New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-04-18
READING-ROOMS vs.. LIQUOR-SALooNS


demolshins without fear or favor, the hidngplsces
Of fraud and Iascslity; and sweeping away the open
temptations to crime. II ia wonderful how wide and
varied the influence of this new administration Is.
A feeling spreads abroad among the lower classes,
that there is at length here astice in the world
Corruption and bargaining with crime, aud iudfsr
ence in legi.tiop seem TO be pulled do wn for ShlIe
frem their high places. Now, when rogue shom the
police has long known, commits some new act of VII
siny, he feels at OF CO he has not his old chsuce Of
scape in the care'essness or corruption of the officers,
He is eonsocu US Of certain different Judicial atmo.
spbere. When a foreign woman is cbe.ed by ras'
caly runrers;" when spoor girl is defrauded bya
rich employer, or beguiled by pimps and vile agepts
or wioDged by so-caled lover, the refuge at once
for Justice to the weak is the Mayor" lie is kind
OF Rhodomsn'hus among toe crowd.
Mayor Woods administration has effected nothing
better than its Sunday reform. Hitherto, Wards like
the Fourth and Sixth, on Sundays, have been in
expressibly hideous. Reyeluss, cursing, yelling,
fighting and pouring forth Of liquor, going on from
dawn to midnight. Au those whose consciences
suDg them under the quiet tones Of the church bell
the better class rowoes, the prostitute women aud
girls; all whose dleness on that day left thsm prey
to violent appettes; all who had disgusting and I'M
happy homes from which, az Oh the weekdays, they
they could not fly to daily labor, were used on toe
Sunday to forget svery thing ia wild, ilarsting
excitement Of liquor, supplying carouse Wast-
ever there Is worst in debauchery or ruhanism, or
obsceuity or riot came forth under every quiet Suu
day sun light. The great mor0lay--the undsrtov Of
religion, which, with whatever Of Journalism or pre-
tence xas vibrating that day through society, vas
never brought to the cara OF the rouers. la their
free bacchanalian revelry, there was scarcely
anywhere reminder that law and IN )rality
STILL even if only in name, ruled the community. For
this, the execution Of the Sunday Liquor Law was in
valuable Not that legal enactment for one day Of
the week can make men temperate; butt is wall, at
dsy, to force these wdes and drinkers aud
besotsd to know that there is, somewhere, Lap aud
TO take away what the greatest temptation to all Of
this clAss-the Sunday resort from squaid homes aud
dirty wives to grogcellars and IiquorsaloOns Still,
sDy man who has the lesst experience in human ns-
tue must feel that Is Of 10 use forcby to forbid
one amufem. indulgence ifyou substitute nothing
in is place. II should be remembered, these rotous
fiequebters Of drink shops come there for reason
Many Of them are workiDg-men, and the
bone Of the workipg.man In Newly especially
Of the foreign err no pleasant one. Go to the eel
lars damp and rloppy to the close, dirty ats in
Boosevel, and Cherry, and Oliver, and Orange SITS
cit under the dim ligst by the chilly stovei look at
the dnorder, ard dirt ard discomfort listea to the
screams equals Of the ragged cbildreoi shd then
60 TO the brllisnt greg shop, with light, and warmth
and pa, ers and people to talk WITH with jovs faces
tout, and above all, the sforgetting glass, which
changed for the moment Poverty to Wealth, and the
siings, and rubs ard Of the poor mans life to
jollity and fur-sud then wonder, II you can, that
tie suldey erogshop is crowded, and that each pure
Sabbath sun looks on crimes which make earth hid
eous.
Many Of these who come to these shops are young
men They live in disagree cable boarding-housesi or
they live alone; or some have homes, and somehow,
by strsnge chance, are not quite happy In those
homes. They are wearied by the weeks labor; they
are solitary, or gloomy, ennuyes on the Sunday.
The City seems great Babel Of strangers-snd they
catch chance companion, and under splendid mir
rorp ar in the gay saloon, they can forget it all In
the decspter; ard thsy drink and drink, till the ter