The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-03-18
DIR. PARKHURST.
A SECOND ATTACK UPON TIE
TAMMANY TIGER.
The Beast, He Says Fosters the Tendenc,
of Crime. Gltmpses of the Debauc cry
of New York Under the Present
Regime.


of Crime. GItmpses of the Debauc cry
OfNew York Under the Present
Regime.
More people than the Madison square
Presbyterian Church would hold under
took Sunday morning to hear DR.. Charles
Ii. Parkhurst's secold sermon on mu
nicipal corruption. His first sermon
four weeks ago made great stir, anG
brought DR.. Parkhurst before the Grand
Jury, where he was unable to prove his
charges. The Grand Jury made pre-
sentiment criticising the minister severe
ly. Sunday he dealt in facts rather thar
denunciations. Some of his most strik.
ing utterances were as follows:
mot only does the organization lust
referred to (Tammany HalD stand as the
organization of crime, but it fosters the
tendency of crime. There are citizens
In this town abominating the whole
system that do not dare to stand up and
be counted. One of the most striking
features of the immense number of let
ters of thanks and announcement that |
have been receiving during the last four
weeks is the large percentage written by
people who 60 not dare to append their
own signatures, Honesty in sympathy
with everything that is true and pure
and honest, and yet afraid in their own
name to put in black and white their
sincere views of a government whose
duty it is to foster virtne, not drive it
into hiding. l do not refer to this for
the purpose of charging the writers with
cowardice. 1 only adduce the fact as
demonstration of the inherent TYRANNY
OF the civilized brigands who are despot-
lzing over us. Only in that connection
L want to say that now is a good time tG
speak out an excellent opportunity for
moral h"roism to come to the front and
assert itself, Nothing frightens so east
ly as vice,
"Tha wicked flee WHEEL no man pur-
sueth, and they make still better time
when somebody is pursuing. Time and
again during the past weeks, as have
between the hours of II and three in the
morning, sat in the company of women
of class almost too disreputable to be
even named in this presence, | have had
the same thing said, that there is not 50
much doing just now for the reason that
every body is scared. When you come
to run a city with a million and half of
people, with interests that are a good
deal more than pecuniary, and city,
too, that is putting the stamp of its
character or its infamv upon every
smaller city in the country through,
then YOU nave not always shpuak from
putting iilc0 PAGES o. crust men VINO are
es' dive keepers and crooks and ex-con-
vlcts and men whose detailed written
history would draw tremblingly near
the verge of obscene literature.
Il have here list of thirty houses,
names and addresses, all specified, that
are simply houses of prostitution, all of
them in this precinct. These thirty
places were all of them visited by my
friend or my detective on the 10th and
also on the 18th of March and solicita-
tiOns received on both dates. One of
these places l spent an hour in myself
and know perfectly well what it all
means and with what facility such
houses can be gotten into. That house
l am standing now. All of this has been
neatly typewlitten, sworn to, corrobor-
ated and subject to the call of the Dis
trict Attorney. There is little advantage
in preaching the gospel to young man
on Sunday if he is going to be sitting on
the edge of Tammany-maintained hell,
the rest of the week. Don't tell me |
don't know what [ am talking about.
MANY long, dismal, notwithstanding
night in company with two tGusted
friends have l spent since spoke On the
matter before, going down into the dis
gushing depths of this Tammany de-
bauched town and it is rotten with a
rottenness that is unspeakable and I'M
de Scribable, and rOttenness that would
be absolutely impossible except by the
cOnnivance, not to say the purchased
sympathy of the men whose one obliga-
ton before God, men and their own con-
sciences is to shield virtue and make vice
difficult"