Sam Young - Born in Huntsville,AL in1858 played baseball as a teen and traveled with a team between Memphis and other Southern cities. One thing he enjoyed more than baseball was gambling as the legend goes. He was known as an avid gambler who loved riverboats, especially in New Orleans. He would learned a numbers game while in New Orleans and later would reinvent it. He married Ada Miller in 1885 and moved to Chicago.They first lived on 29th & Federal St, later moved to 31st & S Rhodes Ave.
Sam hustled bets in the neoghborhood but more frequently at the downtown corner of State & Madison. When not there, he was at "Whiskey Row" on State street. Sam would be hustling Policy bets and pulling winning numbers from his hat. Additionally at 311 S Clark St in which this gambling house was owned by Al Bryant, George Whiting, & John " Mushmouth" Johnson. It was here that most likely Sam Young & John Johnson struck a deal and around 1890 Johnson sold his interest in 311 & opened the Emporium Saloon ( 464 S State St). Sam's Policy game became a featured attraction. The Emporium flourished with the political protection of the local Democratic Party especially from Michael Kenna and John Coughlin. The Policy stirred up a gambling fever at the beginning of the 1900s that people were being robbed at gunpoint in the streets. Things got so bad that in 1903, Reverend Reverdy Ransom of the Institutional AME Church And Settlement House at 3825 S Dearborn St attacked the evils of Policy gambling and it's evil influences in the communitu from his pulpit. In an attempt to shut Ransom up, somebody firebombed his church. Citizens took the streets in protest and even Policy Sam embraced Ransom with full support. The firebombing of the church led to the passing of Illnois Senate Bill #30: An Act for the Prevention of Policy Playing: The Anti Policy Law of 1905 (rev.1949).
Edward Morris ( Attorney) met with Ransom and together recruited Ed Green( Republican/ IL House Of Representative) in which Green drafted and introduced the bill. The bill succeeded in having the law passed. Green deplored the Policy racketeers of those days and on the floor of the House proclaimed:
[" The Policy trust has established its lures near the schools in Chicago and it's owners grow rich on the pennies they steal from the school children...money given them to buy lunch.. Under present law, Patsy King walked out of the criminal court in Chicago snapping his fingers at the judge." ]
When the Anti Policy Law pass, the game went underground and Policy Sam went into bail bond business.
To be continued*
