The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1899-09-16
Il TRIUMPH or TR TUE.

Memphis Commcrcal-Appeal.
What may he accomplished if people only
try. is shown in the war made on the wine
rooms in St. Louis. These swine rooms
are difficult to describe, because euphemistic
language conveys only a vague and shadowy
picture of them, and language that would
convey proper idea of the character of
these places would be shocking to ears po-
lite. Generally speaking, they are saloons
from the most squalid, fitted up with ''la-
dies entrances and filed with private
stalls small rooms, into which couple
can enter and enjoy such refreshments as
they may order in perfect seclusion. Into
these places the glassy-eyed nymphs du pave
lured their victims, drank with them, drug
gcd them and robbed with the assistance of
the employees of the house, who shared i'm the
spells. Little was tn ought of this, because
the man who suffered learned a lesson which
was of value to him, and the siren was
merely administering an unpoetic justice to
a member of the that had caused her
downfall, and who must expect 10 be her
natural prey.
The evil did not stop here. Lecherous
scoundrels cnticed young and innocent girls
into these retreats for lemonade Or WING
the knowledge of chemistry possessed by the
barkeeper could be depended on. After an
hour two the maiden was ready to ac-
company her escort anywhere, and to wake
mp in the morning prepared for a life on the
street grave in the Mississippi river.
a certain locality swarmed with these
''dives,' and the wine rooms swarmed with
young people of both sexes. The street be-
came the boulevard of Beezlebub. 1t was
the board of trade of turpitude, the
clearing house of concupscence, where
young and old assembled and swrled and
reeled in mad rigadoon. Appeals to the
authorities made in vain, because the
evils were confined to drinking and drug
ging. What followed was completed else
where. Two clergymen, who had churches
in the neighborhood, took the matter in
hand. One of these was Methodist and
the other a Catholic. They lived in the
neighborhood and knew what it They
determined to make fight. Little atten-
ton paid to them for awhile, because
such classic descriptions as ''Inferno,' eyes
tbuie of HE'LL Gate to Perdtion' and
the like had become stale and meaningless,
but when one of these good servants of God
appealed to the mothers of St. Louis and
assured them with force of language sell
dom heard, that these wine rooms were
''pro,titute factories,'' it stirred the city
from its apathy as the eagle strs her nest,
the heart of Hadad, the Edomte,
stirred, Jeremiah stirred Moab, who chad
settled his lees and a change came.
''Cranks,' scntentiously observed others.
"Better cicati ize these sores instead of scat
tering the virus,'' said the complacent and
sef=satisfied sarcerdotalists. ''Preachers
had better keep to their pulpits and attend
their own business chorused many.
All the old arguments and criticisms
remolded, as f1attened bullets are recas1,
and fired at the reformers.
But the preachers refused to keep their
pulpits. They Numbered against the evil
early and late, in season and out of season,
and soon the public. including the self-ab
sorbed citizen. who is deaf to morallzing,
and the sarcerdotalist, joined in the move
ment until it swept with irresistible bene-
fcience the city.
Men will always do right if they be
induced 10 go into the crypts of their own
hearts in while and find what good
sentiments and impulses there atrophied
by neglect.
The upshot of the crusade is that the wine
rooms had to succumb. The police depart
ment prepared list of the saloons tina, had
wine room attachments, and Excise Com
missioner Higgins has pledged himself to
remove every such resort in St. Louis. And
he must do it, because the people mean
business.
All the apathy, all the political influence,
all the hackneyed epigrams, all the
temptuous shoulder struggling and pooh
pooling could not prevail against the efforts
of two humble ministers who saw an evil and
resolved to abae it. 1t was great triumph
of virtue.
Vice cannot be eraolicatcd, but it can be
made to hide its head, and when hidden it
&c .t1a Iva