Morning journal and courier., 1893-03-20
OUR CIrY,s FAIR NAME.


 and the LegisIature. | When strong man armed keepeth his palace, Is goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come upon i'm, and overcome him, he taketh from him all is armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his poils.-LuAe xii: 21, 22. Then 1t is necessary that even the strong nan should be armed and vigilant. And here is danger that even the strong mans ivided. And what is true of the man is rue of the city and of the state. What is he city3 A mass of brick and stone and niles of pavement and network of rail ways? Not at all; the citizens are the city. Men and women; flesh and blood and soul. And the wealth of city is the strength md vigor of its manhood and the grace and purity of it's womanhood.
 My friends, am to speak to you to day upon your position as Christian citizens and upon the duty which such citizenship puts upon you. There is reason for my speaking thus at just this time. There are enemies in the midst of us; their triumph Is our shame. Victory is easy to day for we are strong enough to conquer. But If we do nothing there may come some to- morrow when our enemy shall be stronger than we are. There are times when ap- parent safety Is peril.
 Just now we are living in the midst of carnival of crime The fair name of our sister state of New Jersey is blackened with stain that may not be wiped out in a generation. In that state the gamblers are on top. Christian men have suddenly awakened to the fact that the legislators whom they sent to the capitol to uphold the honor of the state and to work ( 1o, hok nat as butchers sell meat in Washington mar ket. The verdict of New Jerseys legisls- ture is that New Jersey shall bs the para dire of the amblers, blacklegs, and all the deteetatle riff raf which is cast out of decent society everywhere.
 But the Christian sentiment of Nsw Jersey is late in making itself heard. That mysterious force of nature whereby the seed cast into the ground keeps on grow ing whils the man sleeps and rises night and day is most bsne6cent force when the seed is good. But when the seed is evil the force is awful. So it comes to pass that these good men of New Jersey who have been indifferent to their political duty in the past and who have allowed the professional politicians to do all their thinking for them and to drive them like sheep to the polls on election day, have suddenly found that the time of harvest has come and that they are reaping what they sowed. So when the legislature gives to the gamblers every right of way, and when the Christian men all over the state rise up in wrath, assemble in their public halls, assemble in their churches, assemble at Trenton, in the state house itself and demand in the name of all that is right eous a reversal of the iniquitous legiela tion. thsy find themselves Iaughins stock in the eyes of their own representa- tives, absolutely helpless in the hands o1 skillful and interruptions speaker who has the rare gift of an ear deal to the thunder of all Christian appeal and quick to hear the slightest whisper of ths vicious classes whose tool he Is.
 Now, New Jersey Is not 50 far away ai one mig ght suppose. Even if there wer, no line of communication between Nev Jersey and Connecticut, we ought to lesr1 lifelong lesson from the degradation O our sister state. But New Jersey is il Connecticut to day. The boys of Connect | icut {your boys, possibly are being de bauched by the vices of New Jersey. Ou | from two or three centers in that stat have been radiating for many month | forces which are unspeakably destructiv [ to cur American youth. The present ae tion of New Jerseys legislature only mul tiplles these centers-that is all. Whe contagion breaks out in city the board c health (New Haven's board of health al ways excepted) tries to confne that diseas within the parrowest possible limits. Bu the policy down in New Jersey is to mul tiply your centers of contsgion that tn virus may spread more rapidly througl the republic
 But 1 say we have had two or three cer | ters for some time. You can read, a,as in your daily papers (some of the papers | thank God, gre reporting these races n lnngsr, and are thus striking a might blow for ths final abolition of the evi | you can read in your daily papers the r, suits of the daily racing at Guttenbsr and Gloucester. What kind of racin is its Racing for gambling purpose pure and simple-or, rather, in
 pure and very complex; becaul
 nobody is innocent enough to suppose tn,
 the racing Is done on the square Ever
 day, rain or shine, mud or slash or snoy
 some of the worst broken down specime,
 of horse flesh lyet far nobler than u
 specimens of humanity who race them) a
 put round the courses just simply that u
 York and Brooklyn and New Haven.
 | Ahhp lS bAo uoouiuS tuS DO
 room. that bright consummate flower
 our nineteenth century civilization. IT
 pool room is, in the language of the Ne
 York Tribune, "a worse pestilence tha | cholera, small pox or yellow fever" W
 have it right h re in the midst of u
 breeding dishonesty, vice and crime evel
 day. We are alittle afraid that the chole
 is coming, but worse peetilsnce has com
 What about to morrow2 Leave the DO
 room open; let its work go on: the seet
 already sown bring forth their fruit, a1
 what will our city be, think you, ten yea
 hence? What about the boys and your
 men who to day frequent, the pool roor | Yes, here is the great head center in Ne
 Haven for the gamblers on the New Jers,
 races. The shame of New Jersey is Il
 shame of Connecticut in no small degre Would you like to know somethir
 saloon, of course. To what evil of moder
 civilization is not the saloon the doc
 Other surroundings which cannot ve,
 we'll be mentioned in an audiense like thi
 Inside crowd of men and boys buyiu
 their chances and receiving their ticket just as you buy a ticket to tt
 oratorio. Perhaps you think 1t is will
 dissolute crowd. Not altogether men (
 this class are there. But with them al
 we'll dressed, gentlemsnly man, wit
 whom perhaps you traded on Chap
 street yesterday. There are young me1 in large numbers, clerks, salesmen, pro fessional men, students of Yale college
 Here are men who have fallen under ths fatal spell of gambling and whose doom i just as sure ss the laws of God. They are dea
 sure losers in the game of fortune flor tn, pool room institution is not an organize
 charity association) and they are dea
 sure losers in the more serious game C life. God only knows how many soul
 have gone to destruction there during th dark days of this closing winter. The1 are leakages in business houses all throup
 this city, many of them not yet discoI cred, whose streams are all flowing dow into this common pool.
 He was fond mothers son and had
 fine position in business. With hi mother he was & regular attendant at on | of our city churches. He came to frien of mine to borrow some money one daJ l My friend in surprise asked him what meant. "It means I have been playin the races; am desperate and must hay money; if my employer finds 1t out, b l will discharge me and may do much wors than that; If my mother finds 1t out it wi break her heart" We'll, there are breaI ing mother hearts in New Haven, for som of them have found 1t out.
 Here is another: He was only si1 teen years of age; had fin position; enjoyed the confidence C his employers and was in th line of quick promotion. He fe into the tolls. He lost, of course, as the all do. He stole from his employer, wa discovered and discharged. He robbed hi mother of her jewels and pawned then