Morning journal and courier., 1893-03-20
ton, and of the sure destruction which Is daily wrongful there.

ion, and of the sure destruction which is laily wrought there.
 The fair name of New Haven is already ,adly tarnished. That which Is perhaps aere made known to some of you for the drst time Is already we'll known far be- Yond the borders of our state. In one of | our powerful leading magazines nearly two years ago an article on "The Degradation of the State" mentioned New Haven in group of half dozen American cities which were noted as great gambling cen ters. Late papers in New York and other | places mention New Haven in a way that | no Christian man can be proud to hear.
 It is high time for Christian sentiment | to find it's voice. The trouble with us is | we are too ready to let things slide. But | we are letting things slide at our own peril. The descent to Avernus is easy. Perhaps these things do not come near you; possibly they are coming nearer to you than they think. But whether you see cloud gathering over your happy home or not, you and I, as Christian citi- gems, have duty which we owe to our fel- low men and to our Lord. It is our busi- ness to see that we have righteous, lava and that these laws are we'll en- forced. Devillsh forces are at work day and night for the corruption of our youth and for the ruin of all manhood and virtue. We must protect ourselves against these forces of de- struetion. "When 8 strong man armed keepeth his palace his goods are in peace; but when 8 stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted and divideth his spoils." There can be no question about our strength just now. But if we are sleeping while our enemies o1orf ond if 1oftfno fhi,,ro lrsft while they are constantly active, there can be DO doubt as to the outcome. While the the giant slept tho pigmies twined the soft silken thread around and around and around him; and at last, when the giant began to stir himself he found that he was . captive.
 We, too, have legislature. What the statesmen up at Hartford are likely to do at given time no living man can know. But there is no matter before our legislature of grayer importance to the welfare of our youth than the bill which outlaws the whole business of pool selling. The gam blers are not idle, I can assure you. They propose to kill that bill. If money will not do it, and if threats will not do it, they propose to saddle the bill with such riders (apt terminology for horse race gambling bilD that it cannot possibly pass. What do you think of the spectacle of the ex governor of Connecticut, whose pious thanksgiving proolamations were read in pulpits all through the state as late as last November, lobbying with might and main to legalize gambling at Charter Oak park in Hartford2
 What do you think of his trying to get such @ provision as that into the same bill which outlaws the pool rooms, so that the decent men at Hartford who are opposed on principle to gambling in every form could not consistently vote for the bill? say let the law stamp out gambling in every form at every place and at all times. But | in this bill I would make the one issue of | the pool room so distinct that no man could | escape expressing himself on that question and on no other question at that time. Well, what the Solons will manage to &C., complish at Hartford we shall soon ees In the meantime, brethren, If you have any | influence at all at Hartford, or if you can | indirectly bring any honorable influence to bear there, while this thing is pending, don't fail to do everything in your power. Don't fail for the honor of your city and
 state, and for the sake of your children,
 and for the sake of Christ.
 Yet hear somebody saying: "But how
 Is all this! Have we no laws already
 against gamblings Why can't these places
 be suppressed by the laws which we haveP
 Brethren, have bsen in the same verdant
 quandary myself. I supposed we had
 and we havel But there are some things
 which you and I have yet to learn about
 laws and their enforcement in a city like
 New Haven. These things are not taught
 in the public schools, and since the student.
 of Yale college are not amenabie to ordinary
 laws they are not taught there. And so w,
 are all ignorant. But let me tell you tive
 or three things which may throw glim
 mer of light on our darkness. Our law
 makers did once get so far as this: IL
 leave it to each city to say whether poo
 that city. And because this city has no
 passed an ordinance against pool room
 the police will tell you they have not au
 thority to suppress them. Last summer
 vigorous effort was made to secure such al
 ordinance. The ordinance was passed b,
 the common council, but was hung up fo | kind of parlor ornament in the board o
 aldermen. It hangs there now. Ina means, in plain English, that the Ne1 , Haven board of aldermen says: "Gam bling is good thing; the corruption o youth pays; let the good work go on. , And SO long as there is no Christian senti ) ment vigorous enough to rise up an' } ] thunder denunciation, this goes out as tn ) sentiment of New Haven. And go tn 2 pol!cs will say: "We have no ordinanc
 against pool rooms" If you ask, "Hav l l we no laws against gsmblingi' the repl { I will be, "Yes. but it is hard to get evi } dence." Hard to get evidence when an | citizen of New Haven can zee it any day Evidence can be had in other direction | when 1t is wanted. Only last Sunday, tw officers were detailed to patrol Water George and Meadow streets in citizen } dress for the purpose of gettin evidence against some beggars who infes that part of the city. They arrested on 5 l Edward Peterson for the crime of sskip l ! for two cents from a citizen. The mex B morning he was sent to jail for fftee 2 days, and honest Judge Pickett in psssin ' | sentence said he supposed 1t was all righ I to detail men in oitizsn's clothes to cate Z the poor begga1, but he thought equal al , tention might be paid to detecting othe
 offenders. The pool room of this city i robbing our citizens of thousands of dol
 lars every week, and the hand of the la
 is not lifted against it.
 But it is only fair to explain that in o, : der to evade the law the claim of the poo
 room Is that it is doing only a commission business for parties in New York or Ne,
 Jersey and that such business is not file gitimate. That is simply the thinnest kin
 of device for evading the law. The folI,
 of 1t all has been shown by Superintendent Byrnes in New York during the past fey
 days Even in that great, rum ridden cit
 the poo! rooms havs been suppressed. Bu ! they had an uninterrupted career for tw | years before they were closed.
 We have already laws enough and court
 enough and police enough to do the sam
 thing here. The one thing we lack thu
 far is the mighty pressure of an aroused
 public sentiment. If we can get that an,
 at the same time can get kindergarte,
 law so plain and simple that even publf | officials can understand what 1t means VI
 may hope for something to be done
 The fact is, public sentiment is lament
 ably low. Public officials are not the onl,
 men who sometimes need the spur. Evei
 Christian sentiment Is far from what i
 should be. What do you think of a con
 dition such that merchants right alon,
 Orange street, leading merchants some O ! them, members of churches some of them
 sign the application for a license to a new ! saloon on Orange strest? To be sure WI
 have only AIS or thereabout in the cit,
 now. To be sure the clerks and sslesmef
 of these merchants would hay,
 to go a few sseps further, prob
 bly, five or six rods further, for drinl
 land when man has had several drink.
 every etep counts). But 1t made me groar
 in spirit when I read that list of names.
 And it made me thank God when I re ac
 that other list, the list of those who signed
 the protest against issuing such licenee. tc
 find there on the right side the business