The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-10-08
From the New York Herald.

N LBERT J. ADAMS was a man PV who would have made fortune, 1t has been said, had he never seen a policy slip or backed gambling estab- lishment. He was shrewd, careful. He had the traders instinct but he started to make money in the wrong way and it came so rapidly he could not stop. He was born in Rhode Island, near Provi- dence of a respected family, collaterally descended from the famous Massachu- setts family of presidents. 1t is said.
 His family was poor, and, after brief school experience, he went to work for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railnoad company as a brakeman. As a brakeman he met Zachariah Simmons, first to introduce policy Into New York with the backing of William M. Tweed. As runner for Simmons, Adams handled the manifold sheets, sent out the re- suits of the drawings in Nashville, Frank fort and Covngton and became an expert in the game. 1t was not long before he became writer, obtained circuit of shops and began to make money. Sim mons died and Adams stepped into his shoes without opposition.
 The Simmons game was honest com pared with the Adams system. Simmons really had taken drawings. but Adams dis pensed with that formality. He had his own drawings and these never were made until after the returns from the runners were all in, showing which gigs or saddles" had been the heaviest played and those" numbers never came out. v His fortune leaped into existence-"$6OOO 5000 and even SS000 a day said the memo randa captured in his office later.
 But policy was not all There was the gambling. It made no difference to Adams what kind of game 1t was so long as it was sure" His money was in the bank roll'' of exclusive uptown clubs controlled by his syndicate, but it was also behind negro crap games, cheap roulette and Klondike games. saloons, bucket shops and other establishments. He began to buy real estate and his property was al- ways well rented, particularly in the Ten derloin.
 At the height of his prosperity Adams first heard of Capt Norton Goddard. a wealthy young man who announced that he was going to stamp out the policy swindle in the city. despite the protection money paid ito the right persons" with powerful political influence and a wheel system which effectually hid the man highest up." The laugh did not daunt the captain. He said that not only was somebody getting fortune from the pen nies, nickes and dimes of the very poor, but was not even giving them a gambling chance. Policy he declared, was petty larceny, and with that for his motto he went to work
 The fight was long and hard, but slowly and inexorably the circle was entered. There were raids made on the outer cir cumference-ordinary cellar raids-but the center was unaffected and the dollars kept flowing in. Then a little law was passed in Albany which made the posses sion of policy paraphernalia prima facia evidence of guilt. There were some more of the little raids and more convictions, but the center was still safe, until one day the big blow fell.
 Aided by Frank Moss, on the afternoon of December 12, 1901, Captain Goddard's men descended upon the Thirtyfirst street stronghold of the king. and upor his own office near by. A vast quantity of slips, sheets. memoranda. records and other paraphernalia of the game was found. Adams, protesting crying ''out- rage." was arrested. He might struggle, his money, hire lawyers, exert his political influence, obtain stays. writs and appeals, but in vain. Before Judge Scott, of the supreme court, in April, 1905 'Al'' Adams heard himself characterized as ''the meanest man in New York; and sentenced to an indeterminate period, with one year as a minimum, in Sing Sing.
 He served that sentence and returned to New York declaring he would take his medicine He was quiet for year, but in 1905 he became connected with M. J. Sage & Co.,, bucket shop men. It is said he made much money last winter in that business, but the summer saw the market go az ainst the bucket shop men.