The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1912-03-01
LOhDON'S LID OfF.
Striking Feature of Night Life in
Soho District.
Gambling lie Protected In the Tender
Ioln Of Ensland's Capital
Thlrty-Two Card Faro a
Favorite Game.

London.-The lid Is off In the no
torious Soho district of London In
the last few months dozens of gam
bling joints and off color night clubs
have opened and they are doing
Wide open business without police in
reference
1t 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 Tenderloln 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
was the worst in London.
1t is practically an unknown dis.
triet to the real Londoners, who are
only acquainted with It's 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 moral wave
swept h. 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 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 90 card game.
as three of I kind beat a straight and
flush beats a full house.
Faro Is the great and the favorite
game at all these joints. Again 1t 10
the German or continental variety, not
the American, that is played,
Thirty-two cards are used and no
box; the banker dealing out of hand
There is no elaborate layout; In most
cases -four matches suflioing These
are laid in front of the dealer and
each end OF a 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 1t win lose.
There are no furbelows of eoppering
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
a gang OF regular players the attempts
at crooked playing are infrenuent. but
let a tenderfoot butt into the game
end he has no chance to win
The proprletors 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, tho
price varying with the size of the
bank, the minimum being $40 an hour,
payable in advance. te44'<
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 certain night club. Scotland Yard
kept the gaming under surveillance
and planned to dispose of them by
raiding this club, which would furnish
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 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.