100 years ago in Spokane: Baptist minister calculates number of ‘fallen men’ in city
From our archives,
100 years ago
The Rev. John Snape, pastor of the First Baptist Church, estimated that Spokane contained “6,000 male degenerates.”
Really?
In a sermon, he explained the math. He said there were 300,000 registered dissolute women in the U.S, and “a million more not registered.” From this, he extrapolated that there were 300 dissolute women in Spokane. Then he estimated that “for every fallen woman, there are 20 fallen men.”
Thus, 6,000 male degenerates.
He said “the cure of this evil lies in four things” and then proceeded to specify five − “parental instruction, law enforcement, industrial cooperation, unobtrusive sympathy and individual salvation.”
The paper quoted him as saying, “Two automobile come this way, two automobile come that way, go boom, boom, boom, boom” (although the paper rendered all of this in exaggerated dialect).
He said he was hit by four autos. As evidence, he displayed a bruise on his back. Police were skeptical. After being treated for his injury, police booked him on a charge of public drunkenness.