The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-02-04
tended to be placed in the hands Of chill
dren of school age.

tended to be placed in the hands Of chill
dren Of school age.
At school, were you obedient and re-
| spectful to those set over you? Did you
| wilfully break the rules of the school.
| either openly or in secret? Did you lead
others to do the same? Were you ever
| dishonest in your work at school, copying
| from the books of others? Did you ever
| lie about it when found out? Do you re-
| member, while at school, any special sin
into which you were led by others, or TO
which you tempted others?
The offensive portion of the work is
embraced in three pages and half de-
voted to the Seventh Commandment If
it were possible to print these pages in
| full. they would undoubtedly make SEN
sation that would convulse Jersey City
| Such publication renders "The News
justly amenable to the law, which 1t is
Mr.. Anthony Comstock's special mission
10 enforce The denominations suggested,
cover the entire possibilities of vice. Moth
ing is too shocking to be spoken of in
plain language.
Immediately succeeding this extraordi-
nary section. come the following sentences
under the heading. Eighth Command
ment:-
Have you ever stolen or kept anything,
however small, which did not belong to
you? from your parents? from your
schoofellows? from your employers?
Have you ever stolen articles of food in
order to crafty your appetite?
Even in the passages of the Eighth
Commandment some grotesquely frivol-
GUS questions are to be found. such as
the following
"Have you used artificial means of inn
proving your appearance
Another remarkable question is this
Have you kept on terms of friendship
with anyone who has openly broken the
Seventh Commandment. by getting di-
vorced and remarried?'
1t was thought at first that the mem
bers were simply objectfng to Mr.. Ell
mendorf's s views on the question of con-
fession, but it has now developed that it
is because of his high-handed manner of
ing he announced that money had been
given for new side altar and Sacrament
lamp, which he intends to keep burning
forever. He also announced that the
Sacrament would be reserved every day
in the week but Sunday, as he thought
there were few members who would not
come if the Sacrament was reserved on
that day. This matter. too, has caused
so much dissension that the church IS
on the verge of collapsing. The church
is in state of chaos, the members de-
clare, being in very poor financial condi-
tion, because of designations brought
about by Mr. Elmendorf's s actions.
According to the stories told the church
will never be in prosperous condition un-
til the present rector goes out. The con-
being one of permanency, unless the Bish-
op see fit to remove him because of negli-
gence. The dissenters have claimed that
the rector has tried to browbeat them and
forced them to confess This. too. in
view of the fact, that confession in the
Episcopal Church is purely voluntary.
Mr. Elmendorf is said to have had
conversation with the wife of promi-
nent member during which he asked her
if she had confessed She answered that
she never believed in it. She was then
told that she could not receive communion
in the church He is said to have en-
ployed the same tactics in more than one
instance.
It is said that prominent member went
to him and accused him of insulting his
daughter, at the same time exclaiming
that he wished that the rector would get
out of the church.
Mr.. Elmendorf replied "that he was
there until he died and that no one could
put him out" This he has said on several
occasions and he has defied the members
to do anything in the matter.
Mr.. Elmendorf was interviewed again
last evening, and was asked if he really
advocated the use of the above mentioned
book. He said he had and that he saw
nothing wrong in it. He also repeated
that it was purely voluntary on the part
of his congregation to confess and that
it concerned nobody but those confessing.
He was told that the Bishop had been
appealed to in regard to the book on con-
fession.
He replied that the Bishop would prob
ably sit on the dissenting faction.
s.I am a true American he said, "and
think it is contrary to the laws of liberty
for anyone to interfere in another's busi-
ness or religion. This is a country where
in all are entitled to their own opinions,
and a blessing it is.
You may say that this talk of pre-
senting me with a voluminous petition,
regarding confession in my mind, is all
rubbish There won't be any such docu-
ment. Even if there were 1t would not