The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-02-02

| They are lying, perjured, rum-soaked
and libidnolis lot.
And they were; but they did not like
| to be told of 1t. The grand jury of that
| month called me down for my sermon
and asked me If l had any authority
but common rumor and newspaper
statement. They issued a PRESENT.
| ment against me as means of snuffing
| me out as a warning against any other
interloper who should venture to in
wade the secret precincts Of a Tam
many administration.
"The jury's presentment taught me
a good lesson never to SO cunning with
blank cartridges. My next step was
to fill my cartridge box. The grand
jury threw down the gauntlet and l
picked dt up. l accumulated a few
facts that / was not obliged to write
with quotation marks.
Unpalatablc Facts Presented.
Having been trodden down, sneered
at, cursed, threatened, presented for
stating what / did not know as of my
own knowledge, / would have entered
hell If need be to find facts to an
swer the challenge. / did go into hell,
and | got my facts; then l got out my
little gun on another Sunday and went
into my pulpit with cartridges that
We're not blank cartridges, and then
they swore at me worse for knowing
what | was talking about than they
had the month before for not knowing
what l was talking about. 1t Is almost
impossible to suit such people and TO
adjust your treatment to their ethical
and esthetic propositions.
"Thereupon the grand jury of March,
which was of quite a different COM
pleXiom from that of its predecessor,
took our evidence against the police,
secured some more of its own, and IS
sued a presentment agalnt them, tell
ing them that they Were either crimi-
nah or incompetent, and that they were
! not incompetent.
1T would take an objectionable
amount of time and be of no service to
| you to continue with any detail of the
three years events. The community
knew the condition of things through
out the city, but had no feeling of 1t.
| There was conscience enough, but SO
| far as these matters were concerned,
1t was not sufficiently supple to be
practically available. The clergymen
were not interested in the movement
| except to the extent of intimating from
| time to time in general sort of a
way, that a minister's duty is to preach
| the Gospel. However, we believed in
| the people, and kept at our work of
discovering the facts and publishing
them We knew, or thought We knew,
that when this process had been con-
| tinued long enough, something would
| give way.
"Our society suffered some pretty
hard raps at the hands of the police;
amcng others, our detective was ar
rested and thrown into Jail on the
charge of blackmail. The object of this
move was to discredit our work and
to prevent his interfering with their
| practice of blackmail. Our police and
| yours l see, are cut from the same
cloth. they are so sorry to have people
| do wrong that they are self-sacrificing
enough to do all the wrong themselves
| so as to save others the bother of the
| iniquity.
Helped by the Newspapers.
"All these proceedings kept the town
stirred up. We availed every oppor-
| tunity to get some new facts into the
air. All this helped the newspapers,
| and they requited Us by turning round
and helping us. or If they did mot help
! us they backguarded US, which, In a
| way, answered the same purpose, for 1t
| kept the thing In the air and held peo-
pies attention fixed upon 1t. We We're
| careful not to let more than a week
| go by without giving the public some
| thing fresh. We secured the indict-
nenr of a captain and our society stock
went up. We failed to convict him
| and stock went down. But people kept
| talking about the matter. They knew
| there was a good deal i'm it, and they
| began, after about a year and half,
! to feel that there was a good deal in it.
| They were beginning to get their moral
blood up. Public conscience had been
chafed so long it was beginning to feel
| sore.
I'VE would scour whole precinct,
make anywhere from twenty to sixty
solid cases against gamblers and the
keepers of disorderly houses, then pub
| lish hist. All of the papers would
| publish. it. Then | would sharpen my
pen, r1ix up concoction of oyalic acid
and vitriol, write complaint against
| the captain in question and send copies
of 1t to the mayor, the pubic officials,
| the newspapers-and the New York
| Sun. And that was what did 1t. Facts
| did Il. We did not bother with theo-
| ries, but tried as nearly every day as
we could to get some fresh facts into
the papers for the citizens to flavor
al, 81. ffa.a y, af hYAn nlyf 20 W
| were good deal of a nuisance in a
way at least We We're told So and
| | think that those who told US were
| sinCere but we knew we We're right and
kept doing ii just as we kept going
to bed at night and getting up in the
morning. There was nothing particu-
| lary difficult about 1t. 1t required no
| special genius except the genius dog
shows in fastening to a root-the ge-
MUS Of hang-to-it-iveness. 1t is like
| drilling into granite-the granite may
be tough, the drill may be dull and
the hammer light, but IL you keep
pounding and live long enough you are
| sure to get through. You can do the
same thing here and you will get the
same results, only as / said before,
while there may be Just as great thick
ness of a stratum to drill through here,
/ am confident that 1t Is not so knotti-
ly organized as 1t was with us.
when finally the thing had been
pushed SO far that people began to be
ashamed Of themselves, and of each
other, to live in a city that was gov.
erned by a crew of banditti that would
be a disgrace to Turkey, and a brood
of libertines that would have been re-
fused naturalization papers In Gomor-
rah. they sent up to Albany and OBJ
tained an investigating committee, and
the whole world knows the rest. ~ u
| 81 would not like to address you in
any such terms as would be offensive
to you, but l want to say that how
much you will accomplish here in Obi