New-York tribune., 1900-03-10
TIE WIDE OPEN TOWN.

| Mr.. York. the President Of the Board of Police
| Commissioners, is man of character and
| standing. He IS esteemed by those who know
! him socially, and trusted for integrity and judg-
| ment by those who have business dealings with
| him. For these reasons il is somewhat disap-
| pointing to hear him echoing the stale shallow
! and insincere pretension that the existence of
| gambling dens houses Of Ill fame and other
| lawbreaking establishments in this city is I'M
known 10 the powers that be. He may be quite
| honest in doing so. He may be personally ig-
norant Of the state Of affairs in this city, He
may be sincerely persuaded that his associates
and subordnates in the Police Department do
not know of the existence of Illegal vice and are
unable to discover 1t. If so, his simplicity and
| lack of penetration are among the wonders of
the world.
Has Mr. York ever passed through the fire.
quented streets of this city at night? II he has
done so, has he not numerous resorts
whose suggestive names-names no decent
place would ever bear-are gaudily faunted in
colored lights. and in and out OF whose doors
| throngs of pmps and painted drabs are con-
stantly passing. prOclaiming and plying their
vile trade openly any street hawker Of
merchandise? If he has noticed these places,
does he suppose they are Christian Endeavor
conventions? Has he looked over the
official organ of the governing body of New
York? If so, has he not seen daily a column
of advertisements which is Enthusiastically and
most impudently nothing less than n directory
of brothels? Does he not understand the pur-
port of It? Has he never heard his acQuant-
ances talk of the policy shops and other gam
bling places which familiar TO the public
as are the police stations? Does the fact that
and then through private endeavor. some
big gambling den Is raided. done the
other day, not suggest to him the possibility
that there are others, which his police have
failed to suppress for the same reason that has
given immunity TO these which have at last
been exposed?
We willing to admit Mr.. York's honesty
in his profession of ignorance. But then we
must regard him alone and solitary among
the millions of inhabitants OF this city. Every
body else, AT least every one who has come to
years of understanding and is in possession Of
his normal faculties, knows perfectly we'll that
this is n wide open town" Everybody knows
that the unclean mob OF thieves and strumpets
that vociferously hailed the accession OF the ad-
ministration of which Mr.. York is member is
now in the full enjoyment of license 10 work its
vicious will. There Is no den of iniquity vile
and shameless that II cannot and does not re-
ceive permission TO flourish, and not only per
mission but protection from the Police Depart
ment Of which Mr. York is the head few
years ago men used to recall the horrors OF
former years, when John Allen and Kit Burns
and the iens OF Water-st. and Greene-st. were
at the height Of their hideous prosperity and TO
thank God that such things had become impos-
sible In New York. They can utter no such
thanks now. To-day they may recall the worst
of the past and find It fully equalled. aye. and
surpassed, In the revolving present. That
whether Mr.. York knows It not, Is the simple
truth concerning this wide open town"