Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1910-02-25

"-AoAio Will diIeT With ln6 ueWlJ-
changed conditions remains to be
seen.
When Reform" Struck Shanghai.
One further explanatory point should
be noted before describing Judge
Wilfiey's sensational reforms. Gam
bling has always been a Shang'-
vice. During race week" in sprl..,,
and fall, it has been rampant. All
kinds of gamb ing have been open
and unashamed There is nothing In
the western world to which this can
be hkened; foreign gentlemen, for
eign ritf-raf Chinese gentlemen, Chi.
nese ritf-raff (not to m ntion women
OF any nationality met in a gamblers
democracy about the tables of chance
and mischance Back Of the worst
OF these fleeing schemes were Amer
leans.
Last spring an anti-gamb,ing cru.
SADIE was skillfully conducted, Rob-
ert E. Lewis, the Young Mems Chris.
tan association secretary, being one
Of the prime workers in it. Without
going into details, it is enough to say
that the leading citizens who COM
prise the municipal council were sub
1ected to such pressure that they out.
lawed all race week gambling, ex-
cept betting upon the races within the
club house grounds This was an
enormous stride for reform, and the
next step, the total abolition of gam
bling and licensed vice of any sort is
inevitable and near. So Shanghai,
the city where everything goes" was
acquainted with reform and made
ready, psychologically, for the adj
vent of the man of the hour.
Enter the Man with the Square Jaw.
Then came Jove with his thunder
bolts. Nobody out here, or else
where, apparently, had paid any par
ticular attention to the creation by
congress last year of a new United
States circuit court for China. So its
staff was on the scene before the
significance of the event was at all
understood. The judge appointed by
the president was the one man above
all others prominently qualified for
his task. Judge Whitley had gone
with Gov. Taft to the Philippines as
district attorney. He had set the
legal machinery in motion there, and
had run out of the islands lot OF
vicious camp followers, big and lit
tie. who were exploiting the Filipinos
and soldiers, and making trouble gen.
orally. Judge Whitley is a quiet man,
with a goodly frame, a square jaw
and an even disposition; a man not
given to delivering homilies from the
bench or announcing his intentions
beforehand or explaining his actions
afterwa"d. He is the sort of man
to scour the United States escutcheon
in Shanghai, where it has been more
by Americans, official and unofi-
cial.
The day after his arrival he calm
~ announced that American lawyers
who expected to practice in his court
must pass examination as to their
professional qualifications, and pre-
sent certificates Of their moral char
acter. That would seem an innocent
enough procedure, warranted by prac-
tice in the United States, until one
has heard described the type of legal
shysters who for the most part infest
Shanghai, making its badness worse.
Eight men attempted the examination.
Six of them failed igaominiously to
attain an average of so, out of a
possible 100. 1t is said by those
close to the judge that had these men
passed the examination, all but one
of them would have been disbarred on
the basis of character. At least one
of them is a renegade from the Phil
il pines, and had before felt Judge
Wilhey's hand.
CONSERVATION Among Crooks.
Here was a sensation for Shanghai.
The rejected men had been doing
business in this city for many years;
their records were, presumably an
open book, so there is significance in
the fact that have been able to find
nobody to question the essential JUS
tice Of the courts action Naturally,
the men cannot practice in the Brit
ish court, and their face" is gone
utterly This swift, summary, ON
inous action set Shanghai's under
world agog. What would this as yet
uncomprehended judge do next?
Nobody had to wait long to dis
cover. Basing his action on the COM
mon law, Judge Wiley summoned be-
fore him eight ploprietresses Of the
most influential resorts. One es-
capped by pleading Spanish citizenship,
which the district attorney was I'M
able to disprove The Spanish con-
sui issued certificates for two Amer
lean girls" but they were ig-
nored by the court. and he afterwards
attempted to withdraw them. The
girls pleaded guilty, thus leaving the
Spanish consul in an unpleasant pre-
dicament So all the accused except
one were given a fine of $1,000 each,
which was more eloquent than many
lectures. The immediate result was
to send post-haste out of Shanghai and
out of China more than half a hun
dred American girls whose reign in
the east seems now to have been for
ever broken. Of course all this Is
revolutionary here When supposedly
Britishars and Americans
objected, the judge drily remarked
that America is W ling to surrender
he monol"!y Of this sort of trade
nj 'eI u. ion
Well Answered.
The secret of Dapte's struggle
through lifa rroc IA, tho ,,a1-Jo-u -