The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-03-09
END OF NOTORIOUS GANG



CHICAGO, March 9-The papers an
nounced last week that mike" Nc
Donald, millionaire retired gambler.
was on the verge of collapse from the
effects of the trouble that has come
to him in his old age. His third wife is in
jail for the murder of Webster Guerin.
the lover whose GOODNESS drove her
insane with jealousy and desperation.
His second wife, according to the news
dispatches of the week. is dying in
New Jersey. Travelling on the shady
side of so, Mcdonald faces physical
breakdown and old age in which his ill
gotten dollars must be his only comfor-
ter.
Not long ago ZAP Adams, millionaire
policy liking" of New York. committed
suicide after serving a term in prison
for robbing the poor through his policy
games. He still had a. fortune, and his
family, who suffered the social faint of
the father, continued to live in a
brownstone palace. But his dollars gave
"Al" Adams cold comfort in his old
age.
Twenty-fi five years ago there flourish
ed in Chicago the CLARK street gamb-
| ling gang" with Mcdonald at it's head.
This crowd made chapter of history,
but it is not the kind of history that
I it written into books recording the
city's growth Instead it is to be found
in the records of the police, and in the
memories of men whose business, legit-
innate or otherwise, brought them into
contact with the members of the gang.
Misery in Polluted Cash.
| Not only was Mcdonald the member
of this lot who retired from gambling
with the most money, but he was the
one whose career after he had quit
gambling seemed to refute the argu-
ment that money which is not only
tainted but thoroughly polluted cannot
bring happiness. Now that the tragic
chapter Of the murder of her lover by
his wife has been added, even the
seeming refutation of McDOnalds car
err has been destroyed. The fate OF
the rest of the crowd gives abundant
evidence that the mills of the gods
grind lust as fine in these days as OF
old.
mike" McDonald's gambling house
at 176 Clark street, at the corner OF
Monroe, was known 20 years ago as
"The Store 1t was the biggest es-
Establishment of it's kind and the most
notorious in the history of the city
The firm originally had been Law
renee Martin & Mcdonald. Harry
Lawrence and Morris Martin, Melon
AIDS partners, decided to flock by them
selves, and went into the liquor bust
ness at 100 Madison street. For time
they seemed to prosper. They did 6
big business, spent money as profess
sional gamblers only can spent it, anG
it was thought they had done well tc
desert gambling as a business. Their
a crash came and the firms creditors
found, after the debris was cleared
away, that they were out of pocket
about $25O,OOO through having trusted
the former gamblers. The pair ther
built the first of the latter-day race
around Chicago, the course known as
the Chicago Driving park, afterwart
called Garfield park
Lose on the Venture.
The idea was a profitable one. an(
had it been followed out in the proper
way, unquestiOnably would have made
both men rich again. But gamblers
seldom are business men outside Of
their own peculiar line. The race tracl
was forced out of their hands about the
time it should have begun to make
them money From this time both
Lawrence and Martin ran down hill
physically and financially Both lost
all of their cash. About seven years
ago Martin died Of cancer and without
enough money to pay his burial ex-
penses. Lawrence had managed tC
keep a few dollars together and made
foreign tour, returning to New York
broke. He also died in deep poverty.
Both of these men had had hundreds
of thousands of dollars. In the days
of their Chicago prosperity they never
dreamed of a time when they would bt
as poor as the men to whom they hand
ed breakfast money after a night OF
unlucky gambling. Both Lawrence anC
Martin were rated as somewhat above
the average of their class in intelli-
gence and ambition. They had beer
bunko men of exceptional ability. 1r
fact the Clark street crowd was as
much a bunko and confidence aggre-
cation as it was gambling crowd
The curse of the gambling table cluns
to Lawrence and Martin and, once
started. they shot down the toboggar
of ill fortune at terrific speed.
Mcdonald continued to run "The
Store" Associated with him in vari-
Gus capacities during the years of thai
establishment were many men. The
big majority of them have gone the
broad road which those follow who
throw honesty to the winds and live by
their wits.
|