The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-10-17


we love baseball. Yet there are cir
cuses and circuses. By that l mean
there are some straight, legitimate,
honestly conducted ones and there are
others which are only cloaks or ex-
cuses for securing "easy" money thru
the operation of gambling devices,
short-changing and obscene dancing
The men who own and conduct such
circuses are really not circus men, but
parasite showmen.
Why Write
1t is of these parasite circus men
that / shall write. And l shall write
automatically and out of the fullness
Of experience, having travelled, during
the past thirty years, with nearly
every circus in the United StateS-
the Sparks Show, the Al G. Barhes
and the Ringing Brothers and Bar
mum & Baily circuses being about the
only exceptions (inasmuch as the pro-
prietors of these organizations have
| always been opposed to graft in any
form, never dared to eight" around
them). / have been and "outside
man" and an "inside man. on the
graft games, as well as "fixer" for
them. | have operated these nefar-
ious games, and also short changed
people from coast to coast, in this
country, and all thru Canada, and I
know whereof | speak. Three months
ago | experienced genuine change of
heart, at mission service in the Ro-
man Catholic Church and, making a
full confession to the priest, l began
| life anew. My conversion was not
spectacular or emotional, but real.
| am neither fanatic nor a reformer.
If | may seem overZealOus in this
matter | am about to present to the
public | want you to know that it is
because | earnestly and sincerely de-
sire to do my utmost to make amends
for the infinite amount of harm and
evil l have perpetrated the many
years | misdirected my energies with
grating circuses. For too long I
have been a parasite; now desire to
become a useful member of society.
But to my subject, in a sane dispas-
sionate, truthful manner:
Graft-Circuses Garry Gamblers
How many Americans know that if
gambling devices are operated in
connection with a circus they are not
operated by followers, but are de-
liberately carried by the show and
form a distinctive and highly profit
able part thereof? Also, how many
Americans know that every graft
circus" Gas the questionable tent show
has ever been designated) carries a
man (who usually has an assistant)
whose work it is to adroitly bride
with tickets or money, or with both
city and county officials; to the END
that the ancient shell game (the little
black pill and the little square boxes
being present day garb), the equally
antique three-card monte and various
spindle and block games and Other
devices, all of them unfair, may be
operated in the side-show or on the
circus grounds?
Also Garry Short Changers
And how general is the knowledge
that graft circuses have always car
ried men (known, among themselves
though posing as ticket sellers o
"candy butchers" deliberately stea
money from patrons of the show ant
divide the spoils with the show man
agement.
. Organized Graft and Theft
] 1t is to acquaint the unsuspectin,
/ public with the facts concerning tn
cunningly conceived system of organ
! lied graft and theft, in all it's ramifi
! cations, and the slick methods of buy
J ing protection from criminal prosecu
ton, which the graft circuses" use
that | write.
Information for Public
First, I desire to "wise up" or in
form, the unsuspecting public, so tina
:: men may know how to protect them
selves and their friends when they al
tend a graft circus; secondly, deer
it my duty to let the general publ
know the truth about the manner i
which a towns, or a city's, or a cour
tvs police officials are bribed, in orde
that a grating circus may ply ii
+ games of chance, ETC., to the end tina
= this knowledge will awaken the clerg
protestant, Catholic and JEWS
alike, superintendent and principa
Of schools, members of boards {
trade. chambers of commerce, K
8 wants, Rotary, Lions and civic club
editors and all other patriotic ar