Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/229

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usual have been done, and something unusual is justifiable. I therefore beg of you in this public manner, in the presence of these children, for their benefit, that you earnestly and diligently war upon these places. ... I assure you that you will have then the good will and respect which are denied you now. That is worth more than all the vaunted boastings of all the devil’s agents in this town. It is to these that you are catering now, and until you break the spell they have over you, you will be storing up misery, hell, and damnation for the present and future genera- tions.”

It was a terrible arraignment, there before those children, whose eyes bored into those officials. There was silence for a moment; then one commissioner, Charles F. Wilson, rose to answer. He said the Board had closed the place where the Judge had seen the boys gambling. The two hundred boys looked at the Judge; he hesitated. Didn’t he know about that ? Some of the boys did, and one of them sprang to his rescue. Leo Batson, twelve years old, rose, and pointing his finger at Commissioner Wilson, he said:

Yes, you closed it up, but you opened it up again, like you generally do. It was open inside of a week. And it’s open now, ’cause I seen boys in there