Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-29

York, this beat tell flat, and it was months
before Justice, whose enterprise should have
despised, recovered his prestige as an active,
alert, and conscientious journalist
Exposing Chicago's Aldermen
MANY good scoops have laid bare the Sc
A'A crets of official corruption. Twelve years
ago a mercenary clique had control of the
Chicago city council. Everyone who had bust
ness with that body was forced to pay tribute
to the gang, whose greed and power frequently
menaced the interests and good name of the
municipality. The leader was a saloon
keeper of great cunning and impudence. He
took pride in his deviltry, and often boosted
that no one could catch him with the goods
on his person. Never go after the stuff in
the presence of third party was his ruling
maxim. :" If the intended victim squeals, his
unsupported word will cut no ice in the face
of my emphatic denial of his charge
The gang finally decided that the American
Tobacco Company was making too much
money for itself in Chicago Physicians were
agreed that cigarette smoke was destroying
the health of the rising generation. 1t was
imperative, therefore, that the sale of cigar
cites should be prohibited or restricted in the
interest of public health and morality, and
stringent ordinance was presented in the coun-
Gil with that end in view. OF course, there
could be suspicion of graft in the enactment
of such praiseworthy law.
In due course the local manager of the
tobacco trust was notified that the ordinance
could be squelched for a consideration. He
pretended to fall to the suggestion, and an
interview was arranged with the gang leader
to agree upon the terms of surrender. The
willy saloonkeeper insisted that the meeting
should be confined strictly to themselves, and
from hurried inspection of the managers
Office he was satisfied that nobody could over
hear his proposition. For twenty-five thousand
dollars-to be distributed pro rata among the
boys according to their standing and in
fuence in the council-he would guarantee
not only the defeat of the ordinance but assure
the company that no ordinance of a like
character would be introduced during the next
five or six years. The proposition was taken
under advisement, and the CRATER departed
in high feather.
On the following morning, however, The
Chicago Herald published full stenographic
report of the interview showing, for the first
time in detail, the methods of the gang, and
putting the leader in imminent danger of the
penitentiary.
The scoop was due to the ingenuity of re-
porter whose aid had been sought to entrap
the corrupt Alderman. He not in the
room where the interview took place. but in
an adjoining office which happened to be
tenantless. The reporter had been asked to
conceal himself in a clothes cabinet in the
managers Office; but he rejected that plan as
irksome and dangerous At his suggestion
the managers desk was backed up against the
door of the other office; panel of the door
was removed, and every word of the inter
Of the ingenious scribe seated comfortably be-
hind the desk.
1t was lucky in more ways than one that he
rejected the cabinet as a hiding place Il
began to be suspicious" said the saloonkeeper
after the exposure, and when that fellow
left the room at one point to speak to a clerk,
| looked into the wardrobe. If there'd been
anyone there, I'd have shot him!"
The Virginius Affair
nNE of the most perfect scoons obtained II,
the face of alert and trained competition,
was the work of the late Moses P. Handy. At
the time of the Virginius affair Major Handy
was Richmond correspondent of The New
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