The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-01-26
FIGHTING
 VICE NOW
 2 A SCIENCE
Continued From First Page.)

|
 a full fledged sideShow on tha side. It
 was nip and tuck between us and you i at one time. But you won out and got
 the county jail. You have the county i commissioners in your bOsolns. You l are nearer the throne of the powers
 than we are
 Now there came a time when we
 thought we would wipe out few of
 the evils that existed in our town and
 as said before we have accomplished
 some things.
 | II have here a clipping from the
 news columns of the Bridgeport Far l mer which states that the election of I the present speaker of the house of the General Assembly was 'distinctively l due to the activity f@Congregational 1 ministers in opposition to his election. The ministers have not been blamed for the Messina catastrophe but you
 are likely to read it in the papers to-
 morrow or some other day.
 ] 'fAs minister of the gospel I would
 not dare tell doctor how to admin ister' digitalis and neither would I dare to interpret the law for a lawyer. but
 the average layman finds it within his
 sphere to prescribe the position that
 the clergyman should take on all mat
 ters. Tim Sullivan tells what should be dignity in Dr. Parkhurst. Think of Mulberry Bend dictating to Madison 1 Square.
 After our experiences in our town can say that it would hardly be safe
 to know the proprietcrship of all the
 houses in Bridgeport When I went to
 room bill 4 another church member
 went on the same train to save his
 scalp. When we tackled dive we felt the wriggle of the snake in the l church. There were those who had
 insurance on the buildings, those who had loaned money to someone con- nected with someone else who was
 owned the building. where the dive
 was located.
 Tt has been said that if you pulled the tail of the dog in San Francisco
 he would bark in New York. We stepped on the dogs tail in the dives sooner did we strike the dive than we
 struck the cultivated and more intel lectual people.
 we brought charges against cer- tain officials and we found ourselves
 up against the Fairfield County bar
 The association's committee told us
 that the officials had done certain were sorry the committee would not report them to the Superior court.
 Each time we would strike man who was low down in the line we found we had also struck a man who was higher up. If we said there was evil, we were told to keep still or real estate prices would drop.
 "One of these doubtful laymen said that the ministers were doing an in- justice in speaking of the siderooms in the way they do. One of the other members got him to take walk around to the various places. Tn one place they pushed open a sideroom d. fI,1 ,rrI,E< 1f ha skeptic. These dives were running for five years without molestation until we took our professional regulations in our hands and gave them a fight. We won out in five months.
 s'We have just cleaned out five more saloons over in East Norwalk with one sweep We have got some more in ing so many drunkards over there that women have to step over them on their way to church. They say that when one of the patrons of these places can- not drink any more himself the bar tenders leans over the bar and pours it down his throat.
 T think that a great deal of the antagonsim to the church in these movements is due to the fact that the ministers undertake the work without preparation. They go into the thing immediately. We should learn from St. Paul. If I may be permitted to say it-St Paul was foxy. When he appeared before the Pharisees he said, T am a Pharisee of the Pharisees.'
 ssWe have discovered that balls were being held in our city where liquor was sold over the bars long after mid night. We went down to one of the affairs At the door we met a drunken youth of IS years. who was being elected by a policeman. We found re- spectable young women of our parishes dancing with partially intoxicated young men. We took the matter up with the authorities. The chief of po- lice said, Balls have been run like that for the past 25 years but no one ever said anything about it before.
 'sWe have a state armory down in Norwalk. They had a firemen's fair running while ago. My daughter said to me, Gladys, says she played the wheel last night and made some money We looked into that matter and found that they had about every equipped gambling place. There were roulette wheels, g. faro layout, some slot machines which had been seized from the Italian fruit stores, by the police, and several other games of l chance.
 "After we protested the prosecutor issued decree that hereafter the law WILT D0 0IIOICcO, UuI 1lC oio llOl iIIlCl | fere with the gambling while the fair was in progress"
 Here the clergyman told of his ex- periences in Orange county, New York, in bringing to justice deputy sheriff who was connected with a pool room. How he appealed to Dr. Park hurst and was able to get satisfaction l by following the latter's advice in pub fishing the facts. He said eff the | courts get an idea that the public be- lieves someone is mOnkeying with | justice they'll act, and act quick" I
 Tn closing the clergyman said, Some | have the opinion that if they ! are elected by a hundred majority they | own the earth.
 "Why can't the church dictate lit l tie in politics if the saloon can do so. i
 "Politicians get the idea too often | that the office is the property of the | party instead of the people. They 1 must not pay debts of the party with public off1ces.''
 Telling of his experiences at Hart | ford, two years ago, in supporting the committee, Rev. MT. Egg | bert said that he met Senator Hodgin 1 son chairman of the excise committee, 1 on the morning of a, day when the | side-room bill was supposed to come | up and the senator told him and his who were there to wipe out the siderooms, that they could go | home. as theirA bill would not be re- ported that day. The party went to 1 the railroad station and then decided !