Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 92, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1909 — Mayor Knotts Causes Gary to Feel Blue Laws’ Grip. [ARTICLE]

Mayor Knotts Causes Gary to Feel Blue Laws’ Grip.

Gary, Ind., Aug. 2—Yesterday the Puritanic spirit in Gary reigned supreme. For the first time since the magic city was founded the constant stream of beer ran dry, the rattle of poker chips was transferred to deathlike stillness and the slot machines which had stood like sentinels for the last three years in every inviting nook and corner of the city were buried in the riffraff of the basements. The “lid” was clamped down with a vengeance. The Gary police, forced by a wave of public sentiment and the determined stand of Governor Marshall, gave out the word today that hereafter the “blue” law would be their only code. Even the ice cream parlors, the newstands and the cigar stores are to be closed on Sunday, in strict compliance with the letter of the law. In a statement following this drastic action by Chief of Police J. D. Martin, who heretofore has tolerated vice in every form, he said: “The people of Gary now seem to want a closed town and I propose to give it to them. Hereafter the ‘Sunday School’ style will be in vogue and all •Violations of the law from the operation of a blind tiger to desecratidn of the Sabbath will be prosecuted to the limit. There will be nothing half hearted about this, as I intend to give the city a taste of the ‘lid’.” In suddenly bringing to a halt the Gary reign of crime, Chief Martin and Mayor Thomas E. Knotts “stole the thunder” from Prosecutor W. Fp Bodes, who, until this time, Aad been the aggressor in the campaign against vice. The outcome was inevitable and the city officials took it upon themselves to assist in the grand climax in ousting lawlessness from the steel city. In some respects the situation in Gary tonight was humorous. Several blind tiger proprietors, who took the verdict of the police chief nonchalantly, draped their doors in black, others silently superintended the carting away of the wet goods while the knocks on back doors and confidential appeals of thirsty patrons went unnoticed. All early morning trains bound for Chicago and the East carried with them former inmates of gambling places and immoral houses, who slunk out of the city like a pack of whipped dogs. The notorious “Patch,” where carousals and street fights had become a matter of custom, was tonight as silent as the tombs. Houses were deserted, lights were out, the humdrum of pianos had ceased, and only the tread of the vigilant policeman marred the stillness of the night. In the respectable district of the city the people are tonight rejoicing at the downfall of vice. Prosecutor Hodges, who has led the crusade, has been acclaimed the hero of the hour for his stand against lawlessness. Tonight across the Wabash tracks the former proprietors of “blind held a mass meeting in which they cast their dying vote of thanks to Mayor Knotts for his consistent spirit of tolerance throughout the reign of crime. When surgeons operated upon Mrs. Lulu Curtis, of Brazil, Ind., at St. Anthony’s hospital for stomach trouble they were astonished to find that the real trouble with the patient was that she was the possessor of two appendixes and that both were diseased. Surgeons say that this is the first case known to medical science of a person having two of these troublesome little organs. Jimmy Donlin, the brother of Mike Donlln, former captain of the New York National league baseball team, who is now traveling about the country with his wife, Mabel Hite, was found dying in a shed near Stanton avenue in West Hammond. He suffered a stroke of paralysis. The unusual spectacle of snow falling in July occurred in Omaha, Neb., last Friday night, during an electrical storm which followed an extremely hot day. ■ The flakes fell intermittently for nearly tep minutes. *