The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1915-04-15
WOULD TEST OUT STATE LAWS
Takes Machine to the Court House But
He Fails to Secure a Warrant For
His Arrest Regardless of Statements
That He Operated the Machine.

nosha than some people believe. just
at present the owner OF bunch of
slot machines, known as ssgum ma
chimes, is making hard effort to get
himself arrested on charge Of violat-
ing the state laws against gambling,
but the policemen who are usually will
ing to take in any man against whom
case has been found are listless in this
case and the man has appealed to them
in vain to be named as defendant in
court. Even Chief O'Hare has passed
him up and his efforts to get arrested
are beginning to be laughable. He
gave his name as Burke when he first
appeared at the municipal court nearly
a week ago. / want to get warrant
sworn out for gambling he said to
Clerk Wattles. "Whose the defend
ant9' responded the clerk. II am, y
was the response Of Burke.
Clerk Wattles tried to see through it
all and he explained to the fellow that
before warrant was issued some one
would have to make complaint alleg-
ing a violation Of the law, and he in
timated that this complaint could not
be made by the defendant himself.
Half an hour later an express wagon
brought to the municipal court one of
those great big slot machines. It was
bright new one and the nickel trim
mings reflected the light from all dir
ections. "This is mine and have been
operating it in west side saloon, y
said Burke. "All right, Y the clerk re-
sponded, 'Sbut I don It see where [ am
interested. = Burke was then advised
to see the district attorney or the po-
lice department. He went to the chief
and informed him that there was a
slot machine. over at the municipal
court which had been in operation out
on the west side. "So!o observed the
chief, and then he went over and took
a look at it. There was nothing doing
in the line of warrants for the arrest
Of Burke or any one else Then the ma
chine was moved into the vault at the
court and it is still there and Burke
is still hunting for someone to arrest
him for running slot machine.
Burke is not burning with desire to
pay fine-nothing of the sort-but
Burke believes that the city police de-
partment is discriminating against
perfectly good slot machine. The po-
lice department holds that all slot ma
chimes are bad and that as long as they
can be kept out of Kenosha places with
out going to court with them that the
public interests are being taken care
of. Burke wants to be arrested SO as
to have test case to find out whether
or not man can be arrested for oper-
ating this sort of machine.
The chief Of police don t care con
tinental for the solution of this ques-
ton. The chief has ruled that the ma
chimes are under the ban and under his
ruling the Kenosha men have repeated
~ refused to allow them in their places.
They prefer to get along without slot
machines to being defendants in test
cases. Burke has a lot of money in
vested in the machines and this money
ism t working mostly on account of the
fact that he can It get into court as a
defendant.
don It care cent to have a test
case on this machine, = said Chief Owen
0 Hare this morning. cit can stay in
the vault at the court until it is red
with rust and it won t bother me bit.
can t see any necessity for arresting
Burke or anyone else so long as these
machines are not being operated in Ke-
nosha. We feel certain that the ma
chimes are against the law and when
they get into operation they will be
promptly confscated and the men who
have them will be prosecuted. In the
meantime we are not putting up any
test cases to establish or attempt to
establish rights for some owner Of
gambling machines. =
Over at the court the officials declar-
ed that the machine was there and that
it could stay there, but that there was
no criminal charges in which it was
held as evidence.