The Washington herald., 1908-02-16

deTlOin resorts was. known as a Give"
one and a good spender. This clerk ;
peculations are said to have amounted 70
over $I00o00.
They Play the Ponies.
Since this country boys whirl in gay
New York. New Jersey has contributed
another notorious character. a popular
mayor of Paterson, highly respected and
greatly admired, but against whom there
WAS not the slightest suspicion. until one
day In August. 1905, when he was miss
ing" Then Il was discovered that the
jolly chief magistrate of the silk Mill
City had been stealing for eight years
steadily. and the total amount of his dis
honest dealings reached Sl5o0oo. Horses
were his only weakness.
From the police of Paris in August.
1905 there flashed an alarm to the New
York central office 20 be on the lookout
for a Baron de Gavray,' who fed from
Havre i'm q private steam yacht. The
baron was none other than a dishonest
bank clerk, who received $500 a year sal
ary and had a wife and two children 20
support.
Under the name Of de Gavray he mas
queTaded as a wealthy bachelor. whose
gay career and high play were the talk
of the bOuleyards and race tracks.
BY d system OF his own, this clerk took
altogether 1.0C00G0 francs, led a riotous
life in the gay French capital, anG sailed
away with a music hall singer like
buccaneer of old TO the Spanish Main.
The yacht Catherine was seized in Bahia,
Brazil, and the embezzler taken back 10
France for punishment.
Attendance Is Large.
During the summer season from 20C00
to 5000 persons daily attend the race
tracks adjacent to the city of New York,
and throughout the State. wherever races
are held. great crowds are attracted.
Several times interests opposed to race
track gambling IN New York have at
tempted to abolish it by legislation. and
each time have failed This year the
fight is on more aggressively than ever
before. with the governor a doughty
champion OF the forces arrayed against
it. Business men have joined in the
movement. and their influence has
brought over heretofore disinterested men
Of affairs. officeholders. and repre-
sentatiyes in the legislature one OF the
stanchest friends OF the refOrnners IS ex-
Sheriff Martin j. Flaherty. Of Brooklyn
NO section OF the State offers so many
startling examples of the evils created by
gambling" said the ex-sheriff yesterday
"as does the greater city of New York
In Kings County alone there are three Of
the largest tracks in the country, and a
chaplain Of the county jail says that one
half of the gambling men whose careers
he has investigated began their down
ward course through race track gambling.
Women Gamble, Too.
Just as significant IS the assertion OF
a large employer Of labor In Brooklyn
that with the opening Of the racing sea-
son he is compelled to weed out many
who while skillful workmen. are unde-
sirabIe associates for their fellow-work-
ers. whom they distract and allure by
discussion Of racing matters.
"One company, I am told pays its en-
ployes IN the middle OF the week in an
swer TO petitions Of wives whose hus-
bands generally return penniless after a
Saturday at the race track But this
craze runs not only among the men. Al
though excluded from the betting ring.
women are provided with means OF plac-
Ing wagers through the agency Of bet
ting commissioners. Wives are known to
have secretly withdrawn the savings de-
posted in their names by cOnfiding hus-
bands and gambled them all away Re
Gently a police officer was brought to
book for beating his wife who had dssi-
Dated her husbands earnings OF eight
years through being bunkOed by a sure
thing. Let the habit of playing the races
become fixed and IL is as sure 10 hold as
either whisky or opium"