The sun., 1893-02-10
Corruption in a Corrupt Service.

GARpNER's attempted blackmail OF the
keeper Of disreputable resort was very
natural consequence of the moral degrade
ton involved in the filthy service for which
PARKHURsT had hired him. Only base
fellow would engage in such employment
GARDNER's end being pecuniary profit
only. OF course he exacted as high price
as no could get for his baseness. AS the
salary paid him by PARKHURsT was small
he was all the quicker to take advantage OF
his peculiar opportunities for levying black
mail on his victims. 1t was not with him a
case Of yielding to temptation. but Of fol-
lowing well-considered methods OF getting
money. for whose employment PARK
GURsT'S service afforded an inviting field.
Moreover. GARDNER was surrounded by
IN atmosphere OF moral contagion even
In PARKHuRsT's society itself. The whole
concern was animated by tho poisonous
principle that the end iustifes the
means. He professed on his trial that
he associated with the disreputable
woman he sought to blackmail. and
did his best to get her intoxicated. at her
own expense. in order that he might induce
her to give herself away: and PARKHURsT
deposed In his behalf that in so doing he
would have been obeying the policy and In
structions OF his principals. No matter how
deep down in iniquity he got. he would have
had the approval OF his pous employers.
GARDNER also had the example OF PARK
HURST himself as model. and it is m ex-
ample which has been celebrated as heroic
by great Christian meeting at the Cooper
Institute. 1t is true that PARKHURsr
III ,ot ALL, AnIt l,r> Ill.
but he corrupted them with money; and
the essential moral distinction between the
two is not discovcrable. though. of course
in the eye Of the law and the opinion Of
society. blackmailing dissolute women is
worse than hiring them to expose and be-
tray themselves. GARDNER tried to black
mail the CLIFTON woman under tho pre-
tence that he would give her protection in
her vile business. PARKHURsT paid HAT
TIE ADAMS and other keepers OF re-
sorts OF unnatural vice in order to in
duce them to display their degradation
to him. lit was laudablc for PARKHURsT
to buy. GARDNER may have concluded that
1t was as praiseworthy. or at least no less
reprchcnsible. for him to take money for as
sisting the sellers. He was in tho midst OF
moral perversion gloriiled as holy zeal. AS
he was compelled to be corrupt in any
event, he did not distinguish between dif-
ferent sorts OF corruption. He was under
a kind of training which is bound to produce
blackmailing. and which PARKHURsr is now
trying to extend to 1,137 other pupils.
The conviction and punishment OF GARD
NER will serve to clear the moral atmos-
phorc. They will tend to dissipate the
moral fog with which PARKHURsT has
enveloped tho consciences OF so many good
people. inducing them to justify the prac-
tice OF vice as n means of attacking vice.
The imprisonment OF GARDNER as an at
tempted blackmailer is natural fruit OF
the methods adopted by PARKHURsT. He
would not have gone into PARKHURsr's dis
reputable service except for tho opportuni-
ties OF making money by blackmailing
which it afforded. lie would not have been
adapted to it If he had not been base and
vile fellow. Only the corrupt can be en-
gagged In corrupt service.