New-York tribune., 1918-05-06
Men and Women Taken
From Apartment House
in West 55th Street
Chauffeurs Questioned
Swann's Aid Will Examine
Those Summaned
To-day

Assistant District Attorney Smith
wound up his fifth consecutive Sun
day morning tour about town early
outwardy sombre apartment house in
West Fiftyfifth Street. between Sixth
and Seventh Avenues.
From the street the place appeared
dark and dormant. In front of it a
half dozen bela'ted youths were help
ing one another into taxicab, Smith,
in 81. brief sidewalk inquisiton,
learned the numbers Of the apart
ments from which they had come, and
a moment later he and the detectives
with him were roaming from floor to
floor, pounding on doors and calling
all present forth.
Besides interrupting several card
games, the Assistant District Attorney
found in the building more than a
hundred men and women who were
unable to explain to his satisfaction
why they shouldn't have been else
where at that hour. He took most of
them to the West Forty-seventh Street
police station for questioning Forty
subsequently were held as material
witnesses.
Seven Hundred Got Subpenas
That ended a nights work in which
the territory from furthest Harlem
to Forty-second Street had been pretty
efficiently covered In a road house
and all night lunch rooms the prose-
cutor's party, which included Freder-
ick Whitney, secretary of the Com
mlttee OF Fourteen, and Detectives
James Finan, William Kirwin and
William Hickson served no less
than 700 subpmnas whose recipients
are to be examined at the District
attorneys Office to-day.
The first stop was followed by an
outdoor raid" in gravel-foored plaza
or Lafayette Boulevard, near 181st
Street, known as Inspiration Point
Here number of automobiles in which
were JOY riding chauffeurs and women
were standing. Smith served subpoenas
on twelve women and on some Of their
companions.
Smith had embarked on new
practice of demanding that all men
apparently of draft age show their
registration cards. One man, who said
he had registered, but had left his
card home, was arrested. He described
himself as Joseph j. F]eeter, drug
manufacturer, living at 600 West 138th
Street
In chop suey restaurant at Eighth
Avenue and 125th Street the raiders
instructed the proprietor to rip out
the partitions and remove the curtains
which divided one side of the estab-
llshment into private booths. and
subpmnaed ten of the fifty patrons.
Two women and three men among
twenty-five persons found in a similar
place across the street were also
served.
Ten Held in Poolroom
"A visit to poolroom within a
stones throw resulted in the dctcn
tion Of ten of $50 men found there
and the distribution of fifty subpnnas
among the rest. In Manhattan Ave
nue., near 10th Street, ten subpmnas
were served to late diners, who hadn't
ordered them.
BY that time large crowd on foot
and formidable cavalcade of motors
had picked up the trail Of the raid
ers. Smith shook off his following
by speeding south to Forty-second
Street, where he picked up Inspector
Dominlck Henry and Captain McKin-
ney
The streets around Times Square
have been cleared of women" Nc
Kinney reported. "Some of them are
cruising around in taxicabs and firt-
ing from the windows, but that'll be
stopped as quick as we can pick
them up"
One more raid was made before
Smith awoke the "quiet" apartment
house. Here, in pool parlor above
a restaurant near Fifty-ninth Street
and Broadway, fifty men were
subppnaed