Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-11-21
WRISTBANDS LATEST
THE LONDON EDITOR AsSAILS
GREATER NEW YORK.
WRITES A SENSATIONAL BOOK.
COMPANION PIECE TO "1F CHRIST
CAME TO CHICAGO"
Calls 1t "Satan's Invisible World Dis
Played or "DespairfnE DcmOc-
racy'-Tammany Rule De.
nOunced-Only Hope
Is the Press.
WRITES A SENSATIONAL BOOK.

London, Nov. ~2o.-"Satan's Invisible
World Displayed" or "Despairing Democ-
racy," is the sensational title of a sensa-
tional book dealing with Greater New York,
which W. T. Stead, the editor of the Re
view 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 III
Christ Came to Chicago"
But for Chicago, read New York, and
for the other the Devil said Mr.. Stead.
speaking to a reporter for the Associated
Press of his newest creation.
"Satan's Invisible World was, according
to Mr.. Stead, revealed by the Lexow COM
mittee, and "Despairing Democracy" is the
moral which he draws from the charter of
Greater New York, which he holds to be a
legislative declaration by the citizens of
their abandonment of faith in the possible
ity of governing a great city by popular
suffrage. These revelations he reviews at
great length. having succeeded in obtaining
one of the five extant copies Of the evil
dence.
Such is the analytical power Of the edit
or's rem that from the thousands of pages
Of printed testimony before that commit
tee, he weaves coherent and logical deScrip-
tioH of police protection, and
government by pull which is made as
interesting as a novel, while phases OF 1t
will! prove surprising even to those VINO
read the newspaper reports OF the lnVestl-
cation. incidentally, he reviews the his
tory of Tammany Hall and the methods OF
its leaders.
The unique title Of the book is borrowed
from Hopkins treatise on with Finding"
as being the most appropriate description
Of the state Of abysmal abomination into
It'll 49, ~ Nauy Nnrk had
sunk before the great revolt OF 1854.
Here in the history of New York we
have the whole Internal phantasmaSoria
once again, with heelers for witches and
policemen as wizards. And behind them
all, always present but dimly seen, the
ornipresent central force. whose name IS
mrttered with awe, and whose mandat Is
cbeyed with speed, is the same somber
figure whom his devotees regard with pas
siorate 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 au-
thentic incarnation of the principle of evil.
the veritable archfiend of the political
wcrld-is the boss of Tammany Hail.
The book bristles with striking headlines
and descriptions in Mr.. Stead's terse style.
Among its other achievements. the Lexow
committee enriched the vocabulary of our
language by the word 'pantata.'." he says.
1T is a mysterious word of Bohemian or
igin, meaning father-in-law. The New
York police captain was. in a very special
sense, the father-in-law to a very numer-
Gus progeny of ~disreputable people. In
stead of being a terror of evildoers, he be-
came the pantata who looked after them
with semi-Darental care, who regarded 1t,
indeed, as his chief function to relax the
ceived."
Under the heading. ''rhe Farmer Zen
eral of the Wages of SIM" he continued:
The strange woman. that pathetic and
tragic figure in the streets of all great
cities, whose house " old was said to
be the way of hell, own into the
chambers of death, in the police
captain only the sent. of rapacity. In
his eyes she was merely an asset in his
farm and one of the most valuable. For
in New York the prostitute was the police
mans mich COW. The police were not
merely tollkeepers on the way to hell. but
if by any chance the strange woman
they thrust her back into it.. What was it
to them that she might wish to save her
soul? 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 himself as being much
Mortified at the state of Piccadilly at mid
night. But better a thousand times have
the scandal of our streets than place the
liberty of all women at the mercy or the
police; giving men. more or less immoral
themselves. absolute liberty to arrest any
woman whom they please to say is loiter-
ing for purposes of prostitution"
After describing the various methods and
victims of police blackmail. the gamblers.
policy shops, disorderly 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. ia.
bles Of the current tariffs from criminal
sources of revenue. with the proportion OF
the receipts received by police officials OF
on the Judgment Seat" arraigns the police
justices.
The solitary CLEAN of hope which pierces
through this gloomy prospect to Mr.. SteadS
ewes is the press. Newspapers have power
to Investigate and expose. but in the most
remarkable passage of the book MI. Stead
proposes that their powers should be en-
iarged by bestowing on them authority to
summon persons and papers and put wit
EesSes upon oath.