A Priest’s Bargain with Saloon-Keepers
The Hoboken, New York, “Observer” of September 13 tells the story of a priest in Jersey City who had held a lawn party for four consecutive nights, and who complained bitterly because the saloon-keepers did not patronize him better. In his complaint he declared that he could have closed many of these saloons because they were running illegitimately, that he could have had saloon-keepers arrested for keeping open on Sunday, that he could have had them indicted for selling beer to minors, but he overlooked all these because he did not want to be hard on them, the sequel of which proved that he expected their support. What can be expected of a religion which runs on the basis of such motives? The saloon-keepers, however, were most of them members of that particular church.