The morning call., 1893-03-13
SAVE OUR YOUTH.
DR.. Hirst Joins The Calls
Appeal.
HIMSELF AN EYEWITNESS.
What He Saw in Some of the Foul
Underground Dens South of
Market Street.

If theatrical man had been in Simpson
Memorial Church last night he would nave
murmured to himself in tones of ecstatc
delight, 'standiDg-room only"
Not that 1t was a theatrical occasion, or
that any device had been used to attract.
The people who were there were mostly
husbands, wives, sisters and brothers
members of law-abiding families and
Christian households. What had drawn
them there was to hear Dr. A. C. Hirst tell
his own story as an eyewitness of the perlls
of boys in the city OF San Francisco.
The story Is not new. 1t has been recently
and viyidly told in THE CALL.
DR.. Hirst has gone into the underground
dens of infamy, and he showed how our
boys are made by easy degrees pool-players,
gamblers and criminals.
Easy. very easy, is the slope of hell. That
was the story which the preacher told last
night, and there was not a man, woman or
Guild who did not listen to him intently for
a full hour.
The text was Ezekiel vii:23 make a
chain, for the country is full of bloody
crimes and the city is full of violence
The question of the hour" said DIR.
Hirst, lis. Shall this nation become a na-
tiUn of gam blers"
''ShaIl we 20 back to the speculative spirit
and gambling mania of 1919?
"The spirit is seen III ouI stock exchanges
to-day in the control OF the ballot boxes by
faro players; in the manipulation of politics
by gamblers. libertines, priZe-6ghters and
salOOnists. Even the staple commodities
and necessaries OF life are gambed Tor.
II hold in my hand the written confession
OF young mans first experience i'm gam
bling. AT 16 lie entered Chinese wash
house aud was shown a Chinese lottery
ticket He lost at first and then won S93
for 10 cents. The place was raided and he
escaped by the roef. That was his initia-
tiOn a gambler"
The preacher said that 400 games of the
ifteen-bal Kelly pool are played every day
in this city by men, youths and boys.
Zone night last week." said he, Il made
tour of inspection OF these underground
pOolr0Oms IN company with safe friend.
Il found in the first place | entered a vile
crime-hatchery. There was a little narrow
door with certain cbalk-marked figures. l
entered a narrow hallway and went into a
hall go foul and dingy that it made my
flesh creep. 1t was about thirty feet
square and the air was full Of cigarette
smoke. | saw five billiard aud pool tables.
a round these tables were boys of all ages,
from u to is. There was a keeper present,
and he marked the time of the game as the
boys lost their money. The obscenity and
profanity in that reeking atmosphere were
indescribable.
'One boy about Is years old attracted my
attention by the neatness of mis- attire. My
companion engaged him In conversation. 1t
was not difficult 10 ascertain that the lad
was taking bis first lessons in vice.
II went TO another cella- on Howard
street. low walled, about IS feet by % and
not more than u feet high, The keeper
was a more genIeel-loGking man than the
keeper of the other den. A messenger-bo
bright. rOsy-chseked lad, evidently a
novice, had just dropped in. The keeper
asked him to play. The boy replied that he
had no money. No matter, said the keeper,
what You want is 10 get a taste for the
game. They were soon engaged in play,
and heard the fouleSt ohscenity fall from
the lips of that man in the presence of that
boy:
There we're FIVE tables in the place and
every boy smoked. My friend exclaimed to
me, Not for $4,000 would have my boy
placed under such influences as these
'One boy of 10 told me, without hesita-
tion, that he had on the previous day been
accosted outside by the keeper of the How
ard-Street den ana asked TO come in and
play pool at 252 cents cue.
Nv hen l left this den," said DR.. HRS,
my way was past the statue of Abraham
Lincoln on Fifth street As l glanced at
the figure my mind was filed with visions
OF The boys in blue, the charging hosts, the
crash of war, the bodies Of the fallen brave,
and then l heard the heavy sound of the
shaekles as they fell forever from the limbs
of the slave. And l said to my soul:
Citizens of San Francisco. shall not our boys
be set free from the bonds of gam bling, vice
and immortality, even as these slaves were
set Tree? Shall We not be permitted to see
under these beautiful skies the Western
man crowned with beauty and morality
with energies 10 bless the nation? Shall il
not be SOP"