New-York tribune., 1905-12-31
GOSSIP OF THE BOROUGH
John Pope Hodnett Yarns Clergy
Against I'm pending Doom.

John Pope Hodnett, the eccentric Brooklyn
lawyer, who added to the gayety of the last
campaign by conducting q quiet little canvass
OF his own for the Office OF Mayor. came out
yesterday with an interesting document IN
which he appeals TO the ministers to AID him
in saving New-Yorl1 from revolution In the
campaign Hodnett was his own manager, his
own press agent, and not only set up and print
ed his own campaign literature but distributed
it as well. When nothing more serious takes UP
his time, Hodnett who loves to compose to
print and distribute the products of his brain.
gets out poems TO Chauncey NJ Depew and
other celebrities The latest pronunciamento,
which occupies four pages of a closely print
ed folder and IS adorned with a picture Of the
author is headed:
John Pope Hodnett's appeal to the united
pulpit to aid him IN saving New York from the
blood and horrid scenes Of The French Revolu-
New-York Read It carefully; it viii make the
hair stand on end In your head. He saws the
remedy lies IN the hands heads and tongues Of
the pulpit.
Then the author Of the document goes on to
say ithe punctuation IS ali Mr.. Hodnett's):
make this appeal to the pulpit under ex,s4
ing election frauds in New Yorl1 which renders
the election of a Mayor unconstitutional and
nun and void alb initio. I ask the pulpit to aid
me in setting aside all the election re+,1rns :.
fraudulent by nominating new candidates and
noldinS a new election for Mayor SO that a
nanouient Mayor may not be placed by usur-
pauon: Tor the next four years. 20 rule over the
great, free city Of New-York without the con-
stltutiohal consent thereto Of the sovereign
people of New-York City.
Then there follows little original poem of
two verses entitled: God Is Everywhere"
In the construction Of his appeal to the pull
Pit Hodnett. who is nothing il not fluent drops
Into the style of sermon, as hts opening SEN
tence will illustrate:
Ideas are immortal immutabIe and uncon-
quereble; you can't stop an iGea from marching
onward any more than you could chain a hurri-
cane 10 the airshaft of the steamship Great
Eastern. when. the leviathan that she was was
caught in a hurricane in mid-ocean she was only
Ike cork on top Of Niagara.
Then he proceeds:
II VIII be thus with the little organizations of
"big men" in New-York when the dav of wra IN
comes, who have nothing small about them but
their brains.
They'll be only like mosquitoes on the eIe-
pnants back, and still they are the "big men,
with little heads, who have paved the way for
teeta that produced harvest OF blood-oh. how
no flble! Oh, how terrible! Oh, how 1nonstrous
Oh how un-Godly! Oh. how un-Christian!
After preaching a sermon on the hypocrisy OF
assumed Christianity. cIoaking the pflaging OF
the public. MI Hodnett breaks out with this
wonderful piece of composition:
Corruption stalks abroad In New-York TO-DAY
IN the full mondays brilliant sun. like baw6
labelled for sale. fair 70 look at but death tC
touch; it's a hallucination; It's a riddle: it's
political conundrum; it's a mere idGle-faddle
like throwing a tub to whale to swim in; al
assumed junta, whose cornerstone is misrepre
senuation, and whose password is uSurpation
deception, treechery and robbery
Shall we allow this heIIish monster to consu1nt
US or shall we save this beautiful government
OF our fatheFs-this great arch OF human free
dom-from effectual effacement? I pause for ;
reply.
blasting oar freedom. This Indictment of then
IS indisputably true TO a fault Are there m
American clergymen to-day in greater New
York who respect the memory of Washington
sufficiently lift up their voices to save thi
government from destruction?
Then Mr. Hodnett draws terrifying picture
saying:
Do you want 20 wait until the revolution
comes and then be compelled to open you
mouths when million OF people. maddened ant
frenzied are in the streets bowling for tustics
late. and the masses, following in the footstep
of the French Revolution, will turn their gun
upon yourselves and your churches. and yol
win perish together amid the crash and ryil
OF a universal defamation and destruction o
Gods fairest palaces, and you will wake u
solne morning amid the ruins OF a city and
civilization which has passed away. ] am ap
healing 10 you TO form a united Christian
combination of all churches and all creeds o
all nations IN New-York under my leadershi
fo nIf down the buccaneers OF New-York an
Brooklyn, and once forever rid New-York Cit
OF these gangs Of land pirates and political des
r,zrsdoes / shud6er when I think of what
coming and with an aching heart and a brirnfU
eve appeai TO you 10 aid me 10 save New
York frcm ruin, drive the buccaneers fror
she CITY and change the city government unde
my leadership. feel that ]. am the man calle
bx Almighty God tQ Do ths -EoE4 .2{- EsL9E nastao