The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-10-06
AN .AMoR1NEv DISCLOSURE.

The Denver Nesss publishes a sensa-
tional document said to have been served
on Mayor NJ d. Van Horn, of that city.
It is headed with portrait of that gentle
man, and large blood red cross is dis
played in the body of the text, which will
be found in another part of this paper.
The organization which is said TO have
served this notice on the Mayor is the a.
P. A.-known here as the Amorines-on
which the Denver Nelcs is now making
special warfare. If the facts are as stated,
then the Mayor is, or has been, a member
of the order, and the two politicians
named as serving the paper are members
also. The disclosure will not be very
agreeable to either of them, we should
imagine. For, though the Mayor has in
CURED the displeasure of the order for ap-
pointing Catholic to office, the fact re-
mains that he was under the obligation
of an oath not to do anything of the kind,
and he has thus forsworn himself.
He will find himself between two fires.
A member of the A. P. A. is obnoxious to
the Catholics; an official who, having
taken the oath against Catholics in gen.
eral, then appoints one to lucrative
position, is under the curse of the Amor
ines. Both parties command considerable
numbers and influence in Denver, and
the Mayor is in an uncomfortable posi-
ton.
The Populist nominee for Sheriff, and
the Chairman OF the Arapahoe county
Republican central committee. are two
OF the three A. P. AS said to have served
the warning on the Mayor. This will, if
uncontradicted, have rather chilly effect
on their political aspirations, as it will
create a determined hostility towards
them from the Catholic element and pre-
JUDGE them greatly among other people
who are opposed to organizations against
religious liberty.
We presume the Mayor of Denver cares
very little for the anathema of the order,
their boycotts of him while living or their
threats of what shall be done to his grave
after he is dead. He made mistake in
taking the oath of the organization at all
-supposing the story to be true, and
when he abiured it should have done so
by notifying the society from
which he desired to absoive him
self. 1t is scarcely to be sup
posed that he was trapped into taking
such an oath as is said to be imposed upon
members of that Association. And If he
took it voluntarily, understanding its
purport and at one time sympathized
with the purposes of the order, when he
changed his mind he should have formally
cut his connection with that body. AS it
at present appears, the A. P. A's. may
consistently regard him as traitor to the
order.
1t is matter of surprise that intelligent
and experienced men in the United States
would band themselves together, with
secret oaths and ceremonies, to wage
social snd political welfare against re-
ligious society. 1t is un-American, in
tolerant, and, as we regard it, entirely
unnecessary in view of all the facts con-
nected with the Catholic movement in
this country.
The A. P. A. is said to be growing
here ana elsewhere. Probably many men
out of curiosity and desire to know all
about it, have temporarily Joined the or
der. We can scarcely credit the state
ment that in the latter part of the nine
tenth century, bigotry can hold enough
sway over the minds of freemen that they
will of their own volition take binding
oaths and plan in secret conclayes, to de-
stroy the liberties of others simply be-
cause they belong to church that is OBJ
jectionable to their opponents. Such an
organization cannot last long unless it is
dignified and perpetuated by violent eff
forts for its destruction. Let it alone and
it will die of hamilton.