Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-03-16

has made the reply: See general re-
marks Under that head he has writ
ten, among other things:
Women have been seen to enter this
nIace without an escort and leave with
one Several of these women have been
arrested and sent to the workhouse as
vaGrants.
Yet n license was granted.
Sylvester Defends Police.
Major Sylvester took these documents in
his hand when a Star reporter asked him
what he knew about these particular
tases. He sighed.
We'll. you can see the police are on
record as making the reports" he said,
I'm defense of his men.
Further on in the conversation ne sald
cit il very hard for q policeman to
bring evidence I'm court that a proprie-
tor has KNOWINGLY sold liquor to a
minor.
gngton, as they have in New York and
Boston We have kept them out very
we'll But these places where young girls
go with men and drink all the evening
are hard hard problem.
"As a rule where they do stick TO the
,aw and refuse to sell to minors, the
youngsters are warned in advance and
keep away. IF not. they tell the waiter
they are of age. They are wise lot,
these youngsters.
unfortunately there IS no law against
drunkenness in the District of Columbia.
A drunken person cannot be prosecuted
unless he or she is disorderly.
Sometimes they carry 1t to the point
Of becoming noisy and loud. Then a
policeman can succeed with a charge Oh
hisorderly conduct.
.It II evidence that q man knowingly
sells to youngsfer that Is most DIM
cult to obtain"
Once This Happened.
Mai Sylvester has a record of the
startling case of two girls. One of them
is fifteen and the other eighteen.
They made so much noise at the cor
ner of 9th street and Pennsylvania ave-
nue. early one Sunday morning that two
policemen went to see what was the
matter These two girls they found in
toxicated to a sickening degree.
They were with two young men. The
quartet was taken to the police station,
where the men put up big collateral
when charged with giving liquor to
minors.
one of the girls had to be sent to Elmer
cency Hospital for treatment. The
fathers of both of them. after wonder
Ing all night where their daughters
were. received the news by telephone
the next day.
i ne story tnP police tOlu WdS lIdl lic
girls had gone to one of these pay-as-
You enter balls that flourish with a am.
beerselling privilege
Finding things slow there, they had
dropped into saloon with ladies' en-
trance on 9th street.
The waiter asked the girls ages. Each
of the youngsters tackled three years
Ia their right age. But the waiter re-
fused to believe the fifteen-year-old child
and she had to do with ginger ale
@nh 10 $rxro say,fNR ad
up the the girls and ordered drinks.
Still the waiter refused to sell to the
younger girl.
At any rate they all managed to get
enough to drink to make the girls stag
gcring drunk.
Now as to the Police Court side of it.
The boys forfeited collateral. The girls
said they were twenty-one years old.
And said Maj Sylvester, unless
YOU have a birth certificate or family
Bible, or the oath of the parents, there
is no way to get around il"
Commissioner Rudolph's Interest.
ested in stopping the sale of GROWERS"
to young girls. He said recently:
The present excise law covers every
thing except the sale of beer in buckets
TO young people and children. l want to
see that stopped.
Il think it better to rush the growler'
than to spend so cents in treating in a
barroom. But I am dead set against the
habit of sending young persons, especially
girls to saloons.
With that feature changed. and with
the excise law as it stands now enforced
/ believe that the question will be we'll
in hand"
Comment of Rev. c. E. Guthrie.
The following is one of many com
munications received by The Star this
morning:
Hamline Methodist Episcopal Church,
9Th and 2 streets northwest,
Washington, d. C.
Charles E. Guthrie, Pastor,
800 r street northwest.
March Is, 1910
To the Editor of The Star
Washington, D. C.
My Dear Sir:
| have read with very great interest
the article in todays issue of The Star
concerning the pitfalls for young girls
and young boys among the saloons of
Washington.
As a good citizen I want to thank YOU
most sincerely for this statement of the
situation and to express the hope that
through the service your paper has
rendered to the public the people of
Washington may be induced to interest
themselves little more than they have
been doing toward the correction of
these evils.
I am perfectly confident that IL the
parents of Washington tonight knew
the alIurements for their boys and girls
which infest our Capital city there
would he an uprising In the demand
for better things.
Authorities who are supposed to be
charged with the duty of looking after
these things first need to be looked
after themselves by the citizens So
called discretionary power is simply
nul1ified by fear of men with licenses
and the interests they represent
To cite one instance: Here is a great
school in our city where more than
twelve hundred young people congre-
gate every day. with a plant in con.
tinuous operation in full glare of the
windows every day in the week, and
the remaining parts of the building
usually occupied by denizens of my,
terry, about whom it seems impossible
to obtain information from any quar-
ter known to man.
] beg to congratulate the public upon
the good service you have done. 1
continuance will he a large factor In
remedyinE wrongs which tonight are
blighting home after home.
With best wishes and sfncerest re-
spect. Yours, etc,
CHARLES r. GUTHRIE.