Chicago, Satan's Sanctum

by L. O. Curon

“Will you make the same pledge about pool rooms,” demanded the questioner quickly?

“That I cannot promise,” replied the Chief.

“Why can’t you promise it?” asked the questioner.

“Because they conduct that sort of business in places where we can’t get at them, and you know it, but I will try and stamp it out.”

Chicago and New York methods quite agree, with the advantage in favor of New York. In the latter city, the Chief of Police “will try” to stamp pool rooms out. In Chicago, the Chief, in his reply to similar questions, said: “While a man may come to my office and give information that a certain individual is violating the law somewhere and it is a trivial offense, I do not pay so much attention to it as I do when a report reaches my office that a man has committed a serious crime, such as murder, that a serious crime has been committed on the outside. I should naturally abandon that part of it, and take up the more serious offense, and I have been looking up serious crimes, such as burglary, robbery and the hold-up people, and I have made a desperate effort to suppress that.”

It was in this connection reference was made by the committee to the fact that one of Chicago’s policemen had shortly before been arrested for holding up a citizen and robbing him in the daylight hours, which called forth the reply already quoted in these pages to the effect that this particular star had been tried, that he was a member of the police force for ten years, was a good officer, but got drunk and became a “little indiscreet.” For this he was dismissed from the force, but reinstated because “many people” vouched for him. It seems almost incredible that that man is today a member of Chicago’s police force; yet such is the shameful fact.

Without the aid of the telegraph, the daily newspaper and the race cards, pool rooms and book making could not survive. They are the means of giving vitality to this form of gambling. The telegraph furnishes the press with “events” all over the country, upon which pools and books are made up. The news of the result of a particular race is flashed by wire at once from the race track to the pool rooms all over the land. There is scarcely a daily newspaper in any city that does not devote a page of its issue to sporting events. Many of them have their “forms” or “forecasts” of races, which are the guesses of their sporting men as to the probable results of each race to be run on a particular track. The race card is distributed every evening throughout the city; to cigar stores, saloons and billiard halls. It contains the “results” of the day, together with information as to the entries for the following day’s races. Through these sources the sporting community keeps in touch with the world.

A Chicago afternoon newspaper upon the occasion of the opening of a race track in an adjoining state presented in its issue its “Form of Today’s Races.” To those unacquainted with the lingo of the track its guesses are delightfully humorous.

Predicting the possible result of the first race, the form says: “B. L. looks the best of the lot on paper. If the trip from the east did not take the edge off H. S. he should win easily, as he showed considerable sprinting ability in his last out. L. P. has a burst of speed which may put her inside of the money and with a good boy up is worth a show bet. The others are a poor lot and of uncertain quality, so that the finish will probably be B. L., etc.” Of the second it remarks: “Of these youngsters which have started C. has been the most consistent and is undoubtedly the best, but T. is rounding too rapidly and may run ahead of the mark. F. A. is a sprinter, but if pinched does not like the gaff. M. E. and M. are green ones, and this is the first time they have faced the barrier, so there is no line on them. C. T. and F. A. should be the order of the finish.” It says of the third race: “M. is a soft spot, and, if fit, she should win as she pleases. It looks as if the real race should be for the place and the show money, and will likely be between M. and A. H. and T. are also partial to the going, but as the latter has not started recently, T. should be the better if any of the others named are scratched. The result will likely be M. A., etc.” Of another, a colt race, its forecast is, “H. is such a good colt that he looks like a 2-to-5 shot in this bunch, and that will be about what the books will lay against him. Of course, he has dicky legs, but the soft undergoing will undoubtedly suit his underpinning. The finish should be H. K., etc.” The final race is thus placed in the form: “At the best this is a bad lot, and hardly worthy of doping, as so much depends on the jockeys and start that any one of the probable starters has a chance to get the big end of the purse.”

To this necessity has journalism come at last! While it urges the suppression, in thundering tones, of all manner of gambling, it is driven, by the necessity of competition, to aid the most injurious of gambling’s many attractive methods. Another Chicago newspaper, the columns of which every morning contain the world’s news of sporting events, said a short time ago, editorially: “Chief K——’s assurance that he will do his best to suppress gambling will be accepted in good faith. He has made a start in that direction, and the farther he goes the more plainly he will see that for the police to suppress gambling is a mere matter of lifting their hands. Gambling of the sort that the police department is expected to suppress does not flourish save by the connivance of police officers. It is quite true that to extirpate the vice of gaming is beyond the power of the police. Nobody has expected them to do that. While the board of trade and the stock exchanges remain open one form of the vice will be practiced publicly beyond the reach of the police. And so long as cards and dice boxes are to be procured, degenerate human nature will practice the vice in secret. But the police can stamp out the open and flagrant practice of gambling in forms inhibited by the law as easily as they can wink at it. It is a matter of saying “Yes” or “No.” A poolroom or a policy shop may open now and then, but it will quickly shut again if the police are in earnest.”