Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 May 1895 — CHICAGO’S NEW PARKHURST. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CHICAGO’S NEW PARKHURST.

l Rev. John Rusk, Ph. D., Smashes Seductive Slot Machines. Rev. John Rusk,. Ph. D., pastor of the Fullerton Avenue Presbyterian Church, Chicago, is the youngest and most Virile of that city’s reformers. He is the president of the Society for the Prevention of Crime. In hit? capacity as president ho has visited many of the plague spots of the city. His discourses upon such evils, and while working to suppress them is active in ameliorating tire condition of those not beyond the reach of help. Ho -4s now engaged, in lighting the places which have the iiickel-iu-the-slot machines and is meeting with good success. Dr. Rusk, fortified with the necessary papers and attended by the officers of the law, invaded a place where n mnuber of machines were in .operation, seized the first one he came to and boldly marched out with it. All the machines in the place

were confiscated, and great excitement was created: among owners of places where* these devices are used. In an interview the doctor said: "There are upward of 10,000 slot machines in Chicago., I have had figures compiled as to their probable revenue, and find that the sum of $50,000 daily goes into the little slots. This enormous sum of money comes out of the pockets of people who can ill afford to lose it, and is a very considerable income to the men who operate the machjjtc.” The dofctor is an Ohio man. and 38 years of age... Like many other distingiiished pulpitarians, lie has a great variety of topics, gospel, philosophy, theology, history and sociology. He is conscientious in Ids humanitarianism, reaching far beyond mere denominational lines, Sometimes lie shocks his congregation by a lack of orthodoxy, and the ultra conservative element have’made several attempts to depose him.

REV. JOHN RUSK.