The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-01-26
L0ND0N's LID OFF
Striking Feature of Night Life in
Soho District.
Gambling Is Protected In the Tender.
Ioin Of EngIand's Capital
Thirty-Two Card Faro
Favorite Game.


bling joints and off color night clubs
have opened and they are doing a
wide open business without police in
reference.
II may be explained for the benefit
OF those unacquainted with London
that Soho is the Tenderloin of the city.
Situated in the heart of the west end.
Its broad streets abound in theaters
and restaurants and are at the same
time Tenderloin promenades. Inspec-
tor Schmittberger viewed this stream
one night in company with a reporter
and exclaimed, Gee! We wouldn't
stand this for a minute in New York"
Back OF these broad thoroughfares
are hundreds Of mean narrow streets,
the hotbeds of the Latin anarchists
and the abiding place of the scum of
Latin and Teuton Europe. On the
police records Soho has a bad name,
and one Scotland Yard inspector in a
police investigation held a few years
ago said that one of the streets in
Soho from the criminal standpoint
WdS tie WOTSC IN LONDON.
1t is practically an unknown dis
trict to the real Londoners, who are
only acquainted with its boundaries of
theater land or who, perhaps, pene-
trate small way into the district in
the search for the cheap yet excellent
restaurants which abound therein.
Gambling joints and off color clubs
have always existed In this district.
About dozen years ago London was
wide open, but then a moral wave
swept in, the police got busy and the
lid was put On and sealed. Several
spasmodic efforts to pry the lid off
have been made Intellectually since
then, but a few months ago the word
went around that, provided there was
no shouting the word from the house
tops, and provided certain formalities
were observed, business could be
done.
Now there are dozens of places
where the tiger can be bucked. Ad-
mission Is not difficult to any of these
places If one knows the ropes.
Baccarat and other poker are play
ed. The poker is of the continental
variety, played with 80 cards, all be-
low the seven being eliminated. The
value of hands in this game is some
what different from the So card game,
as three of kind beat straight and
flush beats a full house.
Faro is the great and the favorite
game at all these joints. Again 1t is
the German or continental variety, not
the American. that is played.
Thtrty-two cards are used and no
box; the banker dealing out of hand.
There Is no elaborate layout; In most
cases four matches sufficing. These
are laid In front of the dealer and
each end Of match represents
card. The bets are made by placing
the money at the end of the match
which represents the card backed. 1t
Is a straight proposition to win or
lose. the punter betting that his card
Will win, the banker that it will lose.
There are TO furbelows Of coppering
bets or naming the sequence of the
last card.
This game of faro as played in Lon
don is of excessive simplicity and of
excessive crookedness. An expert
dealer can make the cards do almost
anything for him. The majority of
punters are very sharp eyed and with
gang of regular players the attempts
at crooked playing are infrequent, but
let a tenderfoot butt into the game
and he has no chance to win.
The proprietors of the joints don't
run the game. The bank Is put up at
auction. as at baccarat, the man will
ing to put the largest amount of
money taking the bank. The proprie-
tors make their profits by charging
so much an hour for the bank. the
price varying with the size of the
bank, the minimum being $40 an hour.
payable in advance.
The popularity of this form of faro
is widespread throughout the Latin
and Teuton population of Soho, and
at the bigger of these gambling clubs
thousands of dollars are won and lost
nightly.
A horde of American grafters and
crooks got in the habit of resorting
to a certain night club. Scotland Yard
kept the gaming under surveillance
and planned to dispose of them by
raiding this club, which would furnish
a decent excuse in court to ask that
each of them be sent to prison for
three months as suspicious charac-
ter. in addition to being fined for be-
ing in a gambling joint. Thirty-five
of these international merchants" as
Pat Sheedy was wont to designate
them, were thoroughly enjoying them
selves when the word was passed to
get out quickly and quietly in twos
and threes.
Don't rush out in bunch, as there
Is half an hour" said the tipster.
Half an hour later the police de-
scended on the place. but the birds
had flown.