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Show THE CITIZEN 6 money against the best hand of the numerous boosters in the game. At any rate he must lose, that is what the place is run for. Then another obstacle presented, itself which had ' to be over- come. They could not deal craps iwith cards and as, there? is a great demand among,, the, younger, element; for .craps, provision must be. made to permit a back, room to be. used wherein the boys could be cleaned with the little loaded ivories,, and as the purity squad found the . front door wide open they would not be so rude as to try to peer around in rear rooms. It would be ungentlemanly and they refrain from doing anything that would cause them to be criticised. Still another difficulty appeared, Ikey. and Dinkey, knew how to conduct a game that was a sure cleaner, but it could not be dealt with cards. This is the pony game, and the sucker loses his money by telegraph, and as it was necessary to the cleaning policy of the commission and in order to overcome this difficulty, a number of leading business men of the city came to the rescue and interceded with. the safety commissioner to permit them to run under the card club license. Now, this game is a little more than the others, in that many of the sportily-incline- d shop girls, clerks and other working ladies are given an opportunity to separate-frod their coin, but only for the purpose of breaking them of the habit I Of course the ladies do not have to go up to the club to lose their money; touts being detailed to call on .them at their places of employment and take their, money up." and lose it for them and without any extra charge for the service. .V So you see the city commission are in reality engaged in a great and meritorious undertaking, in trying to kill the gambling desire in the young, male and female, and in trying to hold and put in circulation the transient money that comes to our city daily from all parts of the world. The present enforced closing is working a great hardship on the public as well as on the proprietors of these clubs, as a number of fat bucks have come and gone while they have been closed but we are led to believe that it will be declared off in a short time, unless your knocking prevents,, and then, too, I heard a fellow talking on the corner the other day which makes me leery. He said : That if they allowed the clubs to reopen he would go into the supreme court and ask for some kind of a mandamus writ to compel the commissioners to repeal the card club ordinance and to enforce . the law against gambling, .whatever that is. In the meantime some of the boys are preparing to offset any plans that may be sprung to keep them from opening; at least one place has been fitted up as an athletic club and can get by without a card license, of course, the only athletics that will be taught or practiced will be snapping their fingers and saying, Dont deceive me, dice and sweeping the table with the cards in the black-jac- k game and saying, Hit me once more. Having a sign on the door which says: Athletic Club patrolmen and detectives will not try to investigate and the purity squad are too gentlemanly to go where they are not wanted. Having endeavored to set you right on this matter, I sincerely trust that you will in the future, refrain from criticizing the commissions or the proprietors of those cleaning establishments. I would also call your attention to the fact, that it is not the fault of Commissioner Barnes that these cleaning establishments are in existence, as they were established by his predecessors and he inherited them. On account of a little talk that he made at the time of his being given the job by the other commissioners, Ikey and some of the other boys became alarmed and hastened a delega tion of leading business men to call on him, as had previously been their custom, to square it for Ikey at all hazards. How well they succeeded is a matter of record. Everything would have been lovely now for the grand reopening had Ikev obeyed the temporary closing order, but he spilled the beans by being foolish enough to holler bull when the stick-u- p guys went up and borrowed some of the take off money that he was hoarding up, and by making the holler he tipped his mitt, that he had not been toting fair with the purity chief in keeping the joint closed until lie received the promised permission - : - far-reachi- - hard-earne- ' I , . well-meani- ng . ' ng to throw it wide open again. If he ever gets open again will punish him by boycotting him and refusing to make at the ponies. I hope that you will appreciate my efforts to steer y( this matter and that you 'will riot knock either the cot oithe proprietors of these institutions that are' conduct, interest and' welfare of the. community at large. It bcingc an unpardonable sin to let go information to newspape, . of the gang, your hat. kindly consider this confidential and keep Yours sincerely, A. RHOUNDeM 4SS y2 South Sty iggj ii THE BLACK PLAGUE OF INJUSTICE &' rfj tl Strange as it may seem to the predacious masters of only cure for the disease that is killing a continent is justice, is good, but it is not a cure. If Europe would have peace it must have justice. Perhaps the vorst symptom of the general, disease an( more especially Vienna. To use the language of a reac$ server, Sir PIll1(n.n,KKc Austria is ttra bulbous head without 8i,f It is dying of injustice and all that the world offers is chariffjidl weakness of charity in this case, as in all cases, is its as a cure. Charity does not set the poor on their, feet them to prosper; justice often does. What was it that the elder statesmen of Europe, having nothing from the war, did to Austria? To satisfy the hates they cut off Austria from the rest of the empire, depr of the means of production and sentenced her to a liviHJ The streets of Vienna are filled with children whose bones s better than chalk and beautiful women sell themselveS meal to Czechs, Slavs, Greeks and others who haunt' the oi I. liant capital and know the grewsome secret of living off i Vienna is mad and merry with the pallor of death upon her 5! the victim of a worlds injustice. , Perhaps some may be heard to protest that capital punpj is justice, that the victim deserves her fate; but the black destroying not only Austria but Europe, the innocent and the And guilty nations are dragging down into the pit those who profess innocence. Had Christian principles prevailed at the peace table probably would be in a plight quite as evil as that which noiB? her despair, but she would have in her hands the means ofhtP We are accustomed to blame President Wilson for note ? to the Christian principles which he rightly advocated as the r. of restoring Europe to health, and, no doubt, he is blame to a degree, but even if he had adhered rigorously to his pn & he could not have done what Christ himself failed to do. 0 c nature was too strong for Wilson. Had the greedy statesmen at Versailles been able to undiDi the potency of justice they would have repressed their pb proclivities and tried to adjust the affairs of the world in con:: with the rules of justice. Austria would have been given a ckTl live. An impossible indemnity would. not have been demanjfl Germany. Japan would have been held in leash and Shantung not have been enslaved. In this connection it is well to say that the United State not, and cannot now, serve Europe by forgiving the debt of 000,000. That would be foolish charitv. If that $10,000,0' and J buy justice we could afford to wipe the debt off our books God for the opportunity, but it did not buy justice at Versa there are no present signs that Europe would do riglu the amount. .We cannot afford to forgive the debt while the nations ctf to build warships. But if the nations will disarm, if GieatK will do justice in Ireland and India and Egypt, if the allicv wil a reasonable offer to Germany and will rehabilitate Austra on omic lines; if, in a word, they will do justice even at tins la we can afford to forget the $10, OCX), 000,000. True, it would seer o': p': $1 K),OOC |