See a Peril to Small Boys and Girls Suffering Thirst.
Source: Chicago Daily Tribune, 7 August 1907, pg. 5.
All the churches in Chicago that can be prevailed upon to take up the fight are to be asked next Sunday to adopt resolutions denouncing those Chicago amusement parks that make it hard for visitors to get water to drink and proportionately easy and cheap to secure beer.
The movement was inaugurated last night at the fifty-fourth monthly rally of the Young People's Christian Temperance union in the public hall at Ogden park, Sixty-fourth street and Center avenue. It is an outgrowth of the campaign which the organization has started all over the city against the "demon rum," characterized chiefly by lurid billboard portraits depicting drunkards in horrible stages of degradation and saloonkeepers as criminals of the deepest dye.
Calls Parks Saloon Traps.
A letter addressed to the churches last night says:
"The time has come for action. Some of our amusement parks are saloon traps for the boys and girls. Thorough investigation reveals the fact that Riverview park and Sans Souci park have no provision for drinking water for the public. At the latter park it is practically impossible to secure any water at all. The drink easy to secure is beer."
The letter is signed by Mary F. Balcomb, general secretary of the organization.
Copies of the resolutions which the churches are to be asked to adopt also were sent around. They stated that the management of these parks had, through connivance with the persons holding concessions, in order to stimulate the consumption of alcoholic beverages, allowed the public drinking faucets to be broken and kept out of repair. The lack of water is said to be causing widespread discomfort and creating a thirst for beer in thousands of small boys and girls.
Shows the Evils of Drink.
An address was delivered at the rally on the temperance subject by the Rev. Ingram E. Bill Jr., of Oberlin university. Stereopticon views of the evils of drink were shown. The banner for the society sending the largest delegation was won by the Lexington avenue Methodist Episcopal church.
