The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-12-02
S. r. O.
The BootIegger Packs
Them in, While Learn
ed Men Shout Mes
sages to Empty PeWS.
BY ALFRED sEGAL

N4NSAN4N0A lev Az
~ learned men come to the
city and their eyes are disappoiIlt-
ed by the sight of meager audi
enceS. The preachers Of right
eousness send their voices out to
echo through half-empty halls.
The prophets of the land come
to present their glowing visions,
that the people may follow them,
and a handful come to hear them.
Only George RemuS, bootlegger,
lawyer, and wife killer, is drawing
crowds and at o'clock in the
morning the people already are
waiting at the door of the court
room, which viii not open until
10.
The privilege Of q seat In the
court room is a treasured thing;
the sight and sound of the boot
logger making a speech in the
court are an event long remem-N
bered and his words are quoted
and retailed from mouth to
mouth.
Where the champion Of ideals
in the public hall waits for his
struggling audience, the bootleg
ger turns them away; where the
preacher in the church deplores
the meager attendance, the boot
logger sees a multitude of ears
turned his way to catch his every
word.
THIS bootlegger once was a
Il respectable sort of person,
held in a certain esteem. Men
thought enough of him to en-
trust their lives to him as law
yer and many a neck Of others
he saved from the moose. He
enjoyed ali income not to be
sighted, and as a lawyer had
some reputts.
He was called a smart man by
those who regard smartneSs as
the capacity to get successful re-
suits; he was proud of his smart
ness, and even to this day, despite
the events that have proved him
to be fool, he still appreciates
himself.
Upon his success as a lawyer he
turned his back to become a law
breaker for the sake Of quick
and easy money, and in a few
years he became a millionaire.
He really didn't need more than
he already had, for as a lawyer
he was earning $4,000 a year.
He piled himself up great for
tune, but he stood on the lonely
eminence of the law-breaker. Re-
spectacle people liked his liquor,
but scorned his profession.
y
LIE took a great delight in dis
Il Il playing his new wealth, but
one day he came to a mighty fall
and the law dragged HIN of to
jail. His wealth did not avail him,
even though 1t enabled him to put
off the day of Judgment for more
than q year.
He went to prison carrying with
him $4,000 worth OF jewels. The
possession Of wealth sustained
him in his travail, for he THOUGHT
that when, in good time, he left
prison he would return to the
community in which wealth is re-
spected and makes responsibility.
But the corruption of his wealth
entered his home and, as he SAYS.
tempted his wife. When he left
prison, there awaited him only
the fragments of his fortune and
he went about picking up here
and there what dollars still were
to be found.
And a madness seized him and
he pursued his wife and caught
her and killed her, and now he
is ambitious only to keep his life,
which the State wants to take
from him.
DERHAPS all this is VIII Re-
4 mus gets far bigger AUDIENCES
than the preachers and the
prophets who point out the good
way of life to the few. The
bootlegger appears before them as
one who walked the gilded way
and came at length to pit and
fell in.
He offers them the bitter ex-
perience Of one who was going in
the good way and didn't have
sense enough to stay in It, but
wandered Off In the fools way.
The wise men offer only theories
Of the good life.
The fool presents the realities
Of the bad one.
SO the people turn away from
the wise men and come in multi
tudeS to see the poor fool.