Omaha daily bee., 1894-01-03
RLNG orr rIiE FALSh.

We have rung out the old and rung in
the new. But have wo rung out the
false and rung in the true? Editors,
preachers and judges have closed out
the old and started in the new with the
pounding OF the reform tom-tom, which
has a falsetto tone about it that savors
OF sensationalism, insincerity and hypoc-
risy. A judge talking to the grand
stand, lecturing n witness upon his Off
ciai duties and firing a volley OF blank
cartridges over his shoulders at people
whom he desires to castigate.
A minister who delivers hand-me-
down sermons seeking notoriety and
popularity by advertising q political
harangue from the pulpit, which is in
striking contrast with the Savior, who
deigned to associate with publicans and
sought to turn the vicious and sinful
from the error of their ways by precept
and gentle persuasion without mounting
the housetops and advertising himself at
their expense.
An editor in the role OF anti-vice cru
sader who PIRATES about closing the
gambling houses when he knows that he
is playing into the hands of q brace of
b~lackmailers who have invoked the
power of the courts in o scheme to bleed
gamblers by threats of criminal prose-
cution. And this sham reformer and
hypocrite, who could be bought of at
any time by the gamblers, as he has
been by nearly every corporate jobber,
talks of impeaching the mayor!
Every intelligent citizen-lavman,
preacher or editor-knows that the duty
Of informing upon criminals devolves
upon the county attorney and that so far
as gambling is concerned the sheriff has
just as much authority as the chief OF
police. And yet not a word of censure
has been uttered against anybody ex-
cept the mayor. Everybody familiar
with the laws relating to gambling
knows hat any citizen may enter COM
plant against the keepers of gambling
houses and have the places closed. But
all the reformers, real and sham, have
never filed a single complaint.
The Judge who fired a volley Of
poisoned arrows at Mayor Bemis has
never directed one of his barbed shafts
at Sheriff Bennett. The preacher, who is
terribly shocked over the wickedness Of
the judges victim, had not a word OF
censure for the editor, who, for a paltry
sum-, plays decoy for the Louisiana
lottery gamblers by publishing their
drawings and prospectuses in defiance
of law. d -
Did the editor who harps and carps
about bunco steererS and clamors for
the closing of the gambling houses ever
utter a word about closing gambling
houses when Broatch and Cushing were
mayors and when the Diamond and
other gambling resorts were running in
full blast behind closed doors always ac-
cessible to people who had money to win
or lose?
Now we do not believe in shams and
sham reformers any more than we do in
bogus jewelry, doctored butter or false
hair. We want to begin the year by
ringing the false and ringing in the
true. We want to have the gambling
laws strictly enforced. We do not
want to wink at gambling behind
screens, trap doors and false panels,
We want all the gambling houses closed,
and when they are closed we want to
see them stay closed for good. We want
no privileged gambling houses any more
than we want privileged wine rooms or
privileged houses of ill-fame. We want
all the officers charged with the enforce
ment of law to be equally responsible,
and not make one officer the s%capegoat
and butt of abuse and assault.