Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1909 — Cedar Lake Said to Be a Mecca For the Chicago Underworld. [ARTICLE]

Cedar Lake Said to Be a Mecca For the Chicago Underworld.

In a dispatch from Chicago to the Indianapolis Star great doings are reported at Cedar Lake. The story is: “Cedar Lake has become the mecca of Chicago’s gay element, it is said. Gambling is going on nightly, according to stories published in Chicago, and, it is said, that there is no limit to which the players may go. One player, it is said, lost $7,000 in one night. Reports also have been made that other large sums have been lost in saloons and roadhouses. “To each of the hotels at Cedar Lake there is a saloon adjunct, usually styled a “clubhouse,” according to reports that have been published. It is these clubhouses where the gambling has been going on and it is there where many midnight orgies have been indulged in until the early morning hours. “Jack” Johnson, the colored heavyweight puglist, was one of the principals in an automobile race at Cedar Lake recently in which a young woman from Chicago is said to have been crippled for life. Johnson, according to the story, wagered SSOO that his car pould beat any machine in the town and a Chicago sport covered the bet. It was during the race that one of the machines crashed into a fence and the young woman was injured. 4 "Skinny” Madden, Chicago labor leader, Is also known as a patron of Cedar Lake resorts, and many of the old-time Chicago levee habitues have come across the boundaries between the states and are reaping a harvest from resorts.” 39c for the best 50e work shirt made, at Rowles ft Parker’s, (successors to the Chicago Bargain Store) —remember their new location.