The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-03-13
Police Have Made 25 "Mixed"
Arrests i'm Three Months.
Majority of Men in These Cases
Were Soldiers.
Topeka is CLEAN CITY NOW
Says Majority of I'm
,desirables Have Fled.
Officers Are Now Making Drive
on BOOtleggers. -

Topeka streets, hotels and rooming
houses, with the possible exception of
certain negro quarters of the lower
East side. have been swept clean Of
immoral women and the city is today
safer for visiting soldiers than at
aEy time since war began, it was as
serted this afternoon by Frank $.
Harbaugh, chief of police. Harbaugh,
incidentally. made public the fact that
cru usade, more rigid than usual. is
being waged by the police against ven-
ders of intoxicating liquor.
The city, the chief of police de-
cl2red, 'is cleaner today than for
months or even years. When we
started our vice cleanup, it was made
pI city plain that women of the streets
should, if they desired to keep out of
jan, leave town. Our action in falling
a lsrge number of the women on gem
eral principles has resulted in even
the boldest starting an Immediate
quest for different address. And,
by the way, the fact that the city is
clean does not mean that we are go
ing to lessen activities Wen keep
woman will result in her arrest
Go After Liquor Sellers.
In the last two weeks scarcely a
day has passed that raiding parties
from police headquarters have not de-
scended upon one or more suspected
illegal liquor joints. In seven of these
raids, evidence was found and arrests
were made, and trial is pending in
police court. About O'Clock Tuesday
afternoon, Detective George Frost
acting as a member of a raiding party
which was working West Railroad
street in North Topeka stepped around
the corner in the rear of the Jordan
pool hall. Dempsey Parker. a negro.
was in the act of selling pint of whis-
| ky. He was arrested along with the
! purchaser. the latter afterwards max
ing affidavit that he had bought tive
one-haIf pints> of liquor from Parker.
Chief Harbaugh asserts that the
key" to vice here is now located In
the notorious negro quarters of the
, lower East side. Neither the chief or
any other member of the force Will
subscribe to the statements of Edward
Rooney, attorney for the six negro wo-
men seeking release from the state
detention farm, who asserts that the
activities of negro women constitute
no menace to white soldiers. on the
other hand they cite police records to
show that the negroes comprise the
majority of the menace.
Many Mixed Cases.
I'm the last three months" said
Chief Harbaugh, twenty-five arrests
involving white men and negro women
have been made where evidence of inn
morality was prima facie. The ma
jority of the men in such cases were
soldiers. No such arrests involving
white women have been made. There
hae also been numerous cases where
soldiers and white men-civilians-re-
port having been robbed in alleys and
alng dark streets by negro women"
Carly this morning the police were
called to the home of Thelma Will
liza ms on East Crane street. Thelma
is Il negress. Luiz Ayala, Mexican
said by the police to be her -'sweet-
he:.rt," was found badly cut about the
head and hands, Thelma- having
w eIded the weapon. Oliver Thomp-
son. negro, was arrested at the same
time the negress and Ayala were
! brought to the station