The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-08-20

1t has taken several days for the people
outside of certain circles to thoroughly
realize that large number of gamblers and
their co-workers have actually packed their
satchels and departed for parts unknown
and uncared for; but such is the fact and
Ogden rejoices.
OF course there are some that predict
that the past week has wrought irrevocable
injury to Ogden. One man estimated that
the real estate carried away with the wind
and washed away with the rain would re-
tard the growth of the city six months
Another said that real estate and rents
would fall 80 per cent. by the recent action
of the United States marshal
Quite naturally there was feelin G
among the best of our citizens that they
would have been better satisfied had Ogden
swept her own house instead of waiting till
the neighbors came in and volunteered
their assistance. 1t is thought by some that
| if the police had done their work as
| thoroughly as the judiciary did its part
nearly every prominent member of the law
breaking fraternity appearing before Judge
| Preshaw having received the full extent of
the law-there would have been no need of
assistance from without. But now that the
dirt is gone, or part OF it, let US not regret
its departure.
There are many persons that have no
sympathy with gamblers or prostitutes, who
traffic is bad and bad only, their presence Is
not only an evidence, but a cause of finan-
cial prosperity in a city. But what is a
slight increase in financial prosperity to
city compared with the character of its peo-
pie! The knowledge that drinking and
gambling and their attendant evils are IN
restrained in this city will not of itself add
one good citizen in ten years who comes
with his money and his wife and children
expecting to make this his home, while it
will keep hundreds of such families in their
homes in the east Every father who goes
to the postoffice, considers the activity of
certain lines of business as a menace
to the future happiness of his boys
and girls. 1t is small gain in actual
growth to the city that such men
hesitate to make their homes here, even
though scores of transients 'make business
lively.' If the city has in it the elements
of growth, it will grow all the better for
the absence of these barnacles.
If the reported forty that departed
last week took nothing with them, it is
certain that they brought as little hither
Such persons are scatterers of wealth, and
during the time they were here, boarded
and clothed at the expense of the city. For
every dollar they collected from strangers
passing through or stopping off at Ogden
a tax of many dollars was levied upon resi-
dents of Ogden and the neighboring coun-
try that would otherwise have been in
vested in the city in clothing, furniture or
real estate. 1t is accumulated or capital
lied wealth, not scattered wealth, that
enriches a community. "a live town !" "a
dead town" making business lively.' etc,
are misleading terms. Wasteful activity
is not growth A stick thrust into a quiet
beehive, destroying the work of
hundreds of bees for several days, i'm
mediately transforms it into ''live' nive
A few w-boys, full of bad whisky, will
change "dead town. into Give town.
in a few minutes without adding to the
wealth of it. The activity produced by
drinking and gambling is not permanent.
1t is too often the accompaniment of real
business activity: and as such is mistaken
for the cause of prosperity Each member
of the departed forty did his share to-
ward lowering the average of morality,
and consequently of the desirability of the
city as home to those whose residence
here would be a blessing. not only morally
and socially, but financially.