New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-02-26
IIIIH OF REIORN.

We have fallen upon evil times. We have
known this for some wccks-in fact just little
over two weeks Ever since our lively and accr-
rate contemporary. THE Ncw-York SUM-" OK.
posed the degenerate condition Of the denlzens
~ the TcnderlOln because Of "ihe work that the
Parkhursr fanatics have done" we have felt
that the city was on the down grade. I'm spite 81
al this talk about making things better. or
what use r. It 10 talk II uplifting the masses
when our actions reduce the wicked from com
fort and prosperity TO disgusting poverty and
soualor? The sun" sent two young ladies into
the Tcnderloin one night and DEVOTED nearly
PAGE OF Sunday issue to showing the changes
that have occurred there since what II calls tile
good old times" II showed beyond question
that they had departed. ana 1t showed. rs the
police matron said. that there was something
pathctic" about the transformation. II told how
people who two years ago were handsomely
dressed in silk. satin and velvet are now
"tramps. and worse than that. drinkarlS. and
how these people AL say that IL would have been
'lnuch better II Or Parlihurst had let them
alone" /, was made evident In fact that the
business Of large class Of the Tenderloln pop
ulatlon had been ruined that the sufferers in
desperation had taken To drink. and that TIE
fanatics" had large collection OF ruined souls
upon their conscicnccS. for nobody would he 80
foolish rs 10 think sinners able 10 procure velvet
and champagne us harmful 10 the community
or rs wicked IN themselves as sinners who are
reduced TO rags and bad whIsley.
Having learned SO much from ''rhe Sun
younI women. we were prepared to receive
further information OF the evils Of reform.
but we did not expect II would come soon
or be OF SO startling a character. On Mon
day morning however, the awful truth burst
mon us. Reform had brought death In its
train. We read in '"rhe Sun" OF the sad case ~
Frank Arplghorfp, who committed suicide and
learned that the reason for his deed was that he
chad n saloon at No. 1876 East Onchundred and
twentieth st, which depended on IFS Sunday
business for Its profits compelled to close
at two weeks ago, aud was to give up his rooms
"thls week lie had no money left" This was
truly affecting, and we began to realize what
awful things laws are, how they interfere with
Door mems activities and keep many gentcman-
" burglars from making II living. Here WAS Il
man anxious to work and make money. He was
in a district where competition was strong.
When he established himself he that there
WAS not enough business in the six days when
selling was lawful to give him and his fellow
dealers a living, 80 he decided to make his profits
on Sunday. Then along came a tyrannical pO-
liceman who told him to stop selling on sun
dov and who hcartlcssly assumed that II there
was not lawful business enough TO support the
Mace II should not have been started, and that it
was no affair Of the police anyway whether
the saloon paid or not. SO in desperation he
went md hanged himself That case recalled
another incident, most pathetically narrated by
one of the editions Of THE Sun" the other day:
how the plasterer, Mccartney, grew tired Of his
humdrum trade and decided life would be better
worth living II he were n bartender; how just as
ne was getting started the reign OF blue laws set
,n. the liquor business the only one that had
gone through the hard times without suffering
became less prosperous. bartcnders being thrown
ont Of employment and put in the same hard
circumstances as mere bookkeepcrs and dry
goods clerks how Mccartney had lost his place
and after hunting from saloon to saloon for a
chance TO pass beer over a counter had gone
home taken his wife to his bosom with one arm
and put pistol to his head with the other. He,
too. fell a victim TO this craze for reform.
These cases set us 10 thinking. Is reform
worth what it costs? Is the honest brlcklayer
or carpenter to be debarred from entering more
congcnial occupation by the perversity Of the
people under the stimulus of Puritan notions, In
not drinking enough to make employment for