The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-10-19
HIS CHINATOWN PILE
TO CURE HOPHEADS
Chick THICKER VIII Spend For
tune He Made There to
Aid Fallen.
BUILDS PLANT ON FARM
Drug Addicts and Drunks Wei
come at Sanitarium on
Long Island.

In few weeks. or as soon as his
many affairs of business can be happily
adjusted. Chick Thicker, whose reputa-
ton as a former gang leader he seri-
ously decries. will bid Chinatown good
bye and remove his possessions to a
water front estate on the north shore of
Long Island.
Thereafter, so Mr. Thicker confided to
his friends yesterday. he will be business
manager and pare proprietor of the
Toxmania Sanitarium for the treatment
OF drug addicts and inebriates at Cen
terport. Having saved 100000 from
ten years of saloonkeeping and added
to this little nest c5s by fortunate spec
ulation at the race track and In other
marts OF chance. he has decided to in
vest part of his fortune and perchance
increase IT by helping the hopheads to
be cured of their yen, which is China
towns word for craving. He intends to
afford them retreat which shall have
all the comforts of home, including
bowling alleys and a tennis court, and
promises to make his charges reason
able to those with slim purses.
nus alltI many ytdi
of varied occupation. including prize
fighting and the keeping of seven
saloons. IN one of which he went part
ners with Trailing Arbutus Buggy Dun
nivan. reverts to the elevating pur-
poses of his youth. Twenty-Five years
ago, before the lads of the Five Points
led him away to manly things. he was
an altar boy and then choir boy in
old st. Patrick's Cathedral, in Mott
street. and the Church of the Most
Precious Blood. in Baxter street.
Was Terror in Youth.
Mr.. Thicker was found yesterday in
his bachelor apartment at 63 Bayard
street, on the edge of Chinatown, up
three flights and overlooking the old
clothes market. The principal decora-
ton is an oil portrait OF himself in
fighting trunks, done when he was n
terror at 125 pounds and parted his hair
in the middle. He sat on the edge of
his bed and spoke modestly of his
project.
He had noticed. he said, not among
his friends. of course, but In his scrutiny
of the town, a pronounced increase in
the use of morphine. heroin, cocaine and
other degrading substances. It was his
impression, too. that quite lot OF liquor
was being drunk, now that the country
had been rid of 1t by constitutional
He had also observed, he
said. that the drug users who entered the
ordinary sort of sanitariums were set
adrift as cured in much too short time
for real cure to have been effected as
the word cure was understood by Mr.
Trucker
I'm fact" he said, lots OF these peo-
Pile come out after two or three days, or
A week or two weeks. or something like
that. and they hit the hop harder than
ever. AS II takes at least three or four
weeks 10 get the stuff out of their sys-
tenn, how can they be cured?'
Explains His Plans. .
Having thus stated the physiological
nd therapeutic facts in the case, Mr..
Thicker explained his plan. He said he
and three friends, one OF whom was a
Or. Madden, who had been n major In
the army. had joined In buying a house
with four acres of ground and 200 feet
OF waterfront In Centreport. which is
pm Huntington Bay. In Suffolk county.
OF the house, so that Il
would contain forty-two rooms. had al
ready been started and would be finished
IN five or six weeks. The place was cost
ng between $4,000 and $4,000. The
visitor got the impression that Chick
Thicker and the third friend were fur
nishing the capital, while DIR. Madden,
who. said Mr.. Thicker would be the
medical superintendent Of the sanitarium,
was contributing his experience.
The name" Mr. Thicker said, will
be Tuxmania Sanitarium."
why Tux?r the visitor inquired.
Because. that's something against
r oisons." Mr.. Thicker explained.
Possibly the syllable Is Tox' instead
Of Tux" Il was suggested
Possibly" said Mr.. Thicker
The tennis court was now being laid
cut. he averred, and later there would
BIO other facilities for such exercise and
as the patients demanded or
required.
wen give them what they want.
Dur idea is to make them comfortabl e,"
ne added.
He reported his friends in Chinatown
and elsewhere as thinking well Of his
new venture, although, of course, they
will regret his departure from their
midst up into the rarefied social stratum
% the dear old North Shore Several OF
hese friends already had applied for
admission TO the ideal eanitarium, but, as
Mr.. Thicker understood the matter. the
clientele was TO be mustered up town
'uther than in the neighborhood OF
lie expected that DIR. Mad
lens patients and patients OF Dr. Mad
lens friends Of the medical profession
would be the nucleus of the Centerport
'olony. As for Mr.. Thicker himself he
would take his twelve-year-old daughter
Lucia, now IN school in Corona, and
Il IL r.
and winter resident and devote
he rest OF his life 10 giving the SAM
arium sound business management ana
he guests fair treatment
The subject of gangs was tentatively
discussed. Mr.. Trucker modestlv dis
lalmed a participants knowledge of
hem. IL was true. he said that in his