Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/228



spoke of a young man who had lost his life in the same place where this girl was ruined. He told the rooming-house woman’s story, and he described also her terror lest the police should learn that she had informed on the dive-keepers! Then he described what he knew of gambling by boys.

“I have seen a pitiful, gray-haired old lady, bent with years, her face dimmed with tears, pleading in this Court to recover the all she had on earth, lost by a son in a gambling hell tolerated by you. And here in broad daylight those who conduct the place come, and they tell of the open game of this young man and the loss of that money, and this they do with the prosecuting officer passing in and out. . . • It is nonsense

to talk about these things not being known to your Board. It only subjects you to contempt and ridicule.”

Frank Adams had been appealing to the Judge in the name of “business” and “the party,’ not to “rip up” the liquor question. The Judge answered that appeal now with another:

“Flesh and blood, body and soul, the future of little children is so sacred,” he said, that it is a monstrous sacrilege to permit any other consideration to interfere. ... I know it is unusual to speak thus publicly, but all