THE SEAMY SIDE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXI, Issue 2341, 26 October 1926, Page 2

THE SEAMY SIDE.

TOLD TO MAGISTRATE.

DETECTIVE AND THE WHISKY,

R. E. Corner, of the London Daily Mail staff, has gone to the United States^ to describe the seamy side of life ;;<s" disclosed in the courts there. He writes :

Most exhilarating are these Chicago nights. Gunmen, on the prowl for others of their kind, frequent fashionable quarters/ They have exchanged shots at the Drake Hotel, where I am staying, amd also in front of the La Salle Theaftre and the Standard Old Buildings. And it is all directly or indirectly caused by drink.

Last night the police seized 7000 gallons of beer in vats, 500 more in barrels, and a complete brewery with ice plant. This is the second brewery seized within a fortnight. As the Chicago Press insists, commercialised crime exists by paying tribute to public officials to elect friendly incompetents to office and strvise for alliances in every depart - ment of Government with which it comes in contact.

Police Chief Collins says the leniency of judges towards criminals is another cause of bootleg wars. Criminals who are arrested carrying guns are getting out of the courts too easy, he says. Several gangsters carrying .45 automatic pistols were charged at the Town Hall police court which I visited recently. The leader of the gang, Julius (better known as “ Potatoes ”) Kaufman, demanded and obtained an adjournment. This court, presided over by Judge Hamlin, is in a good residential district exploited by gangsters. The cases seem to be conducted on confidential lines, no word being heard a few feet away from the judge. A genial policeman armed with a revolver, sunglasses, and a bottle of hooch said he was surprised to see a motorist sit on a kerb, but found a satisfactory explanation in one empty bottle of liquor and the full one produced. Four Negroes rind two Irishmen were discovered having a liquor party in a messenger office. One Negro had a half-full bottle of whisk/ in his hip pocket. “ Medicine?” inquired the magistrate. “No, jus’ a l’il beverage, judge.” replied the grinning nigger. Is it good whisky? asked His Honour. “I have not tasted any for some time,” said the defendant’s lawyer, but drawing the cork and sniffing the contents, “it smells all right. Better let an expert try.” A detective took the bottle, smelled and tasted, and declared enthusiastically, “that’s sv/ell whisky.” On the defendant being discharged, with a promise of thirty days in Bridgewell if he did it again, the magistrate asked, “what about the whisky?” “I will take care of that,” says the detective readily. A taxicab driver, accompanied by a pretty girl passenger chewing gum, charged a' young man in a highpowered car with bumping him ten times,, then, despite his brakes, pushing him for ai mile in the direction in which he did not want to go. The taxi driver came past me yelling,” said the policeman, “and the young man, who was drunk, was bumping and pushing him like a bath chair.”

A young Italian suspected of belonging to a gang was chased in his car by a police squad in the early morning. The Italian was found to be innocent.

“But why go 35 miles an hour?” asked the magistrate. “Because the car will not go faster,” replied the Italian naively. This is a common incident in these lively Chicago nights.