Community Corner

Historic Pinole: Pool Halls Should Be Closed

"Ya Got Trouble." A Pinole weekly newspaper lamented failed state legislation that would have closed pool joints.

The editorial stance of an old Pinole newspaper saw trouble — with a capital 'T' and that rhymes with 'P' and that stands for "pool."

This week's Historic Pinole is about local support for failed state legislation to close poolrooms. It's reminiscent of Prof. Harold Hill's warning that pool would corrupt River City's young boys in "The Music Man" play and movie. Huckster Hill's ploy is presented in the song "Ya Got Trouble." (The attached video from the musical references Dan Patch, the legendary pacing racehorse with historical ties to Pinole's Samuel Tennent.)

The newspaper's plea, republished from the Pinole Weekly Times, makes no reasoned or moral argument against poolrooms. But it takes a political turn by anticipating that the politically powerful "railroad company" will try to oust a Republican leader sympathetic to the bill by manipulating Senate district boundaries.

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The bill's sponsor, Sen. Charles Belshaw, represented Contra Costa and Marin counties. He ran unsuccessfully for governor against Hiram Johnson in 1944 and died in a car accident in San Mateo County five years later.

We post the article from the March 1, 1901 edition of the The Amador Ledger, of Amador County with the original spelling and punctuation.

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Compliments Judge Davis.

The Pinole Weekly Times of February 23, 1901, in referring to Senator Belshaw's bill to close up the poolrooms says:

"We believe the Bill should have become a law, and further believe that Mr. Belshaw did everything in his power to force its passage. We are pleased to note those among our friends who voted in the affirmative the names of Senators Davis, Muenter, Selvage, Caldwell and Rowell. Senator Davis, known throughout this county as the "Oregon," is unquestionably the leader of the Republicans on the floor of the Senate, and his advice is sought by other Senators when they have a measure to introduce.

We learn that there is an effort onfoot, probably engineered by the railroad company, to gerrymander his district in order to make it Democratic and thereby rebuke him for his work in Mr. Belshaw's behalf. We sincerely hope that the Senator from Amador will be able to have his district continue the same as it now is."

This article comes from the California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cdnc. The collection has digitzed more than 400,000 images from newspapers in the 19th and 20th centuries. Images dated between 1846 and 1922 are in the public domain and not subject to copyright.


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