Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-03
too MUCH LAT|DUTE
Gerry Society's Invasions OF
Rights Provoke Criticism.
DO NOT DISCRIMINATE
HOW THE PHoNoGRAPH CYLIN-
DER STARTED A DIVORCE SUIT.
Travelling Man Inadvertently Mixed
Up His Records-Wife Got One In
tended for stenographer.
DO NOT DISCRIMINATE

=
Up His Records-Wife Got One In
tended for stenographer.
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star,
NEW YORK. April 80. 1904.
There are many thousands of thoroughly
sane and eminently respectable people In
New York who have Of late years fallen
into the way of advertising to the Gerry
Children's Society as the Busybody Outfit
Many Of these persons, too, are workers
for the moral sanitation Of the town. One
may venture to believe that If there could
be plebiscitum in New York addressed
to the question whether the Gerry Society
should continue along the lines 1t has been
following of late years or be wiped out OF
existence, the weight of the ballots would
crush the singulariy off1cious organization
to an Inorganic and ineff1caeious pulp.
That part of the society's work which
looks to the reclamation of children, and
especially young girls, from the streets. has.
of course, the entire approval and indorse-
ment of the uncontaminaIed element Of the
populace. But the Gerry Society has OF
late years made hundreds of unWarranteo
invasions of the rights of persons whose
families stand in no need or pubic corFec-
ton.
Children short even such small matter
as a few days of the legal stage age. nave
been literally dragged from the stages OF
play houses and penned up in the rooms
Of the Childrens Society to await the ar
rival of their birthdays, and girls and poys
belonging to respectable families have been
ruthlessly swooped upon by the gerry
agents and slowed away under lock ana
KEY for indefinite periods for no misdeeds
other than the engaging In pure juvenile
mischief And people whose clean-minoeo
but mischievous children have Deen graDoeo
by the Gerry agents in this fasmon nave
had OCCASION to find out that It Is ABOUT .s as
hard to get a weepful young one out OF the
clutches Of the Gerry Society as 1t would De
for them to get bill through the albany
legislature without the Doodle In PLAIN
sight .., ga
cioI,sness of the Gerry Society has aroused
this ordinarily Indifferent popuiace 10 qui.e
a noisy pitch of indignation, not 70 say ois-
gust It had to do with the WeiIare Oh
mite of a Chinese girl A wealthy young
Chinese merchant Of New York, decent
and unusually self-respecting MEMBER VI
his race, had made his addresses TO the glri
and after the Chinese fashon: 70 ne rr, pee 90
ple. and his proposal of honest marrlase,
according to the Chinese system OF rites anu
ceremonies, had been accepted. Inc Cn-
nese girl and her parents, and IN TACT, the
whole Chinese quarter; na az spe srr,a nu and
in storing up enthusiasm and things Tor the
celebration to follow the big anafr IL was
a perfectly legitimate and above-poara
transaction. Chinese girls mature cary a thu
Gerry Society knows or ought to know. Inc
bridegroom had prepared swell home LOT
his child-bride in the Chinese quarter. anu
everything looked as merry, literally, as
marriage bell.
Stopped the Wedding Ceremony.
Well. the Chinese couple were standing
under the shadow Of the joss and awaiting
the Joining words, when the Gerry agents
clattered breathlessly up the stairs ana 1or-
babe the banns. so to speak. That Is to say,
they flashed their badges on the amazed
Celestials Of the marriage party ana .,t an
nounced that the matrimonial proceedings
were all off. Not only that, but the pride
groom was under arrest for having attempt
ed to abduct child. and the child was I'M
der arrest too, for having consented TO De
abducted. or some such frivolous thing.
The bride hadn't reached the American
marrying age, and consequently theIe was
going to be nothing further doing under the
shadow Of that Joss! 1t made no difference
to the Gerry Society that these people
weren't citizens Of the United States, for
the simple reason that the United states
wouldn't allow them to be citizens. Tneyo
have to be separated at the altar, or what
ever the Chinese equivalent of an altar may
be. and the whole business showed forward
into the cavern Of the indefinite future until
the Gerry Society got its mind made up
about things.
That made a gloomy forenoon of 1t for
the New York Chinese who had charted out
a three-days' period Of hilarity over what
had promised to be the most notable chi
nese marriage to occur on this side of the
Sierras The members of the marriage
party scampered off. to the tune of their
rustling silks. to get under cover. fearing
that the Gerry Society might decide to ar
rest the whole outfit The bridegroom was
taken to the nearest donion keep to allow
/ himself to cool out. and the doleful and
weepy little silk-swaddled Chinese bride
was bodily yanked. all unattended and
alone. to the rooms Of the Gerry Society.
This happened about three weeks ago,
and the Chinese girl-bride languishes at
the rooms Of the Gerry Society yet, in spite
Of the most desperate and sustained eff
forts that have been made to have her re-
leased. not only by her own people and
friends. but by influential New Workers
who regarded the whole business as a
curiously small and contemplate violation
Of the most fundamental rules Of fair play
None Of the child's Chinese women folk
have been so much as permitted to see her
much less speak with and comfort her. at
Inasmuch as the well-reared little Chi
nese miss had never in her short life par
taken Of American food. the Gerry people
figured It out that 1t would be the eminent
dren's food UPON her. So the dishes that
were sent to her by her Chinese people
were sternly sent away, and the languish-
ing young one, weeping continuously with
all of the hopeless misery that only a Chi
nese girl can throw into her weeping, had
to partake of the food they gave to her or
starve to death.
What right. anyhow, the Gerry people ar
gued. had the Chinese snip to prefer sharks
fms and birds'-nest soup, and such abomi-
nations. to the kind of beef stew known to
prisoners as ''slum" and corned beef and
caf1haga and Sl1nh3 Mona N fba =,
And so the little Chinese giri-bride, in her
tear-mfldewed silken garments, sits at
Gerry window all the Hve-long day through.
waiting for her people to come and take her
hnrna and the Gerry