The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-05-10
SHOCKING STATEMENTS.
Opium Dens in New York-Church Officials
Invoking the Aid of the Authorities.
New York Herald.

Association, held on Monday night the
president, Mr.. William H. Smith, said that
while one of the priests of the Church of the
TRANSPORTATION was walking through Mott
street, on the previous night he was struck
and grossly insulted by an abandoned girl
from one of the Chinese dens. He called at
tention to the wholesale ruin of young girls
by Cinnamon in that neighborhood, OF which
the members of the association were we'll
aware, and declared that there was scarcely
house between the association rooms and
Chatham square that was not either an
opium den or house of i'll fame.
Father Barry, the honorary president
made an elaborate speech in which he said
that every citizen ought to give his assistance
in exterminating the evil which was under
mining the morals and destroying the virtue
of the community.
at is an insupportable idea" he exclaimed,
shat these pagan barbarians can carry on
their horrible orgies right among u.s. corrupt
our children and convert our peaceable
neighborhood into a hotbed of crime and de-
bauchery. They are destroying the daugh-
tiers of respectable parents by an organized
system. We will call to our aid all the power
of the existing authorities, and root out the
evil at once. We will say nothing now of
those who we know must aid and abet these
dens of iniquty, for it might Illustrate our
purpose But if the authorities fail TO move,
and if those whom we believe to be the sup
porters of these crimes do not help us, and
do their duty, we will investigate from the
bottom to the top, and we will give their
names to the world.
1.-THE hand of every mother, father and
1. farr
BILE evil. / know, as priest of this parish,
that in the neighborhood of hun
bred little girls have been ruined in the Mott
street opium dens within a year. The
iniquity is so great that the organs
of public opinion should keep 81
lent no longer. Some of these girls
are mere children and they are nearly all of
respectable parents, who seem to know moth
ing of what is going on. If any of the priests
of the parish happen to be passing along the
street when the little victims are coming out
of their rendezvous the girls hang their heads
guilty and stink away. Is this right? Is it
mot shameful that these lecherous wretches
are permitted to debauch the daughters of
Christian men and women in the very heart
of New York city? | don't care whether a
man processes religion or not, his cheeks
must burn with indignation when he is con-
ifronted with these facts"
But surely this cannot go on without
the knowledge of the girls parents. Do they
never complain to YOUR
Every seldom The whole thing is con-
Quoted with the secrecy which characterizes
and protects all the girls existing in China
town. But the priests of this parish and the
young men of this association have watched
it helplessly for over year. and we will so
watch it no longer with Gods help
II know many of the women who persuade
young girls into these dens. The principal
one is a pale-faced female with glittering
lanIra yhnt sc 10
men are of the very worst type, even of their
class, bat they seem to make acquaintance
with the girls who live in the tenement
house districts. The girls are induced to
visit the opium shops partly through GU
riosity and partly through promises of large
amounts of money which they are told can
easily be made. Once in the dens they are
coaxed into trying pipe or two of opium.
A few repelitions of this are sufficient to
make the girls victims to the opium habit,
and then their self-respect, moral courage
and will disappear. They then become reg
ular habitues of the houses, and ruin is the
natural result. Pale haggard and trembling
after their debauchery, they hurry around
the corners and into the alleys, afraid to face
any one they know.
''The Cinnamon have become aggressive in
their iniquity, and sometimes they accost
girls while am talking to them. They have
insulted not only the priests, but their
female relatives also, and it has come to pass
that a respectable woman can scarcely walk
along Mott or Pell street without being in
suited by Monaghan. The members of the
association are constantly making COM
plants, and all our neighbors are in arms.
Why, next door to the association rooms the
most horrible practices are carried on, and
the people who live on the opposite side
of the street are compelled to witness scenes
from their windows which are diegrace to
our civilization. A few days ago our associa-
OF ri IF tho
Chinese dens, but we had hard work to do
it."
when did this state of things begin?"
cover year ago. When we first noticed
it went around getting signatures TO a petit
ton asking the Legislature to close the
opium dens by law. AT the union of all the
Catholic young mems associations in this
archdiocese, which took place in Westches-
ter at the time, committee was appointed
to secure the passage of a law prohibiting
opium shops. A week or two afterward the
Legislature passed law to that effect This
and the petition which | got up frightened
the Cinnamon, and the evil was in some
measure abated Since then it has grown to
giant proportions. | remember that once |
accompanied several members of the assoca-
ton into the house next door, and there we
saw large number of young girls in the
rooms / cannot tell you for publication all
/ know it is so horrible.
you can see how profitable this iniquity
is to the Cinnamon who are responsible forit
when some of them pay as much as $50 and
$40 month for couple of rooms in a rick
ETY. house. The Chnaman who kept a gam
bling and opium den in the basement of
Mottstreet house offered the woman who
lived upstairs 500 bonus to vacate her
rooms She expressed surprise that he could
afford the money, and the Chinaman replied
that he sometimes made as much as $500
day. There is a Chinaman on the same street
who had the effrontery to offer $500 to one of
our members if he could secure the basement
of the associations rooms for him. am
glad to say that the Moravian Brethren. who
own large amount of property in Mott
street. cleared out their Chinese tenants
some time ago and thew will not admit these