The Progress., 1893-05-06

bilIT. | found young man some llulc
. 90 in distressing circumstances. about
to fall into the hlnds of the law because
Of his cx,raya,Ince. | lent him mou-
ey. ana be promised everything, and hc
.,ap, no promises. lie took good pains,
however, 10 keep the money. | have
sought with tears and prayers and sacrl-
fees to save scores of young men whom
once under the Influences OF gamblers
and gambling. and have never succeed
ed III saving on" 70 my knowledge. !
have advanced money again and again
70 keep them out of Jail and from public
disgrace and | have in every case lived
TO regret it, ! have never advanced one
of them Il dollar that has been returned.
The reason l. they do not know how -
tell the truth. They do not know the
value of money. They have lost their
powers of reckoning from the moral
point of view.
\ young man with brilliant mind and
liberal education came To the city some
time ago. His life had been hallowed
bv PRAYER from his cradle. He had the
brightest prospects before him. He had
the highest testimonials in his pockets.
He had the best avenues open for sue
cess But he went to the races one day.
He went again; he continued to 90. He
dropped from the race track into the
poolroom and from the poolroom to the
house of strange women, where he lived
in debauchory for year, until wrecked
in both body and soul. There is nothing
in him now to build on. He does not
know the meaning of honesty or truth
or manhood. | have seen this thing 90
on until my soul was sick unto death.
MIR. RICHARD CROKER.
Our legislature has recently had a
spasm of virtue most remarkable, and
they have given us a bill to close the
poolroomS. for which we devOutly thank
God. We would not deceive ourselves,
however, as to the cause that produces
this remarkable piecs of legislation.
The reason we succeeded in getting 1t
was simply that Mr.. Richard Croker, our
boss, has himself decided 10 go into the
race track business. He has recently
purchased. so report declares, the Ia
NOUS Belle Meade farm of race horses in
Tennessee for 500. 0.0O0. Besides this
amount. the distinguished Tammany
chieftain is known to have spent SG0, ,OG0
in the purchase of race horses last fall.
The source of this marvellous wealth,
pouring from a man who never followed
any regular business except Office hold
ing III the city, Is of course one of the
.1,a In, ha .lal,t a1
The poolrooms We're in full blast up to
short time ago, when Mr.. Croker o. some
one else i'll power determined to close
them. The poolrooms are OF course the
enemies Of the owners of race horses and
the owners of race tracks.
We hope that between these two rivals
we may at least reduce the evil while the
fight continues. But no one who has
any knowledge of the condition of our
cities today will believe for one moment
that the poolroOms can ever be sup
pressed so long as the race tracks are
legalized b. our lawmakers. 1t is I'M
fair, it is unreasonable, and it is legis-
lation for disreputable portion of the
community. The whole race track bust
ness is of the same piece. It's gambling
pure and simple. There is not race
track in America that could live one year
without gambling.
| charge the race track with the fact
of lowering the tone of the nations life
at its centers, and of lowering it to u
degree of debt and constituencies eff
frontery never before known in our his
tory. This fact was aptly illustrated re-
Gently when Alfred Tennyson, the poet
laureate of the English world, was buried
in Westminster abbey. Tennyson was
the matchless songer who paid that
wonderful tribute TO AlberG the good,
the father of the present Prince of
Wales. Thus he sang of Albert:
Who revcrcnced his conscience as his king;
Whose glory was redressing human wrong;
Who spoke no slander-nO, nor listened to it;
Who loved one only, and who clave to her.
Not swaying to this faction or TO that;
Not making his high place the lawless perch
OF winged ambitions, nor a vantage ground
For pleasure, but through all this tract of years
Wearing the white flower of n blameless life,
Before thousand peering littlenesses,
In that fierce light which beats upon throne
And blackcns every blot.
So sang the bard of the consort of her
who sits upon the throne and worthily
and with dignity impersonates the power
of the English people. And yet while
they were burying the great poet and
while the whole world stood with un-
covered head, even outside of England,
the Prince of Wales, instead of going to
the burial, preferred to spend the day at
the race track. The contrast between
the Prince of Wales and his father is a
very clear expression of the contrast be-
tween the tone of national life today
and what it was during the life of AL
bert. And for this lowering of charac-
ter and of manhood the race track has
played one of the mightiest roles.
THE POLICY SHOP.
Second-The power of the pestilencc
we observe in the development of the
policy shop of the modern city. Our
. o., hnnarcon,had with thaca in