Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-25
Male inhabitants Bet on the Con-
tests Until Wives Cause Ar
rest of BookmakerS
GAMBLERS ROUTED BY WOMEN
Evidence Against LaWbreakers
Furnished by Real Losers
in Village of Homes


amid towering meadows, dream the
sister suburbs of Weissensee and New
Weissensee. Pretty rocoCo villas ana
less pretty fiat houses rise clitr-llke
from the towering meadows; there Is
a round translucid lake edged with
daisies, a park, topping schloss, neat
little avenues fringed with innocent
plane trees and delightful deep sea-
eyed children. And happy homes in
Vulnerable! At least so Inen imagined.
But AS Eden had its serpent and the
Hesberian gardens their dragon. so the
Weissenees We're plagued by the old
enemy of Virtuous men, who has nap
PLY. however, at last been put to
flight by the redeeming devotion Of
wifely hearts
His Sulphurousness laid out near
Weissensee an excellent race course
and offered tempting prizes fer the
fastest trotters. The venture threat
ened to fail Respectable Weissensee
never had heard OF trotters before and
at first regarded with just suspicion
the evil ones contrivance. But sport
burns in all blood and Weissensee sue
cumbed. 1t began to attend the races.
At first il attended furtively in tWos
and threes, with hats pulled down over
eyes, or in Disgusting blue spectacles.
But as the seduction grew this shame
disappeared. WeisSensee came in tens
and tWenties, then in hundreds, and
at last wholesale, so that soon its
whole male population spent Sundays
and holidays watching the Intoxicating
sport. The churches were empty.
Skittles lost their charm. There were
no more idyllic walks with wives and
sweethearts down the plane tree ave-
nues and tears over absent fathers ap-
peared in the children's deep-sea eyes.
LOSING BETS
The fact is the Weissenseers bet
and lost ignoring the permitted
"totalisator' system, which swindles
you slowly and honestly, they laid
their money with betting men from
Berlin, who unlaWfully made books on
English and American lines, and of
course started for home each evening
with beaming faces and inflated wads.
Very different were faces-and wads-
in Weissensee. Everyone was hard up.
Husbands had no money for theaters,
children played without toys, the UNI
brageous beer garden went bankrupt
and summer hats dWindled like Hal
ley's comet. Business" Srowled peev-
ish husbands, has gone TO the dogs"
What was worse-in the bookmaKers'
wake came enameled ladies from Ber-
! lin, who smiled to the erring husbands
and soon it was seen that while Weis-
/ sensee's headgear shriveled the enam-
eled ladies' hats WdXed in radius and
radiance. Things were becoming black.
/ 1t was the fault of the devil, his race
/ course and the corruptions of the
BabyIonian metropolis Griselda her
self would have lost patience. But the
hour of deliVerance was nigh.
The wives of Weissensee met in
council for self defense. Dissensions
We're forgotten and ladies who had
never hitherto exchanged mods kissed
one another so ardently that powder
filled the air. What was to be done ?
EXpostulations, curtain lectures, coz
ening and threats, It was agreed, had
been tried sufficiently and in vain. 1t
was reserved for Frau Leiner, a local
doctors wife, to PROFOUND a remedy.
AS the husbands, she opined, had sue
Cumbed, not to the innocent trotters,
but to the allurements of hazardous
bets, the only solution was to send the
. bookmakers to jail.
If the police can't catch the book
makers, how can we?" asked a dis
Sentient.
THE police can't wash babies. but
we-at least I can" snapped Frau
Leiner. And the meeting, she coun-
! seled, should elect an espionage COM
mittee, track down the law breaking
| bookmakers and then having shown its
/ finesse in detective work, for the
coarser work of capture call in the po-
! lice.
At first the amazed meeting gasped
| But lovely woman is receptive tC
ideas \ moment later the despairine
wives wayered, next they judicially dis
cussed and finally they unanimously
approved of the unparalleled proposal
Amid a shower of kisses and powder
the meeting dispersed.
WOMEN HAVE RESOURCES
The beginning was hardest. There
were no cleWs. But the resourcefu
wives enlisted a youthful advocate
who had been only once on the race
. course and was not wholly lost. He
was deeply in love with Frau Ieiner's
rosy daughter, and with one of those
overwhelming caresses for which good
men pledge their sOuls-and poor mer
| their Overcoa ts-fraulein won him into
| the plot Thus We're secured the in
itial facts. 1t took time to find the
rest. In midnight silence, while snor-
ing husbands dreamed of backing win
ners for a million, their guardian an
gels slipped out of bed and stole THEN
| nOCketbooks, searched for the book
! makers names. copied suspicious ad-
dresses and scrupulously analvzod
, every ambiguous note. They found in
! cilentally, it is said, second notes from
. Berlin's enameled femninity, but this
/ was suffered in silence for the sake OF
/ the common cause. Once a week the
I committee met and cOllated the ma
tcrial and so on industriously until the
identity of the sinful bookmakers was
1 known thoroughly, Then after q month
of unremitted labor the blow thunder
ouslv fell
4 memorandum signed by twenty
/ distinguished wives Of Weissensee
reached the police with names, ad-
dresses. descriptions and beauty
marks Of the bookmakers and lists OF
/ their crimes Next Sunday WesSensee
race course was more than usually
thronged In addition to the local
males and the usual Berlin concourso
the~e we're a score or so of sharp-nosed
/ strangers who seemed to take keenest
. interest in the races, for they sought
out the law breaking bookmakers and
asked them to Law them odds, In the
excitement no one noticed that fifty
! fierce whiskered policemen had
tramped on TO the course and when the
favorite Schnellzug trotted victGiously
10 the finish the sharp -nosed strangers
tanned the bookmakers' elbows and
said: "You had better come along
/ quietly" And half an hour later three
and twenty breakers-up of homes were
entrained for the capital to be lodged
! in inhosp.table jails.
And al ended like a novel In court
| Frau Leiner and thirteen triumphant
sisters swore the bookmakers' liberties
away. An impressed judge paid them