OUR NEW YORK LETTER

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 12, 1890

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 16, No. 18.

OUR NEW YORK LETTER.

NEW YORK, April 16, 1890.

OFFICIAL and private investigation of the government of this city still continues. The legislative committee is still at work, and is said to have unearthed some remarkable facts which will get somebody into trouble in the near future. The Central Labor Union are also taking a part in the investigations, and have placed spies upon the track of the police captains of the city. These captains are accused of making merchandise of their official powers, and are, it is said, growing rich by accepting bribes from liquor dealers and prostitutes.

A serious conflict over Sunday laws and their enforcement seems to be impending in this State, if indeed it has not already begun. The World has recently made the charge, and proved it too, that the Sunday-closing law is violated to a considerable extent by the saloons. The World also charges that the police are payed to wink at this Sunday selling of intoxicating liquors. The result is that strict orders have been issued to the police captains to see that the law is enforced as far as possible. The superintendent of police has, however, expressed the opinion that it is impossible to enforce prohibition one day in the week. And it certainly seems that as the law now stands he is quite right. This has led to a demand, which is voiced by the World, for the repeal, or rather the amendment, of the law so as to permit the sale of liquors during certain hours of the day on Sunday.

But, pending any legislative action which may be taken upon this matter, there is certain to be a more or less honest effort on the part of the police authorities to enforce the Sunday law, and their efforts will be directed not only against the saloons but against all offenders. Indeed, it looks as though there would be an effort made to make all Sunday laws odious by filling the courts with such cases. The Mail and Express of last Monday reports seven arrests by a single officer on the previous day for violations of the Sunday law. The defendants were Sellich Felchman, who sold oatmeal; Louis Lippman, who sold eggs; Moses Schauskey, who sold flour; Harris Gilbert, who drove an express wagon; Jacob Cohen, who sold clothing, and Benjamin Levine, who sold potatoes.

The justice before whom the prisoners were arraigned was evidently displeased at the arrests, and inquired of the arresting officer if there were no saloons on his beat. Being answered in the affirmative, he inquired: "Then why did you not arrest some of the keepers? Why did you pick out these people?" The policeman made no reply. The justice, however, held the prisoners for trial.

Undoubtedly, between the police and the saloons, about the only ones who will suffer by this agitation will be those who are engaged in some reputable business that ought to be protected at all times. It may be that the offending saloons will be closed on Sunday for a few weeks, but, as has been demonstrated many times in the past, drinking will go on just about as before. If liquor cannot be obtained in one way it will be in another, so long as there are men in the neighborhood licensed to sell it six days in the week. I fully believe that, as a prohibitory measure, Sunday closing of saloons is of no more value than high license. It is still my opinion, as expressed in a former letter, that California with no Sunday law has better Sunday observance than has New York with such a law.

On the 14th inst., the New York presbytery elected twenty-eight commissioners to the General Assembly of the denomination to convene at Saratoga, May 15. The entire delegation are in favor of some revision of the Confession of Faith. This fact has been unfavorably commented upon in some quarters. The Mail and Express says:—

"The action of the New York Presbytery in sending as commissioners to the General Assembly a solid delegation of revisionists is a surprise. When there is such a strong minority in any presbytery as exists here, it is only fair to have that minority represented; certainly out of the twenty-eight commissioners at least three or four should have been of the minority. The presbytery even refused to appoint any conservatives on the list of alternates. Such an adoption of political methods by an ecclesiastical body is not likely to advance the cause it advocates."

It may be that the criticism is a just one, but it does seem that the paper that makes it is about the last one that should object to political methods in ecclesiastical bodies. The National Reform tendencies of the Mail and Express are well known, hence the impropriety in its criticising politico-religious methods.

The National Convention of Working Girls' Societies is now in session in this city. Last night they held a mass-meeting in Cooper Union. Seventy-five co-operative societies are represented in the convention. The papers read were by working girls, and were admirably clear, brief, practical statements of fact and opinion. In many instances the writers were unable, by reason of their daily duties, to be present at the day session.

The transfer of the immigrant business from the State to the Federal authorities will be made on the 19th inst. On and after that date all immigrants coming to this port will be landed at the Barge Office until a permanent station can be established on Ellis Island. Wonderful things might be written of Castle Garden by those who know its history,—stories of joys and of sorrows, of high hopes and of bitter disappointments,—but cannot be fully written till time has developed more perfectly the influence of our foreign population upon our civil and religious institutions.