13
Dec

“Lid” Is On In Earnest In Fort Dodge Today

   Posted by: admin   in Crime

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Dec. 13, 1905

“Lid” Is On In Earnest In Fort Dodge Today

Reign of Terror Through The City Will Be Brought to Speedy End.

The Slot Machines Go Down

Mayor Gives Chief Orders to Throw Out the Drag Net For Tough Characters

General Cleaning Up Started

All Gambling Institutions, Saloons That do Not Company With the Law, and Any and all Disreputable Places Will be Closed.

The lid is on in Fort Dodge today. A general cleaning up process has been started, and the city is to be thoroughly  gone over, cleaned and disinfected of the moral filth that has existed during the past few months.

At nine o’clock this morning Mayor Bennett entered police headquarters with a grim look on his face, and calling the chief announced that the lid was to be clapped down and hermetically sealed. The chief was given orders to take down all slot machines, whether operated for the purpose of winning cigars or money; all gambling devices of any sort, close all saloons that did not comply with the law, all gambling institutions and disorderly resorts, and throw out the drag net and rake in all the suspicious, tough and disorderly characters that could be found from end to end of the city.

Work Starts at Once.

The work starts at once, and it is safe to say that by night Fort Dodge will exist under the tightest lid that ever covered an Iowa city. Chief Tullar will personally visit all places in the city where slot machines are operated this morning, and will order them consigned to the garret, and on refusing will confiscate them. Saloons will be notified to observe a strict compliance with the closing law at nights and Sundays, warned to observe the black list and preserve order in their places. All suspicious localities will be visited, and anything that hints of disorder or lawlessness will receive a thorough investigation.

Throw Out the Net.

This completed the net will be thrown out, and the city raked through from east to west and from north to south. Alleys, by streets, dens and dives will be visited, and all undesirable characters found therein will be loaded into the patrol wagon, which will accompany the visits, and landed behind prison bars to await a sentence of a few days labor on the streets or a jail term on a diet of bread and water.

Mayor Bennett is determined that the reign of terror that has existed here during recent times will be ended, for good and for all if possible. The whirr of slot machines, and the rattle of the nickle (sic) will be heard no longer. Dice shaking for drinks and cigars will be prohibited, and the crap game in a sequestered spot in alleys is to be a thing of the past. Hold-ups, burglaries, drugging in saloons, and slugging on dark streets by foot pads will cease, and the gentry who have been perpetrating the acts will hide by day and night, or leave the city.

It is is expected that it will take several days to complete the work that has been started. It was placed well under way by noon, however, and a large part will be completed by night. The rest will await the action of time and vigorous action.

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