Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 269, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 November 1916 — CHINATOWN OF NEW YORK IS PASSING INTO HISTORY [ARTICLE]

CHINATOWN OF NEW YORK IS PASSING INTO HISTORY

Famous Gambling Section Destroyed, and Habltuea are Going Elee* where to Play New York—Time was when poker ’hreatened the supremacy of fantan in New York’s Chinatown. The elusive full house was taken to the Chinese bosom and players sat bp far into the night in pursuit oXJherhlgher learning which tells a student of Hoyle when to toss away one of his two pairs for the sake of improving his chances In the draw. But that time is past. In this day poker and the Chinese of Pell street scarcely speak as they pass. Because poker with its chance for the individual player is against games in which the dealer holds all the advantage, appeals to the Chinese gambling sense, it thrived In Chinatown. The American deck was easier to handle, too—and perhaps to slip into a capacious sleeve —than the narrow cards of the orient. But its vogue was of brief duration, for American detectives, who knew even more about the game than the crafty Chiflese swooped down upon it. confiscated the cards and chips and arrested the players. Fantan came back into its own because, to quote one of the detectives who helped put poker out of the business, "You ctfn’t tell by lookin' at a bunch of Chinks playin’ the blasted game whether they’re gambling or takin’ up a collection foj the Belgians." —————————————— When detectives battered down half a dozen "icebox" doors, broke their heads in low ceiled passageways and barked their shins on chairs thrown in their path by fleeing “lookouts” they often got to gambling rooms to find from half a dozen to fifty bland Chinamen sitting about tables and fingering , buttons and dominoes. There was no money in sight. - Sometimes lhey went mver roofs, clambered down fire escapes, dropped into courtyards, shinned a wall and let themselves in thru a window. -By the time they had pried loose the iron bars covering the glass, kicked out the window frame and tumbled into the room thbre was one suspected gambler left, and he was asleep, his head pillowed on a gambling table. Today there is no gambling in Chinatown. That is a statement worth emphasizing. The activity of the police department is responsible. Consequent of this, Chinatown is threatened with extinction. The Chinese theater is gQnp. Stores are ch sed. mlssigns are working at half time and with reduced forces for gathering con-’

verts. It was a sorry day five years ago when a missionary couldn’t step outside the door to save the souls of at least half a dozen white girls. To day the only white women who are in Chinatown are married to Chinese. Chintitown is near effacement be :muse of the' closing down of gambling The Chinese is the world’s natural gambler. He will wager on the number of seeds in an orange, on the number of grains in axuear of com —on anything, in fact, that affords the chance. Unless'he can gamble he does not stay in his home. Absolutely without home ties, and willing even to sacrifice his business, of whatever it may consist, for a chance to be where he may bet something on somethingb he packs up and gets out when gambling is denied him. New York’s Chinatown is fast losing its citizens. They are going to Newark and Jersey City to play fantan and poker. The grocery stores tea houses and restaurants, except such as are retained for the benefit of the sightseer, are closing because they are lojing patronage. It use 4 to be that thousands of laundrymen from various parts of the city, and even from neighboring cities, visited Chinatown on Saturday and Sunday nights to gamble, do a little shopping and perhaps smoke a pipe of opium. Now they go across the rlv er to gamble. And where they gamble they spend their .money for groceries and clothing.