The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-21
EVILS OF A GREAT CITY
EDITOR STEAD's SENSATIONAL BOOK
ON GREATER. NEW YORK.
Tammany Hall Scored in "Satan's In
visible World Displayed" or
"Despairing Democracy"
fcopvrtgbt 1897 bv the Associated Presso

Copyright, 1897. by the Associated Press)
LONDON, Nov. 20.-"Satan's Invisible
World DispIayed;" or, "Despairing Democ-
racy' is the sensational title of a sensa-
tional book dealing with the Greater New
York. which W. It. Stead, the editor of the
Review of Reviews, will give to the public
of England and America next month as the
fruits of his recent trip ''across the water"
This book is to be a companion piece to
IF Christ Came to Chicago" But for
Chicago read New York, and for the other
read the devil" said Mr.. Stead, speaking
to a representative of the Associated Press
of his newest creation. "Satans Invisible
World was, according to Mr.. Stead, re-
vealed by the Lexow committee, and de-
spairing Democracy is the moral he draws
from the charter of Greater New York,
which he holds to be legislative declara-
ton by the citizens of their abadonment of
faith in the possibility of governing a great
city by popular suffrage These revelations
he reviews at great length, having succeed
ed in obtaining one of the five extant copies
of the evidence Such is the analytical
power of the editors pen that from the
thousands of pages OF printed testimony
before that committee he weaves a coher-
ent and logical description "of the system
of police protection, blackmail and govern
ment by pull" which is made as inter-
esting as novel, while phases of it will
prove surprising, even to those who read
the newspaper reports Of the investigation.
Incidentally he reviews the history of Tam
many Hall and the methods of it's leaders.
The unique title of the book is borrowed
from Hopkinss Treatise on Witchfindng,'
as being the most appropriate description
of the state of abyssmal abomination into
which the government of New York had
sunk before the great revolt of 1894. Here
in the history of New York." says the edi-
tor, I'VE have the whole internal phantas-
magoria once again, with heelers for
witches, policemen as wizards and secret
sessions in Tammany Hall as the Witches
Sabbat of the new era. And, behind them
nipreSent central force, whose name is
muttered with awe, and whose mandate is
obeyed with speed, is the same sombre fig
ure whom his devotees regard with passion
ate worship, and whom his enemies dread
even as they curse his name. And this
modern Sathanas-thiS man who, to every
good Republican, is the most authentic in
carnation OF the principle of evil the ver-
liable arcnfend Of the political worlds
the boss of Tammany Hail.
The book bristles with striking headlines
and descriptions in Mr.. Stead's ferse style
Among its other achievements, the Lexow
committee enriched the vocabulary of our
language by the word Pantata," ne says.
TT is mysterious word of Bohemian
origin, meaning father-in-law. The New
York police captain was in a very special
sense the father-in-law to a very numerous
progeny of disreputable people. Instead of
being a terror to evil-doers, he became their
pantata who looked after them with semi
parental care, who regarded it indeed as
his chief function to relax the law in their
behalf-for consideration received"
Under the heading The farmer-general
of the wages of sin," he continues 1.-THE
strange woman, that pathetic and tragic
figure in the streets of all great cities, whose
house from of old was said to be the way
of hell, going down into the chambers of
death, excited in the police captain only the
sentiment of rapacity. In his eyes she was
most valuable. For in New York the pros
titute was the policemans milch cow. The
police were not merely tollkeepers on the
way to hell. but if by any chance the
strange woman wished to forsake her cham
ber of DEATH they thrust her back into it,
What was it to them that she might wish
to save her soul alive out of the pit? Her
duty was to stay there and earn dollars
for the police.
In this connection he reviews attempts
which have been made to suppress street
walking and concludes: Americans and
foreigners are often shocked at the state of
London streets. Mr.. Croker expressed him
Piccadily at midnight. But better thou
sand times have the scandal Of our streets
the mercy of the police. giving men
more or less immoral themselves absolute
liberty to arrest any woman whom they
please to say is lettering for purposes of
prostitution"
After describing the various methods and
victims of police biackmail, the gamblers,
policy shops dsorderly houses, common
thieves, the election frauds concocted by
the police, the system of securing promo
tions in office and political nominations by
payments to Tammany, Mr.. Stead gives
tables of the current tariffs from criminal
sources of revenue, with the proportion of
the receipts received by police officials of
each grade, and under the caption "Belial
on Judgment Seat arraigns the police JUS
tees
The solitary gleam of hope which pierces
through this gloomy prospect. to Mr..
Steads eyes, is the press. Newspapers
have power to investigate and expose, but
in the most remarkable passage of the book
Mr.. Stead proposes that their power should
be enlarged by bestowing on them author
ity to summon persons and papers and put
witnesses on oath