The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-06-29
TO CLIMB HILLS
REV. DR.. PARKHURST PREPARING FOR
HIS FALL CAMPAIGN.
The Famous New York Clergyman or For
Europe-His Plan of Warfare Against
Wicklow He Became Interested In the
Work.
ISnaciaI Co1resnnndence

Richard Croker escaped being fellow pas
sengers TO Europe. DIR. Parkhurst' plans
were changed little within few days of
the sailing of the steamer upon which he
expected TO take passage. Had it not been
for that he would have found as ship
mate the head Of the organization upon
which DR.. ParkhuTst and his society have
concentrated the most persistent fire and
earnest attack since the days of that as
sault upon Tammany which led TO the
! downfall of Tweed and his associates
| The expressions of surprise at the depar-
I ture for Europe of each of these men made
prominent by public acts and political rela-
| tions in New York city were common ut
terances. There was something Of aston
ishment that DR.. Parkhurst, just at the be-
| ginning of an investigation which prom
| ises TO pull the curtain aside and 70 reveal
with much of shocking detail the political
methods which have prevailed in New
York city for many years, should have
sailed away for Europe. He seemed to
have departed just at the moment when
| his methods were to be indicated and his
| patience under abuse, his courage in times
| of danger and his righteous zeal were TO
be made perfectly manifest.
DR.. Parkhurst's friends, however, were
! in no way astonished at the announcement
that he had sailed. He fixed the date for
| his departure nearly year ago 1t was
| the beginning of his annual vacation. For
| many years it has been his custom to
| spend some two months in Europe not
travelling extensively there but seeking
such exhilaration, such healthy stimulus
ha hal is.t 70 no
found in mountain climbing. Parkhurst
Is one OF the few Americans who have as
cended the greater peaks of the Alps and
climbed the lofty crags in the land of the
midnight sun. He is an enthusiast upon
the subject of mountain climbing. The
introduction of that subject at times of
social entertainment or even when the
crusade of the Parkhurst society was a
matter for discussion would always cause
Parkhurst' eye to brighten, his cheek to
flush, and result usually in the narration
of some exciting anecdote or enthusiastic
praise of that recreation as means of re-
storing mental and physical vigor.
DIR. Parkhurst is as systematic in his
mountain climbing, and as patient as well,
as he has been in laying the plan of cam
paign against the politicians who DO evil
and the officers Of the city government who
compound vice. To attempt To scale a
mountain in Switzerland as soon as the
traveller arrives in that country would be
likely to cause dangerous illness and
might prove fatal Many persons have
been made seriously i'll by these rash en-
deavors, and some have been brought to
their graves by fOolhardy experiments.
Parkhurst's plan Is to prepare for the
ascent by the exposure of the lungs aud
vital organs to the rarefied atmosphere of
lower attitudes for some two weeks. He
gets the physical system acclimated, so to
speak. He does not permit himself any
mental work whatever, and he sleeps many
hours in the "a. Then, being thus forti-
fed, with his guide, his alpenstock, and
properly clad, Parkhurst ventures forth TO
climb above the snow line and to reach
that point where the atmosphere is so pure
that Tyndall chose such spot TO make i'm
portant experiments. II is PaFkhurst's
belief that n month of recreation such as
that is builds up the nervous system, re-
invlgorates the brain, acts as tonic upon
the whole physical organization and gives
man surplus energy enough TO be suffi-
Gent for all possible drafts during the re-
naming 10 months of the working year.
The public in New York is now begin
ming to understand the plan of campaign
which DR.. Parkhurst thought out more
than three years ago and from which he
has never deviated. And there has been a
change of sentiment such as is always the
handmade of success, for now, instead Of
MISUNDERSTANDING, detraction, even foul
abuse, Parkhurst is recognized as a great
general because he has been found TO be a
successful one He has proved many Of
those things which he set out to prove.
He has done what no other person-gov-
ernor, mayor or any other one clothed
with official power-has been able TO do
since Tweed's day, and he has done it
without making partisan attacks, for Re
publicans as we'll as Democrats have been
brought into the net.
The public, however, does not under /
stand how Parkhurst's attention was first /
brought TO these matters and what I
changed him apparently on the instant
from peaceful, gentle, scholarly preacher /
70 the most powerful warrior against vice I
New York has ever known. 1t was i mere |
accident which caused this surprising |
change in the mans purposes and career. J
Among the members of his congregation !
IN the Madison Square Presbyterian /
church Was and now is man of singular |
purity of character and integrity of public |
life. He is Joel b. Erhardt, one of the !
police commissioners when Parkhurst first |
knew him, once a candidate for mayor Of |
New York and recently collector of the /
port of New York
In the course of a chance conversation |
with Colonel Erhardt some years ago Dr. |
Parkhurst was told something of the meth /
DDS that prevail in the police department /
~
founded. Colonel Erhardt. although a /
commissioner, was himself powerleSs 10 1
bring about any reforms. He suggested /
TO DIR. Parkhurst that il might be interest 4
ing, although il would also be unpleasant, 4
If he were TO visit personally certain por-
tions of New York city at night and see /
with his own eyes that vice prevailed 4
even hideOus forms Of it-not in spite OF .
the police, but because of police tolerance /
and protection. So upon one evening the
clergyman and the police commissioner
set forth upon this mission, so that they 4
might be personally brought in contact /
with these things. That single visit made
with the police commissioner several years /
before, Parkhurst, in company with a de-
tectiye, made a midnight round that be
came famous caused the determination 70 /
enter his heart TO devote 50 much of his
life as he could spare from his pastoral d.
ties 10 fighting not the vice that prevail
ed, but the system which protected and
fostered il. That was the way in which 4
DR.. Parkhurst became associated with
what is known a. the Parkhurst crusade.
but it was THREE or four years before he .
had the opportunity as President OF the
Society For the Suppression Of Vice 70 IN
dertake this work with powerful influences
behind him. T. ) EDWARDS
Ear 4 n