The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1879-01-16


Rress was assembled and when Congress
was away. It's morals are 81 ger cent.
better when the Senate and House OF
Representatives are home on vacation
During that time the churches have their
rivals, and the piety Of the city is more
dominant. Itis the woe Of this country
that SO many Of our National Legislators
leave their families at home, and getting
10 Washington these celebrated men
show the need OF domestic superVisal'
Man without elevated female society is
naturally bear. But few men do as
we'll away from home as at home. Amer
ican Christians at Paris have been TO dis
reputable gardens, and ministers on va
cation have been seen at the Saratoga
horse races. Some Christian members Of
Congress who attend to their religion
during vacation, during the sessions gen
erous(y give the vacation TO their religion.
But Washington has iniqnity not in otfic-
ial position and which stays all the year
round. Drinking bells and dens OF ln'
fanny are found in every part Of the city
and the police in their attempts to pre-.
serve law and order, are poorly sustained
by the Courts and Churches. On Christ
mas day, on Pennsylvania avenue, a doz
EN- young men drink until they fight and
one is shot dead and others are bruised
and mangled, and the culprits are taken
to the District Attorney and then lei 90
The sins rampant in New York and
Brooklyn are rampant in Washington.
Two Thousand bar.rooms, grocery stores
and apothecary shops where intoxicating
liquors may be had, 1888 arrests during
the last year, 276 citizens that can nelth'
er read nor write, over $l20 900 of stolen
property captured by the police last year,
are statistics all suggestive to an intelIl-
gent mind. Washington needs more po'
liCemen. The beat of a policeman in
Washington and Georgetown is ten miles
per man. Only nine mounted men In
that vast city, its population in nineyears
more than doubling, rushing up from 6l,-
900 to 18l 900, But what vast improve
ments since the day when the drinking
saloons under the National Capitol were
more thrifty than any establishments in
the city, and Senator'S and congressman
went there to get inspiration before they
delivered their speeches and recuperatlon
afterward Thanks to Henry Wilson,
the Christian statesman and the few kim
dred spirits, for the overthrow of that
abomination. During the war there
were one hundred gambling houses in
Washington, and over five hundred pro-
fessed gamblers. One of these gambling
houses cleared in one year over $500 600
During one session of Congress the ow
ner of gambling house presented to
the Sergeant'at-Arms orders for greater
part of the salaries of many of the Con-
gressmen, these Congressman having
lost at the faro table until they had thus
to mortgage their salaries Go in some
of the twenty gambling houses still re.
naming and you will find clerks Of De-
partments and bookkeepers and private
secretaries. Go in some of the more
costly establishments near Pennsylvania
| avenue and Fourteenth street, and you
will find members of Congress, officers
of the army, and gentlemen distinguish
ed the land over. They have curious
way Of hushing things up in Washing
ton. fear the reporters of Washington
are not as wide awake as our reporters;
they would give the States Of the Union
public information as to how some of
their representatives in Washington
spend their evenings. But in many re-
speCts there have been vast changes in
our National Capital. Dueling abolish
ed clubbing of Senators ended No
longer does Covode of Pennsylvania
brandish spittoon over the head Of
Barksdale of Mississippi; nor do Grow
and Keitt take each other by the throat;
nor does Griswold club Lyon, Lyon get
ting the tongs and striking back, till both
roll in an angry scuffls on the floor Of
the House. 1t is matter of congratu-
lation and high hope that never, since
the foundation Of the Government, have
there been 30 many genuinely Christian
men at the heads of Departments in
Washington, in Senatorial and Repre-
sentative chairs as now. What state
of encouragement, when the queen Of
of American society at Washington, by
her simplicity of apparel in the White
House, has put condemnation to that ex.
travagance of wardrobe which well nigh
shipwrecked some other Administrations
and by her removal of the Intoxicating
cup from State dinners, has suggested
that in high social positions people may
be jolly and yet keep sober Whatever
may be thought Of the politics of the
Presidential mansion, there has never
been, since the days of Washington, a
purer White House, with less rum and
tobacco, and more Methodist hymn
bookR and high personal morality, than
to-day.
came back from two or three Wash
ington explorations, impressed with two
or three things. First, that while we
would not have the question of a Candi-
date being Christian brought into the
election campaign, no man ought to be
sent to Washington or anywhere else
who has not good moral character. Send
a blasphemer2 Mol Blasphemy is an
indictable offense against the law of the
land, and will you send breaker of the
law to make lawsP Send an Atheist
No How can he take an oath to sup
port the Constitution of the United
States, when there is no solemnity in an
oath, if there be no GodP Send a man
who INDUCES in games ofchance, whether
to the amount of $500 or five cents? No
Gambling is denounced by the statutes
Of every State. Send a libertineP No
His presence at Washington would be
an insult to every deCenC man and WON.
an in the United States. Before you
send a representative to your City Hall
or your Legislature, or your Congress, GO
through him with lighted candle, and
see if he swear; If he lie, if he refuse to
pay his debts, if he dishonor the family
relation, if he go in bad company. If he
be guilty, scratch his name off with the
blacklist ink, and put blot on 1t after
ward. Send him not to a Congressional
hall, where John Quincy Adams died,
nor to a Senate chamber, where Theo-
dore Frelinghuysen sat, with face illum-
inatad with charity and heaven. MOI