Los Angeles herald., 1906-10-07
STOP SALE Of
LOTTERY TICKETS
CHINESE MERCHANTS WILL
TAKE ACTION
Many Tickets Sold to Business Men
In Vicinity of Oriental District.
Attempt to Clean Up
Chinatown

In an attempt to suppress the sale
of lottery tickets to American business
men by Chinese gamblers members OF
the local Chinese chamber of commerce
are preparing a crusade against this
sale and the work of heading Off the
gamblers will begin this week.
IN the old days of Los Angeles when
the purity brigade Of Chinatown de-
cided to head off any gamblers or OBJ
noxious people the heading off pro-
cess was performed in a literal man
ner with disastI Gus results to the VIC
Tins. for the highbinders were called
in and as a result the gamblers were
properly headed off. The members OF
the chamber of commerce will now
proceed on their mild crusade in an
other manner, known only to them-
selves, but they hope to be successful
in at least confining the peddling OF
the forbidden tickets to the Chinese
quarters
According to the report Of business
men who have offices in buildings with
in a radius of several blocks of the
Chinese quarter, the Chinese gamblers
have been rather obnoxious OF late IN
forcing their attention and their lot
terry slips upon them. These lottery
papers are handed out by several COM
panies in Chinatown and the peddler
is generally amply able to explain TO
be marked.
when that is done and the business
man marks the papers and pays up,
the ticket is again turned over to the
celestial and he deposits 1t with the
company, and it is said in Chinatown
that the white men with their usual
luck generally capture the big plums
in the lottery drawings, but the Chi
nese, knowing that the white customers
do not dare to give themselves away
by telling the police, go freely among
them selling tickets and making no
apologies when the victim draws bad
number.
Hope to Stop Traffic
Within the past week Chinese ped
dlers of lottery tickets have been or
dered out of more than a dozen real
estate and business offices of North
Main and Los Angeles and Court
streets, and in some cases the Chlnks
have been unceremoniously kicked out.
So the Chinese are preparing to try
and head off the sale Of tickets to the
whites and hope for success
The Chinese chamber of commerce
has been accomplishing much toward
the betterment of the little Chinese
settlement during the past few weeks.
They have already made preparations
for tearing down a number of shacks
for rebuilding with podern buildings.
At present there are quite numDer
of substantial brick blocks in the Chi
nese section and a number are in the
course of construction, but the charm
of the old Chinatown with its wide
open gambling dens, where the yellow
men nightly spend their money in pur-
suing the willy goddess of chance and
licensed and unlicensed opium dens,
where the celeStials "blow hop" to
their hearts content, is still there.
There are three licensed dens in the
district and have been there for years.
These dens are said by even the best
Chinese of the settlement to be neces-
sary to the common good of the dis
trict. According to recent reports
some residents of Los Angeles seem to
have just learned that the dens are
there and are rather eager to have them
no white man or woman is allowed to
smoke in these dens and but little at
tention is paid to them.
There are. however, two unlicensed
dens in the Chinese quarter where
whites and celestials can smoke the
drug, and it is in these places that the
victims of the white Lady" suffer
most.
1t was stated yesterday by prom
inent Chinese merchants that within
few weeks a petition would be pre-
sented to the board of public works
asking that more attention be given to
the streets and sanitary conditions of
Chinatown, and it is hoped to have the
little settlement looking neat and
prosperous before the coming of the
next Chinese new year.
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