Perth Amboy evening news., 1912-10-31
A MOTHERS

u tuS SGdlcLuelb VI q ulOGllcl VI a llbtcu-
year-old girl made in police court yesterday
is true, another reason is advanced why the
people should exert every effort to bring
about a change in excise conditions in this
city. The girl had appealed to the desk ser
geant for shelter, arriving at the police sta
ton about midnight and telling a pitiful tale
Of abuse at home. The mother was notified
but when she appeared in court the girl
sneaked out of a rear door and disappeared.
1t was then that the police learned the
other side of the story. The mother, between
her sobs, said her daughter had been a good
girl and a great help in the nome until a few
weeks ago. Then she disappeared and has
not been seen for three weeks. The mother
says she learned through a friend Of her
daughter that the girl mad been seen in a sa-
loon in this city drinking and carousing with
men on several occasions. It seems the police
are going to make an effort to find the girl
in order to place her in some institution.
1t will doubtless be a good thing to find the
there? Is this one girl their only concern?
What about the thousands of other girls in
this city?
What about this saloonkeeper in whose
place it is said this fifteen-year-old girl was
seen drinking and carousing? Have the au-
thorities no duty to perform in regard to him?
Are they not going to try to find him as well
as the girl7
1t is probably too late to save this girl now.
She is doubtless ruined for life. Are we 60
ing to continue allowing girls to be ruined in
this manner only to search for them later and
put them into some corrective institution?
No wonder our reformatories and state homes
are filed to overlooking.
Get this girl by all means and persuade her
to lead a different life if possible. But, first
OF all, locate the place or places where she
met her downfall and wipe them out.
If we find a bad leak in a barrel and water
all over the floor, we do not first begin to sop
up the spilled water and leave the leak wide
open. Our first step is to stop the leak that
no more water may flow out, and then sop up
what is lost afterward. In this case, our first
duty should be to close up the places where
girls are ruined in order that no more may
be lost, and then turn our attention to those
who have fallen already, and do what we can
to redeem them.
When a mother tells such a story as this
mother told in the police court yesterday it
is time for the citizens Of this city to give Sc
rious consideration to the election Of an ex-
o,co 1o,rJ F1,oro ,~o G-o -,a, xrloao ,e-,z.
are on the ballot that is to be voted next
Tuesday to whom the people can look for re-
form. We believe these men will not disap-
point. Look on your sample ballot and under
the heading Of excise commissioners you will
find ten names with instructions to vote for
FIVE. The five men who stand for a new order
of things in Perth Amboy in excise affairs are
the last five named. When you mark your
ballot for voting next Tuesday and come to
the excise commissioners, put an tx" in the
squares opposite the last five names. Begin
at the bottom and count upward and you can
not make a mistake.
Let us place our excise affairs on as pro-
gressive a basis as are all the other depart
ments of our city government. Next Tuesday
is the time to do it. You will not have an
other opportunity for three years-and think
how many ffteen-year-old girls can be led
astray during that time!
1t is up to you, Mr.. Voter, to put an end to
this condition Of affairs.
New Brunswick looks at Trenton's tax rate
which is two points lower than last year, and
then at her own which is creeping higher all
the time, and then wonders why she did not