Waterbury Democrat., 1901-03-05

HELD UP BY HIS FRIENDS. dors adjoining the barrooms of ho- tels. They have been admitted by kitchen entrances to club rooms, and have been served with whatever they might choose to order. Then, with the poison in their stomachs, they have been deaf to all that they might otherwise hear.
 There are and always have been all sorts of clubs here, the naming of which would require reams of paper. For two or three years there was press club in this city, but it died al- most seven years ago; died under the hammer of an auctioneer. None of the leading correspondents were members of it when it was sold. It had fallen into the hands of men who used it as a gamblers den, a whisky den, a home for indigent and weak lings, who were alleged to be news paper men,, place where whisky could be obtained at all hours and on Sundays; and, mira bile dictu, all on credit. The end was inevitable, and the auctioneer had the best of it better far than the unfortunate cred itors.
 There have been congressional clubs in almost every hotel. In these places men occupying high official positions, one of them speaker of the house of representatives, gathered nightly for gambling and drinking. Nobody in the hotel except the proprietor, would know of the existence of the congressional club. Nevertheless, there would be nightly meetings, where cards would be shuff1ed until early morning, where wine would be kept constantly opening, and where large stakes of money would con- stantly change hands. The hotel bar rooms were opened all day Sunday, and those who were patrons during the week were welcome on the Sab bath day, although the front doors and blinds were closed. Proba bly, it is so in other cities; it certainly has been so in this city for many years.
 Then there have been army and navy clubs, metropolitan, athletic and other clubs, within the walls of which all laws have been set at defiance. But Chief Sylvester has closed all of them, without the use of a hatchet. The governors and managers of all of the clubs know that he will en- force the law. They all know that he can invade their precincts with de- tectives whom they would not sus- pect; and that when he issues a po- lice order or regulation he will sleep less1y enforce the edict. Therefore they are not trying to evade the. or der. SFl
 The policemen who have been pro- warning, and they must fulfill their functions faithfully or lose their po- sitions. Incidentally this will give us a sober police force in those locali- ties, although it must be admitted that even the policemen in hotel pre- cincts are known to have been always on the prudential side of their cups, albeit they have taken their regular drinks without expense to themselves. But no man, in uniform or otherwise, is capa ble of performing his best functions while alcoholic poison courses. through his veins.
 In telling the truth about the con gressmen and their clubs it would be unfair to permit the people to sup pose that all congressman spend their time and their money in dallying with "wein, weib und gesang." Nor are all of them given to gambling. But it is truth to say that quite a number of them have been so habituated from time immem orial, in the brief history of our republic. ~--- -----.-..
 One representative, whose term hastens to close, was taken into a private congressional gathering and robbed of $3,975 between ten D. m. and three a. m. by those whom he called intimate friends. On the fol- lowing afternoon, when he crawled from under the table, and realized what he had done, all of his checks had been cashed, and he had no re- dress. It is just as well for him. as well as for his constituents, that he goes out of congress.
 SMITH .D.- FRY.