Page:Elmer Gantry (1927).djvu/430

 Elmer called on the sheriff of the county—a worried man, whose training in criminology had been acquired in a harness-shop—and shook hands with him handsomely.

"Well, Reverend, it's real nice to have the pleasure of making your acquaintance," said the sheriff. "I've read a lot about you in the papers. Have a smoke?"

Elmer sat down impressively, leaning over a little, his elbow on the arm of the chair, his huge fist clenched.

"Thanks, but I never touch tobacco," he said grimly. "Now look here, Edelstein, are you the sheriff of this county?"

"Huh! I guess I am!"

"Oh, you guess so, do you! Well then, are you going to see that the state law against Sunday movies is obeyed?"

"Oh, now look here, Reverend! Nobody wants me to enforce—"

"Nobody? Nobody? Only a couple of hundred thousand citizens and church-members! Bankers, lawyers, doctors, decent people! And only an equal number of wops and hunkies and yids and atheists and papes want you to let the Sabbath be desecrated! Now you look here, Edelstein! Unless you pinch every last man, movie owners and operators and ushers and the whole kit and bilin' of 'em that are responsible for this disgraceful and illegal traffic of Sunday movies, I'm going to call a giant mass-meeting of all the good citizens in town, and I'm going to talk a lot less to 'em about the movie-proprietors than I am about you, and it's one fine, fat, nice chance you'll have of being re-elected, if two hundred thousand electors of this county (and the solid birds that take the trouble to vote) are out for your hide—"

"Say, who do you think is running this county? The Methodists and Baptists and Presbyterians?"

"Certainly!"

"Say, you look here now—"

In fact, upon warrants sworn to by the Reverend Dr. Elmer Gantry, all persons connected with the profanation of the Sabbath by showing motion-pictures were arrested for three Sundays in succession (after which the motion-pictures went on as before), and Elmer received telegrams of esteem from the Sacred Sabbath League, J. E. North, Dr. Wilkie Bannister of the Yorkville Methodist Church of New York City, and a hundred of the more prominent divines all over the land.