The Jersey City news., 1892-05-16
DR. Parkhurst,s Hideous Grimes.

We presume the 'sRev." DR.. Park
hurst is q hater of the Jesuits. We
suppose one Of the grounds Of con-
demnation he would allege against
them is the doctrine which their enc
mics have accused them-erroneously
we believe-of holding, that "The end
justifies the means" in other words
that it is lawful to do evil that good
may come.
Yet this is the only possible theory
on which DR.. Parkhurst can justify
his now famous as we'll as } infamous
visits to certain New York |disorderly
houses. If the Doctor had merely
taken steps to witness orgies in which
others were the actors ADMINISTRATORS,
his position would if not decent or
lovely, at least not havel been posi-
lively criminal. He Would be only
down to the level of q spy and an in
former. But there wouKd have been
very clear neral margin in
HIS his. fav0f- as compared with
the thing which he did actually do
What he did actually do was solicit
and purchase the commission, in his
presence, of certain acts, which the
laws of the State of New York declare
to be felonies, punishable by long
terms of imprisonment, making all con-
senting witnesses equally principals
in the crime with the actual per-
formers of the acts. These acts We're
not mere technical or statutory crimes.
They were, besides, hideous acts of
vice, which even professed ribalds and
roues shun participancy in. There is
hardly mortal man 50 shameless sham as
to admit openly that he has even
heard of such things-except DR..
Parkhurst.
In presence of such moral obliquity,
it is perhaps ridiculous to reproach
DIR. Parkhurst for logical failure in
his hostility to the alleged Jesuit doc
trine. Yet we cannot help noting
what difference it makes in morals,
as in all other things, whose OK is
gored. While it is wrong for the min
listers of another faith even to hint at
or think of such a rule of conduct, it
is quite the right and proper caper for
the Reverend" Doctor to make it the
animating principle of moral"
crusade.
Now when Editor Stead of the Pail
Mall Gazette tried the same plan in
London, the authorities taught him a
lesson which he will never forget. In
the furtherance of his crusade-a cru
SADIE. indeed, which was demanded by
the horrors which it combated and
which resulted in some good-Mr.
Stead injudiciously committed an Of
fence against public decency and a
legal misdemeanor. The English au-
thorities were not afraid to do their
duty. They shut him up in Jail like
any other lawbreaker and gave him a
three months sentence to convince
him that in civilized countries the
end does not justify the means when
the means are illegal and immoral.
British public opinion fully vindicat-
ed the action of the authorities, and
Mr.. Stead and his paper barely es-
capped ruin as the penalty of his error.
Yet Mr.. Stead's offence bore about
the same relation to Parkhurst's that
simple assault does to murder in the
first degree. If Parkhurst did in Eng
land what he did in New York, he
would spend the next seven years in
stripes in a convict settlement. If the
New York authorities have courage or
decency, they will press the case
against him for the crimes he has con-
fessed, will secure his Indictment, and
will send him to Sing Sing to keep
company with the other criminals
there, so that the people OF New York
may be saved from his polluting in
fluence, and so that one salutary ex-
ample may be held up to those who
are inclined to break the law for their
own aggrandizement or to crafty
their whims and crotchets.
Wanser and the Rumsters.
=. x,,s&I, ,,Iaacrra hot xuo 4lnta tho