Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 March 1894 — “TF CHRIST CAME TO CHICAGO.” [ARTICLE]

“TF CHRIST CAME TO CHICAGO.”

A most,. improbable event,, indeed-, Yet Editor Stead, who came , from England last fall with the intention of staying only two webks r at the ; World’s Fair City, where' ht? has since remained combatting “sin’Mft all its varied forms, has seen >fit. tot write a book with the above start-; ling, and many will think profane, title, in which he lays bare the abominations that prevail in the modern Babylon. ' Mr. Stead’s book will be given to the world during the month of March, and it will probably make a great sensation. The table of contents states what may be expected, and if promises are carried out the book will be of value as a directory of the gambling houses, saloons and brothels of the city, even it does not prove a means fortheir abolition. Mr. Stead in an interview, previous to his departure for England, said: I have tried to show in my book what Christ’s judgments would be were He to come to Chicago. I have found a vast variety of images and most of them have been terribly marred. There is the tramp with its companion picture, the millionaire. There is the harlot who may be offset against the idle woman piTasßibn,“whois> among the worst of disreptutables, notwithstanding the fact that she is a member of the 400. The frontispiece of the book is a reproduction of a famous painting, ‘ ‘Christ Driving the Money-Changer s from the Temple,” but the faces of the retreating brokers have been changed to those of prominent Chicagoans. Chas.vTi jYqrkes,s K(i Hillings, M. C. WdrfrU thus “honored. Mr, Stead says pleotx of others who in the 'picture,febut they were omitted for laek of doom. -Fpl Lowing t|ae <fr®n»isr piecels maji of th i JOth precinctof the indicated by red, the saloons black, the pawnshops brown. It is needless tQ s*y that the map is principally refl, black and brown. The authordhts deep, slashing atevery existlfig%vil that has oomiYilnder his observation. are assailed; The "sireef railway' franchise, Mr. Stead' says, Ifoulfil have brought a revenue of $4,000,000 to the bity treasury, .yet if. liras bought with “boodle” from corrupt alderuiep. The “rich” men of Chi-, cago proye' to be phenomenally poor on the fax duplicate. Chas. T. Yerkes, the street railway magnate, pays faxbs'on but $2,700 of personal property** $1,700 of this amount being on a valuable piano! Pianos owned by millionaires, where they have beep assessed, are listed at only, S3O ea<*. large f W’PgAft (If 4 wealthy iuen do'nbt" abfreaf to lowh any musfeal instruments at •-4 of the landlords Tenting property” for immoral purposes is given, and this feature the bppk alone is likely to; create a panic? in many select circles. Mr. Stead says that Chicago is the only city in America in which Englishmen are interested, and they hope to see its morals .purified and its government

as free from corruption as that of London. The city council of London, Mr. Stead says, has not a single “boodler.” In concluding the interview Mr. Stead said: “lam an En-glish-speaking man, and to me America is as much a fatherland as England. I do not recognize any natiohality under the common rooftree of the English tongue. If there is one work more than another to which I have dedicated my life it is to the preaching of the great truth of the essential unity of the Englishspeaking race. At bottom lam neither a journalist nor a man of letters; I am simply a revivalist preacher, although the kind of revival which I work for is slightly differentia its form, although identical in its essence, with that which, goes by that name. What I seek above all things js the turning of the people, whether as a city or a State or a nation, to repent of their sins and help to bring in this world the kingdom of the Lord and His Christ.”