The Virginia enterprise., 1907-11-22

| democracy about the tables of chance
and m1schance. Back of the worst
OF these fleeing schemes were Amer
leans.
Last spring an anti-gambling cru
sade was skillfully conducted, Rob-
ert E. Lewis, the Young Mems Chris
tian association secretary, being one
or the prime workers in it. Without
going into details, it is enough to say
that the leading citizens who CON-
prise the municipal council were sub
1ected to such pressure that they out.
lawed all race week gambling, ex-
cept betting upon the races within the
club house grounds. This was an
enormous stride for reform, and the
next step, the total abolition of gam
bling and licensed vice of any sort is
inevitable and near. So Shanghai,
the city where "everything goes" was
acquainted with reform and made
ready, psychologically, for the ad-
vent of the man of the hour
Enter the Man with the Square Jaw.
Then came Jove with his thunder
bolts. Nobody out here, or else
where, apparently, had paid any par
tlcular attention to the creation by
congress last year Of a new United
States circuit court for China. So its
staH was on the scene before the
significance Of the event was at al!
understood. The judge appointed BY
| the president was the one man above
all others preeminently qualified for
his task. Judge Wilfley had gone
with Gov. Taft to the Philippines as
district attorney. He had set the
legal machinery in motion there, and
! had run out of the islands a lot of
vicious camp followers, big and lit
tie, who were exploiting the Filipinos
and soldiers, and making trouble gen.
orally. Judge Wilfley is a quiet man,
with goodly frame, square jaw
and an even disposition; man not
given to delivering homilies from the
bench or announcing his intentions
! beforehand or explaining his actions
! afterward. He is the sort of man
to scour the United States escutcheon
In Shanghai, where it has been more
than a little tarnished in times past
by Americans, official and unofti-
cial
The day after his arrival he calm.
ly announced that American lawyers
who expected to practice in his court
must pass examination as to their
professional qualifications, and pre-
| sent certificates Of their moral char.
acter. That would seem an innocent
enough procedure, warranted by prac-
tice in the United States, until one
has heard described the type of legal
shysters who for the most part infest
Shanghai, making it's badness worse.
Eight men attempted the examination.
Six of them failed ignominiously to
attain an average of 60, out of a
possible 100. It is said by those
close to the Judge that had these men
passed the examination, all but one
of them would have been disbarred on
the basis of character. At least one
of them is renegade from the Phil
ippines, and had before felt Judge
Wilfley's hand.
CONSERVATION Among Crooks.
Here was a sensation for Shanghai.
The rejected men had been doing
business in this city for many years;
their records were, presumably. an
open book, so there is significance in
the fact that have been able to find
nobody to question the essential ius-
tice Of the courts action. Naturally.
the men cannot practice in the Brit
ish court, and their "face" is gone
utterly. This swift, summary, ON,
inous action set Shanghai's under.
world agog. What would this as yet
uncomprehended judge do next?
Nobody had to wait long to dis
cover. Basing his action on the COM
mon law, Judge Wilhey summoned be-
fore him eight proprietresses of the
most influential resorts. One es-
capped by pleading Spanish citizenship.
which the district attorney was un-
able to disprove. The Spanish con-
Sui issued certificates for two "Amer-
ican girls" but they were ig-
nored by the court, and he afterwards
attempted to withdraw them. The
girls pleaded guilty, thus leaving the
Spanish consul in an unpleasant pre-.
dicament. So all the accused except
one were given a fine of $1,000 each.
which was more eloquent than manv
lectures. The immediate result was
to send post-haste out of Shanghai and
out of China more than half a hum
dred american girls" whose reign in
the east seems now to have been for
ever broken. Of course all this is
revolutionary here. When supposedly
respectable Britishers and Americans
objected, the judge drily remarked
that America is willing to surrender
the monopoly of this sort of trade
and reputation.
copyright, 1907, by Joseph b. Bow1es.>
&c.. Cat in Nine.
Affor cnondipu fuo