Civic Helpfulness 85 



serly who went and stated the facts to the employer. 

 The Paulist Fathers had always been among the 

 most efficient foe's of the abuses of the liquor traf 

 fic. They never hesitated to interfere with saloons, 

 dance-houses, and the like. One secret of their in 

 fluence with our Police Board was that, as they con 

 tinually went about among their people and knew 

 them all, and as they were entirely disinterested, 

 they could be trusted to tell who did right and who 

 did wrong among the instruments of the law. One 

 of the perplexing matters in dealing with policemen 

 is that, as they are always in hostile contact with 

 criminals and would-be criminals, who are sure to 

 lie about them, it is next to impossible to tell when 

 accusations against them are false and when they 

 are true ; for the good man who does his duty is cer 

 tain to have scoundrelly foes, and the bad man who 

 blackmails these same scoundrels usually has noth 

 ing but the same evidence against him. But Father 

 Casserly and the rest of his order knew the police 

 men personally, and we found we could trust them 

 implicitly to tell exactly who was good and who 

 was not. Whether the man were Protestant, Cath 

 olic, or Jew, if he was a faithful public servant they 

 would so report him,; and if he was unfaithful he 

 would be reported as such wholly without regard to 

 his creed. We had this experience with an honor 

 ably large number of priests and clergymen. Once 



