The Colorado statesman., 1905-08-19
A Key Note Of Warning.

A short time ago a special commit
tee from the Peoples Sunday Alliance
took up with Mayor Speer and Chief
of Police Delaney the case of colored
clubs, where women and young girls
were allowed to congregate and vaunt
their shame, and for a time a quietus
was put on these resorts by two of
them going out of business and the
others conforming to better moral reg
ulations concerning the presence of
women and girls frequenting their
rooms, but the reform was only tenn
porary and now the evil has broken
out again with all of it's old debauch-
condemnation and police interference.
1t is not the purpose of the Alliance
or any member of it to interfere with
any mans legitimate business or oc-
cupation, but we feel that it is to the
interest of parents, the public and the
police to see that infamous dives of vice
and rendezvous of harlotry are not
tolerated in our midst even under the
gllise of social club and when run
by our erstwhile respectable citizens.
Denver fair and beautiful, is no longer
a frontier town, to tolerate resorts
where social vice and invitation to
reckless living and prostitution are
made part of its stock in trade. Many
respectable people are coming to the
West to make their homes, earn a live
lihood, raise and educate their chill
dren; and any resort intended to Sc
duce their children or debauch their
wives. and daughters should meet with
instant destruction. Every nation seeks
to protect and safeguard it's women.
The wine rooms have been declared
unconstitutional by the highest court
of the state, and yet in certain por-
tions of the city resorts make it pos
sible for women and young girls of
our race to gather and debauch them
selves in the presence of low charac
ters and vicious elements until virtue
and shame are strangers to them for
ever
The public, the church and the news
papers have a duty to the young peo-
pie of this community, and especially to
the women and girls, and that duty is
to point out to them the pitfalls and
danger places. where honor and virtue
are sacrificed on the altar of vice and
revelry The young man or woman
who expects to retain the respect of
his fellow-men cannot afford to be
seldom visitor, let alone frequenter,
of these dens of shame.
Secondly, parents are warned to take
more careful oversight over their boys
and girls, and see and know where
they go and how they spend their
evenings. 1t is not to our credit that
we are raising up in these days vags
and loafers, gamblers and loose char
acters, instead of industrious, sober
and respectable citizens.
Resort keepers owe it to themselves
and to the parents and the public and
to the success of their business to see
that those under age do not come into
their places to carouse and drink and
spend their time. The misery caused
by these clubs to parents is most
heartrending, and unless a stop is put
to this the whole community will be
unsafe, for when the giddy life of the
sport undermines the young every
moral restraint is gone, honest work
is impossible, and the outlook of life is
tinged with vice and criminal impulses
are encouraged.
The clubs may have their sphere, but |
is certainly not to fiaunt shame and |
vice in full view of the young, and we |
wish at this time to sound a note of |
warning to the keepers of these re-
sorts before more drastic measures are |
taken and power is brought to bear to |
again put these places under police
REV. J. E. FORD.