The Night the Police Looked the Other Way
Barely a week after a showy 'raid,' five gambling houses on Washington Street were back in business — and everyone in the lower quarter knew it.
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.
Any one who visited the lower quarter of the city last night could have known without being in the confidence of Chief Jackson, or the men who control gambling, that it was not the night a raid was to be made.
Men were constantly going in and out of the Pacific House and the M. & N. rooms, on Washington Street, and the policeman who patrolled the beat below might have heard the click of the chips—had he been allowed to do so.
But the police did not seem to know that the games have been running right along since the 'raid' last Saturday night. The 'reform' administration appears to have lost its terrors for the Ramblers. All who have the disposition and money can take their pick from no less than five public gambling-houses, which are only closed when they know the police are coming.
“The 'reform' administration appears to have lost its terrors for the Ramblers. All who have the disposition and money can take their pick from no less than five public gambling-houses, which are only closed when they know the police are coming.”
A 'reform' administration swept in, staged one headline-grabbing raid, and then let five gambling houses reopen within a week. It is the oldest choreography in city politics — a crackdown for the cameras and a blind eye for the regulars — and it rhymes with every vice-enforcement cycle Seattle has run since.
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