The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-08-23
"The House With the Bronze Door
Passing of the Famous Gambling House
(New York sun)

WIN the brOHIe DOOT, oii thc SohS
block in West Thirty third street with
the Waldorf Astoria and the McAlpin
hotels for more than quarter Of a
century the most exclusive, finest and
greatest gambling place in America,
has quit, as a sporting man would
say. No longer will the little house
at 80 be known to sporting men as
one Of the greatest gaming places In
the world, the place where many mil
lions have been won and lost on games
Of chance in the twenty-six years 1t
provided sport for men In New YORK
and visitors from other cities. 1t was
the de luxe gambling house OF AM
erica the place where only the rich
were permitted to play.
During all those years 1t resisted the
attempts of the police, gambling cru
sades including former District At
torney Jerome and other reformers, to
close it up. Records Of the police de-
partment will show that but three
times perhaps they were able to get
beyond the bronze door which guards
the inner entrance to the place and
from which it got the name of the
"House with the Bronze Door"
One of these times was last Feb
ruary, when the police of the tender
loin district under Inspector Bolan
swooped down on the place and found
in the house, which was presumably
empty, since there was sign on the
face Of the building announcing that
II was for rent, few attendants, 10000
inlaid ivory poker chips, relies of for
mer days, several hundred decks Of
playing cards. roulette wheels and
racing charts.
1t was about ten years previous that
the police had gained access to the
place. and that was the night Jerome
launched his famous raid In which he
smashed his way into Canfield's and a
half dozen other fine gambling places
in the city. On this night the impreg-
inability of the place was discovered.
Jerome smashed at the door, but he
might have been beating the air with
big steel mauls, so little effect had
they on the doors.
Jerome Found It Empty.
After he had battered "A while a
courteous servant in evening clothes
and with the department of the best
trained butler in the city opened the
door to the raiders and they swarmed
in to find nothing more than the finest
fitted up gambling house that they
had ever entered. The place was all
illuminated so that the visitor from
Rutgers street, where Judge Jerome
r1ade his headquarters while district
attorney of New York, and the police
from the Thirtieth street station might
admire the splendors.
On the walls were oil paintings
which cost a fortune. On the floors
were the finest examples of the art OF
the great rugmakers of the east The
floors were of hard wood, the work OF
experts. The ceilings were frescoed
as only the homes of the rich could be
The stairway which the police raced
up from the entrance hall to trap the
players was guarded by banister held
up by allegorial carved figures OF
wood, the result of two years of work
on the part of ten Italian woodcarvers
Sixty thousand dollars Is said to have
been expended on this stairway. Up
stairs the raiders found other exam
,&la OF he, ely ~ XNbita
who had designed the interior of the
house.
In the roulette room on the second
floor was evidence of big playing, but
there was nothing tangible by which
Mn Jerome could bring any one into
court In fact he found no one there
to arrest but the courteous servant
who had let him in and one or two
others.
1t was several years later that the
mystery was solved of the disappear
ance of the two dozen men who were
in the house that night. When the
property adjoining was removed, there
was found a tunnel leading from the
House with the Bronze Door" into
the adjoining premises. While Mr..
Jerome and his men were racing up
and down the five floors in the build
ing feeling the walls for telltale seams.
the players were comfortably located
in the adjoining property.
Had Jerome been able to break into
the place before the players got away
he would have had to arrest some of
New York's well known citizens.
He would also have seen three men
playing at roulette wheel on which
were stakes totalling $125O00. One Of
the players. member of one of Amer
icas wealthiest families, is now en-
gagged in manufacturing war materials
for the allied armies. At the time
of the raid he had Just bet on the
turn of the wheel when the door
sounded. He and his friends scurried
to the get away. but the man at the
wheel remained to watch where the
marble stopped before he made his
escape with the $125,O0O He paid
over the money to the young winner
when all got TO the place. Of safety In
the next building. The honesty of