The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-09-29
In Caustic Epistle He Directs Public Attention to Some
 of Their Doings
TAINTED MONEY ON THEIR { CONTRIBUTION PLATES NOT
 .SPURNED, HE POINTS OUT
Quotes From Kipling's ''Bandar- Log" and Refers to Them as "Old Man of the Sea- Who Would Overwhelm Some Political Sinbad

FOl1tlCdl OlnDa0
 ITO the Editor of The Farmer, Sir
 Now that Steeplechase Island is put in ship-shape for the winter, I would Hike to devote a little grateful atten- ltion to my jealous press agents, the Bridgeport Pastors association. Since Ithe season is over and am not pol titician, they can not accuse me of t1laving an axe to grind.
 I am curious to learn what did lthis year, much more than I did the -four years previous I have been in iBridgeport and to win so devoted an lattention. The Pastors certainly help led to keep the Island in the lime-light lrvithout cost or price to the manage fment
 They call themselves Pastors when their first principle declares that ev- kery one has the right to choose for himself what he wishes to believe in tfaith and morals.-Shepherds without hoover to wield their staff-one may tfeel grateful not to belong to their kflock The B. P. A. are really descen- Idants of the three taflors of Tooley fetreet who believed that when they , .lopened their mouths they spoke for jan the people in the country.
 | | would like to learn the name of bthe factory in whose shop-room that {vote was taken that Steeplechase Isl- tand should be closed. I ann afraid Igood many in that shop room forgot land came to the Island to see for ethenselves how wicked 1t was. They fought to have the courage to give sk4heir names, but because of other ketatements made by the B. F. A. Jam afraid that factory exists only lin fancy
 People go to work early in a fac- f7x1ax rx,.P me- they act more {. dependently be, fsng wage earners than young peopie Eancine nor games of chance nor ieven a glass of liquor is a sin in it kself. did the B. P. A. ever learn that yfures? If the young people want to fdance. they show good sense when tfb<.y dance in well-lfghted place and kamong their own friends; and this is knoticeably true at Steeplechase The tyoung people who cO1ne here call one tanotfler by their first names and show 5every sign of long acquaintance. Maybe the detectives the B. F. A. Asent to spy were amateurs; they must Ihave been; for there is no adjoining bar to the Island dance hall. There Ids a soda water fountain across the ffrail The bar is oyer 800 feet away. All this summer as we'll as the by gone summers the Island has got on lwithout police patrol; and there has lbeen no disorder and no trunks The tprofessional detectives, the State Po- llice. stated under oath in court that they had never seen any amusement tplace kept in better order. Steeple- chase Island has been my home and n have endeavored to run it as cleanly as any pastor in Bridgeport runs his.
 ssBridgeport Pastors association swhen you declare that everything did not go off fair and square Hospital Sunday, you state an untruth. A well known young man volunteered and from his auto sold the winning ticket off the roll No. 1000, A committee ipf well known and respectable citizens took charge of the drawing, and the winning tickets were drawn by a schfld selected by them- No attache of the Island had anything to do with most Pastors are landlubbers ac- counts for their inability to value wa ter craft If it were my intention to hold back the houseboat how explain the fact that twenty-eight other prizes remain unclaimed? On Hospital Sun day a great many baseball enthusiasts came from other towns, one excursion coming from Newark N. J. Many thought that the tickets sold were good only for admission. Hundreds of torn up tickets picked from under the grand stand the day after Hospital
 
 claiming of prizes.
 The statement that Mayor Bucking- ham is a stoclzho1der in the Steeple- chase Island Amusement Go. is a twice-told lie. Men who have no au- sfhority to teach except what they ar ,rogate to themselves choose only what suits their own peculiar bent and lcompIexion. There are really ten com mandmeDts of B. F. A. and one of them you have skipped: 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.''
 Now in point of fact. twice this sum- mer. gambling devices were brought on the Island without my knowledge and drove them off, and on one oc- ' casion captured the wheel and turned | 1t over to the police authorities Hos pitaI Sunday I turned down an offer of s1.000 to permit gambling devices on the Island. That statement about 1.-the boys and a game of chance on July 23rd, has the emphasis on the wrong they-for the game was put off the Island, tone of the two men tioned above) not the boys. Do the 4B P A. know that every Island con lcessaire has to sign a contract that he will obey the laws of the city au- 1horities-this is a fact-tTlat must outweigh some of the B. P A. fic- tion-
 Steeplechase Island spends between $40.000 and $50,000 year right here in Bridgeport. How much do the Pas tors Association spend? The Island is too expensive a plant for the patron age. It would not have been opened this season at all were it not for the urgent. solicitations of the Bridgeport Board of Trade and others. Many promises were made to support the Island. Before the Islands opened or one half of the contemplated improve ments were made the Pastors began In m Board of Trade left the deck to seek the seclusion that a cabin grants.
 All. improvements were cancelled from that day. If it were vice you were hunting. B. P. A. you did not have to come to Steeplechase Island
 Continued on Page 10.)