Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-06
BETTING UNDER COVER
Ruses Resorted to by the New
York Pool Room Men.
MANY EVASlONS OF LAW
Pictures Used to Screen Blackboards
and Tickers.
THE FREE DOCTORS DODGE
Scarlet Fever Sign on House Kept
Police Away for Months-Tramp
Acted as Patient.
THE FREE DOCTORS DODGE

York. They'll be running pool rooms in
New York. one way or another, as long
there's iron enough left in the world to
make bar plates and racing shoes for race
horses.
Il see by the papers that they've just
snagged, In New York, the keen smudse
who was running a pool room under the
screen Of pest house placard Well, l got
bet or two down in that ingenious dump
before 1 hiked down this way for the Jen
ming meeting. 1t was out Bronx way. The
pool room man who rented the house had
a friend mixed up In some way with the
board Of health and from this matey he got
one Of those big Scarlet Fever signs. He
tackled the placard on the front door. Then
he moved the fixings in by the back way.
Among the fXings was scarlet fever pa
tteDt'-some poor bum glad Of chance to
stay in bed. with plenty of booze. The
front room on the second floor was fitted up
as a sick room, with enough bottles scat
tered around on shelves to At up hospital
tent. and the hobo patient just lay back
In the bunk and absorbed tall ones as
he felt he needed 'em-pretty soft for him,
what? The pool room man thought 1t best
to work the patient gag, in order to give
the dump air of verisimiitude, as 1t
PLAYERS fellows scs that o the
peek at the room and the patient from an
angle Of the hall. for fear they might turn
out to be doing the spy thing.
Entered From an Alley.
1.-THE back part OF the layout was fixed
up for fine-pool room. with couple of
telephones. blackboard and all the gear. The
players got in by way Of the alley. Folks
passing in front nudged themselves off the
curb like swerving horses when they caught
a glimpse of the big Scarlet Fever sign. and
even the cops on the beat did their hum
ming and club-swinging on the other side
of the street Maybe they were In on the
gag and got their bit, at that-1 don't know.
well, that dump had been running and
getting the kaIe, for five months to my
knowledge when it was grabbed the other
day. Some new fresh cop rubbering around
the alley to Investigate complaints of over
turned ash cans or something noticed eight
or ten of the trimmed ones emerging gloom
lily from the back door Of the pool room
plant, and he doped them out as daylight
housebreakers and chased them. Then he
telephoned the precinct and a bunch of cops
came along in the wagon and got in the
pool room by the alley way. Everybody was
out of sight by this time except the proprie-
tor. and he showed the bulls the scarlet
fever patient on the second floor. He was
getting by with it, but the sudden breaking
out of the two telephone bells in the rear
part OF the plant messed up the play. and
the whole gang were corralled in the back
room, in front Of the blackboard, and the
pool room man and the blissfuiy soused
hobo patient were pinched.
'If there's any kind of gag the under
cover pool room projectors in New York
haven't tried since Jerome first hashed the
wide-open thing. then you'll have to excuse
me while take a grope for a white chip
that I must have dropped on the floor.
Zone of them was that Fatima picture
| thing. Heard Of that one? That started
right on Broadway-some distance up-but
80 many OF those Fatima pictures got to
drawing 'em when 1t was seen how easily
the original one was getting by that game.
too. was squenched after six months SO.
The Fatima picture was a hurriedly painted
nnY a hnf tom hv fNtyr faaf pf
some lovely Circassian favorite Of the sui
tan reclining on a red satin divan, wear
ing a real cunnin' amber necklace, cute
pair of curve-toed slippers a smile, and a
fine suit of hair. Some bum New York
artist got 5000 so for tossing the thing
together, and 1t wasn't such a dauby nude
at that, as seen under the rows OF screened
electric lights that were placed in front of
1t for exhibition purposes.
"Barker" in Front.
cit was kept just within the bounds Of
Comstocks game. and exhibited to men
only for a nickel toss. Well. you see.
that made the dump-established a reason
why men should be coming and going from
that address. A barker swshed a little
cane out in front of the plant where the
Fatima picture was exhibited. letting out
the See the great Fatima' growl for the
general public. and lot of fatheads that
never saw the inside of pool room fell for
the nickel-a-throw thing and went inside to
look at the picture of the girl with the
beads taking the moon bath.
1.-THE real people, however kept right on
through the dark room In which Fatima
was shown and found the big blackboard,
with the horses names and the prices
chalked up, and the key a-working for the
call-off man. in the extreme back room.
The right ones were tipped off, Of course.
that the real plant was working back of the
Fatima picture room, and that's the way
ola fnr fin -t,1rstn Ax,
bulls of the New York gambling squad
might never have got hep to it, but when
the other out-ef-busness pool room people
saw what a swell stall the Fatima gang
was. they Immediately got Fatima' $ painted
too. Fatima pictures popped up In about
eight places around town. and the bulls fell
to 1t and cleaned them all out
''Of course as I've said, the whole thing
is to get some kind of a dump in motion
thatn permit of the bunch coming and
going without attracting attention, and so.
when Fatima was curled up, the same boy
who invented that one was there with
something else was an anatomical museum
on Houston street. down town. He bought
up somewhere a secondhand job lot of
picked ears and plaster-of paris bas-reliefs
Of that boy who poses for the zodiac signs
that you've seen in the almanacs. and some
skulls OF famous murderers. preserved In
alcohol and the like. He scattered these
exhibits around on shelves and tables on
the ground floor, put the barker out in
front-and the barker also served as look
out in case of a possible pinch-and was
ready for 'em at dime per peek. The
blackboard and the muted telegraph instru-
ments were up on the second floor, way
back.
Great business that. In every popula-
ton there's certain proportion of mulet-
conks that'll fall for any old kind of an
anatomical museum, even If they have to
economize on their lunches. and the fall
guys were in and out of the Houston street
plant all day long. making 1t dead sweet
for the regular pony players to get in and
out without any chance of being noticed.
I've seen as many as five hundred COIN
sloughers heaped up In the second floor
back of that phony anatomical museum,
all but breaking each others arms to get
their junk down. and the wise gambling
squad bulls never the wiser.
Overdid the idea.
Like all the rest Of the gags. this one. |
too was copied and overdone. The other
pool room people made quick dig to get
hold of picked portions of the human form
divine and the rest of the gear. For a
while the anatomical museum market was
away on the bun side and the hxings OF
such plant hard to snag for love ior |