The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-03-29
NEW YORK LETTER.
The Lights and Shades in Metrcpoli-
tan Life.
DIR. Parknupst Against Tammany-Isaiab
Z. Montgomery. Negro Meses-Ais
Intelligent Views = Lynch
Law Doomed.
ToorYwseur, 1854

Intelligent Views - Lynch
Law Doomed.
ICcFYISGuT, 1921
Tho esteemed DIR. Parkhurst, of the
Madison Square Presbyterian church,
takes fresh hold. since hurting his
ministerial lance into the ''quivering
vitals" of Tammany some five weeks
ago he has been laboring under the
charge of having made slanderous allie
cations against the city authorities
without having the evidence to sustain
the same The public was inclined to
this view, but more especially was the
grand jury. When invited to eleotrify
that body with his take of woe the tale
fell cutie fat. This is not because the
grand jury is hlase as to such matters,
but because the enthusiastic clergyman
did not have tho cold facts to present in
solid chunks of frigidity. The grand
jury heard his story and bowed him
politely out of the door, taking occasion
to smite him later in special report. 1t
was beautiful, therefore, to see the doc
tor, with true Christian humility, pre-
sent the other cheek, but with his
s'dni2ss'' elevated In a Sul1ivanistic
n1aBner which said quite plainly that
he was on hand to protect it. The
grand jury wanted evidence and the
doctor set out to get it. In securing it
he was obliged to plunge to the lowest
depths of society, but he claims to have
found what he went S1ter. He also
found that his previous assault had
4 Al Ja
prised his congregation Of the cheering
fact in this way: Thine and again dur
ing the past week as have, between
the hours of twelve and three IN the
morning, sat in the company Of women
Of class almost too disreputable to be
mentioned in this presence have heard
that there is not much doing just now
for the reason that the authorities are
scared"
The doctor evidently made this state
mont from the pulpit simply to assure
his congregation that he had not been
neglecting his great work of downing
Tammany, a work to which he has con-
secrated himself, as Mr.. Cleveland
would say, in his unctuous way. The
public will now anxiously await the I'M
folding of the evidence which this earn
est and eloquent preacher has found
in the gilded purlieus of vice whittier
his wandering and midnight steps have
been carrying him. Artemus Ward
escaped from the Mormons with his vir:-
tue unimpaired, and it is understood
that Dr.. Parkhurst returns from his
hunt for evidence in position to cast
the first stone and follow it up with
many others. The outcome of this min
isterial assault upon the wickedress
of a largo town will be awaited
with more than common interest.
The contention of the preachers
is, as it always has been, that vice
cannot be held in check or regulated,
but must be stamped out absolutely.
Like the fair young female delegate
under the Gainsborough hat in the peo-
pies party convention in st. Louis re-
Gently, they demand that all persons
shall cease drinking liquor the moment
a resolution is adopted to that effect,
and that. henceforth, all corn shall be
fed to the hogs prior to and not after
its conversion into the liquid form. A
great many persons think the best way
to beat the liquor vice, as well as some
other troublesome vices, is to regulate
them by license. But this is only side
issue with Parkhurst. He has gone in
to the business of ferreting out political
corruption in the city of New York,
and, like the man who started in early
in the spring to make maple sugar, if
he likes the business he may work at it
all summer.
It is not generally known that DR..
Parkhurst fell into this line of work by
succeeding to the presidency of the So
ciety for the prevention Of crime on
the death of the former president, Rev.
Howard Crosby. After his election to
this Office, which he did not seek, he
began to look about to see where he
could prevent or suppress crime, and
found no end of opportunities. He
seems to have found his society power
less to accomplish much good unless he
could quicken the public conscience and
alarm the authorities, whose consciences
are supposed to be beyond quiclzening.
But taking a Calling gun into the pulpit
he has succeeded. in doing both. DR..
Parlrhurst is fifty years old, and, of
course comes of Puritan stock. He was
born in birmingham, Mass. He attend
ed the school in his native town, and
when sixteen years old entered dry
goods store. and for couple of years sold
coffee, tea, tobacco, ribbons and what
not. His mind appears to have been in
another direction, however, and jump
ing out of the store window, as it were,
he fed to college and graduated from
Amherst in 1852. Since entering active
" upon the affairs of life, he has been
principal of the Amherst high school,
professor of Greek at Williston sem
mary, East Hampton, Mass. He after
ward went to Europe and made much
more than superficial study of Ger
man philosophy and theology. The
Young student also made quite a hit in
studying Sanscrit, and has since printed
a work entitled: 1.-The Latin Verb Illus
trated by the sanscrit." This makes
the outlook quite bad for Tammany, be-
- ,,r.,,.A