The Hell of Black Diamond
A local clergyman takes a fiery stand against a saloon and dance hall he claims is corrupting the village.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
When the feeling against a certain house in Black Diamond, where an attempt had been made to run a dance hall in connection with the bar, became intense and before the county commissioners had revoked the license under which the place was being conducted, the following sermon was preached at Black Diamond by Rev. H. T. Shepard, one of the leaders in the fight against the saloon dance hall: 'It is sometimes the Christian’s duty to take an open stand against bold and shameless sin... I wish to speak with still more emphasis tonight upon an evil whose presentation is as difficult and delicate as itself is heinous. We need not cross the river of death to find hell and heaven. We have simply to go to the prairie saloon at Black Diamond. The offal of Whitechapel is unloaded there and bad whisky is the fire that is continually burning it up. You may cast your influence for the saloon or against it; and in your choice lies not your safety alone, but the honor and integrity of our young men and the purity of our homes.'
“We need not cross the river of death to find hell and heaven. We have simply to go to the prairie saloon at Black Diamond.”
This sermon from 1894 highlights the historical tension in Washington between moral reform and the commercial reality of the 'frontier' saloon. It mirrors modern Seattle debates where community groups clash with operators of nightclubs or venues, citing public safety and 'neighborhood character' as their core motivations.
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