196 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



now mostly deserted in daytime, and frequented at night 

 by sailors or lucky miners, who cannot rid themselves 

 quickly enough of their hard-earned money. The for- 

 merly rich display of gold by the bank holders of the 

 green table has diminished to such an extent that one 

 rarely sees a few pieces exhibited and even in the largest 

 establishments, where formerly hundreds of twenty dol- 

 lar gold pieces tempted the gaping crowds to try their 

 chances, today the smallest current coin— one bit— (or 

 Spanish "real," one-eighth of a dollar) will not be re- 

 fused by the keeper or bookmaker. This rapidly decreas- 

 ing popularity of gambling houses is a most convincing 

 proof of the immeasurable success of the Vigilance-Ke- 

 form movement, as well as of all-powerful "public opin- 

 ion" in America. And Jean Galbert de Campistron, the 

 great French playwright, who indignantly asked: "The 

 public! the public! how many fools are required to make 

 up a public?" would indeed be ill at ease in this country. 



A few well worded newspaper articles proved sufficient 

 to incense the people against these academies of vice and 

 breathing places of immorality. Had not our greatest 

 living poet, Ferdinand Freiligrath, whom Americans 

 honor as the most beloved German friend of their own 

 Longfellow, blasted all hopes of speculating gamblers to 

 establish their nefarious bank in the ruins of the old his- 

 toric castle Ebernburg, by a single poem: "The Monu- 

 ment," which appeared a few years ago in the "Cologne 

 Gazette," the San Francisco newspaper success would 

 have won an unprecedented victory, which, however, is 

 great and praiseworthy enough in itself. Thanks to this 

 noble effort of the press, to be a gambler, has since be- 

 come the worst thing that can be said of a man. 



The American press differs from that of our methodical 

 home periodicals. It is very much more alive and awake 

 to the fact that it has to serve purposes of which the solid 

 ' ' Old World ' ' has little or no conception. It may have its 

 faults but then it has greater responsibilities, greater 

 aims and is consequently more heeded by the reading 

 musses than its pompous contemporaries abroad. Its edi- 



