OCR Text |
Show AN ECHO FROM SALEM. The bid for a little free advertising put out by a sensational preacher known as Rev. D. M. Helmick, whose harangue appeared in the Tribune Trib-une of last Monday morning, is about the fiercest outburst that has emanated from the sam-singing trust since that rather excitable body of meddlers came into existence. As quoted by the Tribune, Brother Helmick finds just where the real source of crime originates, origi-nates, and with nothing in either sleeve and without with-out mustache to deceive you, gravely states that "gambling originates in the home where ! cards are permitted to be played; the fall from virtue, in the dance hall; and the liquor evil to the first taste of liquor at some social function." Suffering shade of Billy Baxter! If Brother Helmick had been fussing around in the good old days, he would have been leader of the cotillion at the most prominent witch burnings in Salem. And this is December 16, 1905. When the cold fact finally filters through the cerebral make-up that such ghosts of the other day are in our midst, making a practice of using the house of God in which to exhibit their narrow nar-row mentalities, one instinctively thinks of the question asked by Mark Twain at his birthday dinner in "dw York a fortnight ago when he said, "We are all thankful to God, but what has he to be thankful for?" The Rev. Helmick (that's an awful name for a preacher) says he knows how rampant crime is in this city, and he proposes a remedy which should meet with hearty accord by all good citizens. citi-zens. Brother Helmick advocates the closing of all houses of evil repute. To say the least, that is an entirely new idea, and just why no one ever thought of it before will probably never be known. It is sure to prove an instant success, and when other cities grasp the full import of this Helmic revelation, and adopt the suggestion, no one will ever hear of another crime being committed com-mitted anywhere. |