The sensation of sensations at St. Louis is the arrest of A.B. Wakefield, one of the proprietors of the Grand Opera House. It came about on a warrant sworn to by William Hyde, the editor of the Republican. The accusation is that Wakefield has been circulating statements that Hyde, Chief of Police McDonough and others have been running a gigantic gambling ring and making large sums of money, and that they dictated what houses should run, and shared the profits.

Among the documents that have been collected against Wakefield it may be here mentioned is one that relates to a spicy scandal, in which the Opera House is mixed up. Charles Duffey makes an affidavit that he was employed as an errand boy, etc., at the Opera House by Wakefield, and that when the Strakosch opera was in St. Louis Wakefield one day asked Duffey if there was not some way of seeing into "the dressing-rooms of the stars" was answered in the affirmative; that he could go upon the roof and look down through the skylights.

Duffey then goes on to say that Wakefield had a canvas laid down on the roof of the theatre, so that he could lie down on the canvas, and that he went up of nights and remained there for hours looking at the sights below, and that he continued this practice as long as he (Duffey) stayed there, and that Wakefield sometimes took a friend with him. Duffey makes prominent mention of Kellogg and Cary in his affidavit. There is any amount of information now to be had against Wakefield. Everybody is ready to tell of something in his remarkable history. They say he came to St. Louis as a three-card-monte man, and that he had been operating on steamboats running to New Orleans.

The Illustrated Police News, February 15, 1879.