no attempts
to fight or escape. The murmurs Of the
victims were directed against Jim Wang
and the twelve other Chinese who accom-
panied the police. These thirteen we're
recognized at once a. leaders in the Hip
Sing Tong.
Their duty was not TO break down doors
or hold gamblers, but to point out to the
Eggers men the proprietors Of the places
and the players. They kept carefully
behind the plain clothes men, knowing that
that was the safest location. Secretary
Howell saw TO Il that Wang was surrounded
at all times, for there was constant fear
that some On Leong sport in the str eet
would slip up and knife him. Wang was
kept busy following Eggers from one house
TO another, pointing out the chief breakers
Of the law and now and then suggesting
the release Of a st oolpigeon who would give
evidence at the trials.
The actual raiding and capture did not
last more than ten minutes, for every place
was entered at the same time. Getting
the prisoners 20 the station houses was a
slower matter, however. The prisoners
were herded in one room at each Of the
houses visited and the oops barred the
doom until the busy patrol wagons should
get around TO them.
Eggors fitted here and there, directing
the shipment Of each lot II was after 10
O. clock when the last loaded wagon moved
away. There were 20 many prisoners that
no one station bouss could hold them all,
and they weTe paroeled among the down
town stations except Elizabeth street, TIE
nearest Of all.
That was significant Of the real meaning
ot the raid. Several weeks ago Commits
sioner McAdoo received from a Chinaman