The Washington herald., 1917-07-05
FROG ISLE NO MORE,
POLICE CLEAN SLUM
Crap. Shooter, and Wife-Beaters
Driven From Notorious Section.

Driven From Notorious Sechon.
FROG Island 10 no more. That Is.
the Frog Islapd which the washing
ton Polics Department has been ac-
ouainted with for the past twenty
years. n has reformed. Just a. much
40 as II Billy Sunday had really
visited u. No more DO you hear the
relodious come seben. come eleben.
ring out In the nigh. air. and then
see half a dozen newly sharpened
razors fash and do their work.
That little strip Of land. dotted with
ANAL tuo-story brick houses. lying
below N street in Georgetown and
running from Potomac River to
Thirty-fourth street. once compared
favorabIy with Jackson City and
Bloodfsld, is as tame as blind
kitten. And now you can hear many
old plantation songs, and its residents
are raising gardens and children in
stead Of a rough-house.
Tbs credit Of cleaning up this once
obnoxious district belongs to the
policemen and detectives Of the
Seventh precinct. Not long after
Mai. Pullman became Superintendent
OF Police, the men Of the seventh
Precinct secured the chance they sad
been expecting for years and were
xiven almost carte blanche In clean
ing house.
Criminals FIockcd There.
In former years, whenever the police
'department wanted a colored man.
Il looked nrst on Frog Island. The
island was a well known refuge for
lawbreakers, all the way from the
common drunk to the murderer.
Razor artists, pistol toters. profes-
siousl crap shooters, incendiartes bur-
xlar. and vife-beaters we're as well
aoouaIuted with the island as with
their own names. Something was
wrong. in the opinion OF the police
men when there were no briekhghts.
cr.ps games or other disorders going
on down on the island. Detective
Arthur scribener is said to have the
pedigree Of every deniZen OF Frog
Island. for the past ten years
He can almost tell by look whether
a man or a woman lives on the island.
He has caught quite q number Oh
offenders who were wanted either here
or in other cities, and he searcned
first In Frog Island. Frequently
crowd would gather on ii street look
ing down on the island, ana see the
atmosphere full OF flying bricks. or
whatever else the scrappers could get
their hands on. "Oh. its just nght
on Frog Island" some one would say.
Fights became so numerous that they
ceased to attract attention. unless tney
happened to be very violent. some
times q man or woman Wouio
emerge from the island loaded to the
hurricane deck with wildcat gin. and
rumpus, but II was short-hved.
Bad Liquor Sold.
The fayorite pastlme used to be
craps and unlicensed bars. Some OF
the liquor that has been sold there
would eat a hole in a piece Of armor
plate. The workhouse was filled near
" all the time with former residents
Of the island. who made their own
liquor or bought some equally as bad.
Fighting gin" and squirrel whisky"
old-time favorites. have caused the
owners Of properties on the island to
lose many a months rent. Arguments
which caused practically the disman-
Ting Of a small building for its bricks
for wea pons are now a thing Of the
past. II Is almost as orderly as any
colored district in the city.
Few Offenders Come Back.
BY systematic work Detective Scriv-
ener and others Of the Seventh pre-
cinct have made the place safe for
hv-abiding colored people who want
ed cheap rent. II Is now 100 per cent
more sanitary than It used to be.
Except for an old offender strolling
back now and then. few arrests are
made. The high cost of living has
stopped many a crap game. and many
a fight. When the law forbade the
carrying of the "growler" and i'm
posed a fne of SO for getting drunk.
il sounded the doom Of the island as
4 resort of lawbreakers.
Slowly, but surely. the cleaning up
process went on. frequent raids by the
police, and wholesale arrests gradual
ly changing the type OF residents.
Labor conditions had something to
DO with It, but the vigilance of an un-
hampered police department had more.