Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-10-13
FURNACE FOOD
OF CAMS TOOLS
Legless Tables Are Reduced to
Kindling Wood in County
Jail Yard.
LEGAL COURSE is TAKEN
Sheriff's Force Has Yet Chance to
Take Three More Outfits
Through Same Process.

Effective means OF Kidding the COM
munity Of the professional gambler
finally were resorted to in Rock Island
yesterday afternoon by the destruction
in the county Jail yard of three of the
tables that had participated in the
open harvest that had been in sway in
the city for upwards of a year until a
halt was called by the Law and Order
league.
The tables were broken up and cut
to pieces. Sheriff Edward Kittilsen
aided in the work OF destruction by
swinging an axe. He selected two
husky prisoners to help, and then set
to work with the axe and several
screw drivers. The tables were first
taken to pieces and then cut into kin
ding wood. The remains Of the once
fancy tables hes in the jail yard, moth
ing more nor less than a pile of splin-
tered wood. The nine boards which
were used as the bases for the tables
were not included in the general de-
struction, as they can be used about
the jail and the court house in lieu of
new lumber. They were piled up at
one side, and will be kept intact.
Fuel for Furnace.
All the essential parts of the tables
were totally destroyed, however. The
walnut rails around the edges, which
are of no small value, were cut up
ruthlessly, and the gilded and painted
cloths which covered the tables were
torn~to shreds. The stuff after being
cutfHp was not burned, and will not
BE until the janitor finds it necessary
to get up steam in the boilers which
heat the Jail and the court house. The
wood will then be used to start the
fires.
1t is known that a gambler who
posed as a friend of another gambler
sought unsuccessfully to press Attor-
ney J. K. Scott into service in an at
tempt to regain possession of the three
legless tables. The tables, after the
seizure, were delivered at the county
Jail, where they were held subject to
directions of Judge Olmstead. Sheriff
Edward KittiIsen, at the hearing on
the search warrant in the county
court, under oath, testified that the
tables were used for gaming purposes, |
and on the strength of his statement
the order of destruction was issued by
the court.
Had the sheriff's forces been as dill |
gent in its duty in the raids upon the /
gambling houses the outfits obtained /
by the agents of the Law and Order |
League would have met the same fate !
as the three unclaimed crippled tables /
broken in the jail yard yesterday af- /
ternoon.
Knows Gambling Fixtures.
But when the fixtures were .
seized at the Turf and Diamond /.
resorts and removed to the levee to /.
be burned upon an order given by /.
Justice J. H. Cleland a deputy from |
the Office of the sheriff, responding to /
call from the gamblers, hur- !
ried to the scene and placed under /
arrest on a charge of larceny Consta- /
BILE August Schmid, who was in the /
performance of his sworn legal duty /
and executing the orders of a court /
This deputy from the sheriff's office, /
it would seem, would have a difficult !
time explaining to his chief that he /
saw nothing in the levee pile but |
lunch tables" domino tables" and |