But Surto Hurdenburg is listening to the sermon. Here is a fragment thereof:—
“The solution of the problem of the social evil can be given in four words: ‘THE PROUD CITIZEN WOMAN.’
“Springfield has no tenements but until the life of the United States outside of Springfield has its larger hours of leisure and more green clear spaces in which to cultivate codes and fine observances between boy and girl, the custom of selling the young girls to the slaughter will leap over double Gothic walls and invade those groves and parks we call ‘Springfield.’ We have the beginning of chivalry in many ways, such as the public school honor pageants and athletic honor tournaments and all the fine codes of Joseph Bartholdi Michael, the First, in connection therewith. We still need more sense of honor, honor beyond the point of Bayard and the Cid.
“There is only one issue for sweethearts:—honor or dishonor, citizen or slave. So it has been from the beginning of time, so it will continue till woman’s redemption and complete emancipation. The fantastic Hindu would die ten thousand deaths before he would break caste.
“The stubborn Mohammedan or Jew will yet be torn to shreds before he will consent to offer to an idol. Not all the tides of the world cynicism has changed these. The Japanese would cut out his tongue before he would speak a slighting word against the flag or honor of Japan or do a work in her despite. Are these people to be mocked for having a code?
“By standing by those Don Quixotic notions they prove they are men, not cattle. America, led by such orchard cities as Springfield and the other capitals that are turning their streets into parks of worship, should have one patriotism, one caste rule, one religion, the religion of honoring woman as a comrade citizen.
“The Yellow Dance Halls are deceits. They dance lies. Their unwritten laws are poisonous Singaporian devices that in the end make beasts of boys and girls and take cocaine for granted. And in the sporting, boastful excitement of cocaine, ill things are born, vendettas that only yesterday brought mortal bloodshed upon our streets and tricks that shamed us before the ages.
“The election is coming Tuesday, the Yellow Dance Hall Parade, tomorrow. Let us remember that this referendum election has been brought about by the signatures of the entire Board of Education, of over half the City Council and of a completely representative host of citizens of all families and clans and faiths. If we who have signed that paper win our petition, it is the last and third call and the voters will grant that The Yellow Dance Halls be banished from our city forever. Tomorrow the Yellow Parade is coming. There will be every effort on the part of the yellow claque to laugh down the seriousness of the issue. Let no friend of this Cathedral take part in that parade. Let all good citizens, at every spare moment from this hour to the election, go forth to urge their immediate kith and kin and fellow clansmen to turn out at the polls and vote for the banishment of these places and let my friends who have taken the especial Oath of the Strict Observance consider this election their charge and let them leave nothing undone that will secure a full showing at the polls of the voters of whatever persuasion. The only way to lose this election is by staying at home.”
The voice of the aged and weary St. Friend rises almost to a shriek. He pauses many times for breath but goes on, clinging to the pulpit as he may, exhausted by vigil and anger:—
“The Yellow Halls, where all public gambling is carried on and all election money passes! The Yellow Halls, where, despite the legislation of a clearly established majority, through a hundred years, the gold and alcohol from far beneath the gilded roofs, is brought forth from mouldy hiding places and doled out to corrupt the electorate and thwart the clearly recorded will of the people. How long shall we endure these secret multimillionaires and secret wine kings and secret cocaine kings, despising every phase of thoroughbred and honor-bound American Democracy? Despite all the doings of the month of May, not one hiding place of their gold has been unearthed, not one case of their wine has been dug up and confiscated by the Federal Government.