The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-03
ATLANTANS FOND
 OF BETTING GAME Handbook" Business Very
 Prosperous WHISKY FLOWS, TOO
All Who Want a Drink of Liquor Seem to Be Able to Get It and Many Atlanta People Are
 Awfully Shocked

Atlanta April 2-(Special.) )-That it is difficult even by stringent law 10 break up practices which any considerable num- Der Of persons wish and desire to indulge in, has been well illustrated in Atlanta during the last week.
 Many Atlantans who never hear about such things until accounts of them are published in the newspapers, have been surprised, perhaps shocked, to learn that there has been going on in Atlanta just about as much betting on horse races and other sporting events as there was be- fore the practice Of bookmaking was ille- galized and declared a misdemeanor. The hand books" as they are known, are if anything, two or three times as numerous as were the old-time pool rooms They have regular places of con gregation at central points In the business portion of the city. usually the hanging out places of idlers and loafers, but where even business men and workers go at times to indulge the practice of putting a little money on a prospective win Ter"
 The extent of the practice was brought
 
 the police department by citizens who came into contact with it, along with the request that it be broken up. The police have promised to break it up. but so far no arrests have been made, and the indi- cations are that the crusade will result, as have others in the past, in making the hand bookes" move their stamping ground to some more secluded and less public place.
 But the hank book business has been going on in Atlanta ever since the regu- lar pool rooms were closed, and not case has ever been made. Sot it comes back to the proposition that there is al ways a way of getting around the law if any considerable number of persons want to do it.
 Similar statement might be made as to the prohibition law. Almost, if not quite, everyone who was in the habit of drink ing in barrooms before the prohibition law went into effect, now has club to which he can go and get any kind of drink he wants.
 This fact was also brought to the pub lie attention during the week, as result of an investigation of the clubs by the police committee of council. II was found that there are certain clubs which were organized and intended to be no more and no less than barrooms.
 And while 1t is true there are certain classes which do not have their substi- tutes for barrooms and who must get their supplies through blind tigers, at least in one instance the club under sur veilance was found to be a grade or two worse than the old-time barroom: in fact, ipt,a I,l "a and the police committee recommended that council revoke it's license.
 Clubs were found which either collect no initiation fee or dues from members or which accept an l. O. |. for these ob- legations. One of these was ordered closed by the police committee and it was stated there are others on the list under investigation with regard 10 winch slml- lar action may be taken.
 There is still another game with refer ence to which the city has taken no ac- ton, possibly because there is no city or dinance bearing directly upon it--deal- ing in cotton futures.
 Several years ago the legislature passed the Boykin act and made 1t misdemean- or to deal in futures on anything; not cnly putting the bucket shops out of ex- istence but also future trading on the mart of cotton men who wanted at times to hedge"
 Nevertheless, It IS pretty well known that those who want to buy or sell cot ton futures here have comparatively lit tie trouble in doing 1t. Those interested know just where to go and just what to do, just the same as does the man who wants to put money on horse race. or the other fellow who may want to drink a dry martini cocktail before dinner.
 Abo,t all that legislation appears to have accomplished is to have driven these entioing little practices to more secluded cover.
 Then along comes a wave of reform takes off the cover. looks underneath stirs up things for the moment, and the cover goes back on just a little more securely.
 Just like the automobile laws which are violated with immunity until there are one or two killings, whereupon the police get busy and number of persons con tribute fines for a time to the city's sup m