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Show I Straight Talk B The dear old- Betterment League is at it B' again, obeying the commands of its leaders. The H chief dashed into the breach on Fu iday last with H his minions, notifying a number of grocery men M that they were law breakers and that it was up m to them to do better in the future, and keep their B establishments tightly locked. Ah! that was a K great victory for the poor m tts in the stakes H scattered from here to Murray, who are making 1 a noble effort to regulate the affairs of this city H to the disgust of everyone who has the real good H of the town at heart. H It seems very peculiar to those who have ob- H served tho trend of their work that they are H, obliged to come to town in order to find somo- H thing to reform. It isn't necessary at all. With- j. out mentioning tho blind pigs of Murray, where ; those of all ages can get liquor day and night, H I there are at least three resorts on the country H L- side that are responsible for more drunkenness -. and immorality than all of the suspicious places H in town put together. M !t is absurd to think that these zealots, who iaro making trouble over nothing in town do not ', know of these places on the public highways that are little less than houses of prostitution, and tho striking feature of the campaign is that these bagnios are allowed to exist, while in the city, men conducting decent restaurants as well as Ht those small trades people struggling for a living, i must bo molested by tho holier-than-thous. Hj 'Salt Lake business men are getting heartily H sick and tired of a state of affairs that permits a H bunch of purposeless fanatics to stir up trouble H continuously, especially at a time when most Hi people are busy trying to make good. Hv In other cities and states all over the west H in anticipation of the crowds that are expected I1 to visit the California expositions next year, a ; spirit of the utmost liberality prevails, in order that the visitors may go home with the best im- 1 presslon possible of the places they have visited. Is it the purpose of Salt Lakers to allow a bunch of bigots to send out a warning to those who r propose to stop here that they will be met at l the depot by a committee of mortitians and given B frj a sight seeing trip through a dead town? H -4 It is a rotten business, unreasonable as it is H ; J unjust, and the pity is that those who are stlrr- H f ing up tho trouble should be allowed to continue M to do so in the best town in the west. HB. "" H l Of course the leaders of the Betterment H $ League are the very embodiment of purity itself, M and above all else would scorn to take a drink H of anything stronger than the tea or coffee sold 9f 1 by one who is in the van of those who would en- B force every forgotten blue law on the statutes. IB You wouldn't take a drink of whiskey would Byou Orson Howlett, as you were called on one of thp trade excursions, and the last thing in the H ! world you would do would be to take a shot of H booze in the morning. Isn't that true? We will I answer for you. It is not, for you did it, leader of the Betterment League and you know it. We do not know whether any other leaders of tho league are guilty of a similar offenBe, though such a thing is not ii loasible, but wo think it is terrible for anyone vt your standing (over six feet we believe) to be guilty of having looked on the cracked bottle when it was red. What the leaders of the Betterment League need is someone to follow. Speaking of the Betterment League there was a significant note in one of the Sail Francisco papers recently which read: "Maybe if we hadn't had millions of dollars of local reform we would not need prosperity dinners to kid ourselves." -s There have been two things, to worry fans ever since the opening of the baseball season in the Union league tho prices and tho umpires, and loyal fans have wondered how long it would bo before something popped. The answer came in the febriflc exchange of telegrams on Tuesday Tues-day and Wednesday between George Relf, president presi-dent of the Salt Lake club and Edward P. Murphy, Mur-phy, president of the league. Tho stand of George Relf is endorsed by every ev-ery man who loves good ball, and is familiar with prevalent conditions here. There is no need of extended comment regarding re-garding the umpires we have had, for while wo do not include the work of all of the officials who have been sent to Salt Lake, that of the majority of them has been so rank that it has disgusted those who have witnessed most of the games. In regard to the prices, there has been con stant complaint on account of charging big league rates to see the games, and there is no reason why we should have to pay as much as New York or Chicago and more than San Francisco and Los Angeles to see good ball. One may get a fine seat in the Polo grounds for 75 cents or $1.00, and the general admission there is only 50 cents, while In the coast cities the general admission is 25 cents, with reserved seats for 50 cents, which is the cause ror thb financial success of the league there. Salt Lake is the best town in the league, and had good judgment prevailed early in the season, there would have been no financial stress on the part of any team included in the Union association. Had the bleachers been divided so that all of the kids in town could get in for 10 cents with the general admission 25 cents for the adults and 50 cents for the grandstand, there would have been on falling-off In attendance and nothing but success would have crowned the efforts of the promoters. That the courteous request of President Relf should have been met in the way it was by the president of the league is a matter of surprise to the fans, who, ever since the publication ot the telegrams, have been indignant at President Murphy, and It would seem that there is considerable con-siderable ground for the implied charges of Mr. Relf that Mr. Murphy has no love for this part of the country, and is endeavoring, by his action or inaction, whichever is proper, to put the league out of business. One thing is certain, Salt Lakers want umpires who have at least a semblance of fairness and they want prices lowered low-ered to a point within reason. President Relf has taken exactly the right stand and he has the approval of every Salt Lake and Ogden fan Interested in baseball. It is exasperating to think that it lies within the power of any one man to make or break such a league, as that to which the Salt Lake team belongs. be-longs. To Mr. Relf belongs more credit than to anyone any-one else for giving Salt Lakers the best brand of baseball thb have ever had, and now when he wants to further benefit the fans and tho sport by tho reduction of prices, it is a shame that ho should be handicapped by anyone. The manager of the Garrick theatre of Chicago Chi-cago recently decided that he would use newspaper news-paper space exclusively in advertising a play In which people of education would be interested, " Baying: "Billboards usually aro most numerous where the persons who read are the fewest." Continuing he said: "Many managers believe that the billboard as a getter of patronage is a thing of tho past, but few of them have the courage to stand by their convictions. The Shuberts tried out oxcluslve newspaper advertising in Now York a year ago with gratifying results and this caused tho experiment ex-periment in Chicago. You know that persons who ride past billboards are usually going too fast to read them and 90 per cent of tho folks who ride read the newspapers while on the cars. During the last year with 'Romance,' and the -f 'Road to HappinesB,' two of our biggest successes, suc-cesses, the Garrick and the Princess advertised exclusively in the newspapers. A special matinee, mat-inee, advertised for three days in the newspapers, newspa-pers, was sold out by 10 o'clock on the morning morn-ing of the performance and 900 persons wero turned away. The cost of lithographing six cents a sheet not counting tho cost of hanging the paper mounts Into big figures when three or four thousand sheets are put out. We Intend to advertise more and more in the newspapers and less on the boards." That manager is dead right. The unsightly boards aro of no particular use, except to national na-tional advertisers perhaps in keeping the name of some product constantly before those who do not read the newspapers, but for a play that appeals ap-peals to people of understanding, the use of the billboards Is a waste of money. Nothing yet has been found that takes the p'ace of printer's ink. The arrest in Los Angeles of Dr. T. Foo Yuen, head of a Chinese herb company was one of the most important moves made by the government in its crusade against Chinese herb doctors. It followed the indictments returned by the federal grand jury in San Francisco a few days previously, previ-ously, accusing a number of Chinese doctors of using the mails to defraud. Dr. Yuen has practiced prac-ticed in Los Angeles for twenty years, and he has made a fortune, through his fake remedies. The Mongolians in San Francisco are jumping sideways as Jim O'Connell, the secret service man, has evidence enough to put them away for a long rest. All over the country, newspapers have thrown open their columns to these quacks Including tho protection that went with tho advertising ad-vertising space, and as a consequence, the fakers have done a thriving business at the expense of a gullible public. A paper that thinks anything of its reading public would not accept such advertisements or A those of any other quacks or fakers, either Chinese or -white, and the victims of these herb specialists may justly blame the journals in which the advertisements appear for being taken in. It is hardly fair to blame tho chink, who can put tho stuff over so readily with the assistance as-sistance of his newspaper friends. |