PERILS. — THE CITY. 187 



tant churches and chapels, or one place of worship to 

 every 10,000 of the population. In the Tenth ward there 

 is a population of 47,000 and two churches and chapels.^ 

 South of Fourteenth Street there was in 1880 a popula- 

 tion of 511,726, for whom there were 109 Protestant 

 churches and missions, or about one to every 5000 souls. 

 In 1890, according to the police census, there was in the 

 same quarter a population of 596,878, an increase of 

 50,000 people, while of churches and missions there was 

 an increase of one. Indeed, the Christian force is not so 

 large now as it was ten or even twenty years ago, because 

 churches have moved out and been replaced by missions. 

 It was stated by Dr. Schauffler in 1888 - that during the 

 preceding twenty years nearly 200,000 people had moved 

 in below Fourteenth Street, and seventeen Protestant 

 churches had moved out. One Jewish synagogue and 

 two Roman Catholic churches had been added. So that 

 counting churches of every kind, there were fourteen less 

 than there were twenty years before, notwithstanding 

 the great increase of population. 



If moral and religious influences are peculiarly weak 

 at the point where our social explosives are gathered, 

 what of city government? Are its strength and purity 

 so exceptional as to insure the effective control of these 

 dangerous elements? In the light of notorious facts, 

 the question sounds satirical. It is commonly acknowl- 

 edged that the government of large cities in the United 

 States is a failure. "In all the great American cities 

 there is to-day as clearly defined a ruling class as in the 

 most aristocratic countries in the world. Its members 

 carry wards in their pockets, make up the slates for 

 nominating conventions, distribute offices as they bar- 

 gain together, and — though they toil not, neither do 

 they spin — wear the best of raiment and spend money 

 lavishly. They are men of power, whose favor the am- 

 bitious must court, and whose vengeance he must avoid. 



1 Dr. A. F. Schauffler in Chickering Hall Conference, 1888. 

 a Ibid. 



