News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1903-02-11

lowed by some suggestive dances, he
sat there practically hearing and see
ing nothing on the stage. The audi
ence had become the absorbing study
for him The people! There they We're!
His choice. TO serve and to love! But
wasn't worth while?
The majority of the company was
composed of young men between eight
cen and twenty-five years Of age. They
were as a type pale, listless and as
tonishingly dull of expression John
Gordon was irresistibly drawn to i'm
agine the exact appearance of the
rooms that these young men probably
called home. lie then began to raise
host of questions concerning their par
entage, their occupations. their wages,
the amount they probably spent on the
saloon and the places they went to on
Sunday. The absolute absence of any
thing interesting or eevating in their
lives impressed him with tremendous
reality. All the churches in the city
were on the fine streets miles away
There was not a religious institution,
with the possible exception of Hope
!
lives of these apathetic, coarsened, dis
sipatCd Young men. The vaudeville
and the saloon touched their lives but
the church never did. Yet it was the
sinner that Jesus came to save. Was
the church realizing her responsibility
to neglect this awful swarm of youth
that bred like disease in the tenement,
and cursed God and died in the i'm
pure atmosphere of these polluted
walls? God have mercy on them! Are
they more sinned against than SHINING?
Can a boy or girl grow up pure in tene-
ments like these we have here in this
greed smitten city? And the one social
institution that comes forward to min
lister to the social instincts is the sa-
loon! 1t says to the tired wOrkingman
who has no place worthy to be called
a home "Come, enjoy a social glass in
a handsome, well lighted, cheerful
roOm!" 1t says to the men whose appe-
tite is never satisfied with i'll prepared
food: Come, enjoy a free lunch! Only
of course you will want beer or whisky
to wash it down" And without saying
this to the man, only to itself, the sa
loon, with devilish foresight, reckons
on getting back by means Of the free
lunch 100 per cent in the actual sale Of
drinks. Truly Officer Roberts is right
when he says, It's free, but it's eXpen-
sive."
1t says to the young man who has
no healthy outlet for physical life be-
cause he is born without Fairgrounds
and without home pleasures: Come.
In the vaudeville will amuse you.
The songs and the dances will be sug-
gestive, and the young women who
furnish the amusement are fallen, but
vice is a necessity to civilization, and
we stand ready to furnish what the
church and other religious organiza-
tons will never give your
Surely" John Gordon medtated,
the saloon in its day and generation
is wiser than the children of light.
The devil must dance in glee over the
sight of the tenement and Stun dis
tricts in the city as he sees his finest
agents occupying the field of social
panderers to a human necessity, while
the solemn, empty stone editices called
churches stand stately and still up on
the grand boulevards and open their
doors once or twice a week to receive
proud men and women, clothed in pur
pie and fine linen, who fare sumptu-
Ously every day, who enjoy their reli-
. gion, but do not enjoy practicing it
!, among sinners It at least not among
sinners like those who are born in ten
!, ements and get their nourshment in
saloon and vaudeville. Surely the sa-
loon is giving the churches pointers on
how to reach the masses. VIII the
churches take the broad hint and act
! on it, or viii they still allow the sa-
, loon to pre-empt the corner lots and
under the hypocritical guise of cater
ing to a social craving damn with phys
: zeal and moral damnation lives that
have never known any other gospel
but the GOSPEL of beer and free lunches
: as long as they are able to pay for
them?'
His meditation was going deeper
and he was beginning to philosophize
, not bitterly, but with genuine sadness,
, when be saw Mr.. Marsh suddenly
, arise and clutch his arm hard.
Il can't bear any more of this" he
4 said as Gordon glanced up at him.
I'm going out. It's too revolving.
I've seen all | care to-"
And when you've seen one of 'em
you've seen all of EN-" said Officer
Roberts with shrug. Gordon looked
! toward the stage. a dance that was
simply revolving in its indecency was
: being performed. A roar of brutal
t laughter rose from the audience 1t
was like u picture taken from some
scene of the Inferno" Gordons spirit
| famed up in holy wrath at the sight
. of it, but he got up and went out with
2 Marsh and the officer.
Once outside, even in the tainted,
5 beer poisoned air that hoated out of
the saloon, all three of the men breathed
] easier. Officer Roberts looked toward
S Gordon with an air of resignation.
: Does your friend wish to continue?
: | may be allowed to say the show is
the same one place as another-same
songs, same dances''-
e mo more for me-" Mr.. Marsh inter-
Il rupted quickly. Gordon, I'm simply
i sick of il all Let us 90 back to Hone