Gambling in the 'Chicago Dollar Store'
A call for city officials to shutter a fraudulent lottery operating in a Yesler building.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A few weeks ago a shrewd sharper, after having 'fleeced the suckers' in different parts of the Territory, lit down on Seattle, and securing a room in one of Mr. Yesler's buildings, hung out a sign which reads: 'The Chicago Dollar Store. Gold and silver watches and jewelry given away.' The 'Dollar Store' turns out to be nothing more nor less than a lottery, by which the investors have one hundred chances to lose where they have one chance to win. We hold that it is the duty of the law to protect the weak and ignorant. If the law could reach and punish Val. Wildman for his 'Vanity Fair' lottery, why can it not reach and punish this man? We call on the City Attorney and Chief of Police to take steps to stop this gross outrage which is daily practiced in our midst.
“We hold that it is the duty of the law, as well as the officers of the law, to protect the weak and ignorant.”
This reflects early Seattle's uneasy relationship with vice and the constant pressure on city officials to crack down on 'shrewd sharpers.' Today's concerns about predatory online gambling and pop-up schemes show that the conflict between civic protection and laissez-faire economics remains a core local tension.
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