The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1919-05-20
When Twelfth
Street Loves
(Copyright.)
n
BY JEROME G. BEATTY


Twelfth street knew that when Terry
Malone got to be a dealer on the L. G..
Way, Mary Donohue would stop MAX
ing out checks at the Antitrust laun-
dry substatiOn and begin light house
keeping in a three-room fiat on Four
teenth.
Terry had been a eapper on the L. G.
Way three summers, and there never
was a better capper than Terry, ac-
cording to Honest Bill" Canaan, who
owned the gambling privileges on the
pleasure steamer" For two dollars
a day Terry sailed with the steamer
every afternoon and every night, and
on each trip won from 500 to $1,000
at the roulette-wheel, the spindle, and
the Klondike game. And at the end
of each trip, before Honest Bill would
let him off the boat Terry would give
back all the money he had won.
Terry's first knowledge of gambling
had come when he was lookout for the
poker game in the rear of his fathers
saloon, and was known to the big gam
blers as likely kid. The dealer at
the spindle. game on the L. G. Way
was going to quit to run a handbook,
and Honest Bill had promised the job
to Terry.
1t paid five dollars day and was
easy work-for battery on a spindle
is not difficult to operate, and after a
few moments practice even an anna
nnT11d
arrow do things a self-respecting, we'll
behaved arrow would not think Of do
ing.
Twelfth street was proud Of Terry
and his employer, for Twelfth street
had code of morals all its own. 1t
labeled Terry as an honest, hard-worl-
ing young man-fOr, as far as Twelfth
street knew, Terry never had robbed
a house or dragged an intoxicated man
down an alley. With Twelfth street
gambling was an honored profession
a contest of wits.
Torrance Malone was proud of Mary
and who wouldn't be? Her dark
brown hair always was dressed just
so. and her eyes laughed continually
at her little Irish nose. Her mouth
was little impertinent, perhaps; but
Twelfth street itself is impertinent.
The young men brought their laun-
dry to Mary's Office, and stopped to
talk fashions and actors and baseball
with her. Mary was an expert on
all three subjects, and was willing to
haf nd xr-fth oil Dfk R0r
she was paid on a percentage basis.
But to all invitations to dinner or to
theaters she had the same answer:
"Sorry, but there's no chance" And
she would flash in their eyes the two
and one-sixteenth carat engagement
! ring that had cost Terry $7.87 at Bra.
lillian diamond emporium.
Then came the New Deal" as the
newspapers called it. A cyclone OF
civic Righteousness swept the city, driv-
ing out the chief of police and the com
missioners that had appointed him. The
criminals were notified to leave town
Honest Bill and his friends were
classed right in with the second-story
=, workers, much to the honest indigna
ton of both parties concerned. The
L. G. Way was turned into a picnic
steamer and Terry was out of job.
Honest Bill saw what was coming
/ and got from under. He settled down in
his fiat, began to become acquainted
with his wife and family, and prepared
to run for alderman of the Second
ward.
But Terry couldn't stay.
"I'll be back soon," he promised
Mary, bravely Sitting desire to take
long, deep breath and crowd dowr
something that was sticking in his
throat.
"And I'll wait forever, Terry Mary
vowed
Terry went to Chicago where, hi:
! friends told him, the going was good
But it wasn't. He wrote every day
! for several days. He became discour
aged in a strange city, and he longed
for Mary and for Twelfth street.
Mary's letters were as cheering as
hours of editing could make them. She
kept him informed as to the cleanup
and warned him that, although she
would give anything to see him, he't
better keep away. Several of the boy:
who had stayed were in Jail awaiting
! trial.
"Pd rather be in Jail in Kansas
City than be mayor of Chicago" was
Terry's answer. But he stayed in Chi
cago.
! Everything was all right until Mr.
Spike Kelley, first baseman and cham
pion hitter, began a crusade against
corporations by taking his shirts ant
collars to the Antitrust laundry.
Mr.. Kelley, who was distinguished BY
the fact that he never wore the same
necktie twice in the same week, al
ways brought and called for his Iaun
Cry.
He was especially proficient in di
lnting upon the good times that come
to a baseball players wife, who sit:
in box at the games and always trav
els with the team.
Mary's letters to Terry began tt
contain more and more warning o.
what the police would do to him i
they caught him.
Terry in the meantime had obtained
a permanent address, and was clerk
ing in a Chicago clothing store. FL,
had i"ied gambling, but had had NJ
success.
Terry was writing regularly to Mary
aud never did he suspect that hi
sweetheart had subscribed to the pa
per that issued a pink sporting extra
and that she had traded autographed
photographs with Mr.. Kelley.
Neither did he know that Honest Bill
again was a respected citizen, and that
the reform wave over, Twelfth stree
contentedly was saying: II told yol
So" His information came from
Mary's letters, and he had an idea tina
honest citizens were being sent to tn
penitentiary for matching for carfare
The green baseball diamond wa
winning the fight from the green gam
bling table. Mary was puzzling he
Drul1 every lew mOHeutS5 WOnuCAhi
how she would break the news t
Terry that she had promised to MARI,
Mr.. Kelley.
Kelley was known on Twelfth
street as swell fellow and gram
dresser" and he was proud Of his reI
utation. He liked to tell his fellow
baseball players about his conquest
with womankind, and he had an
neunced that he had girl he ha
taken away from "a big Chicago gam
bier"
In place of Terry's diamond, Mar
was wearing an engagement ring Sc
with a topaz which Mr.. Kelley sal
was her birthstone, and therefor
much more appropriate than a dis
mond.
Mary still liked Terry very, YER
much, and she kept putting off send