THE LIBRARY
OF THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
AUTHOR OF " FRAUDS EXPOSED
(Secretary and Chief Special Agent of the New York Society for tht Suppression of Vice^ and Post-Office Inspector)*
WITH INTRODUCTION BY
J. M. BUCKLEY, D.D.
FOURTH EDITION
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
NEW YORK AND LONDON
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883,
By FUNK & WAGNALLS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C.
INTRODUCTION.
BEFORE any one consents to introduce a work written by another, three questions should be settled. These are : Is a book upon the subject needed ? Is this book adapted to be useful ? Is the author a person whose testimony is trustworthy and one who can be commended to the favorable consideration of those who respect the writer of the proposed introduction ? Nor are these all the questions which naturally arise ; for unless there be something said in the introduction which is not con- tained in the body of the work, it is superfluous to write any- thing but a simple word of commendation. Yet it would not be legitimate to introduce wholly foreign matter. Consenting to write the introduction to Mr. Comstock's work, implies that I have determined these inquiries in the affirmative.
The difference between an ingenuous and uncorrupted youth and one in whom vicious tastes and appetites have usurped dominion over the better nature, is as great as that between a healthy human body and one infected with a loathsome disease. It is a radical unlikeness as great as that which exists between an angel and a demon. The absence of knowledge of evil in youth has much more to do with innocence than many seem to fancy. For the passions are automatic and unreasoning ; their uprisings are apparently natural, and when an evil thought is suggested to the mind of a youth who is unaccustomed to nalysis and a creature of impulse, it becomes a self-propagat- ng seed of impurity. Under the law of Moses a man became ceremonially unclean who touched a dead body ; under the laws of human nature the voluntary cherishing of an impure
vi INTRODUCTION.
thought is moral uncleanness. Innocent youths are therefore exposed to danger of two kinds : that what is evil may be so presented that to their unsophisticated understandings it will not seem sinful ; and that when it has entered their minds it will corrupt their hearts, engendering desires which will antag- onize their purer aspirations. The great dramatist says :
" And ofttimes, to win us to our harm. The instruments of darkness tell us truths,"
or what seem to be truths. An apostle declares that, also Satan cometh as an angel of light, and he is more dangerous then than when he roars as a lion. Every new generation of youth is sent out into the world as sheep in the midst of wolves. The danger, however, is not that they will be devoured by them, but that they will be transformed into wolves. Traps are laid for them in every direction, —traps which count upon their inexperience to gain the first entrance, but many of them are so ingeniously constructed, that, once in the trap, the victim will love it and press greedily forward, or even become a decoy to lead others into the same or similar meshes.
Warning, restraints, guidance and sympathy alone can save the youth. If the youth be not saved, the next generation must be corrupt. Every youth who goes astray is a man or woman lost for this world and for the next. This work lays bare these traps with a view, not of instructing youth in the wickedness of the world, but of arousing parents, teachers, and guardians to the work of saving them, and of pointing out the best means, as well as the necessity, of doing so. That such a book should be written, I have no doubt ; that Mr. Comstock has had every opportunity to measure the evil and to accumu- late the materials tor its most striking presentation, and that he can point out what must be done, are obvious to all.
The reader will find that this work does not claim high literary merit. Its style is that of a man in earnest, who talks straight on, who tries to be understood, and to move the reader. No one but a person absorbed in a great work could
INTRODUCTION. vii
write as he does. His very blemishes are an evidence of his sin- cerity. Without approving all that he has done, I have on vari- ous occasions commended his work in general, and gladly do so now. Let " Traps for the Young" be widely circulated, not among the young, but among those who have the care of them, among all Christians, patriots, and philanthropists. For to save the young is the most important and the noblest work in which either young or old can engage.
J. M. BUCKLEY. NEW YORK, November 13, 1883.
PREFACE.
EACH birth begins a history. The pages are filled out, one by one, by the records of daily life. The mind is the source of action. Thoughts are the aliment upon which it feeds. We assimilate what we read. The pages of printed matter become our companions. Memory unites them indissolubly, so that, unlike an enemy, we cannot get away from them. They are constant attendants to quicken thought and influence action.
Good reading refines, elevates, ennobles, and stimulates the ambition to lofty purposes. It points upward. Evil reading debases, degrades, perverts, and turns away from lofty aims to follow examples of corruption and criminality.
This book is designed to awaken thought upon the subject of Evil Reading, and to expose to the minds of parents, teachers, guardians, and pastors, some of the mighty forces for evil that are to-day exerting a controlling influence over the young. There is a shameful recklessness in many homes as to what the children read.
The community is cursed by pernicious literature. Igno- rance as to its debasing character in numerous instances, and an indifference that is disgraceful in others, tolerate and sanc- tion this evil.
Parents send their beloved children to school, and text-books are placed in their hands, while lesson after lesson and precept after precept are drilled into them. But through criminal in- difference to other reading for the children than their text- books, the grand possibilities locked up in the future of every child, if kept pure, and all the appetites and passions controlled, are often circumscribed and defeated at its threshold of life. This book is a plea for the moral purity of children. It is an appeal for greater watchfulness on the part of those whose duty it is to think, act, and speak for that very large portion in the community who have neither intellect nor judgment to decide
X PREFACE.
what is wisest and best for themselves. It brings to parents the question of their responsibility for the future welfare of their offspring.
If a contagious disease be imported to these shores in some ship, at once the vessel and her passengers are quarantined. The port is promptly closed to the disease. The agent that brings it is estopped from entering the harbor until the con- tagion has been removed. It is the author's purpose to send a message in advance to parents, so that they may avert from their homes a worse evil than yellow fever or small-pox. Read the facts, and let them speak words of warning.
The author, during an experience of nearly eleven years, has seen the effects of the evils herein discussed. If strong language is used, it is because no other can do the subject justice.
This work represents facts as they are found to exist. If it shall be the means of arousing parents as to what their children read, of checking evil reading among the young, or of awaken- ing a public sentiment against the prevailing wickedness of the day, the writer will be content.
If any one doubts the startling facts stated, let me here place on record my entire readiness to sustain my assertions with proofs.
Because men will deny, scoff, and curse is no reason why these truths should not be laid before the minds of thinking men and women. But few have had the opportunity of seeing and knowing the facts concerning the evils discussed in this book. For the sake of the thousands of children in the land, I appeal to every good citizen to carefully read the following pages, not to criticise, but to see what can be done to remedy the evils discussed.
Our youth are in danger ; mentally and morally they are cursed by a literature that is a disgrace to the nineteenth cen- tury. The spirit of evil environs them.
Let no man be henceforth indifferent. Read, reflect, act.
ANTHONY COMSTOCK. NEW YORK, Oct. 15, 1883.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE ............ 'x
CHAPTER I. HOUSEHOLD TRAPS, ......... 7
CHAPTER II. HOUSEHOLD TRAPS (CONTINUED).— Newspapers, ... 13
CHAPTER III. HALF-DIME NOVELS AND STORY PAPERS, ... .20
CHAPTER IV. ADVERTISEMENT TRAPS, ........ 43
CHAPTER V. GAMBLING TRAPS, ......... 5°
CHAPTER VI. GAMBLING TRAPS (CONTINUED).—" Poke-a-moke," or Policy, . 77
CHAPTER VII. GAMBLING TRAPS (CONTINUED).— Pool, ..... 99
CHAPTER VIII.
DEATH-TRAPS BY MAIL,
CHAPTER IX.
QUACK TRAPS,
CHAPTER X. FREE-LOVE TRAPS, ......... I58
XU CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XI.
PACK
ARTISTIC AND CLASSICAL TRAPS 168
CHAPTER XII. INFIDEL TRAPS, LIBERAL TRAPS, ETC., 184
CHAPTER XIII.
MORE LIBERAL TRAPS.— The Question of the Unconstitutionality
of the Law Answered, 208
CHAPTER XIV. CONCLUSION, 238
APPENDIX 247
TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
CHAPTER I.
HOUSEHOLD TRAPS.
IT is in the home that we must look for first impressions. Here the foundation of the character of the future man or woman is laid. Here the parent exerts an incalculable influ- ence upon the offspring. Bright looks and sunny smiles beget joy and delight. Coarse expressions and hasty speech are closely followed. Anecdotes and stories are remembered and repeated as marvellous to tell, and anything that father or mother does is not questioned. What the parent allows is at once regarded by the child as " just the thing to do." Asso- ciations of good or evil nature are thus fixed in the mind in almost permanent character.
Evil thoughts, like bees, go in swarms. A single one may present itself before the mind. If entertainment be extended, or place be given it, at once this vile fellow is found to have an immense train in following. I repeat : their approach may be so secret and insidious, that but one may be discerned at first, and yet from all sides they will flock, darkening the eyes of the understanding, filling the ears of reason, until the danger signals can no longer be seen nor heard, and the poor victim swiftly becomes insensible to purity and virtue.
There is something wonderfully strange in the rapidity with which youthful minds take up lewd thoughts and suggestions. With almost equal ease they throw them off again, in the
8 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
hearing and presence of others. Lewd thoughts soon overcome native innocence. Once the mind becomes familiar with foul stories and criminal deeds, self-respect at length is lost, and vile suggestions flow freely from lips that before would have scorned them.
" Evil communications corrupt good manners."
Locke writes : " I think I may say, that of all the men we meet with, nine parts of ten are what they are, good or evil, useful or not, by their education. It is that which makes the great difference in mankind. Little or almost insensible impressions on our tender infancies have very important conse- quences ; and there it is, as in the fountains of rivers, where a gentle application of the hand turns the flexible waters into channels that make them take quite contrary courses ; and, by this little direction given them at first in the source, they receive different tendencies, and arrive at last at very remote and distant places. Imagine the minds of children as easily turned this way or that, as water itself. ' '
Parents who are vacillating in principle, who give up convic- tion to expediency, who have no sense of honor, but let self- interest control in place of right, cannot expect their tender ones to develop into moral heroes under such influences. As well attempt to secure the perfection of the rose, in tint and odor, by placing a plant in a dark cellar where no light may come.
By means of judicious education our capacities of enjoyment may be enlarged and multiplied. Daily experience shows how susceptible the infant mind is of deep impressions.
Children of strong affections, lively imaginations, and ani- mated characters are more easily dazzled and drawn away by the opinions and expressions of those with whom they come in contact, than those possessing more sluggish natures.
Hazlitt wrote that " intellect only is immortal, and words the only things that last forever." Such a reflection weighs with terrible force when we consider that one cannot get away from a book that has once been read. The companion- ship of thought is more constant than the closest friend. At
HOUSEHOLD TRAPS. 9
all times memory may bring it back. Unlike a visible enemy, it cannot be avoided, but once admitted to the shrine of our minds, it is there forever. The thought of the power of printed matter for good or evil is startling, and at times overwhelming. Authors who, for love of greed or love of sensation, publish to the world from their prurient imaginations impure and debas- ing thoughts — the noxious offspring of vice and immorality — have a terrible responsibility to answer for.
Consider some of the devices to capture the minds and imaginations of the young ; some of the influences thrust upon the rising generations ; some of the companions of the home ; some of the traps which the spirit of evil is allowed to set in the home circle.
After more than eleven years' experience contending for the moral purity of the children of the land, and seeking to pre- vent certain evils from being brought in contact with this ever- susceptible class, I have one clear conviction, viz. , that Satan lays the snare, and children are his victims. His traps, like all others, are baited to allure the human soul.
There is a great variety of traps used by mankind. These differ in their nature, form, and in methods of setting. For instance, the fox-trap, made of steel, with its saw-teeth jaws, is set with mouth wide open at the entrance of a burrow or in the path of sly Reynard, and covered from view with loose earth, in order to catch him as he goes for his daily food.
The box- trap, so easily constructed by every country boy, must be baited with a sweet apple to tempt the rabbit or squirrel.
The partridge snare must be suspended over the rotten trunk of some fallen tree, along which the festive bird drums his wings, or suspended over an opening in a bush fence with a cleared path strewn with squawberries to allure this sly bird into the fowler's hands.
A huge piece of tempting meat must be fastened in the bear- trap to entice bruin from his cave in the rocks and secure him as the trapper's prey.
lo TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
The farmer places a chicken near the aperture in the founda- tion wall of the house or outbuilding, after he has concealed the trap for the mink or odoriferous chicken-thief, who sleeps by day and commits depredations by night if he would effect a capture. The housemaid knows that the trap requires a bait of fragrant cheese for the mouse or rat.
Satan adopts similar devices to capture our youth and secure the ruin of immortal souls. Some of these traps do not of necessity cause absolute ruin, others do. Some are compara- tively harmless, others are dangerous in the extreme. Those referred to in this chapter are the weakest. They are not always vicious or criminal, except so far as they pervert the taste of the young and rob the child of a desire for study. Of this class the love story and cheap work of fiction captivate fancy and pervert taste. They defraud the future man or woman by capturing and enslaving the young imagination. The wild fancies and exaggerations of the unreal in the story supplant aspirations for that which ennobles and exalts. In brief, these stories, that make day-dreamers of our children and castle-builders of the student, are harmful just in propor- tion as these results are produced. In the home, at school, and even in the sanctuary during the solemn hours of worship on the Sabbath day, the day-dreamer wanders away in thought from all that is real and of highest importance, captivated by pictures and scenes that never can be realized. To one thus beguiled in youth the future has many sorrows ; for while the victim seeks to realize his ideals in business prosperity, home, and wealth, the realities of life constantly bring disappointment and sorrow. They forget the sweet poet's admonition,
" Life is real, life is earnest."
Nourish a generation on this sort of mental food, and it must be apparent to any candid mind that it will be a generation devoid of taste for that which is pure and noble. This kind begets vapid, shallow-minded sentimentalists. The lofty thought they cannot understand. They would rate the most interesting
HOUSEHOLD TRAPS. II
history as distasteful, the choicest essay or finest poetry as dry and uninteresting.
To capture at the threshold of life the fancies and hold them in bondage until fiction supplants the real and study becomes irksome, is cruel and evil. Proper ambition is stunted, and the inspiration of lofty aims is supplanted by the vain imaginings suggested by this kind of light literature.
Parents mourn that the child' s mind does not go out after noble things. They cannot understand why it is thus. The companion of the child1 s mind is exerting its sway, and the evil one is spreading his kingdom. What I have said applies more directly to the deluge of cheap sensational stories than to the higher grades of novel reading.
In novel reading, however, in general, the tendency is from the higher to the lower rather than from the lower to the higher. There are grave questions in the minds of some of our best writers, and of our most thoughtful men and women, whether novel reading at its best does not tend downward rather than upward. Some have questioned whether persons reading such authors as Mrs. Southworth and Alexander Dumas advance in time to George Eliot and Sir Walter Scott. This grade is not discussed here. We consider only the purely sensational works of fiction. These create an appetite that is seldom surfeited. The mind grows by what it feeds upon. Something more highly colored and exaggerated is sought after. The imagination is walled in like a canal, and thoughts run down the grade until the mind is emptied of lofty aims and ambitions, and the soul is shrivelled.
As the evening moth disappears at the approach of day and returns at night to flutter about the lighted lamp, so these bats of fancy may disappear when the mind is occupied, only to re- turn in the solitary hour to besiege the imagination, calling the thoughts away from the important things of life. The fancies, once turned in this direction, wear a channel, down which dash the thoughts, gathering force like a river as they move away from the fountain-head.
12 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
How many parents ever stop and reflect, in sober earnest, that the minds of their children are active and open to anything exciting ; that the bright budding intellect grasps with eager- ness every topic of thought that fancy paints ? How often we hear from children, " Oh, tell us a story !" How frequently the group of romping boys and girls are subdued by a story, and how charmed a child becomes with but a simple tale or anecdote ! Anything marvellous or exciting is quickly appro- priated. Parents forget that they are expected and designed by an all-wise Providence to think and decide in these matters for their children.
Light literature, then, is a devil-trap to captivate the child by perverting taste and fancy. It turns aside from the pursuit of useful knowledge and prevents the full development in man or woman of the wonderful possibilities locked up in the child ! Why rob the future ages of the high order of men and women, which would of necessity appear if the children of to day were properly cared for and developed in keenest intellect and high- est morals ?
Aside from the enslavements to imagination and taste from this class of publications, alarmingly prevalent, many of the stories, though free from crime, lack a moral, contain insinua- tions against truth, justice, and religion, and favor deceit and lying. The tone is not elevating. They pave the way for that which is worse. If children must have stories, let parents pro- vide those that have a high moral tone — stories where the hero is not a thief, murderer, or desperado, but a moral hero, whose chief trait of character is standing for the right. Teach the children to emulate deeds of heroism ; to stand for the right even though the heavens fall ; never to be sneered or laughed into doing a mean thing, nor neglecting duty.
CHAPTER II.
HOUSEHOLD TRAPS (CONTINUED).
Newspapers.
ANOTHER fruitful source of danger to the youth is the sicken- ing details of loathsome crimes as they appear in many of our daily papers.
The daily papers are turned out by hundreds of thousands each day, and while the ink is not yet dry the United Stafes mails, the express and railroad companies, catch them up, and with almost lightning rapidity scatter them from Maine to Cali- fornia. Into every city, and from every city, this daily stream of printed matter pours, reaching every village, town, hamlet, and almost every home in the land. These publications are mighty educators, either for good or for evil. Sold at a cheap price, from one to five cents each, they are within the reach of all classes. More : they enter the homes — often files of them are preserved — and are especially within the reach of the chil- dren, to be read and re-read by them. The father looks over his paper in the morning to ascertain the state of the market, to inform himself as to the news of the day. His attention is attracted by the heavy headlines designed to call especial atten- tion to some disgusting detail of crime. A glance discloses its true character. He turns away in disgust, and thoughtlessly throws down in the library or parlor, within reach of his chil- dren, this hateful, debauching article, and goes off to business little thinking that what he thus turns from his child will read with avidity.
There is a wide difference between publishing a fact of a crime committed and making a sensational article or short story, containing all the foul doings of corrupt men and women. It
14 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
is bad enough to advertise crime by announcing the simple truth that a man has been murdered, that a pure girl has been ruined, that persons living in decent society have been divorced, that some man of high standing has been tempted and fallen, that some store has been robbed, or any other of the long catalogue of crimes has been committed ; but to give the secret doings and minute methods of any and all of these criminals, and then add a display of type to call especial atten- tion to these vile doings, is often a gross outrage upon common decency.
If a man goes about removing swill and slops he is called a scavenger. If a person goes about selling diseased meats, de- caying fruits, or watered milk, he is at once handled severely by the press of the land. Let a man be discovered throwing a barrel of Paris green or arsenic into Croton reservoirs, and he would be almost lynched. What name shall be applied to the newspaper that gathers up the letters, of the libertine, the secret doings of the rake, the minute descriptions of revolting crimes, the utterances of lips lost to all shame, the oozing of corrup- tion from the debauched, and then weaving that into a highly sensational story, decks it with flying colors and peddles it out each day for the sake of money ! Be the editor's position what it may, he may roll in wealth and stand at the head of society, such a practice continued in, when he knows that his paper is entering the dwellings of youth, deserves to be charac- terized by every decent man and woman as beneath the calling of a scavenger. Universal though this practice be, it is never- theless in fact a collecting of the putrid doings of criminals and selling them as wares of merchandise. They make these sensational details of crime their stock in trade. Is it not time for respectable publishers to turn upon this degrading practice and crush it out of existence ? It can easily be done if those who sit at the head of these mighty enterprises will each one in his own paper forbid that their sheets be longer defiled by these details. Let the press, that mighty agency for good or evil, cease to display wickedness and sneer at religion. In
HOUSEHOLD TRAPS. 15
place of the leaded type at the head of the columns of shame, place them at the head of deeds of moral excellence. In place of sneers against moral reforms, extol the lofty and good, and seek out the secrets of virtue and display them, and in a few years the fruitage of this kind of seed-sowing will be a genera- tion with lofty aims. Surely the harvest of criminals and weak- minded men and women is sufficient to satisfy any but the totally depraved.
These details familiarize their readers with crime ; they even tend to glorify it. A simple statement that a foul deed has been committed is sufficient to acquaint the public with that fact. The youth who reads the loathsome details as above de- scribed might almost as well pass his time in the society of criminals. He could scarcely learn more of vice if he associated with thieves, murderers, libertines, and harlots. The presence of the criminal would inspire a fear, and their coarse loud talk ungarnished by an editor's pen would disgust and in part counteract the force of an evil example. The story in the paper puts them in precisely the same companionship, without the power by its presence to create the checks of fear and disgust.
Is it too much to ask of the mighty press of the land that accounts of crimes shall not be wildly sensational nor specific, and especially that those against purity shall not be set forth with prurient minuteness ?
Again, aside from educating and familiarizing our youth with crime, they furnish a fruitful topic of secret conversation for the child with the playmate. Few children ask information on such matters from their mothers. They would be ashamed to let their parents know that they think anything about such things. A mingling of shame and curiosity to know more prompts them to practice deceit, and pretend ignorance if per- chance allusion be made to these offences, while at the same time they are on the alert for anything bearing on these vile subjects.
Our youth are thus easily and early introduced into the his- tory of secret workings of the depraved.
1 6 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG,
These are snares to corrupt by familiarizing the mind with evil and leading thought down to the sinks and slums. They stimulate ambition to imitate deeds of bloodshed and despera- tion. They are worse than a scourge to our children. They make a pure mind almost impossible. They open the way for grossest evils. Foul thoughts are the precursors of foul actions.
Again, these details serve as fingerboards to point the mind of the child to that which follows in their wake. They are spies, creeping into our homes, moving in the midst of youth, leading them from under the parents' watchful restraint and care.
Another view. There is another element for evil on the in- crease. What parent would permit a child to go and spend an evening in the congregation of the scornful, to hear the great American blasphemer for ' ' fifty cents per head ' ' sneer at re- ligion, scoff at heaven and heavenly things, and blaspheme his Maker ? Yet, guard the child as you will, the next morning this poison will be served up in the daily paper, and thrust upon your child in the home, unless it be intercepted and de- stroyed. This deadly stream thus poured into thousands of homes is breeding scoffers and breaking down the restraints and counteracting the sweet influences of religion. Remove the thought of the certainty of a final judgment or the existence of God from the mind of many youth, and you have bid for a life of self-gratification and sin.
Weekly Papers.
Again, the accounts of crimes thus daily appearing furnish the subject-matter, the very essence of the vile weekly journals that pollute the land. Few are aware of the fact that many of the items that are so revolting when condensed and grouped together in the illustrated papers of crime are the very same items scattered one by one each day during the week, by the daily press. A cheap woodcut Is added to the display type of the daily press, and we then have a thing so foul that no child can
HOUSEHOLD TRAPS. 17
look upon it and be as pure afterward. What would be thought of the man who would make a business of collecting and exhibiting in public photographs of all the different forms of disease ? Yet the foul outcome and products of crimes, as displayed from news-stands and shop-windows, are none the less offensive to common decency, and are more destructive to. good morals.
These weekly illustrated papers are stanch, well-constructed traps of the devil, capable of catching and securely holding the mind and heart of the young, until they yield a ready service to the father of all evil. The men who thus run a muck-rake through the slums and sinks of crime, and then, for the sake of making money, do not scruple to send innocent youth head- long to ruin, are greatly offended if aught be said against their enterprises. They will tell you with great unction, " We're gentlemen, we are," " There's a demand for these papers, or we should not print them ?" Yes, the daily descriptions of offen- sive crimes has prepared the way for this vile trash — has so familiarized the public mind with these shocking things that Pope's words receive a new meaning :
" Vice is a monster of such frightful mien, That, to be hated, needs but to be seen ; But seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace."
Thus the tender years of childhood and youth are exposed to agencies of evil with the tacit permission ofttimes of the parent and guardian. Into the very family circle these educa- tors are allowed to come, encouraging, ay, nourishing by their secret influences the inborn tendency to wrong-doing. In such an atmosphere many youth grow up to maturity. The frivolity of social life, the sneer at religion, the mocking laugh of boon companions, the ribald joke now so often heard among young men, render doing right hard and difficult. The habit of slighting holy things becomes fixed, the con- science becomes seared, and wrong-doing is almost second na-
1 8 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
ture. The shrugged shoulder, the tossed head, the curled lip, the winking eye of evil companions more than counteract the pleadings of the mother, the affectionate admonition of the father, or the faithful words of the pastor. These slights put upon religion and upon standing for the right require moral courage to overcome, and till this is exercised the downward tendency grows stronger and the upward weaker.
Prayer is forgotten, or exercised only when conscience and remorse can no longer be borne. The habit of supplication learned at the knees of a sainted mother is soon neglected, and resorted to only as a means of relief at night, when alone and a dread of the future steals over the victim. Formal and cold as this exercise may be, by the grace of God it is no doubt often the very thing that saves our youth from the curse and final ruin, the outgrowth of the seeds of corruption sown by vile reading. Let not the mother's heart faint nor grow weary. Instil in early youth thoughts of God. Train your children to habitual calling upon God in prayer, and you will thus start a little fire that will perchance burn its way through the accumu- lated follies of youth, and in after years reclaim your other- wise lost child.
A terrible responsibility rests upon parents who fail to early store their children's minds with wholesome thoughts, and pro- tect them from the foul and criminal literature so fearfully prev- alent.
In concluding this subject, permit a practical suggestion.
Parents have a right, and it is their duty, to close the door of their home against these evils. It is not infringing the liberty of the press to say, ' ' These influences shall not enter my home, where my beloved children dwell. ' '
Again, let every decent person refuse to contribute the price of an issue to the support of any journal that precipitates upon the community this foulness.
Let no patriot, no person who has the welfare of the rising generation at heart, patronize any person who exposes to pub- lic view or keeps for sale the vile and crime-full illustrated
HOUSEHOLD TRAPS. 19
papers of the day. There are plenty of illustrated papers to be had which are free from these evil influences, and these have first claims upon respectable patronage.
We require an enlightened public sentiment to check these streams of corruption.
Patronize no news-stand where these criminal papers are kept for sale.
CHAPTER III.
HALF-DIME NOVELS AND STORY PAPERS.
AND it came to pass that as Satan went to and fro upon the earth, watching his traps and rejoicing over his numerous vic- tims, he found room for improvement in some of his schemes. The daily press did not meet all his requirements. The weekly illustrated papers of crime would do for young men and sports, for brothels, gin-mills, and thieves' resorts, but were found to be so gross, so libidinous, so monstrous, that every decent per- son spurned them. They were excluded from the home on sight. They were too high-priced for children, and too cum- bersome to be conveniently hid from the parent's eye or car- ried in the boy's pocket. So he resolved to make another trap for boys and girls especially.
He also resolved to make the most of these vile illustrated weekly papers, by lining the news-stands and shop-windows along the pathway of the children from home to school and church, so that they could not go to and from these places of instruction without giving him opportunity to defile their pure minds by flaunting these atrocities before their eyes.
And Satan rejoiced greatly that professing Christians were silent and apparently acquiesced in his plans. He found that our most refined men and women went freely to trade with persons who displayed these traps for sale ; that few, if any, had moral ceurage to enter a protest against this public dis- play of indecencies, and scarcely one in all the land had the boldness to say to the dealer in filth, " I will not give you one cent of my patronage so long as you sell these devil-traps to ruin the young." And he was proud of professing Christians and respectable citizens on this account, and caused honorable
HALF-DIME NOVELS AND STORY PAPERS. 21
mention to be made of them in general order to his imps, because of the quiet and orderly assistance thus rendered him.
Satan stirred up certain of his willing tools on earth by the promise of a few paltry dollars to improve greatly on the death- dealing quality of the weekly death-traps, and forthwith came a series of new snares of fascinating construction, small and tempting in price, and baited with high-sounding names. These sure-ruin traps comprise a large variety of half-dime novels, five and ten cent story papers, and low-priced pamphlets for boys and girls.
This class includes the silly, insipid tale, the coarse, slangy story in the dialect of the barroom, the blood-and-thunder romance of border life, and the exaggerated details of crimes, real and imaginary. Some have highly colored sensational reports of real crimes, while others, and by far the larger num- ber, deal with most improbable creations of fiction. The un- real far outstrips the real. Crimes are gilded, and lawlessness is painted to resemble valor, making a bid for bandits, brig- ands, murderers, thieves, and criminals in general. Who would go to the State prison, the gambling saloon, or the brothel to find a suitable companion for the child ? Yet a more insidious foe is selected when these stories are allowed to become associates for the child's mind and to shape and direct the thoughts.
The finest fruits of civilization are consumed by these ver- min. Nay, these products of corrupt minds are the eggs from which all kinds of villainies are hatched. Put the entire batch of these stories together, and I challenge the publishers and venders to show a single instance where any boy or girl has been elevated in morals, or where any noble or refined instinct has been developed by them.
The leading character in many, if not in the vast majority of these stories, is some boy or girl who possesses usually ex- traordinary beauty of countenance, the most superb clothing, abundant wealth, the strength of a giant, the agility of a squir- rel, the cunning of a fox, the brazen effrontery of the most
22 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
daring villain, and who is utterly destitute of any regard for the laws of God or man. Such a one is foremost among despera- does, the companion and beau-ideal of maidens, and the high favorite of some rich person, who by his patronage and in- dorsement lifts the young villain into lofty positions in society, and provides liberally of his wealth to secure him immunity for his crimes. These stories link the pure maiden with the most foul and loathsome criminals. Many of them favor violation of marriage laws and cheapen female virtue.
One day while riding on the cars I purchased a copy of one of these papers. It is claimed to be " high-toned." The reader may judge of the tone when he learns that the copy now before me contains made-up stories with the following crimes woven into them. It must be premised that the following is taken from a single issue, and from parts of continued stories. To complete the grand total of infamies it would be necessary to commence at the beginning and go to the end of the frac- tional parts of the tales from which these extracts are taken.
The gist of these stories consists of —
A conspiracy against a school-girl.
One girl hired to personate a rich girl and marry a villain in her stead.
A man murdered by being blown up by explosives.
A beautiful girl, by lying and deceit, seeks to captivate one whom she loves.
Six assaults upon an officer while resisting arrests.
A conspiracy against an officer to prevent the arrest of a criminal.
A burglary.
An illegitimate child.
A woman murdered by masked burglars.
An attempt to force a beautiful girl to marry a scoundrel to save her benefactor.
Two attempts to coerce a girl to marry against her wishes.
One woman who died in New York comes to life in Italy.
Two attempted assassinations.
HALF-DIME NOVELS AXD STORY PAPERS. 23
One confidence operator at work to swindle a stranger.
An assault on the highway.
A hired assassin.
A massacre by Indians.
One babe stolen to substitute for another.
An attempt to murder a child.
Two women concealing their secretly-born babes.
A rich man is confronted in a castle by a woman he has ruined, who raises such an outcry that he becomes purple and rigid, while blood gushes from his mouth. The woman takes a vial from her pocket and instantly cures him.
One case of clandestine correspondence and meetings be- tween a girl and her lover. This results in the girl running away at night and getting married to hide her shame. This is followed by a scene in their room, where the husband refuses to acknowledge his wife publicly ; she being in a delicate con- dition pleads to have the marriage made public. The husband dares not do this for fear of arrest for other crimes.
In addition to the above horrors, as a catch-penny advertise- ment to " give tone" to this paper, on the fourth page appears a portion of a sermon by a celebrated Brooklyn divine.
As if it were an antidote to the sermon, and for fear some good might possibly be done by it, directly following the sermon is a story of a heartless wretch who had married a young lady of "princely beauty." He soon deserts her and marries a haughty rich young woman. On the way from the wedding ceremony he passes his first bride, who falls dead lisp- ing his name. The story leads this heartless villain to his new and elegant home, and makes him say :
" Not within sight of my window could I bear the narrow mound ; not within sound of the voice of my haughty titled bride should she lie. So I carried her away . . . still in her bridal gown of white, to rest forever."
Was ever such sacrilege ! such a mixture of the sublime and villainous ! such a monstrous attempt to serve the devil in the livery of heaven !
24 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
A sermon in such a place ! Two columns of a sermon to help sell thirty-four columns of such diabolical trash ! Such publications do more to debase the young than an endowed chair in every college in the land will or can do to ennoble them.
Let every candid reader say, after noting the above bill of fare, whether or no this is a fit " companion" for the " fire- side' ' for any person, old or young.
Again, many of these publishers weave a tale upon some startling crime, such as the Phoenix Park assassins of Ireland, or on the exploits of some bandit, and add to the real crimes most monstrously absurd exaggerations, dragging some beauti- ful girl through all the mire of the most bloody scenes, or making some boy a victor over the most brutal of man-butchers, endowing him with abilities which eclipse the shrewdest de- tective genius ! These stories familiarize one with the horrors of murder and carnage, adding to them the seductive excitements of fiction.
A word about bound books.
Recently I purchased a book offered for sale on the railroads, and recommended by the newsboy on a train on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad as the " boss book," the " fastest selling book of the day." The web of the story consisted of four murders, three highway robberies, two burg- laries, one blackmailing scheme, three attempts to murder women, one attempt to poison a young woman, two conspira- cies to ruin a pure girl, one den of counterfeiters in full blast, two gambling hells, one confidence game, one brothel, pro- curers abducting a young girl for a rich man, three cases of assault and battery, one street fight, two dens of thieves, one forced marriage, two suicides, and oaths, lies, wine-drinking, smoking cigars, et cetera. The character that figured through- out all this was' a beautiful young wife, who was the murderess and principal actor in all these horrible and disgusting scenes.
Again, these stories give utterly false and debasing ideas of life. All high moral purposes are made to give way to self-
HALF-DIME NOVELS AND STORY PAPERS. 25
gratification. The great safeguard of human society — rever- ence to law — is broken down. Disobedience to parents is en- couraged. The healthful restraint of parental authority is treated as a species of tyranny which the hero first chafes under, then resists, and lastly ignores.
The boy cheats himself by imagining he is doing a manly thing when he naturally follows a base example. To the child that chafes under home restraint, having taken the initia- tive step to ignore proper authority, a dangerous and lawless life comes easy.
Again, these stories breed vulgarity, profanity, loose ideas of life, impurity of thought and deed. They render the im- agination unclean, destroy domestic peace, desolate homes, cheapen woman's virtue, and make foul-mouthed bullies, cheats, vagabonds, thieves, desperadoes, and libertines. They disparage honest toil, and make real life a drudge and burden. What young man will serve an apprenticeship, working early and late, if his mind is filled with the idea that sudden wealth may be acquired by following the hero of the story ? In real life, to begin at the foot of the ladder and work up, step by step, is the rule ; but in these stories, inexperienced youth, with no moral character, take the foremost positions, and by trick and device, knife and revolver, bribery and corruption, carry everything before them, lifting themselves in a few short weeks to positions of ease and affluence. Moral courage with such is a thing to be sneered at and despised in many of these stories. If one is asked to drink and refuses, he is set up and twitted till he yields or is compelled to by force. The idea of doing anything from principle is ridiculous in the extreme. As well fill a kerosene-oil lamp with water and expect a brilliant light. And so, in addition to all else, there is early inculcated a distaste for the good, and the piercing blast of ridicule is turned upon the reader to destroy effectually all moral character.
Many critics seem to think it necessary to quote liberally from these authors, to show the dialect or to expose to public contempt the coarse language and worse morals. It is not the
26 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
writer's purpose to quote these expressions or name these pub- lications. Those who are informed on this subject know what is meant, and others need not know further than the effects.
1 proceed to give a truthful synopsis of one of the " ten- cent" pamphlets recently issued by a publisher of boy litera- ture in New York City.
This book opens with an account of an assault on a woman. It contains a number of shooting scenes. It tells of several seductions and murders. It describes with minuteness of de- tail a burglary, and a den of thieves from which a band of burg- lars and assassins is hired. It gives an account of a gambling saloon, where a young man wins $30,000, which in turn is won from him by a beautiful woman, whereupon he drinks to the health of King Death and shoots himself dead. There is an account of a negro and a beautiful but abandoned woman making their home in a cave, where in four days they dig gold to the amount of $1,750,000, to which they add $200,000 by speculation in Wall Street. There is a story of a man illegally imprisoned and bound to an iron bedstead. Several prisoners are walled into a room and left to die, and the monstrous story ends with the man on the iron bedstead calling a fellow- prisoner to him, when he discovers that he is his father. Thereupon the son fastens his teeth into the throat of his father and they die together.
This book is in the possession of the present writer, and can be seen by any one who wants corroboration of the foregoing statement.
Think of feeding the youthful mind on such carrion, of distorting the imagination by putting such abominations before children. From examining a large number of these stories, I can say that the moral in a vast number is not one whit better than the above. Trick and device, lying and deceit, dis- honesty and bloodshed, lawlessness and licentiousness, is the lesson taught in most of these stories.
These boy and girl devil-traps are ruining hundreds of youth. Boys read these stories almost incessantly after once a
HALF-DIME NOVELS AND STORY PAPERS. 27
taste is acquired. The loftiest ambition inspired by many of these senseless exaggerations is to be a ' ' tough. " It is but a few weeks ago that three young men under twenty years of age burglariously entered a saloon at night for the purpose of rob- bery. They were all sons of respectable parents, but these " hurrah-for-hades" publications had done their work. While robbing the saloon, the proprietor heard them and came down to protect his possessions. As he came down the stairs the eld- est of the trio deliberately drew his revolver and shot him down. After arrest this young murderer said, when it was an- nounced that the man was dead, ' ' Well, I must be a tough if I have killed a man." Again he said, " A fellow is not con- sidered a tough till he has downed his man. ' ' These murderers have all since been convicted and sentenced, and the publish- ers of this kind of murderous literature can boast of three more victims — another certificate to these cancer- planters that their productions are " death sure." This young man has since been hanged at the Tombs in New York City.
There is a good deal of monkey in a bad boy. He delights to imitate, and imagines himself capable of enjoying all the celebrity with which his mind surrounds the character he has read about.
Not long ago at the Tombs a boy twelve years of age was brought in for felonious assault, and held to await the results of shooting another boy of about his own age. It came out in evidence that four boys were gambling at cards. One of them told this boy, in a controversy they got into over a piece of pencil, he lied. This youthful gambler, acting out the story, arose with impressive dignity, no doubt, and said, ' ' Johnny, that's got to be wiped out with blood," and drawing his re- volver sent a bullet into the head of his little companion.
A lad sixteen years of age, after reading about train wreck- ing, tied a log across a railroad over a culvert, and then de- liberately stationed himself upon the top of a rail fence in a field a short distance away to see a train wrecked. Providentially the engineer saw it in time to slow up, so that but slight dam-
»8 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
age was done his train, and but one man killed. After the ar- rest of this desperado, he said he " had been reading about a train which had been wrecked, and thought he would like to see one himself. ' '
Last April another lad, fifteen years of age, was arrested after three attempts to wreck a train just beyond Saratoga. Pleas- ant thought for the traveller, that we are safe from the armed brigands of Italy and the outlaws of the plains, but in immi- nent danger from schoolboys crazed by the accursed blood- and-thunder story papers ! Only five cents apiece ! Step up, parents, and buy a cheap way of getting rid of your boys ! Supply these books and papers, and your boy will soon be be- hind prison-bars and be off your hands.
Satan is more interested in the child than many parents are. Parents do not stop to think or look for their children in these matters, while the arch-enemy is thinking, watching, and plot- ting continually to effect their ruin.
Thoughtless parents, heedless guardians, negligent teachers, you are each of you just the kind that old Satan delights to see placed over the child. He sets his base traps right in your very presence, captures and ruins your children, and you are each of you criminally responsible.
Take further instances of the effect of this class of publica- tions, and then say if my language is too strong. Does it startle and offend ? To startle, to awaken, to put you on your guard, to arouse you to your duty over your own children, is my earnest purpose. Your child is in danger of having its pure mind cursed for life.
A few months ago, in a small town in Massachusetts, I ar- rested a young man about twenty-one years of age, for sending most obscene and foul matter by mail. ' He was in the field with his father at work at the time of arrest. He desired to go to his room to change his apparel before going to court While in his room, and up to the moment of the finding of a pile of these vile five-cent story-papers in one corner, he had been perfectly cool and stolid. When these were discovered,
HALF-DIME NOVELS AND STORY PAPERS. 29
he started as though a nest of adders had been opened, and said with great feeling, " There ! that's what has cursed me ! That has brought me to this !"
A short time ago a lad about thirteen years of age ran away from home. He had played truant from school, and had been punished by his parent. This was too much for him. No boy in the ten-cent story would stand that ! He joined a band of youthful robbers, who had a rendezvous in an old unoccu- pied house. He was initiated at night, with ceremonies and a solemn oath to secrecy, after which a banquet was served. A short while afterward he was arrested for picking pockets, tried, convicted, and sentenced. After sentence, with the brag- gadocio of a hardened criminal, he said he thought " a dime novel could be written about him ; he had read lots of them. ' '
For the benefit of boys who think the imitation of the careers portrayed in these vile stories such a smart thing to do, let me just here present the experience of one lad who ran away to become a hero.
He, like many others, was ensnared by these crime-breeding stories, upon which he had been feeding. He thought it would be a grand thing to pattern after the deeds of valor (?) he had read about, and so find fame and glory. He gathered a little money together, and ran away from home. This is commonly the first scene in the story. His money soon gave out, but no glory or fame came. He went to New Orleans, there had an attack of fever, and came very near dying among strangers. After that he went to Galveston, where he broke his arm. Then he stole a ride to Houston on a freight train, and there was pushed off the train, breaking two ribs. After recovering he was wounded by a pistol-shot, and then got into a fight and was beaten almost to death. After this, to get a living he had to sell papers, black boots, work in a livery-stable, theatre, res- taurant, cut heavy timbers, and herd cattle on the plains in the far West.
Another illustration is the story as told by Mrs. Marie B. Williams, in the Congregalionalist of September 28th, 1881.
30 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
In a drunken brawl a young man had stabbed a loafer who taunted him upon his being a judge's son, and by speaking insultingly of the youth's mother. The boy in a rage flew at the man and stabbed him, and, in turn, was badly beaten over the head, receiving fatal wounds. This youth had run away from home, and was homeless and friendless when this good Samaritan found him and ministered to him, by providing comfortable lodgings, interesting friends in his behalf, and securing a nurse to care for him. I let this lady tell the story in her own words, and I ask closest attention to the awful tale of wreck and ruin as it falls from the lips of the youthful vic- tim.
" ' Yes, I'm the son of Judge W., of Mississippi/ he said, ' but I would never have told it if the doctor hadn' t confessed to me I couldn't live long. I made him tell me, you see, and I don't much care.'
" ' Do you not wish me to write to your father?' I asked.
" ' No, indeed, not until it's all over. I ran away a year ago.'
' ' ' Were your parents unkind to you that you left them, and won't you let me tell them your situation ? '
" ' Unkind !' he repeated, with a sob ; ' oh, I only wish I could remember a single harsh or unjust word from them. That would be a little excuse, you know. No, they were only too indulgent. I was a little wild then, and I've heard father say after I'd sowed my wild oats I'd come out all right. It's been a heavy crop, hasn' tit? I think he forgot that if you sow the seed you're bound to gather in a harvest. This is mine.'
" ' I can' t understand why you left good parents and home,' I said.
"'Wait a minute; I'm coming to that. I'm almost ashamed to tell, it sounds so silly. You see I had been read- ing a great many stories of adventure. I bought every new vol- ume as it was issued, particularly the series.' [I will not
name the volumes he mentioned, for they are no worse than
HALF-DIME NOVELS AND STORY PAPERS. 31
thousands of others. ] ' My parents did not disapprove of these books, and never questioned me about them. They did not suspect how tired I was growing of my dull life, and how I longed to imitate some of my plucky young heroes. I thought as soon as I was free, adventures would pile in upon me. Then freedom was such a great thing.'
' ' I interrupted him, ' How is it possible that you, whose education had been so carefully carried on, who can even ap- preciate the beauties of classical literature, could be influenced by that trash ? '
" ' I don' t know, but I was. Perhaps I really didn' t what you call " appreciate" better things, but just learned them by rote because I liked the sound. They didn't seem to belong to my real life, but these stories did. They were boys like my- self who did these wonderful things, and who were so brave and reckless, and they lived in a world like ours. Well, I ran away ; I always had plenty of money, and it didn' t give out till I got to Mexico. '
' ' ' Did you write to your parents ? '
" ' I left a letter telling them I wanted to enjoy a free life and depend on myself. When I was tired I could always come home, I told them, and they must not fret about me. '
' ' ' But why did you not return ? It could not have taken you long to find out that you were deceived, and that running away did not turn you into a hero of adventure ? '
" He laughed a hard, bitter laugh. ' Oh, I had adventure enough, but it wasn't of the heroic kind. I got down so low, with drinking and gambling and low associates, that I didn't even like to think of home. Can you understand it, for I can't? I had been carefully raised. My associations were among refined, virtuous people, yet I went down into that hog's wallow as if I had been born to it.'
' Were you never disgusted, never repentant ? '
" ' Sometimes, for a minute or two, but then a drink or so brought me round again. Oh, if I could only blot out that wicked time.'
32 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
" ' Make a point for a new life,' I said.
" ' I can' t. If I try and have better thoughts, the scenes of vice come right back to me like a slap in the face. They're burned in. I can't get rid of them. When you read the Bible to me, I see the faces and I hear the words which filled those terrible dens, and I can hear nothing else. They come, too, between me and the memory of my precious mother. How dare I think of her? Oh, I couldn't look in her dear face again. ' . . . He said one day, ' They will forgive me, and they will not realize how low I could fall. But if they saw me, why it would haunt them. Tell them I was penitent, but don't tell all. But warn all young people whom you know to let those foolish books alone. They're very silly, but they do harm to many, and they've ruined me. They take you one step on a bad road, and the rest comes quick and easy.'
" He was very humble and penitent toward the last, but still between him and the most comforting gospel promises came that veil of past sin.
" ' If through His infinite mercy I am ever forgiven, ' he said faintly, 'don't you think that I will cease to remember? How could I enter heaven with those polluting memories cling- ing to me. Oh, if I could only forget.' '
Such are some of the real experiences of dime-novel run- aways.
A few months ago a young lad who had been caught by this kind of trap organized a company of boy bandits to go to Texas. They had their rendezvous in a cave in the woods, and prowled about the country armed with knives and revolvers. At night by twos and threes these little villains would patrol the highways, robbing passers-by. At last the leader started out, determined to secure funds for three of them to go to Texas with at once. A gentleman approached. This little fifteen- year-old murderer fires three shots after demanding " Your money or your life." One ball struck the man's suspender buckle and glanced off, one his pocketbook, and the other wounded him in the thigh. These youthful bandits, then
HALF-DIME NOVELS AND STORY PAPERS. 33
thoroughly frightened, rushed to their cave, changed their clothes, and then, with reckless bravado, after the fashion of the stories, walked forth as interested spectators of what was going on. At last they were arrested, indicted, and the leader •was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment.
Three boys, aged nine, twelve, and thirteen, were arrested about two o'clock A.M. one night in New York City some months ago. Four loaded revolvers were found in their pos- session, and a quantity of these foolish stories. They had run away from respectable homes in Worcester, Mass., and were on their way to Leadville to seek their fortune. The younger one had stolen twelve dollars from his employer, and with this these babes had armed themselves at a junk-store and then set out. The act of these three boys starting in life, and going to Leadville on a capital of twelve dollars, is no more absurd than are the most of the adventures published for our boys and girls in the cheap papers and novels of the day.
A young lad fourteen years of age, of respectable parentage, was a short time ago apprehended by the writer for stealing twenty dollars from his brother. He had in his pocket one of these papers. He promised to reform, and that he would not read these papers any more. A short time afterward he was again overhauled for a like offence, and had two of these abom- inable papers of the five-cent series in one pocket, a package of cigarettes and a piece of plug tobacco in another, and his plun- der in another.
A neighbor called upon me one day to assist him in discov- ering a thief who was systematically robbing him and his friends in his house. Suspicion pointed to a young lad about seventeen years of age, in his employ. I interviewed the lad- At first he was defiant, and dared me to arrest him ; then he began to threaten that he would show me up for making him out a thief ; then he tried the pathetic and wept copious tears, and talked about mining a poor boy. Every move he made he furnished me proof of his guilt by acting out the different characters of the stories. At last he did what I have never yet
34 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
seen in this class of papers — to wit, he confessed his guilt. I then asked him what he had been reading. He named two papers of the kind now under discussion, and added, " I never thought of stealing until I began to read these stories."
A sad sequel to this incident is, that notwithstanding his em- ployer forgave him and kindly retained him in his service, yet he had taken one false step, and others naturally followed. It was but a short time afterward that the employer had to dis- charge him, as he was so diseased that he had to be turned away like the leper of old, because of his dissipation.
The following is cut from one of the daily papers of recent date, and not only illustrates the fearful crimes children can be guilty of, but also shows the sensational and encouraging tone of the editor in announcing the fact :
' ' A Youthful Garroter and a Brave Little Maid. — Charlie Gustin, a portly little gentleman of the mature age of nine, who lives at No. 15 Nassau Street, called yesterday at No. 62 Broadway and took his little six-year-old sweetheart, Lena Calhoun, out for a walk. They stopped at an old woman's stand, and the lad bought the girl an orange. He offered in payment a one-dollar bill, but before the old woman could take it, Martin Sullivan, a twelve-year-old highwayman, who resides, when he is not on the road, at No. 45 Washington Street, threw his left arm around Charlie's neck after the style of a finished garroter, silenced his call for help, and with his right hand he seized the bill and started to run. But the brave Lady Lena caught hold of Sullivan's legs and held him firmly, aided by Charlie, until a towering policeman came up and carried him off to a dungeon vile."
As showing that the writer is not alone in his views as to the thorough and complete education given our youth by these publications, read what the " funny man" of the New York Times satirically says, in his most admirable article on ' ' Juve- nile Education," printed in that paper recently :
" No one who has made a railway trip this summer, and in- cidentally examined the ' news offices ' in country towns in
HALF-DIME NOVELS AND STORY PAPERS. 35
search of something to read, can have failed to notice with pride the splendid educational advantages which are offered to the youth of our happy land. The dime novel is more plentiful than the sands of a reasonably large sea. The old-fashioned schools doubtless give a certain amount of instruction in worth- less branches of knowledge, such as arithmetic, writing, and spelling, but they no longer have any important share in developing the character of boys, and of fitting them for the active duties of criminal life. The dime novels, that every boy buys or borrows, are the grand agency in developing character, and one may well feel proud of the admirable and thorough manner in which, for the most part, the work is done.
" In the department of murder the instruction given by the dime-novel writers is all that could be desired. There is not a possible method of murder that is not fully described and illus- trated by brilliant examples in these admirable educational works. Our boys are taught where and how to deal effective stabs, in what part of the body to plant pistol bullets to the best advantage, and how to handle poison skilfully, and without too great danger of detection. Not only are they taught how to kill, but what is of far more consequence, they are deftly led to look upon murder, not as a repulsive and dangerous task, but as an elegant and desirable recreation."
What is so well and sarcastically said about educating our youth to murder applies to all other felonies, and what he says about dime novels as educators applies with equal force to the sickening details of revolting crimes as published in the daily papers.
Again, this kind of matter leads boys many times to believe that recklessness and daring are signs of smartness and great- ness, and that to act out the story or to imitate the hero makes them heroes, and covers them with the same halo of glory which they conceive as surrounding their favorite in the story.
In March of last year a boy eleven years of age committed a burglary on a store at Red Bank, N. J. He entered the store
36 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
by removing a pane of glass, and then, reaching through, he unlocked the back door. He imagined himself " hail fellow well met" as soon as he secured the money in the cash-drawer and went out and spent it lavishly, treating people he met. He filled his pockets with cigars and cigarettes, which he also freely dispensed. When arraigned in court after being arrested, he boldly denied his guilt, but afterward confessed. To show that he was full fledged, let me add his remarks to his poor, heart-broken mother. She came into court. When she asked him a question, he turned upon her, and in loud, defiant tone said to her, " Shut up ! Who's runnin' this thing, me or you ?" When taken to jail he was surrounded with boon com- panions, with whom he laughed and talked in the most non- chalant manner.
In May last a lad but sixteen years of age was arrested for murder. He shot his step-mother, and then, after robbing her in the most heartless manner, left her to die while he went out, bought him a new suit of clothes, and then went over to the Bowery to carouse with his low companions. He was arrested in a shooting-gallery, and when asked why he shot his mother, replied, ' ' I shot her because I wanted money. ' '
If any one doubts this phase of crime in the young, let him spend a week of observation in the criminal courts in New York City.
Another feature is that these stories suggest a ready means of revenge when the mind of the youth becomes excited from some crossing of his views or some fancied insult.
When passion is aroused, the hand instinctively follows the turn of thought suggested by something read in the story. The hero there always had knife, club, or revolver ready, and at once placed his opponent hors de combat.
In Missouri, in July last, a boy of twelve years of age was tried for murder in the first degree and convicted. His victim was his own father. In this case the boy imagined that he had been unjustly punished.
A girl eighteen years of age recently shot her father because
HALF-DIME NOVELS AND STORY PAPERS. 37
he would not consent to her marrying a young man whom the father thought unworthy of her.
June 9th John Tibbetts, aged fourteen, was lynched bj> armed men in Perham, Minn. He had murdered two men. After being forcibly taken from the jail and led to the place of execution, this boy addressed the mob, arid said he had been incited to the act for which he was about to die by reading sensational novels and an irresistible impulse to make a noise in the world by some bloody act, if necessary. While the preparations were going on about him, he remarked, without the slightest concern, " Hurry up ; don't keep a fellow wait- ing." When asked at last if he had any further remarks to make, he said, in the same heartless and shameless manner, " I guess my mother' 11 cry when she hears this."
A St. Louis lad stabbed a playmate who teased him for ignorance of English.
A Texas boy shot a girl last summer because she refused to put down a pail she was carrying when he commanded her to.
In Paris, Ky. , October 24th, 1882, Professor Yerkes, who has charge of a private school for boys and young men, was shot by a boy fourteen years of age, named Oldron. The day previous the teacher had corrected him for tardiness, and told him he must bring an excuse. The boy brought an excuse, and as he handed it to the professor said, " Take that too !" and shot him with a thirty- two calibre pistol.
Are the foregoing isolated cases, or are there statistics to emphasize and sustain them ?
In General Sessions Court, New York City, in May, 1882, the Grand Jury, after being in session twenty-three days, and passing upon two hundred and thirty-six separate complaints, made a final presentment to the court, saying, ' ' Not far from three fourths of the complaints are against boys ranging from twelve to eighteen years of age. ' '
On March ijth, 1882, in the same court, Judge Cowing, in passing sentence upon a batch of seven youthful burglars, said : " To see the number of bright, intelligent young men
38 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
brought up in this court every day is a painful spectacle. A great majority of the prisoners arraigned in this court for burglary and other serious crimes, punishable by sentences ranging from five to twenty-five years in State Prison, are young men between the ages of seventeen and twenty-five years. The judges of this court are doing all they can, by the imposi- tion of heavy sentences, to put a stop to the commission of crime by young men, but it seems to have very little effect." He then sentenced the seven convicts as follows : Three, aged seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen respectively, to five years each in State Prison ; another burglar, twenty-two years of age, to seven and a half years ; another one of the same age, who committed a burglary and then tried to kill by shooting the officer who attempted to arrest him, was sent for eight years to State Prison ; two others, under twenty-three years of age, each received three years in the same institution. Why is it that their efforts ' ' seem to have very little effect' ' ?
The answer must be found in the fact that the terrible increase of recruits made by criminal reading is far outstrip- ping the capacity and power of the courts to correct. The courts cannot keep pace with the increase.
June 22d, 1882, in General Sessions Court might well have been called ' ' Boys' Day. ' ' On that date no less than seven- teen boys were arraigned on indictments ordered by the Grand Jury. Fourteen of these boys pleaded guilty or were convicted, and three were acquitted. Twelve were indicted for burglary, and five for larceny. Three were thirteen years of age, three fourteen, four sixteen, three eighteen, two nineteen, and two twenty. The sentences ranged from two and a half years in the Penitentiary or State Prison, to commitment to the House of Refuge. Take another day as reported in the Herald :
" Boy Criminals. — It was a noticeable fact in the Court of General Sessions yesterday that among a large batch of con- victed prisoners the majority of them were boys, or those who had not attained their majority. Isaac Adams, eighteen years, convicted of larceny, was sent to State Prison for one year ;
HALF-DIME NOVELS AND STORY PAPERS. 39
Harry Jacobs, fourteen years, felonious assault and battery (the jury disagreed and he was discharged by the court) ; Leonard Drolds, nineteen years, larceny, State Prison for eighteen months ; Thomas Maloney, twenty years, petit larceny from the person, State Prison for four years. William Brown, thir- teen years ; Daniel Donovan, nine years, and Otto Baer, eleven years, were jointly tried for burglary in the third degree. They were found guilty and sent to the House of Refuge. Richard Delaney, aged eighteen years, was convicted of two charges — larceny from the person and larceny. He was sent to the Elmira Reformatory. John McCabe, aged sixteen years ; Thomas McDonald, eleven years, John Hayes, ten years, and Frank Smith, eighteen years, were jointly tried on a charge of burglary in the third degree. Hayes was discharged, and the others sent to the House of Refuge. Charles Neiland, aged eighteen years, pleaded guilty to grand larceny ; George Johnson, aged nineteen years, convicted of grand larceny, was sent to State Prison for two and a half years ; Joseph Henry, aged nineteen years, found guilty of burglary, was sentenced to State Prison for two and a half years."
Meeting one of the officers of the Prison Association recently, I asked him, How many criminals of all those arraigned in our New York courts are under twenty-one years of age ? He replied at once, without hesitation, ' ' Fifty per cent. ' ' How many, I asked, are sixteen years of age or under ? His reply came as unhesitatingly, " One third."
But figures do not lie. I have in my office a scrap-book containing the newspaper items of arrests made. This is gathered just from casual reading, and from the papers as they come to hand from day to day. This record shows that from February ist to August i5th, 1882, there were four hundred and sixty-four arrests and suicides of youth. The following tabular statement gives their crimes and ages :
TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
H
» i-" O NO OO^l ON<-H 4> U> to M O NO OO^I ON Ages.
oo to Oo ON to HH M . M. N> Murder.
Burglary.
ON >-i 4*. <^i M . r-i >-, M . ' • • . Grand Larceny.
Larceny. Forgery. M. KHM........H-I. Arson.
Manslaughter. Counterfeiters. Train Wrecking.
Mail Robbery.
Conspiracy to Kill.
ON ..MiH...»owt-i Pickpockets.
Attempted Suicides.
*" 46 between the ages of 6 and 16 years of age. M Uchfef!
w4*U>toto. to. N» Suicides.
Drunkards.
Youths «!••»* -1' Murdered.
H- O NO OO^-I Os^-n 4^ OO to M O NO OO^J ON 1 Ages.
HALF-DIME NOVELS AND STORY PAPERS. 41
Compare the following record, secured in the same manner, for the first half of the year 1883 with the above, and note the increase in the crime of murder, and attempted murder or felonious assault, and the higher crimes of felonies. The boy who arms himself with a deadly weapon and then attempts to take the life of another is none the less a murderer at heart because his efforts miscarry. Youths were arrested from January ist to August ist, 1883, as follows : Twenty-four for murder, eighty-seven for attempted murder, eighty for burglary, ninety-two for larceny, thirty-eight for highway robbery, fifty- seven girls for prostitution, four youths for arson, nine for forgery, eighteen attempted suicides, nine pickpockets, four mail-robbers, twelve gamblers, while twenty-one committed suicide.
Reader, has the language been too strong in condemnation of this evil ?
What is the remedy for children's crimes ?
Virtue and honesty must be instilled by the parent ; they must be a part of the child's education. Parental authority must be exercised wisely, lovingly, but firmly. The child's mind must be protected from the virus of putrid imaginations. The passions of the child must be kept subdued, and whole- some restraint ever maintained over youthful desires and whims. Evil communications must be shunned.
Parents and teachers, you may look upon the dumb pages of these story-papers and think there is no harm in them. You may be indifferent, negligent, and careless. But I warn you against these leprous influences. They speak to many youthful minds like the piercings of a sword — a poisoned sword !
" There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword." — Proverbs 12 : 18.
This evil is on the increase. These publications, like the fishes of the sea, spawn millions of seed, and each year these seeds germinate and spring up to a harvest of death. There is at present no law by which this monstrous evil can be checked.
42 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
The remedy lies in your hands, by not patronizing any person who offers these death-traps for sale. It may seem a slight thing to do, but it is better than sitting indifferent. It is manly and speaks of moral courage for the right, for you to enter a dignified protest against the dissemination of this literary poison. Encourage the sale and publication of good wholesome reading by subscribing for some good paper or magazine for your chil- dren. Let your newsdealer feel that, just in proportion as he prunes his stock of that which is vicious, your interest in his welfare increases and your patronage becomes more constant. But, above all, at every hazard, rid the home of all of Satan's household traps, and whenever you discover one burn it to ashes !
There is another evil which accompanies the sickening details of crimes into the home. The same sheets are the signboards in many cases to dens of iniquity and marts of vice. These are considered in the following chapter.
CHAPTER IV.
ADVERTISEMENT TRAPS.
NEWSPAPER advertisements are a factor in commercial life. Trade and commerce find here an essential means of com- munication. Immense fortunes are made through these power- ful and widespreading influences. Millions of copies of daily and weekly papers contain tens of thousands of advertisements. Along this great highway of communication the venders of obscene and infidel publications, the lottery and policy gam- blers, the quacks, the frauds, the poolsellers, the liquor-saloon keepers, and the managers of low theatres display their finger- boards. Here are thousands upon thousands of traps set to ruin youth and rob the unwary. They all are set with tempt- ing morsels. The baser the fraud the brighter the lure. The bogus banker and broker, the fraudulent devices to sell ' ' gold watches," "jewelry," "city lots," and " patent rights ;" the quack's sugar-coated pill or herb tonic — " a sure panacea for all the ills flesh is heir to ;" the gold and silver mine whose only existence is on paper, and whose intrinsic value is not the worth of the paper upon which the certificate of incorporation is printed ; vile books, papers, novels ; and the headquarters of men and women engaging in most shameful practices — all these and more are posted here with flaming colors.
In the pursuance of his duties the present writer broke up one concern where the net income of a wretch who was adver- tising in some three hundred papers amounted to $22,833.33 per month. * He was a bogus banker named Buckwalter.
* The history of this and of many other of the leading schemes to defraud has been thoroughly shown up by the present writer in a book entitled "Frauds Exposed." Copies can be had of^ the author, if desired.
44 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
Again, the practice of newspapers vigorously advertising by review notices every work of a questionable character is most pernicious. Works that curse the young and destroy native innocence, which have no claim, or at best a very limited one, to literary merit, are in this way often helped to a large circula- tion. There are many writers who put some open indecency into their works so as to attract especial attention from the book reviewers. To make a book so gross that it will surely be attacked by the newspaper which reviews it seems to be the height of ambition with many writers and publishers. These attacks are the very best advertisement for their nastiness. There are at least two Philadelphia publishers who are to-day enjoying large sales for comparatively worthless books, simply because of injudicious newspaper attacks upon certain portions of these publications which are lined with filth. Why notice such books at all ? Why extend that encouragement to the vile and debasing ?
Many a daily or even religious paper helps along, just as sure- ly as if particeps criminis, the wicked schemes it lays before the public. Evil flows from their act. Many are led to ruin because of being introduced to these traps by journals otherwise respectable. Does not a newspaper do more for crime than it does for virtue when it gives a free advertisement in a prominent place to the doings or the literature of the criminal class ?
Consider the mighty impetus given to the unlawful devices named at the beginning of this chapter by the prominence which the column of the newspaper gives. In the advertising department of the press all of Satan's traps seem to concentrate. Along this path may be found the most enchanting lures ready to deceive and destroy.
Are not the sensational details of loathsome crimes published on the front page of the paper the very loudest advertisement of those crimes ? Why give crime this preference ? Why glory in them, and serve them up as a sweet morsel ? Done without pay to make the paper sell, it is none the less an advertisement of them for the benefit of the editor.
ADVERTISEMENT TRAPS. 45
The problems of " voluntary government" and " liberty of the press' ' are not yet solved, and will not be until future years disclose the harvest of this seed-sowing.
It may seem like presumption to speak thus of the great newspaper press of the day, but it is applying the very princi- ples by which many of these papers have attempted to justify their severe criticisms of public men, viz. , that whoever occu- pies a public position is properly a subject of criticism. Let thinking men reflect on this evil, and let some effort be made to check this torrent, for it is carrying down many of the pure, simple-minded, and unwary. Without the aid and co-operation of respectable papers, very many schemes which to-day curse the land could not sustain an existence. These schemes are dependent for success upon the wide circulation of their adver- tisements among those remote from their locality. At home they are known, and known, despised.
With newspapers to introduce them to strangers, to cover their crookedness by a mantle of respectability, and to give a quasi-indorsement, the real evils in many of these schemes do not appear until the victim is ensnared. Why should a news- paper man bring foul matter into the home any more than any other business man ? Is there any reason why a newspaper man, who prints his paper for a livelihood, should be permitted to wait upon the lowest criminals in the land, gather up the foulness from their lives, and then thrust it into our homes ? We keep scavengers in their proper place. Editors of the land, is it fair ? We want the news, and we want your papers, but we do not want this putrid matter left at our doors. It breeds a stench worse than decaying carrion, a contagion more destruc- tive than yellow fever.
Many a child reads in the columns of the daily papers the advance chapter of some trashy story soon to appear in some other paper. These specimens of unwholesome literature are thus introduced to hundreds and thousands of readers that otherwise might never have seen them, and who in turn become purchasers and regular readers of that which neither elevates
46 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
nor educates for good, but the opposite. To the mercenary and inconsiderate spirit which inserts these advertisements we are indebted for much of the evil in the land, and to them must be charged much of the increase of crime among the young.
What kind of economy is it to allow these evils to continue and increase ?
Theatres and Low Plays.
Evil reading bears fruit during all seasons. Scarcely is the seed sown before results can be discerned. The devil watches his ventures, and is promptly on hand to perfect any future scheme with improvements on the part Constantly devising new tricks, he does not lose sight of those gone before. He feeds on immortal souls, and he spares no pains to secure them. He knows the power of vile thoughts, and through eye and ear he strikes at the inner life. He never starts an enterprise that tends upward. Downward, hellward, are all his schemes. Low theatres and bawdy playhouses are portholes through which death-shots are hurled. Here youth are to be gathered to complete the work of destruction. Here the story of crime is illustrated. Scenes of bloodshed, of domestic infidelity, of atrocities and lewdness that surpass the worst stories, are enacted by painted wretches, whose highest boast is shame, and who seek loud applause by the most ribald jokes. Vulgarities that should cause a blush to mantle even a harlot' s cheek are the stock in trade, the means by which the masses are to be entertained. By aid of the newspaper all classes are made acquainted with the location of these recruiting stations of hell. The baits to allure victims are on the bill-boards, they line our fences, and cover the sides of vacant buildings. Even the rocks along the roadside and railway are made to bid for our youth and entice them into these crime-breeding dens.
" Destruction and violence are in their path." ' Their feet are swift to shed blood. ' '
If the advertisements of these vile plays bred contagious
ADVERTISEMENT TRAPS. 47
physical disease instead of moral death, they would not stand for a day.
They are the very sinks of hell. Stop a moment and reflect. Close this book, and contemplate the number of youth who are to-day perusing crime-breeding stories. Let me help you a little to get at the facts. The issues of three publishers in New York City already number six hundred and seventy different trashy story books and papers. These are advertised in news- papers scattered through the great arteries of trade — the news companies — and distributed on all the railroads and news- stands. It is said by those who have looked into this subject that about six hundred thousand of these publications are sold each week, probably not an overestimate. Now suppose but two boys read each copy, and we have one million two hun- dred thousand youths per week whose minds are being brought under the influence of these subtle poisons. Now turn again to the low theatres. How many of the plays to-day are fit for a pure child to behold ? How many are there that a brother would take his sister to see ? or that a maiden can witness with- out a blush ? Startling as it may seem, youth in our large cities and towns can scarcely go from home to school without being forced to look upon invitations to witness representations of crime, lust, and bloodshed. If the newspaper stories of crime, real or unreal, have not altogether pauperized, degraded, and defiled the mind of the youth, here are scenes beggaring description which complete the work begun by bad reading.
Human life is here taught to be unworthy of regard. A light estimate is placed on the sanctity of home and the marriage tie. Profanity, gambling, a spirit of unhealthy speculation, drunken- ness, and immoralities widespread, innumerable, and alarming are fostered. No wonder that defalcations, embezzlements, breaches of trust, break out like blotches on the face of society. This is not an east wind, but the breath from the shores of the infernal regions ! It is a plague, worse a thou- sandfold than locusts, flies, or frogs. A. large percentage of the fifty millions of free America are thus receiving an educa-
48 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
tion the tendency of which is to sink them into moral bondage. They are preparing not for freedom, but for a bondage more cruel and relentless than that of ancient heathendom. Awhile ago the startling news came over the wires that whole towns in the West had been wrecked by a tornado. In the morning the sun shone upon homes where love, peace, and prosperity abode. Before night these homes — where were they ? The blast had shattered them ; barns and fences were levelled ; garden spots, where flowers bloomed and vegetation was just shooting forth, were instantly laid waste. After the hurricane had spent its force in part, we read that twenty children were picked up among the willow fences. Their nerves were unstrung, terror filled their minds, bruises covered their bodies. The whole nation was moved by the account of this terrible storm. But worse than any cyclone or tornado is this silent influence, this breath of poison which is breaking over our youth, destroying the brightest intellects, crushing and wound- ing the most lovely forms, and grinding down its victims to lowest depths of shame and degradation.
What is the harvest ?
Recently I was called upon by a mother of three boys. The eldest, not quite fifteen years of age, had been systematically robbing her of dresses, jewelry, books, and even the pillows from her bed, and he had pawned them to get money to go to the low plays which have been mentioned. This mother had to send her first-born to the House of Refuge, where he now is, to protect herself and friends from his depredations, so crazed had he become, so fascinated by the vile performances which he attended. Again, the same mother came to my home to have her next boy, twelve years of age, sent to the same institu- tion for the same cause.
Another, who had a widowed mother, dependent in part upon his wages for support for himself and three younger chil- dren, not only deprived his mother of his salary by spending it for tickets to these dirty shows, but stole seventy-five dollars from his employer that he might visit these plays in company
ADVERTISEMENT TRAPS. 49
with waitresses in down-town restaurants. A younger brother of this same boy stole twenty dollars out of the seventy-five, in order that he too might visit these playhouses, buy these " five- cent'' papers, and carouse with lewd companions. He was employed at three dollars a week, but was discharged for dis- honesty. For two weeks he deceived his mother by leaving in the morning as though he was going to his place of business, while instead he spent his time in pool-rooms, low plays, or with dissolute companions. This lad was but a little more than thirteen years of age.
Another mother, since the above, came to my home and implored me to help save her daughter. She told the same story of waywardness and crime. I found the girl a bright- faced little miss of about thirteen summers, but she had become so fascinated with the scenes of vice as portrayed on the stage that she even stole wearing apparel from her parents in order to obtain the means to go to these places. When threatened by her mother, she replied that if she was only a little older she could earn all the money she wanted — intimating a life after the example of what she had seen in these theatres.
From personal observation, I should say that in the city of Brooklyn alone not less than one thousand boys under twenty years of age attend the theatres every night. In one of these criminal places, where seldom if ever a woman's face is seen in the audience, I have seen hundreds of boys of a single evening. The play was of the most beastly character. These theatres should be named " recruiting stations for hell," as these story papers, instead of being called, as one now sup- pressed formerly was, Boy ' s Own, should be entitled Devil 's Own.
What ?.re these recruiting stations ? Well may you ask They are often the very centre of brothels and drinking-saloons. The most popular plays are those in which the greatest number of brazen-faced, abandoned young women can be got together to make a public exposure of their shame. The fouler the language, the more scanty the apparel, the less of womanly
5o TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
modesty, the more shameless the actor, the more lascivious the conduct on the stage, the more crowded is the house and the louder" the applause. Our youth become inflamed with lust. Breathing this atmosphere, they find the pure atmosphere of home intolerable. Often they go directly from these play- houses to the brothel, or if they return home it is to dream over the obscene and cursed spectacles they have witnessed.
If one were writing fiction, these would be unpleasant features to record. But more terrible still is the thought that they are /ads, and that here are death-traps, morally and spiritually, to many a youth. These places are finishing shops to complete the work of ruin. If anything be more repulsive, more shocking to decency, more mean and loathsome than the plays on the stage, it is the well-dressed men (and occasionally women !) who flock into these bawdy playhouses, contribute to their sup- port, and by their presence sanction these debauching exhibi- tions. One may make whatever excuse he will in defence of his presence, but " birds of a feather flock together !" It is clear proof that his mind is impure, his imagination unclean, and that he is rotten within, or he would not find enjoyment in these ante-rooms of hell !
Rum Traps.
A tempting bar is ever near at hand. Its doors are open, and the smiling vender of " fire-water" is backed by an imposing array of glasses and bottles. This smiling, coaxing, bowing, and scraping creature, with his paste diamonds on his shirt-front and mouth pouring out a string of oaths or lascivious stories, is ever anxious to help the work of destruction. The cool manner in which he hands up the decanter to the youth who seeks a drink, perhaps for the first time, the encouraging word he gratuitously supplies, the apparently nonchalant but in- wardly eager manner in which he takes his pay, and the Satanic smile ever beaming from his bloated face, all remind a thought- ful person that the devil is ingenious, and readily imbues with his spirit those who are willing to sell soul and body for a few
ADVERTISEMENT TRAPS. 51
cents. We have had eye-traps till we are surfeited, now we have ear-traps and mouth-traps. If the sight and hearing can- not accomplish the work of ruin, then down the mouth must be poured that which shall burn out all that's left of integrity and moral purity.
Intemperance strikes by means of the appetite, destroying nerve and tissue ; natural affection and filial love are drowned ; will-power is deadened till it almost fails to act ; and it imparts a weakness that renders the victim more open to all other vices. Lust and intemperance are twins — twin devils. They are Satan's favorite agents sent to carry out his bidding. The needle of the compass is not truer to the pole than are these agents to that power that uses them to destroy human happiness and wreck human souls. These drinking haunts may well be likened to the packing department of a large manufactory, where the products of the institution are boxed up and sent to the home office. Here the soul's ruin receives its finishing touch ; the work is completed ; they are to be sent away to be disposed of ; they are sent to destruction.
Statistics of bloodshed and carnage, the natural fruitage of this planting, are constantly spread before the public, and yet men are indifferent. Until the pestilence enters the home and strikes down some beloved form, many respectable men stand aloof and scoff and sneer at every work of reform in this line. But once let their own circle be invaded, then they are up in arms, but so unpractical in their methods that they hinder all true reform.
A short time ago, while going up the Hudson on one of the elegant Albany night boats, I saw four young lads go to the bar and drink all around. They came out of the barroom and stood talking a little while, and then started to go in again. Seeing that one of them was already somewhat under the influ- ence of liquor, I spoke to him, saying, ' ' For your own sake, don' t go in there again to-night. ' ' He looked surprised, and said, " Oh, all fellows drink now ; we always have it on the table at home. ' ' Here is a sad truth. Parents, you may keep
52 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
your child from going to excess while at your table and in you* presence, but this practice of supplying your children with stimulants in the home forms an appetite which outside they will indulge to excess. It was Johnson who said, " The diminutive chains of habit are seldom heavy enough to be felt until they are too strong to be broken."
Is any parent so heartless and cruel that he would take either of his beloved children and hold him as a victim while a stranger should, with still greater barbarity, inflict torture or cut off a limb ? Surely no. Will any parent dismember his offspring, or even inflict needless pain ? Why, then, will they destroy the youthful mind, intellect, will, or burn up the nerves and tissues of the body ? Why charge the system with the poison, not alone of alcohol, but of the vile concoctions made by unscrupulous men, and labelled "wine," "whiskey," " rum," " gin," etc. ? Why deliberately place Satan's halter over the necks of your children ? Why rivet the shackles of lust, crime, and intemperance on their tender forms ? Why assist the devil to strengthen and multiply his chains until your child cannot, unaided, break them asunder ?
Total abstinence, moral purity, and sweet thoughts, like the pure atmosphere that surrounds the mountain-tops, are health- giving. Despise not that principle of conduct which brings life, joy, and peace to our youth.
Does it pay to allow dramshops to exist ?
Answer. Would it pay to shut your children up, and then open a cage of wild beasts in the room with them ? or to bring in adders, centipedes, and scorpions for them to play with ?
The glittering allurements of the barroom, as compared to many homes, speak loudly to youth of present enjoyment, though silent as to the future. Brightly illuminated at night, the interior finished with polished woods, the bar loaded down with crystal decanters of different hues, the walls handsomely frescoed and hung oftentimes with lascivious works of art — these places appeal powerfully to the appetites and passions of the immature and heedless.
ADVERTISEMENT TRAPS. 53
Thronging into them may be seen through the wide-open doors hundreds of bright, healthy, well-dressed and genteel- appearing young men. These are greeted by the persuasive creature in attendance whose. business it is in the most enticing manner to secure patronage for the bar. At first the patron is greeted with smiles. So long as good clothes and money hold out, polite attention may be expected. Non-attention grows apace as the victim's purse decreases. As the lace becomes bloated, the dress soiled, the money scarce, the rougher grows the usage, until at last, clothed in rags, the one welcomed so cordially at first is, by the hand that has wrought his ruin, led to the back door, and with oaths from the lips that once were so honeyed, he is kicked out, to fall at last into an unknown or drunkard's grave. A monument of skeletons should be erected at the door of every dramshop as the unseen reality. Though invisible, this death monument is silently increasing in size each year in the history of every one of these plague- spots.
Long ago this business became so odious that even those who unscrupulously carried it on for the sake -of making money could find no fair-seeming ground on which to stand. A happy thought was supplied by the evil genius who presides over these hell -holes. The politician was appealed to. This business, which never made a good citizen nor a pure man, but instead has ever produced thieves, murderers, and criminals of blackest dye, this business, forsooth, is to be clothed with respectability by licensing it !
To get a correct idea we must take facts as they exist. The modern politician virtually bargains away the people's rights. " You manufacture," he says, " voters for me and my party, and I will secure the passage of an act that shall violate public policy and outrage every sentiment of humanity, make it legal for you to transform your fellow-men into brutes and criminals at a handsome profit to yourself ; provided always you respond when called upon for political purposes, and that you support my nomination."
54 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
RumselLr. "That is capital! We are bound to make criminals, but there's money in it, if you only legalize it."
Politician. " Of course, criminals must be provided for. Courts, police officers, jails, State Prisons, and reformatories must be supported by the public ; but these are minor consid- erations if you only make money and I have a fat office.
Rumseller. " But some of these sensitive and high-strung nervous temperaments cannot take more than one or two drinks without becoming noisy and excited, and getting in' a row, and that will bring the police down on me for keeping a disorderly house. ' '
Politician. " Thump such fellows on the head and silence them, and throw them into the street, or fee the police to be protected from arrest or prosecution."
Rumseller. " Oh, yes, I have done that often, but sometimes we kill these fellows or maim them badly, and then we get arrested ; the police have to do it, owing to a peculiar public sentiment on this subject."
Politician. " In such case send for me, and I will go your bail, and then will see the District Attorney, and tell him not to prosecute you, as you control the primaries in your ward, and you and your neighbors in the same business carry your district at all elections. But remember, you have to pay out liberally for all this."
Rumseller. " Yes, but when you get a man for District Attorney that is conscientious and honest, you will have no influence. He says the laws shall be enforced in the interest of the whole people. You cannot lead him by the nose and make him do your bidding. He will not stultify his manhood nor violate his oath of office for the ' likes of yees. ' '
Politician. " Well, if he tries you, we'll see the judge."
Rumseller. " Bah ! suppose it be a judge like the Re- corder, or Judge C. , of New York, it would do no good, as their notions of justice and duty are entirely against such prac- tices, and no man need expect to escape the penalty of his offences before such judges."
ADVERTISEMENT TRAPS. 55
Politician. " Well, then we will fix the jury. We'll see the Commissioner of Jurors, and have special parties drawn on the panel that is to try your case, and then the ones drawn will receive their orders not to convict, no matter what the evidence proves against you. The jury will not agree. But you must pay well for this. I work for money, I do."
Rumseller. ' ' Bnt between you and the police and the ward politicians, I cannot make a fortune in a year or two, if I have to pay out so much."
Politician. " Well, we'll fix that next election ; we will go to merchants and others for funds to work with, and we will pay you a few thousand dollars to treat with, to buy up voters with drinks at your bar. Then, again, there is likely to be an uprising of respectable citizens to oppose our rule, and we shall have to locate a gang of repeaters, and you will have to take care of them for us. ' '
And thus public interests are prostituted, free suffrage de- stroyed, and the public burdened with taxes to support a vast army of " bummers" and criminals, manufactured in these pest holes of infamy ! How long shall these things continue ?
CHAPTER V.
GAMBLING TRAPS.
THEIR name is Legion.
There is planted in every breast a desire to possess riches. From the time when first the tiny hand of the infant is stretched out toward the lighted candle until old age, there is constantly active an impulse to get possession of things which charm the fancies or that the appetite craves. To be rich and have a home, luxuries, and position in society is the thought likely to be uppermost in the human heart after the mind is expanded sufficiently to comprehend the condition of others in these respects. To have money to spend freely without a thought of future want seems to be the highest ambition of the great majority in the community. With some the struggle for money is a straggle for life ; with others it is the wild deter- mination to outstrip some competitor ; while others recklessly follow the butterfly of fashion, and run to extremes to surround themselves with all the attractions of their wealthier neighbors. How many, again, are driven mad in their desire to possess money in order to respond to the fierce, loud demands of unhallowed appetites and passions !
It requires but a slight bend in this current to turn the youth- ful mind away from honest labor and healthful occupation. The promise of getting something for nothing, of making a fortune without the slow plodding of daily toil, is one of Satan's most fascinating snares. He sets his signboards along the avenues of honest trade and commerce, and seeks to turn aside all classes by the glittering allurements of easy fortunes.
In addition to demands made by unholy and vicious living from secret forces preying upon the human system, there is
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added the charm that invests money. To the one thus capti- vated by Fortune's smile the future is filled with visions of glory. He fancifully builds a castle, and furnishes it in latest and most elegant fashion. He will endow some charity which shall stand before the public as monument of his importance, and with a wild recklessness he will lavish his money until he is the envied of all the envious. So they dream.
Many a youth of inexperience imagines that because he has money to clothe himself in fine apparel and deck himself with glittering ornament, he thus puts himself upon a level with those who, by years of industry and application, have acquired wealth, culture, and position. The passion for money and prominence has rendered such a one the caricature of a man ; has blunted his finer sensibilities, and degraded the higher qualities of his nature.
The glitter of a fortune is the bait to all gambling schemes. Intemperance and lust have been called twin-devils. We must add another to their foul company. For the passion for gam- bling is as remorseless as either of the others. The laboring man will spend the week's wages in gambling, leaving his wife and children to starve. The last dollar will go for policy or lottery, even when the spender knows that the larder is empty at home. The poor woman will pawn her clothing in the vain hope of winning a prize. The young man will rob even his own parents, to say nothing of trusting employer, in order to follow this goddess.
Gambling lays itself a gnawing worm at the root of honest industry.
Swindling, forgery, theft — every crime that extreme necessity and outcast desperation can suggest to man lost to all the moral ties — follow in its train.
Says that eminent jurist Judge Catron, formerly of the United States Supreme Court, in a decision in the case of the State of Tennessee v. Smith and Lane :
" Gaming is a general evil, leads to vicious inclinations, destruction of morals, abandonment of industry and honest
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employment, a loss of self-control and respect Frauds, for- geries, theft make up the black catalogue of crime, the closing scene of which generally ends in highway robbery or murder."
In very many cases this passion lies dormant. The first trap of this kind Satan is permitted often to set in church and charity fairs. Here he sets in motion for the first time that which, when thoroughly aroused, sweeps, with the fury of a tornado, morals, motives to honest and industrious pursuits, lofty ambitions, and noble living into the vortex of vice. Here, in the lecture-room of the church, and under the banner of ' ' Charity, ' ' the evil one, by the hand of thoughtless and well- meaning people, unhinges the principles of religion and com- mon honesty. Here is often sown the seed from which in after years comes desolation, which renders the mind ungovern- able and destroys it for useful purposes. Trembling anxiety for the success of these ventures disturbs the disposition to acquire a living by the established methods, while each dis- appointment renders the victim moie desperate and befogs reason.
Cool judgment and forethought are displaced by the feverish excitement of getting something for comparatively nothing.
Like intemperance and lust, this passion once aroused leads to the abandonment of honest calling and renders a man a vagrant in mind and conduct.
To those who will be rich, the gambling scheme offers many inducements.
At the head of these inducements, as most pernicious and insidious, I place the one that to-day has the strongest hold and receives the greatest support from the masses.
Lotteries.
Lotteries are the most extensive and far-reaching of all gam- bling schemes. They prey upon the unwary. They break up steady habits, waste property, and displace industry. They extend, by assistance of so-called respectable newspapers, into all sections of the country.
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There are said to be but two States in the Union where lot- teries are legal, and yet by the co-operation of many news- papers this unlawful and demoralizing practice is carried wherever the newspaper goes. Again, by the system of sending circulars by mail, already referred to, they are enabled to hunt out and prey upon the credulous in every community. By thus appropriating these two mighty agencies of communica- tion, this evil to-day is one of the most prolific in injury to and destructive of good morals.
All classes are drawn into its meshes. The young and old, white and black, learned and ignorant, male and female, master and mistress, the servant in the kitchen and the hostler in the stable, the boarding-school miss and the blackleg, school- boy and thief, apprentice-boy and renegade, clerk and burglar — all may here vie one with another in gambling in the same pool, and be deluded and robbed by the same sharper.
These offices, open to all classes, offer as baits to induce the purchase of tickets at from one dollar to ten dollars each, one hundred thousand dollars in prizes at a times. These golden prizes, drawing in the young, ignorant, credulous, unwary, struggling poor, and anxious ones, associate them with the idle, vicious, and unprincipled.
These tickets are placed on sale in some of the lowest dens in our large cities. In these places I have repeatedly seen women, young girls, and children standing, with trembling forms, waiting their turns, while the atmosphere about them was poisoned with the fumes of whiskey and tobacco, and filled with foulest language, flowing from the lips of the veriest scoundrels lounging in these places. Into such influences, after once the torch of gambling is lighted in the human breast, the bright boy or clerk is easily led. The excitement of win- ning a prize soon overcomes the fear which is naturally awakened on a first visit to these places.
Here it is again demonstrated that Satan takes advantage of human weaknesses. Mental and moral demoralization follow the victim, and in proportion to the amount invested. The pur-
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chaser of lottery tickets, so soon as he has secured one, begins to speculate as to the probabilities of his holding the lucky number. He then begins to reason out the possibilities of his drawing a big prize. He bases his calculations upon his hopes rather than upon his chances. Reason is allowed no place in his judgment. He makes no allowances lor the manipulations of the managers, nor the dishonest practices which almost invariably follow in the wake of these schemes. His infatuation blinds his eyes to the wisdom of his ventures, and he seeks to multiply his chances by securing a larger number of tickets ; and when his money is gone he helps himself from his friend's purse or employer's money-till, lulling conscience to sleep with the false and subtle argument that " he will just borrow this sum, and will return it as soon as he makes a hit. He's sure to get some prize, with so many tickets in one drawing." Silly fool ! The tempter has won an easy prey. His golden promise has completely blinded moral perception, and without calculating fraud on the part of the managers you have sold your soul for far less than a mess of pottage.
The prizes offered to be distributed in a lottery by those con- ducting them are the outcome of selfishness. They are the bulwarks of fraud. Behind these are " ways that are dark and tricks that are vain." These prizes are sums of money named and promised to be distributed by persons, who, too lazy to work, too cowardly to be openly vicious, adopt these schemes to deceive and rob the credulous. The drawings are always made by some interested party, if made at all. A list is kept of all tickets sold, so that it is a very easy matter for the seller to know just what numbers remain on hand, and from these numbers a printed list of drawings can easily be made up with- out any drawing.
Then, again, take the so -called Kentucky lotteries. * They are unlawful and fraudulent even in the State which they purport to emanate from. These have no public drawing. Is any
*A complete history of these fraudulent lotteries is given in " Frauds Exposed."
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scheme good for investment where it is unlawful and fraudulent at the start ? Add, then, the secret manipulations of unscrupu- lous managers to such a scheme, and where is there any possi- ble chance for the deluded ticket-buyer to win a prize ?
This prize money is an amount set apart, not for honest dis- tribution, for the sake of benefiting the recipients, but after usually accomplishing its purpose in effecting the sale of numerous tickets, it is designed to afford the manipulators an opportunity to see how small a portion of it it is possible to dis- tribute to the general public, and yet keep up a good showing.
An artist has well represented the subject, as follows : The motley throng outside the high inclosure represents the ticket- buyers. The poles and hooks represent the embezzlements, defalcations, thefts, and robberies which the many are led into to secure money to buy tickets with. Around the festive board in the centre sit the managers, with the officials whom they have corrupted, and who share with them their ill-gotten gains. At the feet of the principal manager is placed the large prizes. All prizes, it will be observed, fall beyond the reach of the ticket- holder ; the managers control everything, and none can pass out except they will it ; the ticket-buyer pulls the prizes off the tree while the police officials virtually stand by contenanc- ing and protecting this public nuisance. One manager sug- gests the propriety of advertising the next scheme by throwing over or paying out a few small prizes. Suppose there is a pub- lic drawing, where numbers are drawn from a wheel. In some lotteries there is no limit to the number of tickets issued. In others the number is 100,000 each month. Who of the ticket- buyers knows that all the numbers are in the wheel ? Who knows whether any other than those of the unsold tickets are in there ?
Again, the capital prizes are drawn first. Who knows whether the numbers announced, even in a public drawing by so-called respectable godfathers to these contemptible robbing schemes, are those actually drawn and handed to them ? The breathless eagerness with which each ticket-holder listens to see if his
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number shall be first announced makes easy the matter of cheating before his very eyes.
Do you suppose that one of these unprincipled scamps will permit $50,000 go out of his hands when once it is safely in it ? Such simplicity is on a par with the investment made when the ticket is bought.
The highest court of the State of Kentucky, in deciding a matter of which Simmons and Dickinson were appellees, says, in speaking of these so-called Kentucky lotteries, " which tends to foster and encourage the spirit of gaming, is productive of injury to the people of the commonwealth, and is against common right."
Says the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of John B. Stone el al., plaintiffs in error, v. The State of Mis- sissippi :
' ' That lotteries are demoralizing in their effects, no matter how carefully regulated, cannot, in the opinion of this court,
be doubted They are a species of gambling, and
wrong in their influences. They disturb the checks and balances of a well-ordered community. Society built on such a foundation would almost of necessity bring forth a population of speculators and gamblers, living on the expectation of what chance might award them from the accumulations of others."
Let the reader who is interested turn to the appendix, to see a report made to Congress by the Postmaster-General in 1880, concerning some ' ' queer lottery manoeuvres. ' '
I present now the decision of that eminent jurist, Judge Catron, of Tennessee, of whom it is said : ' ' His opinions delivered both from the Supreme Court of his State, and from that of the nation, will ever be regarded as of highest authority." In the case already noted, he further said :
' ' Lotteries are gambling, and odious gambling. A lottery is gaming, thus is against the policy of society, and there are few civilized nations that have not adopted means to restrain or entirely prohibit it, because it is seeking property for which no equivalent is to be paid, and because it leads directly to losses
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and poverty, and by inciting bad passions is the fruitful origin of vice and crime.
" It is the worst species of gaming, because it brings adroit- ness, cunning, experience, and skill to contend against igno- rance, folly, distress, and desperation. It can be carried on to an indefinite extent without exposure, and by a mode of selling the chances by combination numbers, an invention of the modern school of gambling, the fate of thousands and hundreds of thousands may be determined by a single turn of the wheel. Lotteries, like other games of chance, are seductive and infatu ating. Every new loss is an inducement to a new adventure ; and filled with vain hope of recovering what is lost, the un- thinking victim is led on from step to step, till he finds it impossible to regain his ground, and he gradually sinks into a miserable outcast, or by a bold and still more guilty effort, plunges at once into that gulf where he hopes protection from the stings of conscience, a refuge from the reproaches of the world, and oblivion from existence.
" If we consider the dealing in lottery tickets as a calling or employment, so far as the venders are concerned it deserves to be treated in legislation as those acts are which are done to get money by making others suffer, to live upon society by making a portion of its members dishonest, idle, poor, vicious, and criminal.
' ' In its character and consequences, the dealing in lottery tickets is the worst species of gaming, and deserves a severer punishment than any fine would amount to. If it involves the moral and legal offences of fraud and cheating, does it not deserve an in- famous punishment, if any fraudulent acquisition of mere prop- erty shall be punished with infamy ?
" Considered in its complicated wrongs to society, it certainly deserves the severest punishment, because it makes infamous criminals out of innocent persons, and visits severe afflictions on parents, employers, family connections and others, who in this respect have done no wrong themselves ; and thus the innocent are made to suffer for the guilty, an anomaly which is revolting to all our
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notions of justice, and to all the moral and natural sympathies of mankind."
What is the fruit of this kind of seed-sowing in the midst of us?
Dishonest employes in numerous mercantile houses, default- ers in our banks, embezzlers and thieves in our public offices of trust. Wealthy corporations are honeycombed by those who, while serving them, and occupying lofty positions in society, have secretly carried the surplus earnings and often the paid-in capital to enrich these sharpers.
One trusted clerk on Broadway, while receiving a remarkably large salary for rilling a most responsible position, managed in a few weeks' time to secure over $10,000 from his employers to gamble with in this way.
Another bank cashier stole over $35,000, according to his own confession, spending from $400 to $500 per day in these schemes.
A bright young man was sentenced by his Honor Recorder Smythe, of New York, to two and a half years' imprisonment on his plea of " guilty" to stealing $175 worth of jewelry from a friend. His excuse was that he had imbibed a taste for gambling.
Last year a young man, conscience-stricken, delivered him- self to the police in Chicago, confessing that he had stolen $3000 from his employer with which to gamble.
In January last, in Orange, N. J. , a young man committed suicide. His parting message was " An unconquerable habit of gambling has rendered life intolerable."
The same month in Newark a young man pleaded ' ' guilty' ' to murder in the second degree for having killed a friend at a gaming-table.
A young man was brought to my office, who, before he left, confessed to stealing over $1300 in small sums from his employer, for the purpose of gambling in lottery and policy. He had spent in all $1800, and had not a penny to show for it.
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My long experience has convinced me that no language is strong enough to condemn these merciless devices to rob the unwary. It is too late in the history of the world to regard lotteries as respectable or honest. Their record and history are fraud on the part of the promoters, and ruin and desperation on the part of the victim. Thousands upon thousands have gone down into this whirlpool of villainies, sacrificing in its vortex character, honor, and position in society. Heavy bur- dens have been laid on the consciences of men seduced to dis- honesty, while heavier burdens have fallen upon innocent women and children, whose support has been swallowed up by this heartless monster.
To attempt to shield the lottery system from public execra- tion is a folly second only to that of the credulous simpleton who invests his money with calculations of a sure return.
We read that one of old built a monument to his military achievements with the skulls of his victims. When such bar- barity secures a popular applause, lottery managers may then hope to be considered as engaged in a respectable business, and not until then.
Notwithstanding the State of Louisiana has sold itself to this bold and heartless privateer, yet there are men even there with moral courage enough to speak against it.
Congressman E. W. Robertson, at Baton Rouge, August 1 6th, 1882, said : " Poor as I am, the lottery company cannot buy me, and as this question has entered into our politics, I propose to make it an issue in every canvass from governor down to constable. It has been charged that this lottery com- pany controls the Legislature, and even members of Congress. Is it not, then, our duty to fight this despotism that is worse than hell itself?"
The following, from the Washington despatch to the Cin- cinnati Commercial, will be read with interest in this connection :
" Opposition to the Louisiana Lottery. — A majority of the Louisiana delegation in Congress are enlisted in an effort to break up the Louisiana lottery. Mr. Robertson has intro-
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duced a bill whose effect, if passed, will be to exclude all mail matter designed for the lottery company from the mails. He is backed up by all but two of the delegation. These gentle- men look at it from a practical point of view. They know it to be an immoral concern. They know it as well to be the hydra of Louisiana politics. They are fighting it more because they know it to be the power behind the Louisiana machine, mightier than the machine itself, than because they appreciate its demoralizing effect upon the country, and the swindling of which it is hourly guilty. Its enormous revenues (it took a quarter of a million from the 180,000 inhabitants of Washing- ton last year) give it enormous power. ' It could well afford,' said a prominent Louisiana man to-day, ' to give up when it got its constitutional guarantee some time since to abandon the monopoly feature of its business, since it controls every Legis- lature that meets at Baton Rouge, and can choke every rival enterprise at its birth. Why, it laid aside $200,000 of its sur- plus last year, after some of its directors had received $75,000 dividends, for the purpose of preventing the incorporation of two prospective competitors, whose heads were just appearing above the horizon. Their attorneys in both houses of the Legislature, each one of whom received $6000 per annum from the lottery company, put the money where it would do the most good, and the rival enterprises are dead. ' '
The above is the legitimate offspring of ' ' respectable' ' lottery management.
December 8th and pth last, I raided the main office of this public plunderer, at 212 Broadway, New York. I seized books and records, now in my possession, containing the names of the ticket -buyers, the amount of money sent, and number of tickets returned to the purchasers of tickets. The average receipts for twenty days prior to the raid were $5 1 76 per day, by actual count, while the average daily orders and letters received amounted to about 1750. I saw at one time delivered to one clerk from this office at the New York Post-Office, over 550 registered letters.
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The annual income of this company alone is $4,000,000, according to their own showing.
Nine lotteries, which the New York Society for the Suppres- sion of Vice have had the honor of driving out of New York City, had a reputed annual income of ten million dollars.
Palatial residences, elegant equipages, flashing diamonds, and a long retinue of cringing followers are the monuments which mark the greed of the lottery managers on the one side. On the other are privation, squalor, and want among the poor, demoralization among the young, and corruption in legislative halls and courts of justice, while officials on every side are tainted with the odious smell of bribery.
I cannot better illustrate how the laws have not been enforced than by giving a little of the history of the headquarters of this company while in New York City. It first appeared at No. 319 Broadway, in 1877. The advertisements then, in a large num- ber of newspapers, announced the prizes, date of drawing, and that tickets could be had at $2 each, of H. L. Plum, No. 319 Broadway.
After a little this place became thronged, until the ticket- buyers had to be placed in a line and wait their turns. For months it was not disturbed, and down to December 9th, 1882, conducted its business with open doors. On one occasion the police made a raid. The then incumbent of the District Attorney's office failed to properly prosecute. The money seized by the police was returned, and the office reopened for business. And it looks, viewed now in the light of history, as though this raid was designed to show this company what the police officials could do if they were only willing to live up to their oaths of office. But when viewed in the light of facts it appears as if it were really not done in good faith, for after that the police not only did not close this place, but obligingly permitted a police officer to keep the ticket-buyers in order while they openly violated the laws. To illustrate further, the following letter, addressed to the President of the Police Board of Commissioners, speaks for itself :
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" October 27, 1881.
''STEPHEN B. FRENCH, Esq., President of the Board of Police Commis- sioners, Mulberry Street, New York City.
" DEAR SIR : I have the honor to call your attention to the fact that the offices of the Louisiana State Lottery Company are located on the second and third floors of 2 1 2 Broadway, New York City.
" On the first floor, over Knox's hat store, the office is fitted up with counters and glass partitions along the counters. The door of this office, whenever I have been in of late, has stood wide open, so that any person going up the stairs can see a line of ticket-buyers and persons transacting business with the clerks who stand behind the counter. There are usually four or five clerks in attendance.
" Tickets are obtained by filling out a blank, which a clerk supplies to purchasers, and putting the money with the blanks, and placing the same in an envelope, and placing the envelope in a box in the office.
" In reply to these orders thus left, tickets are sent by mail with a letter of acknowledgment.
" I quote the following from this letter of advice :
1 Tickets sold at this office drawing prizes of $1000 and under are payable on presentation, and can be sent to me for collection by registered letter, express, or through banks. Tickets drawing over $1000 must be sent to New Orleans for collection.
' Having had charge of this office since its establishment four years ago, the substitution of any name for that of M. A. Dauphin does not involve any charge of management.
' Please make all post-office money-orders and bank checks payable to me individually. Address B. Frank Moore, 212 Broadway, New York City. '
" I inclose a circular, which speaks for itself, received from this office on the 26th inst.
" I have repeatedly arrested this man Moore, and he has also been convicted in the United States courts for violation of the
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lottery law. I arrested him last week, and he was held for trial in $1000 bail.
" I inclose a copy of to-day's paper showing the published advertisement of this lottery, in order that the Superintendent may have minute facts to work upon.
' ' I beg to say that I am informed that the clerks on the third floor are busily engaged each day in sending out circulars, letters, and tickets through the mail, and I believe that nearly this entire floor is occupied by the clerks thus engaged in aiding and abetting a lottery in this State.
" I beg also to present that I have no personal feeling against Mr. Moore, but I speak on behalf of young men that are made thieves of, and the poor women and children that are beggared and starving because of this gambling scheme, and I am sure that when these facts come to your knowledge it will be your pleasure to at once suppress what, the laws and Constitution of this State declare to be a nuisance.
' ' I have the honor to be, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,
' ' ANTHONY COMSTOCK, Secretary. ' '
This letter received no response, and from the date named in it down to December 8th, when I raided this place, assisted by Mayor Grace, who sent one of the city marshals with me, it run in full blast, as the records now in my possession abundantly prove.
I do not say nor imply that any police official was bribed ; but this I do say, without fear of contradiction, that Mr. French or any of his associates could have as easily closed this place as I did. Any one of them had but to ascend to the head of one flight of stairs, and look into the office through an open door, to see the business conducted without any pretence to secrecy.
So with the other lottery schemes which the police have permitted to thrive in their midst during the past ten years, and also the six hundred gambling-saloons that openly did a thriv- ing business. The police had but to say the word, and they had
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men and means to stamp out this moral pestilence. But they did not.
These gamblers have often boasted that they were protected by the police. The fact that they were not raided to any effect during all the years past, until public sentiment recently forced it, seemed to give a coloring to this boast. Pool-rooms, gam- bling hells, policy-shops, and lottery-offices did business openly for years, and the police had a list of all these places in their possession ; besides which, they were for many years furnished a daily directory by the printed advertisements, showing where lottery tickets were being sold. One paper published in New York City at one time had over $540 worth of this advertising, which it printed daily.
To plead ignorance with such a state of facts is virtually to confess to glass eyes, cork ears, and block heads.
The fads are, that for political or other baser reasons, these gambling schemes were tolerated and permitted to exist. The poli- tician has taken the place of the patriot. Good men have been so occupied with business and society that they have allowed our positions of trust to be rilled with weak if not corrupt men. The man who shall hold that the existence of crime is justified because it contributes to any political or other organization, is utterly unfit to execute our laws or hold any position of trust. To do this is to destroy suffrage and all equality before the laws. The rights of the weak are made subservient to the strong, the honest to the dishonest, the credulous to the vicious, the industrious to the idle, and the patient toiler to the lazy vagabond who lives by his wits.
I appeal to every patriot and philanthropist in the land, on the broad ground of prosperity to our country, durability to our institutions, and the highest welfare of the morals of all classes, to eliminate this scourge, this knavery, from our politics.
It is dangerous to condense into the hands of a few unscru- pulous men such mighty power as this great wealth secured by such unprincipled means.
For two years in succession an attempt has been made in
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the Legislature at Albany to legislate away the rights of citizens, to enforce these laws by a most specious and vicious bill, in- troduced by M. C. Murphy, of New York. This bill was designed, as it was claimed by the members of the gambling fraternity in New York, to do what the police had not been able to do on account of the activity of the agents of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice — to wit, give complete protection to these crimes. It was claimed that after protection had been guaranteed the contract would be broken by the agents of the above society arresting these gamblers ; that the police could not secure them protection from these arrests. This bill, as originally drawn, was designed to condense the rights of every citizen to see that the laws are enforced under the will of one man ; and it was thought that enough of polit- ical influence could be secured to control the prosecuting attorney, and cause him to withhold his appointment of any to enforce these laws, save as the fraternity of thieves should sug- gest. This bill was designed to be so cunningly worded that its friends would find little or no difficulty in securing its pas- sage, as it was thought that by making the title misleading, as to ' ' spies who induce, ' ' etc. , that they could effectually legis- late away the rights of every citizen in this respect.
To Mr. W. C Beecher, the former Assistant District Attorney of New York City, is largely due the defeat of this obnoxious measure. The annexed protest was prepared, and signatures to the same were secured by him, and he and the writer pre- sented the same to the Assembly Judiciary Committee, to whom the Murphy "Spy bill," as it is called, had been re- ferred.
The bill did not pass.
"AN ACT entitled ' An act in respect to spies who assist, induce, or inveigle others to commit crimes for the purpose of in- forming against them,1 as follows :
" SECTION i. Whenever any person assists, induces or inveigles another to commit a crime or violate any penal statute of this
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State, for the purpose and with the intent to inform against that person, or to convict him thereof \>y the aid of his testimony as a witness for the prosecution on the trial of the accused, such witness shall be deemed and held to be particeps criminis in the alleged offence, and in every way equally guilty with the accused person, and subject to the same fines and penalties, unless it shall be shown that the witness acted under the order and by direc- tion of the District Attorney of the county where the crime is alleged to have been committed. Any person who induces another to commit a crime, with the intent and for the purpose as hereinbefore set forth, shall be known and designated for the purposes of this act as a spy.
" SEC. 2. Nothing in this act contained shall be construed as making it compulsory on the part of a spy to testify in any action or proceeding, where by so doing he would be liable to any of the fines and penalties as provided in the first section of this act, but on the trial of a spy for an offence under the first section it shall be competent to show any of his acts, words, or statements made in or out of court, or under oath or otherwise, where the same relates to the points at issue.
" SEC. 3. Whenever a spy shall be tried and convicted of an offence under this act, and the jury, on rendering their verdict of conviction, shall accompany the same with a recommenda- tion of the convicted to the mercy of the court, it shall be the duty of the court to mitigate his punishment, and the court may, in its discretion, suspend its judgment or sentence in the matter. ' '
" PROTEST.
" Understanding that a bill has been proposed in the Legis- lature at Albany, of which the above is a copy, the undersigned are of opinion that the bill is unwise and unnecessary.
" Unwise, because in all those crimes which consist in the sale of articles prohibited or restricted by law, xhe proposed bill punishes as a criminal the law officer or citizen who seeks evidence to suppress such crimes unless specially authorized,
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but remains silent as to those who really 'assist' as regular customers. It needlessly increases the duties of District Attor- neys, already sufficiently onerous, by putting upon them the responsibility of ordering and directing every law officer and citizen who may thus seek to suppress crime.
" It tends to interfere with the efficiency and discipline of the police force, by making them subject to two heads, their own chief and the District Attorney ; and to prevent promptitude and despatch.
' ' In large counties great practical difficulty would be experi- enced in many instances on the part of those who live at a distance from the District Attorney, in getting his order and direction.
' ' Its substantial effect will be rather to protect than restrain criminals, and to hinder the enforcement of the law.
' ' In many cases it will render the conviction of certain classes of criminals practically impossible.
" It is unnecessary, because the existing laws sufficiently pro- vide for the punishment of accessories — and,
" There is no existing evil which calls for any such new remedy as this bill proposes.
' ' We are of the opinion that the bill should not be enacted. The growth of crime in this country, by the constant importa- tion of criminals from foreign countries, demands that justice should be left free to meet the cunning of crime with similar weapons, which in many cases are the only adequate means for its detection. The proposed bill is obviously intended to give free scope to those classes of crimes which are carried on with such secrecy and cunning that the only chance of preven- tion or punishment is found in the shrewdness, energy, and courage of skilful detectives. Where abuses exist in the proc- esses of such detectives, the courts and juries are certain to see that no unjust advantage grows out of their action.
" But this bill will be effectually used to shield crime, by making criminal honest efforts to detect and prevent or pun- ish it.
74 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
" Noah Davis, Judge Supreme Court
11 Frederick Smyth, Recorder.
" H. A. Gildersleeve, Judge General Sessions.
" Charles Donahue, Judge Supreme Court.
" John McKeon, District Attorney, New York County.
" George G. Reynolds, Judge City Court, Brooklyn.
" J. Neilson, Judge Supreme Court, Kings County.
" Daniel G. Rollins, late District Attorney.
" I. S. Catlin, District Attorney, Kings County.
" G. L. Backus, Assistant District Attorney, Kings County.
" Francis C. Barlow.
' ' Rufus B. Cowing, Judge General Sessions Court.
" The word 'assist' in this bill makes it decidedly objection- able, and it should not be passed as presented, in my opinion.
" J. R. Brady, Judge Supreme Court. " C. R. Ingalls, Judge Supreme Court."
As has been shown, the foregoing bill was designed to cover all crimes which consist in violations of laws by selling contra- band or prohibited articles.
Every one of this class of crimes, which were thus sought to be protected by this infamous bill, consists of selling against the law wares that destroy the morals of the community. For instance, obscene books and pictures, articles for indecent use, lottery and policy tickets, the unlawful sale of liquor, pool gambling, all these and more pay large blackmail for the privi- lege of corrupting the morals of the community, and making criminals for law-abiding citizens to support.
For downright impertinence, and as a capital illustration of the arrogance and consummate impudence of the lottery men and their advocates, the following letter, received by the Hon. John McKeon, after his successful raid upon the policy head- quarters by Pinkerton's men, speaks for itself ;
GAMBLING TRAPS. 75
" No. 120 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, September 25, 1882. " HONORABLE DISTRICT ATTORNEY :
" SIR : The raid upon the policy shops, instigated by the Dis- trict Attorney, has excited the utmost indignation among the thirty thousand or forty thousand voters who are in the habit of playing in these lotteries in this city alone, and cannot fail to have a disastrous effect on the Democratic cause at the next election. It has always been an understood thing that whoever takes an active part against these players will be voted against at the subsequent elections. This has been the case for many years, and it is a well-known fact that no one who has offended these electors in this way has ever been re-elected to any office. It was in consequence of Cornell's hostile attitude and proc- lamation against lotteries that he was not renominated. They were afraid to renominate him again, because of the known determination of these 30,000 electors in New York to vote against him. He would have been certainly defeated had he been nominated. Neither Republicans nor Democrats can afford to nominate a man who has taken an active part against the lotteries. The players consider it a perfectly innocent amusement, as it is not condemned or forbidden in the Bible, although the Jews at the time the New Testament was written constantly used lotteries ; and as almost all European nations use and encourage them, it is certain that there can be nothing hurtful or injurious to morality in them. No other District Attorney of either political party ever interfered with the busi- ness, because it was thought to be out of their line of duty and would be an impertinent interference with the duty of other officials, and show too great an ignorance of the etiquette which usually is observed among gentlemen. No wonder that some of the judges have remonstrated at this act when they consider the injury it will do to the Democratic party by alienating the vote of 30,000 voters and insuring the enmity of the owners of the lotteries, who wield such vast political power and influence over the constituencies in this and all other large towns and cities of the United States. It is conceded on all hands that
76 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
they have power to control the elections in this city, and neither political party can afford to have their cause ruined in this way. " Your obedient servant,
" JOHN SULLIVAN."
Having found a District Attorney with enough good, old- fashioned, true manhood about him, so that the money argu- ment of the fraternity of thieves has no effect, they turn from fawning and bribery to threats and ' ' bulldozing. ' ' They may be assured that they are ' ' barking up the wrong tree. ' ' Honest John McKeon does not scare.
This letter illustrates too the inner workings of the political leaders who bend their necks to the yokes of these gamblers. It shows the modern principles, the absolute sacrificing of everything lofty, noble, and upright in man and party to the nod of the managers who wield such vast political power and influence over the constituencies in this and all other large towns and cities in the United States. If this power and influ- ence are as represented by the wail of Sullivan, then the quicker both political parties are blotted out of existence the better ; otherwise we must label them, ' ' Owned by gamblers and thieves. "
Patriots, to the front ! Our liberties are in danger ! No man should be elected to office with this taint upon him. Down with the thieves !
CHAPTER VI.
GAMBLING TRAPS (CONTINUED).
' ' Poke-a-moke, ' ' or Policy.
FOLLOWING in the wake of lottery comes that quintessence of meanness — policy. This is a parasite that lives upon lotteries. Policy, or " poke-a-moke," is a bet or wager that certain num- bers will be drawn in a lottery or appear in a certain position or combination in the drawings, made twice a day from seventy-eight numbers. Twelve, thirteen, or fourteen num- bers, as the scale may be, are supposed to be drawn out of the numbers from i to 78.
This is the most contemptible kind of mean gambling. It offers dazzling inducements to the pennies of the poor. It is robbery, merciless and high-handed. It is worse than the highwayman, who creeps up in the darkness of night, and striking his victim down from behind robs him of his valuables. It can torture the suffering poor — arousing high hopes only to crush them with bitter disappointment — destroy the integrity of youth, take the coat off the poor man's back, and the food out of the mouth of babes, without a quiver or blush.
It is surrounded by all the sense of mystery with which the gambler clothes his schemes. It is superstition's stronghold. The negro dreams a dream, the Irishman or woman has a " presintimint," and the German a vision, and each rushes to the " dream-book," kept in every policy den, to see what num- ber the dream or vision calls for.
The following are specimens. A dream about any of the following subjects calls for the numbers set opposite each, to wit :
Fire, 6, 46, 69. Funeral, 3, 5, u, 29.
Fox, 4, 7, ii. Gold, 63, 74.
78 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
Murder, 7, 13, 20. Rain, 43, 45.
Hunting, 14, 37, 61. Spider, 54, 75.
Again, the policy-player will see a number, on a greenback, or on a licensed vender's wagon, or on some house, that catches his eye ; at once it argues to his disordered fancy a promise of luck, and he will rush to the " poke-a-moke" shop and play those numbers. For instance, suppose the bill to be 55,075, the player will play a " gig," by making it 5, 50, 75, for whatever amount he chooses.
Superstition is sensitive, and no amount of persuasion can convince the dreamer or player that the numbers suggested as above are not just the ones for him to play.
In order to lay the evil clearly before thinking men — and many officials are ignorant of this device — let me present, in simple manner, some of the secrets of this game. The whole thing depends on the numbers drawn, and their relative posi- tion as drawn. The following represents a drawing, and is known in the fraternity as a " slip." These are sent around to every shop twice a day.
Class 138 78-13
ist, ad, 36, 4th, sth, 6th, 7th, 8th, gth, loth, nth, izth, I3th, I4th,
53 77 89 -4 19 63 10 49 57 32 18 23 61
Class 238-78-is
ist, ad, 3d, 4th, sth, 6th, jth, Sth, gth, toth, nth, i2th, I3th, I4th
744257321939-7-45312596456
GAMBLING TRAPS. 79
In its promises to pay, the dragon-teeth are most clearly dis- played. A word of explanation will illustrate this point
The " ist" point is the "first station," the "ad" the ' ' second station, ' ' etc. A player playing a station number virtually wagers that the number he selects will come out in the next drawing in the particular statior he names. For instance, suppose he plays No. " 18 first," he means that " 1 8 " will come out ' ' first. ' ' In this play the backers offer " $50 to $i" odds against the player.
Then there are ' ' capital-saddle stations, ' ' which pay ' ' $400 to $i." The first three numbers on the " slip" represent the first station, and a " capital saddle" is two numbers played to come out in the first three, if played for " i st station. " There are four capital- saddle stations, the first three drawn numbers comprising the first, the second three the second, and so on.
A " gig" is three numbers, and pays " $200 to $i."
A " horse" is four numbers, and if played in both ballots pays " $500 to $i." All these plays require, in order for the player to win, that all his numbers shall appear in the twelve drawn.
There are other plays, but the above will illustrate the prin- ciple. Now for the practice — the tricks and devices to rob.
But very little office furniture is required to fit up an office for this kind of swindling. The votaries are not usually as fastidious as the players of "roulette," "faro," or "rouge etnoir." No extravagant lay-out is required. A simple room with a board partition to divide it into two apartments ; in the front a counter with empty cigar-boxes, -and in the window in front a sign, ' ' Cigars, " " Exchange, " or " Coal office. ' ' Then a door leading into the inner apartment, with a spring-bolt having a cord attached running to the rear of the front counter, so that the lookout can easily open for the visitor. Then a rough counter with a small desk upon the top. A sheet of tin, a few sheets of carbonated paper, a manifold-book and pencil for keeping the record of the plays, and a few strips of blank paper to write the policies upon. These, with a blackboard
80 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
on the wall on which to post the drawings as they come in twice a day, and a piece of chalk, and we have a policy office complete. I should add a rough bench or a few chairs, and a rusty stove in winter. One important adjunct to all this furni- ture, in order to complete the picture, is a human being, willing for about $9 per week to sell himself soul and body to the managers of these schemes. He must be as devoid of moral sensibilities as the furniture is of paint or finish.
For instance, in one case, where I went with one of our former mayors in New York, I heard a poor fellow, who had spent his last penny, plead for just one more chance on a credit of " five cents." The head one in the office heard him as he
addressed the writer, and said with an oath, ' ' Thump that
in the nose and throw him down stairs if he don't shut up."
The plays are made and recorded in something of the follow- ing manner. A player who has dreamed of fire conies in. He consults the " wheel of fortune" as it is called, or " dream- book," and then says, " Give me 6, 49, 69 in both lotteries for $50." The writer takes his manifold- book and records the numbers and amounts, taking care to put the play in the column of large plays, and then writes out a paper as follows :
B. Ex. Sept. 1 1 , 6> 49, 69, g 50
This he gives the player as his policy or voucher, and the player pays fifty cents for the same, as it is played in both lotteries.
They claim to have a " Georgia" and a " Kentucky" lottery, both of which are fraudulent, as neither State now has any lottery grants.
Consider the offered inducements to the poor, and to young men struggling for a livelihood. Five hundred dollars for one dollar is a great temptation to a youth scarcely earning enough to keep body and soul together. " Try your luck, you may make a hit," is the first whispering of the tempter. After he gets the victim nibbling, then it is, ' ' You' re sure to make a hit
GAMBLING TKAPS. 81
some time ;" and so little by little he keeps on until position, honor, character, and self-respect are sacrificed in this vain attempt at almost an impossibility.
This scheme is much more readily manipulated by its mana- gers than a lottery with 100,000 numbers. There are here but twelve numbers to be drawn.
Now what becomes of the record of plays kept by the writer on his manifold-book ? He, by means of his carbonated paper and sheet of tin, makes three impressions on different sheets at the same stroke of his pencil. One he keeps, one goes to his immediate employer who owns the shop, and the other to the manager of the scheme. The headquarters were formerly at 263^ Bowery, and afterward in Mercer Street, in the rear of 599 Broadway.
There have been, during the past five years, 600 or more of these and other gambling dens open in full blast in New York City, and yet 2500 of the " best police in the world," every one of whom is sworn to enforce these laws, backed by a pay- roll of upward of $3,000,000 annually, could not find these violators of the laws. They could find and oppose an organi- zation (Society for the Suppression of Vice) which opened relentless war upon these dens. Between the police, during the years from 1877 to 1881, and these places there seemed a chasm, which was bridged by " protection," the foundations of which may have been bribery for aught I know. I do not say it was, but if the statements of some of these gamblers could be believed, the record of the police is blacker than that of these criminals. Why did not the police enforce these laws ? Why do they complain that our brave District Attorney has stepped before them in battle array, and sent a quivering shaft into the very headquarters of these robbery devices ? Had not they time enough to close them ? Could they not have accomplished in five years what he has done in less than five months ?
If they choose to violate their oaths, it is no reason why others should not esteem the oath of office binding upon them-
82 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
selves. The best thing they can do is to profit by the example set them and close and keep closed these pest-holes.
Every policy shop in New York and Brooklyn is required to send to policy headquarters, twice each day, a correct copy of the plays made. These must all be sent in before the " slips" or printed drawings can be sent out. At this headquarters, at noon and in the evening these policy books are examined by clerks in charge. Over and over again I have been informed by parties whom I have arrested for conducting these schemes, that they are required to keep separate, or to draw off on a separate slip of paper, all plays of $50 and upward, so that the manager at a glance can see what numbers are thus played for large amounts. Now see how easy to defraud ! Suppose a man has played a ' ' gig' ' — three numbers — for a hundred dollars, or suppose he has played "14 first" for a thousand dollars. This play is sent direct to the manager. He sees the numbers. It is very easy to drop one of the three numbers, if the three should all appear in the list, to be sent out (I do not say drawn numbers, for I do not believe there ever is an honest drawing) ; or to make the first number 15 or 1 6 in place of 14. How does this affect the player? He looks at the "slip," in blissful ignorance of the manipulations, and then says, ' ' I have come within one of it, ' ' when, if what is claimed is done, he has not come within one millionth part of a chance, as all the chance he had was that, after the list had been doc- tored up, the printer might, by some mistake on his part, print the number played in place of the one selected by alteration.
Why should all books be sent in before any of the slips are sent out ? Why is there a small army of clerks at policy head- quarters on the alert to examine their books before the drawn numbers are sent out ?
Not unfrequently have complaints been brought to my office, where a poor person who has made a hit and gone back to claim the same with his policy, had his paper forcibly taken from him, torn up, thus destroying the evidence of his play, and he thrown into the streets without his money.
GAMBLING TRAPS. 83
At this scheme all classes, and persons of all ages, can play from one cent upward. It is pitiful indeed to watch the poor starving creature, as he or she crawls into one of these places and deposits the last half-dime, which should be used to buy bread with, and stakes it for the sake of " trying their luck just once more." Again, I have seen the managers of these heart- less schemes, with solitaire diamonds worth thousands of dollars on their bosoms, come into court and refuse to give bail or pay the paltry fine imposed on their employes, who will suffer and go to jail before they will betray their employer. Wife and child go for naught with these men. The employer before either of these. The complacency with which a policy-writer will take a sentence to imprisonment, and as he passes out of court to go to the Tombs, curse his weeping wife, is something astonishing. This I have seen more than once. These are caricatures of true men. They are forms hollowed out by this cursed traffic until there is nothing but form left.
A writer employed by a man named Luthey had two little children. He had been arrested, indicted, and by advice of Luthey's counsel pleaded "guilty." He wanted Luthey to provide for his children while he was in prison. Luthey refused, but told him to bring the ' ' young ones' ' into court and stand them up there, and tell the judge they had no one to provide for them, and then if he was sent to prison, to leave them there. I was in court when this was done, and I heard this boss-gam- bler say that he had given direction to have this done. And he sat there while his clerk was sentenced, and refused to do a thing for the children, notwithstanding the fact that he was personally appealed to to take care of his employe's family. He replied, " Let the judge send them to some institution." Instead, I know that an amount was quietly made up, headed by large- hearted Judge Cowing, and these little ones were placed in charge of a kind lady to be cared for. Not a cent, however, was given by this man Luthey, who sat there with diamonds worth not far from $5000 on his person. This is the man who formerly ran the ' ' Jacksonville' ' and ' ' Florida' ' lottery
84
TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
policies. I searched his headquarters in Greenwich Street on one occasion ; I found no wheel for drawing numbers, but on an upper floor I found a small printing-press, with the electro- plates where he printed the drawings in these mythical and fraudulent lotteries. There are no such lotteries.
Now consider a moment the income from these schemes. Take the 600 open dens that existed in New York for years until recently. Allow but $15 per day to be taken in on an average to each place (this is a very low estimate), and we have $2,875,000 per year.
The estimate of $15 per day is very low, as one defaulter confessed to spending from $400 to $500 per day of his plunder in one of these places.
The following is a transcript from the books of one of the policy managers in New York City, showing the receipts, expenditures, and profits from cities outside of New York, as returned to him here.
This copy I made myself from his books, to wit :
Out-of-Town Trade in Policy.
|
Year. |
Sales. |
Expenses, etc. |
Gains. |
|
20 cities, 1872 |
$1,755,090.89 |
$i,3io.m4.26 |
$444 766 61 |
|
20 1871 . . |
916 661 25 |
666 750 65 |
249 910 60 |
|
20 187.1. . |
691 008 84 |
C21 2O2 O7 |
167 805 87 |
|
20 1875 |
802,020.11 |
627,o6e;.<;o |
174,061 81 |
|
8 1876 |
46<; 44.2 21 |
147 600 20 |
1 1 8 111 O4 |
|
6 1877. . |
529 282.09 |
442 136 26 |
87 146 83 |
|
Total |
$5 160 414 61 |
!$1 oi7 «;i8 71 |
$i 242 926 78 |
|
Washington, 1880. . |
$121,853.83 |
$90,136.91 |
$31,716.88 |
The following cities are included in the returns for 1872, while but part of them are included in more recent years, to wit : Washington, Chicago, Louisville, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Allentown, Richmond, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Troy, N. Y., Petersburg, Paducah, Providence, R. I., Albany, Buffalo, Auburn, Utica, Manchester, Lynchburg.
GAMBLING TRAPS. 85
" Expenses" covers all office rents, clerk hire, lawyers' fees, fines, official blackmail " for protection, " printing, advertising, and the few hits allowed to come out for the sake of keeping up excitement and appearances. To the amount of "sales" must be added twelve and a half per cent, of the amount each year, in order to secure the gross receipts. This amount is allowed in commissions to the writers, and is deducted by them.
It must not be supposed from my description of one of these places that there are none of greater pretensions. A policy shop fitted up in elegant style is a great rarity. But many are obliged to pay a high rent, and were maintained on Broadway and other prominent thoroughfares.
It is said that the managers of one lottery paid for two floors, over the store at 2 1 2 Broadway, $600 per month rent, and had a five years' lease.
This is a mere bagatelle for a concern that takes in $5 1 76 per day, as this one office did.
In August, 1882, the Hon. John McKeon carried out, through his assistant, Mr. H. C. Allen, one of the most won- . derful and successful raids on policy headquarters that has ever been known in this or any other country. It is a marvel that a raid involving so many ramifications, where so many detec- tives were employed for so long a time, could be carried to a successful culmination, and yet not a word leak out, nor any- thing be discovered by any of the "very best" in the world. It speaks volumes for the discipline and efficiency of Mr. Pinker- ton's detective agency and the District Attorney and his assist- ant. The people of the State of New York are to be congratu- lated on having such a District Attorney. The Society for the Suppression of Vice year after year kept piling up indictments in the State courts against these gamblers. From March, 1877, to September, 1880, these cases remained untried in the District Attorney's office. Then Mr. Daniel G. Rollins com- ing into command commenced prosecutions, and in six months secured more convictions than had been made before in the six years previous.
86 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
Mr. McKeon came into office with a determination to enforce all laws. At a meeting of prominent gentlemen to extend congratulation to him shortly after his election, he defined his platform as follows. Said he :
" There is but one pledge can be given by me, and that is, so far as lies in my power, the laws of the State shall be exe- cuted without fear, favor, or affection. ' '
This magnificent raid entered the heretofore secret policy headquarters and gutted it, while the backers and clerks were arrested and held for trial. This gratified the public and greatly surprised the police force. While the former were loud in applause, the latter announced themselves slighted and injured.
Again, the police were much chagrined that the Society for the Suppression of Vice should be called upon to close the pool-rooms in Barclay Street and at No. 43 Broadway, after the captain of that precinct had been notified to close them and had failed so to do. To have this followed by the descent upon policy headquarters was too crushing. But it has taught the police a lesson. The rebuke is righteous, and the lesson much needed.
As these schemes are brought to light, loud expressions of surprise are manifested on all sides, by officials, judges, and others, that they are such barefaced swindles. Formerly these men were let off with fines. In October, 1880, twenty-nine of these criminals received sentences in General Sessions Courts, amounting in the sum total to $202. 50. When the evil was brought to the attention of our excellent judges, Rufus B. Cowing and Recorder Smythe, they applied imprisonment as well as fine to the criminals, and the result has been most salutary.
The practice of respectable citizens interfering to thwart the ends of justice is most reprehensible, and destructive to the best interests of the community. It is no uncommon thing to have men go to a judge with a long story to secure a suspension of sentence for one of these offenders. They deceive the magis- trate, and he, acting on what he feels are facts, allows men to
GAMBLING TRAPS. 87
escape with a light penalty, who, if they had their deserts, would get the full extent of the law. By this means crimes are en- couraged, other criminals continue to violate the law, sustained by the fact that it is easy to get off if one only has influential friends to deceive the courts. We have good judges, and citi- zens ought to help them enforce these laws. In checking these crimes we are stifling some of the most prolific agencies for breeding criminals. Thousands of youth are ruined by these seductive schemes. The idea of " sure to make a hit some time" takes possession of the player, and it becomes chronic, until it blinds reason, stunts moral perceptibilities, deadens conscience, and finds an apology for dishonesty. The clerk steals, but argues to himself that he will just " borrow it" and return it out of his prize. The " borrowing" just to try one's luck, is rascally, whether applied in stock speculations, horse- racing, or policy and lottery gambling. Young men, take warning !
Merchants may find here a channel where goes many a small article of merchandise from their stock. The banker and broker can here find their postage-stamps, stolen by office boys ; insurance companies, their envelopes. The writer has often seized envelopes in these places bearing the business cards of insurance companies and mercantile firms.
The following cases illustrate the fruitage.
In February last a young wife with a babe fourteen months old was arrested, brought into court, and pleaded " guilty" to several burglaries. She then added that " she had become infatuated with policy." According to her story, she had once made a hit of fifteen dollars ; since then she had been crazed with a desire to gamble in this manner ; had used all her husband's money, and then went out upon these burglarious expeditions to get money to satisfy this passion for policy.
The same month a mother in Washington was discovered investing large sums in these devices, in the vain hope of secur- ing several thousand dollars to pay off a mortgage which her son had upon his property in Chicago. Maternal love blinded
88 TRAPS FOR THE YOUNG.
her eyes, while deluded she followed this will-o'-the-wisp proj- ect until poverty and ruin overtook her.
The wife of a laboring man in New York came into my office one day last summer, saying she had lost over $800 in a certain shop in New Chambers Street All she had to show for this was a few policies or pieces of paper with her plays recorded on them. Though a laboring man's wife, and herself obliged to work, she had spent from $2 to $3 per day. After having spent about seven hundred dollars, which she had saved up by years of toil and economy, she removed to Brooklyn to get rid of the temptations of this particular place. Just here I may mention that she had no desire to go to any other than this one place to play. It is the case, in very many instances brought to my notice, that players who are driven almost to desperation continue to play in the same place ; and often they appeal to me to close that particular place to save them, saying, " I have no desire to go into any other place, but I cannot pass that door without going in to play." So with this poor, half-crazed woman. She said, ' ' If you will only close this place you will save me ; otherwise I shall be driven to desperation. ' ' I went with her to this den, and, taking her plays which she placed in my hands, I interviewed the proprietor. Said he at once, fearing trouble, " I am willing to pay this woman back her money on those plays. ' ' I then showed him the plays, and he figured up about $17 as the amount he had received on about half a dozen plays. After he had thus virtually confessed his guilt, I informed him that it was not the money but his body I was after. I then arrested him, and took him to the Tombs Police Court, where he was held to answer in default of $1000 bail.
In one place which I was raiding, a little boy, scarcely able to speak plainly, came toddling into the saloon, and standing in front of the counter, reached his little hands up to the edge of it, holding in one a paper containing a play and money to pay for the same, for his mother, and in the other another for his father. Thus this infant was brought into contact with this vicious practice before he could say the alphabet. These
GAMBLING TRAPS. 89
parents will mourn if in future years this child shall be brought to State Prison or the gallows. If he should, they will have no one but themselves to thank, for they have done all in their power to start him on the downward course at the threshold of life. They sowed the seed, and he will reap the harvest. I sent for the mother. She came, and when she discovered the presence of officers, tried to make her child say he received the plays and money from some other person, notsvithstanding the fact that she at first confessed, before coming to the policy den, that she had sent him.
This scheme prospers because it is regarded partly as an innocent pastime for those who can afford to waste time and money, and because it is equally simple to bet a few pennies that a certain number will be drawn. The player is apt to think that his chance of making a hit is as good as any other person's, and if he should win there's nobody injured ; especially since, as the pool is made up of small sums, this loss will not be felt by the players.
It is because the thing seems so very simple that it is so very seductive. This accounts for its being so widespread. It teaches young men to take the dollar of another without earn- ing it. It breeds a spirit of feverish speculation, and it puts forth a bold front, by means of the printed slip sent out twice each day, concealing the secret manipulations of fraud.
Before leaving this species of gambling, let a moment' s con- sideration be given to
Mercantile Gambling, or Merchant Lotteries.
It seems as though every branch of trade had a lottery of its own, and that healthful competition in trade must now contend, not against honest and honorable rivals, but against some scheme of " prizes" or " gifts by chance." In each and every instance the same principles are employed as in a regular lot- tery. It is gambling, and caters to the spirit of gaming. One firm deems it necessary, in order to sell their wares, which are often of inferior quality, to offer extra inducements. They
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desire to sell their inferior goods at the highest market price which the first quality of the same articles brings. On their merits they cannot command such a price. They desire to make an extra profit on their adulterated or second, third, or fourth quality merchandise. How can this be done success- fully ? They must advertise largely and "loudly." Printer's ink must lie for them. Many men of this stamp are much like the old Quaker whose hat blew off one very windy day, and who, running after it, failed to secure it, until he met a small boy, to whom he said, ' ' Boy, do thee swear ?' ' The boy answering in the affirmative, the Quaker handed him fifty cents, saying, " Give me fifty cents' worth at that hat." So, many of these respectable (?) concerns will hold up their hands in holy horror at the suggestion that they would lie or deceive, and yet will pay an advertising agent liberally to publish the greatest exaggerations as to the character and quality of their goods. They will denounce gambling as very demoralizing, and yet will adopt the very same spirit, and endeavor to evade the law by a cunningly worded advertisement. These schemes are all subject to suspicion of the gravest character. Fraud and deceit are their basis. The writer has investigated many of these schemes, and has never failed to find that either there is an out- and-out unlawful device, or else one that is the merest evasion of the law, and based on fraudulent practice — something to induce purchases by deceiving the public.
To advertise an inferior quality of goods as ' ' superior to the best brands in the market' ' is downright rascality. But to add to this the seductions of lottery gambling, is baser still.
One man has a certain brand of tobacco. To induce large sales he advertises a certain list of prizes, tickets for which are in every box of a quarter gross of papers of tobacco.
The practice of one concern was to print a long list of num- bers as those which would be sure to draw prizes. These were posted up and scattered throughout the country. The pur- chasers of this brand of tobacco will be interested to know that when we got down to bottom facts we discovered that there
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was not a single number of those printed on the list packed in the tobacco. The lowest number packed was 75,001, and the highest number on the printed list was 75,000.
Of another concern that advertised "gold coin" as packed in their tobacco, the writer purchased a box to ascertain the amount of gold coin given out in a quarter gross of papers, and found one five-cent silver coin, but no gold.
Another concern which had an inferior quality of tobacco has endeavored for months to force sales for their brand by offer- ing these extra inducements in the shape of tickets for money, and lastly tickets offering different amounts of tobacco to the holder of prize tickets. But it is not the fraud and cheat for which I arraign these criminal practices in the tobacco trade. Instead, it is the unusual inducements thus offered to young men and boys to buy and use tobacco, without which many would not think of purchasing the poisonous weed. To poison the systems of thousands of youth throughout the land in order that a few men may roll up fortunes for themselves, presents a question of ethics that many men in the tobacco trade most earnestly condemn. It not only kindles a spirit of gambling, but leads to the filthy yet prevalent habit of tobacco- chewing in the young. It's only another trap of Satan, set to catch young men and drag them down to ruin and shame — a device that leads to the defilement of the body ; a destruction of nerve and tissue that weakens the victim's powers to resist evil, and renders easy the habit of intemperance. The mouth and throat that are tanned by nicotine require something stronger than water to tickle the palate. They crave something sharp and keen, and are thus prepared to respond readily to the sparkling allurements of decanter and goblet.
This practice is on a par with certain manufacturers of ciga- rettes, who, in order to fix more forcibly a taste and habit upon their patrons, to fasten upon the youthful smoker the uncontrol- lable practice of smoking, put opium in their cigarettes. More than once have I been appealed to, to suppress this accursed practice. It seems as if Satan hems in our youth in all direc-
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tions. Tastes and appetites are perverted, evil habits are formed, vicious and fifthy practices encouraged, and death and destruc- tion escort our youth on every side. That human beings can sink so low seems aknost incomprehensible. Such as these call themselves smart, and if they make money by such villain- ous practices they are considered by the public as successful business men. Let the toper and bloated bartender saturate their systems by the filthy practice of chewing and drinking, but let not the sweet breath of childhood be tainted and ren- dered offensive to decency by it. Let the tobacco chewer and smoker have their own way, and allow them the privilege of making themselves a nuisance on the sidewalks, and in all public and many private places ; give grown-up loafers the right to puff the smoke from cigars made of cabbage and other unknown leaves rolled up by dirty hands, and stuck together by the spittle from the tongues of those who make them ; but when Satan's claws are as plainly seen as in the foregoing practices, let not men, or those calling themselves men, sit indifferent and per- mit him to strike his sharp nails into the vitals of our children. These men have gone far enough. It is time now to command halt!
One cannot be too thankful that a kind Providence has given him a system and nature which revolt against the contact and taste of tobacco or liquors. As he passes along the streets and sees the full-grown mendicant follow smokers to pick up the butt of their cigar when they shall throw it into the gutter ; or sees the bootblack and newsboy hang around a crowd of corner-loafers for the sake of getting the stumps of cheap cigars they chew up and then throw away ; or sees the beggar come along and examine ash-barrels and spittoons for the sake of the bits of cigars they can find there ; or when he stands on a ferry-boat or horse-car and has some unmannered and selfish smoker draw the air he has to breathe down into his throat and lungs, through a nasty cigar, a foul pipe, or worse ciga- rette, and then, polluted and poisoned, puff it out for those
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about him to breathe — he is not strongly induced to take up the very fashionable practice.
I am aware that many good men smoke and chew, and defend the practice ; and yet to them as well as to all others I make an appeal to keep the children and youth clean, and not to poison their systems, nor defile their breath with tobacco in any form. It is a nasty habit at the best, and is injurious to mind and body.
Keep our youth clean.
An item appeared a few days ago of especial interest to the consequential strut, who on all occasions claims the right to puff cigarette smoke into the faces of defenceless women and refined men.
A little Italian girl was arrested in New York and taken to the Tombs Police Court for gathering up cigar-stumps from the gutters, ash-barrels, and spittoons at hotels and barrooms. She had about a thousand in her basket. She was greatly delighted at the quantity which she had been able to gather up. When asked what she did with them, she said she or her parents sold them to cigarette manufacturers to make cigarettes with. Ough !
Not only are our boys subject to the force of example from professional tobacco chewers and smokers, but they are also seduced by the gambling inducements of the manufacturers. It would almost seem as though the tobacco men and pub- lishers of " half dime" literature were in league together. These stories, many of them, contain constant allusions to the use of tobacco, beer, and liquor. It would be a queer hero that could not chew, smoke, and drink, to excel any one else mentioned in the story. In stories about detectives, you will find at all conferences, and whenever the hero entertains his friends, choicest wines and liquors are brought out, while they lay back in their chairs, feet upon the mantel or table, while the blue smoke curls above their heads as it is puffed out of their mouths in fantastic forms. These are not imaginary evils.
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They are easily discerned by any thoughtful observer. Why should our young men run riot in all the vicious tendencies of the day ?
Another device may be called kitchen lotteries, or
Soap Lotteries.
This seems a queer mixture. To say the least, it is rather a slippery business. The managers of these lotteries, in a vain attempt to evade the laws, call their prizes ' ' rewards, " " pres- ents," etc.
All are particular to announce that they do not sell their tick- ets, that ' ' tickets do not cost you anything, ' ' and then in the same advertisement say, ' ' Twenty wrappers, one ticket One hundred wrappers, six tickets. Every ticket an even chance.1'
In a word, the plan is, in order to induce people to buy their soap, to take advantage of the gambling propensities of the day, and to advertise a lottery or game of chance in connection with the soap business. They wrap each cake of soap with a printed wrapper. A return of these wrappers enables them to use them again and again and thus save the expense of printing the same. For twenty wrappers thus brought back they trade a ticket bearing a number, and this number represents a share or interest in a " distribution of presents" at some future date.
Two of these concerns, before being arrested, announced through their agents that there would be a " regular drawing" on a certain date, and these tickets represented an even chance in the list of prizes offered. These prizes consisted of one brown-stone front house, $1500 in gold, horses and wagons, etc.
If there is a drawing, and if the tickets represent, as they advertise them to do, an " even chance," then it is a lottery. If there is no drawing (and they now claim, since arrest, that there is to be none), then the pretence of an " even chance" to ever}' ticket is a fraud, and the attempt to make people believe that, if they will use their particular soap, they will stand a
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fair chance of securing one of the ' ' prizes, " " rewards, ' ' or " presents" offered, is misleading, and is to be viewed with the same suspicions as any other gambling scheme.
Practically these schemes are sops thrown to servant-girls, to encourage extravagance and dishonesty. Every housekeeper knows by bitter experience, in many cases, that the ordinary servant of the present day requires no inducement to extrava- gance, nor incentive to dishonesty. There are waste and pecu- lations enough in the kitchen without offering " presents," ' ' rewards, " or ' ' prizes' ' for an increase in this line. There are enough supplies passed out to poor relations to satisfy every housekeeper, as it is, and there is no necessity of a chromo or prize in this department. These devices practically say to Biddy, ' ' The more soap used, wasted, or otherwise disposed of, of this kind, the more tickets in the distribution."
Do thinking men and women want a lottery started in their kitchen ?
Another device suppressed by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice was being conducted in Brooklyn, where a hatter gave out tickets offering prizes to be drawn in a lottery to every customer who purchased to the amount of $2. 50 at a time. Aside from the pernicious influences flowing from these schemes in spreading the spirit of gambling, they are in direct violation of the Constitution and laws of the State of New York, where they existed until suppressed.
To allow the Constitution and laws of a State to be violated by any device, much less by a crime-breeding pestilence, is establishing a dangerous precedent. II these laws may be vio- lated with impunity, why not the laws against murder, arson, highway robbery, and the like ?
The people cannot afford to permit such an outrage. It is an entering wedge which will in time jeopard the highest inter- ests of the commonwealth.
Let every patriot insist that these laws be respected and obeyed.
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Prize-candy Traps.
But, lest children shall be let off too easy, and to block up more effectually every avenue of escape, we have another devil-trap for even the little wee ones. These traps may be discovered in confectionery stores which keep open on Sunday, or where prize chewing-gum and prize packages of candy are sold, and candy lotteries are run.
The first overtakes the child on its way, on God's holy Sabbath day, to Sunday-school. Any person who has ob- served these matters must have been struck with the num- bers of little ones who throng into candy stores before and while going to Sunday-school. Few children, comparatively, enter on their return. It is when their faces are turned away from home and its hallowed influences, toward the sacred precincts of God's house, to be trained up in wisdom and grace, that the evil one overtakes them and makes a bid for them. By the open door an example of violation of the Fourth Com- mandment is set before them. By displaying for sale sweets which appeal to the palate of the child, a bid is made for dis- honesty and deceit. The pennies placed in the tiny hand of the child for the missionary or other good cause, are thus easily secured, and the child, with its back toward home, says, " Nobody will know," and, tempted by the delicious flavors so sweet to the taste, dishonesty is encouraged and swiftly follows. Instead of benefiting the charity which the parent desired to help, in addition to inculcating habits of cheerful giving and helping others, the lesson is lost upon the child — supplanted by habits which lay the foundation for future sin and suffering.
So too with prize packages, penny-gifts, and envelope games allowed in some confectionery stores : they are the primary department of gambling. The tottling prattler who clings to his or her parent's knees and says, " Penny ; please give baby penny," receives an answer to her earnest little prayer, and runs to one of these places and buys candy and comes back with a worthless trinket in addition to the candy. This prac-
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tice is unhealthful and injurious. Perhaps at first the baby can- not understand ; but this practice kept up, its influence is soon felt until anything that has " prize" attached to it awakens a strong desire to fathom the hidden mystery. By such means as this, too, there is a rivalry awakened among school children as to who shall draw the largest prize. Some of these places sell five cents' worth of candy or a glass of root beer, and then have a box of envelopes with numbers in them, which the child is allowed to draw from, and if the number is lucky he gets a prize of some kind. In watching the eager look, the passing of the hand from one end of the box to the other, hesitating to draw, wondering which the one that shall draw the biggest prize is, etc., of groups of children in these places, one can see all the symptoms of gambling.
" Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
Many deplore that the Sabbath is desecrated, and yet few think that it is their business to check it.
During the recent September storm it is reported that the citizens of Newark and Jersey City were anxious and troubled because about a ton of arsenic had been swept by the flood from a factory into one of the tributaries of the Passaic River, from which the water supply of these cities comes. Water was filtered and boiled and allowed to be cooled before being used in many families, for fear of poison.
Why is it that so many are aroused by physical danger, and yet are dead to the encroachments of moral evils ?
The devil always has the best time when he can lull the con- science of Christian men and women to sleep. The fowler knows that if the parent bird is absent or asleep, the young chicks are more easily secured. So it is in the moral world. If parents will only be occupied with other business, so as to be indifferent to what the evil one is doing with the children, the easier the ruin and the larger the number bagged by this infer- nal sportsman.
Follow the example of our neighbors across the river, and filter and discard from patronage all places that keep open to
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entrap our children on Sunday. Let all Sunday-school teachers and every earnest man and woman mark the stores that open on Sunday, and for principle's sake " boycott" them.
The morals of the children first, the confectioner's pocket afterward
CHAPTER VII.
GAMBLING TRAPS (CONTINUED).
Pool.
THERE are two kinds of pool gambling — to wit, horse and billiard pool.
Each possesses all the unhealthful excitement of any other gambling. The former, like "policy" and lottery, offers for- tunes for very small sums — sums varying from ' ' fifty cents upward. ' '
Pool-tickets are bets that a certain horse will win in a certain race with other horses, on some race-course.
Pool-rooms are substitutes for the race-course, and bring the betting and gambling which attend horse-racing from the race- track to the doors of mercantile houses, so that clerks who cannot get away from business may have the opportunity to gamble brought to them. They bring the demoralizations of the race-course into the circles of business, thus setting another devil-trap for young men in the walks of daily life.
All the false and glittering promises of other gambling devices appear in pool. It is subject to the same tricks to deceive, and capable of all the secret manipulations and frauds of other robbery schemes. It is conscienceless, heartless, and infamous. It makes embezzlers, defaulters, and thieves in every grade of society. It is more fatal to the morals of youth than faro, roulette, or other banking-games, because it seems to offer greater inducements for comparatively small sums, promising a prompt return to the venture. It gathers its players by hun- dreds. It does business with open doors, in defiance of law, as witness the four dens formerly run in Long Island City.
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The odor of bribery of officials — blackmail for protection — follows these schemes wherever they appear.
No matter how many youth are ruined, merchants robbed, mothers' hearts crushed, wives dragged down to poverty, or families wrecked, if only the gamblers become rich from ill- gotten gains.
The principal pool-rooms in the lower part of New York City were located at 3 Barclay Street and 43 Broadway. At the former place " The Parole Turf Club" had existed for years, John Hackett, secretary ; at the latter place, the ' ' Tattersalls Turf Club," Dougall McDougall, secretary. Both of these concerns sailed under false pretences. They each had what they chose to call a constitution and by-laws.
A few extracts from the Tattersalls Turf Club certificate of in- corporation will illustrate the high sense of honor among these gamblers, who place on record an act of incorporation for one thing, and then do a business foreign to it.
In this peculiar document, dated March 29, 1882, they say :
' ' The particular place of transacting business is the City and County of New York, and the object of said club is to engage in gymnastic, athletic, musical, dramatic, literary, artistic, yacht- ing, hunting, fishing, and other lawful sports."
The facts are, the office of this club, as above stated, was occupied for the sale of pool-tickets on horse-races. The " musical " part of the club was called into play for about the first time on the twenty-fourth day of July, 1882, when they sounded a long, low whistle, upon learning that the Parole Turf Club, which had continued in business for years without serious interference, had been effectually raided by the writer, at the direction of District-Attorney John McKeon, and his assistant, Henry C. Allen, with search-warrants issued by his Honor, Recorder Smythe. They then struck a "dramatic" attitude, and with "artistic" stride put in operation their "gymnastics," by the speedy clearing out from their rooms their patrons and " members," while the " athletes" of the club bore the tickets and other paraphernalia for gambling,
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up-stairs to an unoccupied room, where they flattered them- selves that no amount of " hunting" on the part of the writer, should he pay them a visit, would be able to discover them.
It is a good rule, and one any successful official will do well to follow, " always to secure your bait before going a-fishing. " Suspecting that perhaps we had secured our bait and might come down there to take lessons in ' ' fishing' ' for their unlaw- ful apparatus, the secretary, Dougall McDougall, and his coun- sel, Franklin Bien, betook themselves to the " literary" part of the club's duty, and thought to frighten off the agents of the Society for the Suppression of Vice by getting an injunction order from Justice Haight of the Supreme Court, restraining the writer from entering their gambling hell at 43 Broadway.
To illustrate the elastic conscience of Mr. McDougall, and to show the " members" how much his oath is worth, the following affidavit made by him in the injunction case is pre- sented, to wit :
"NEW YORK SUPREME COURT.
" TATTERSALLS TURF CLUB
vs. ANTHONY COMSTOCK.
" City and County of New York, ss.
" Dougall McDougall, being duly sworn, says that at the times hereinafter mentioned the plaintiff was and still is a cor- poration created by and under the laws of the State of New York. That deponent is the secretary of the plaintiff, and that said club was organized as a convenience for its members. That a copy of the certificate of incorporation is hereto annexed, and marked exhibit ' A.' Deponent further says that the by- laws of the plaintiff provide that no one can become a member of the said corporation unless they are of the age of twenty-one years and upward, and also that any member of the said plain- tiff may deposit with the secretary of the plaintiff a sum of money, to be sent to the agent of the plaintiff at any place where
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any race or trial of speed and endurance of man and beast shall take place, to be by said agent invested on such trial or race as may be directed by the member depositing the same, and all money so deposited is actually forwarded and sent to said agent as directed by such member, and no charge is made by the plaintiff for so doing, it being done simply as an accommoda- tion to the members of the plaintiff, and to which privilege they are entitled as members of said plaintiff. That the plain- tiff merely acts in such capacity as a common carrier, but for its members only, and in no way keeps, hires, or occupies any room or rooms, or part of any room or rooms, with apparatus or paraphernalia for the purpose of receiving or registering bets or wagers, or sells for money pools upon the result of trials or contests of speed of horses, etc., or in any manner or way violates the provisions of Chapter 178 of the Laws of 1877 of the State of New York. That the defendant is not now and never has been a member of the plaintiff, and is entitled to none of its privileges.
" That the plaintiff's organization is entirely a private organi- zation, so far as the public is concerned. That the public are at no time admitted to the rooms of the plaintiff, and are at no time permitted to avail themselves of the privileges thereof. That no betting or gambling of any kind is permitted in the rooms of the plaintiff, and none has ever taken place, nor would the same be tolerated therein. That the plaintiff is not a depository for hire or reward, but that as soon as members deposit any money for the purposes aforesaid, the whole amount so deposited is forwarded to the agent at the place designated by the members, without any deduction whatsoever.
" That the plaintiff is supported entirely by the dues annually paid by its members, and not otherwise. And this deponent further shows that this defendant, on or about July 25th, 1882, threatened (not being a member of the plaintiff, nor entitled to the privileges of membership, and not entitled to enter the premises of the plaintiff, or any part thereof) to force his way into the premises of the plaintiff, and with force of arms to
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remove the members of the plaintiff, therefrom, as well as the property of the plaintiff, so as to suppress the plaintiff and destroy its organization, and interfere with its lawful manner and way of transacting its business. That in consequence of such threat, made by the defendant as aforesaid, and which deponent believes to be true, the plaintiff has been compelled to stop its business, to the great detriment and annoyance of its members, many of whom have threatened to resign unless they were accorded the privileges to which they were entitled under the by-laws. That such interference would be unlawful, and would do irreparable injury to the plaintiff. That such inter- ference by the [defendant] is malicious and in bad faith, as a number of persons applying for membership have been rejected, among which deponent is informed and verily believes it to be true, was the defendant, or some of the friends of the defendant. " Wherefore deponent prays that an injunction may issue restraining the defendant from interfering with the plaintiff's business, and for such other and further relief as may be just. No previous application for this order has been made.
" D. McDoUGALL.
" Sworn to before me this 25th day of July, 1882.
" WILLIAM R. ROSE, ' ' Notary Public, New York County. ' '
As soon as they recovered from their " literary" effort, these athletic gymnasts sailed around to the office of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, to discover the writer, to serve the papers upon him. Failing to find me in my office, they " cruised " around the City Hall Park, and at last " hove to" at the entrance of the District Attorney's office, and as I came in sight struck another ' ' dramatic' ' attitude, and in most artis tic style sought by one foul stroke to prevent my ' ' fishing' ' expedition.
But they counted without their host. I had secured the bait before starting on this " fishing" enterprise, in the shape of good legal evidence — where four different persons, none of them
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" members," and some under " twenty-one years of age," had gone into this place and purchased pool-tickets ; and one had won a small sum of money, which had been paid to him in this place, the same day he purchased the ticket The evidence had been placed in the hands of the District Attorney. The papers were promptly drawn, and notwithstanding the combina- tion of such celebrated artists, fishermen, sportsmen, musicians, sailors, and literary gymnasts, my assistants went there, and found nearly half a million of pool-tickets, besides all the para- phernalia for pool-gambling. It is superfluous to say there were no yachts, dumb-bells, Kehoe clubs, guns, fishing tackle, paintings, books, pianos, organs — no, not even a jewsharp — nothing but the apparatus and paraphernalia for pool-gambling. The affidavit of Mr. McDougall is rank perjury, and he knew it when he signed it, if he did sign and swear to it.
It so happened that I was out of the city when this raid was made by my able assistants, aided by the police. The next morning I happened to meet the counsel above named. He was very anxious to know my counsel' s address, and I was given to understand by his " athletic" appearance that I was to be brought up with a ' ' round turn' ' for contempt of court. I told him to " fire away," that I wanted his client for perjury in swearing :
' ' That the plaintiff merely acts in such capacity as a common carrier, but for its members only, and in no way keeps, hires, or occupies any room or rooms, or part of any room or rooms, with apparatus or paraphernalia for the purpose of receiving or registering bets or wagers, or sells for money pools, upon the result of trials or contests of speed of horses, etc.
" That the plaintiff's organization is entirely a private or- ganization, so far as the public are concerned. That the public are at no time admitted to the rooms of the plaintiff, and are at no time permitted to avail themselves of the privileges thereof. That no betting or gambling of any kind is permitted in the rooms of the plaintiff, and none has ever taken place, nor would the same be tolerated therein.
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In face of this affidavit stands the fact that this place was con- stantly open for pool-gambling, and the blackboards were upon the walls for registering bets and wagers, and they were daily registered whenever there were horse-races to bet upon. The whole affidavit, following the above, might be copied as a tissue of falsehoods. But my object is to show enough of this to illus- trate the unreliable character of the managers of these schemes to deceive and rob the people.
In about two hours after my interview with Mr. Bien, he came into my office with the following, which speaks for itself :
" At a special term of the New York Supreme Court, held at Chambers, New York City, this 28th day of July, 1882, Present, Hon. ALBERT HAIGHT, Justice.
TATTERSALLS TURF CLUB
against ANTHONY COMSTOCK.
" On reading and filing annexed affidavit, and on motion of J. Bien, plaintiff's attorney,
' ' Ordered, That this action be and the same is hereby discon- tinued, without costs, and the injunction heretofore granted is hereby dissolved.
' ' A copy.
[L.S.] " WILLIAM A. BUTLER, Clerk."
It has been often said, ' ' The fool and his money are soon parted." Is it not especially true of pool-gamblers — those who put money into the hands of such unscrupulous men and expect to make a fortune from such investment ?
But the Parole Club had a natural curiosity. They had a constitution and by-laws. They too only sold to " members," if their statements are to be believed.
Article I. of their constitution says :
" Admission to the club shall be by ballot, which may be conducted by voting papers, or in such other mode as the com-
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mittee may from time to time appoint. . . . The committee may determine and appoint a time and place for the ballot, and shall give notice thereof to each member at least seven days before the day appointed.
Here, again, were false pretences.
How did the public get into this place by hundreds every day ? Did the committee pass upon them ? No. A stranger, calling, would be stopped by a sleek-looking fellow and asked for a ticket. If he had none, he would be obliged to pay a dollar for a piece of blue or pink pasteboard, containing the following words :
"PAROLE TURF CLUB.
MEMBER'S TICKET. " (Not transferable,'} JOHN HACKETT, Secretary."
and then sign the " curiosity," kept in their office, as fol- lows :
" I agree, in case of my admission as a member of the Parole Turf Club, that I will not disclose or make oath to any- thing I see or do in the rooms of said club ; and in case I violate this promise, I declare myself a mischief-maker, a liar, and a scoundrel, and call upon all persons, judges, and jurors, to discredit my statement, to consider my testimony perjured, and me unworthy of belief.
" In case I hold any position in the Police Department of the city of New York, or am a spy, informer, or detective, and, to obtain admission, conceal that fact, I forfeit all my rights as a member of said club ; and my entrance into the rooms I declare to be a wilful and malicious trespass, for which I forfeit to said club any salary due me as such policeman, hereby assigning my claim therefor to the Parole Turf Club ; and I agree to pay to said club, as liquidated damages for such fraud and trespass, the sum of $500, including the pay due me from the city, if any, for each and every such trespass. I also resign
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my office or position in the Police Department, and declare the same vacant whenever I violate my pledge.
JOHN HACKETT, Secretary, " NEW YORK, January 27, 1882."
On the 24th of July, 1882, armed with search-warrants, with three of my assistants and ten policemen, I entered this place and cleared out the gambling apparatus.
We found the first floor and basement occupied for the sale of pool-tickets. The rooms were about twenty-five by sixty feet, and on three sides of each floor were desks, counters, and blackboards, for selling and registering bets and wagers on horse-races. There were about twelve regular employes in this place, that could be seen actively engaging in the business. At the door were two men, one to examine the tickets and the other to sell the pieces of pasteboard called tickets. If a stranger called, his ticket of membership, as they called it, would be asked for. If he had none he would be required to purchase one, and then to sign the " ironclad obligation." The board of members were not called together to vote according to the constitution, but the " almighty dollar" was all that was required. This was a good income of itself, as there were about 2300 names on the roll. The secretary's office was in the right-hand front corner on the first floor. Diagonally across the room at the rear was the cashier's office, and opposite that they had, boxed up in a private office, a Western Union Tele- graph Company's wire and an operator. On this wire hangs a tale. Here we may look for trick and fraud. Suppose a large pool has been sold. The pool consists of all the tickets sold or bets made upon all the horses in the race. These amounts are distributed among the holders of tickets on the winning horse. In addition to the regular employes there are supposed to be a number of ' ' dummies' ' or " heelers.