kind of amiable fake, a pious horn-blowing; while the real thing was
Tammany.

I talked about this with the vestrymen and the ladies of Good Society;
they were deeply pained, but I noticed that they did nothing practical
about it; and gradually, as I went on to investigate, I discovered the
reason--that their incomes came from real estate, traction, gas and
other interests, which were contributing the main part of the campaign
expenses of the corrupt Tammany machine, and of its equally corrupt
rival. So it appeared that these immaculate ladies and gentlemen, aus
dem Ei gegossen, were themselves engaged, unconsciously, perhaps, but
none the less effectively, in spreading the pestilence against which
they were blowing their religious horns!

So little by little I saw my beautiful church for what it was and is:
a great capitalist interest, an integral and essential part of a
gigantic predatory system. I saw that its ethical and cultural and
artistic features, however sincerely they might be meant by individual
clergymen, were nothing but a bait, a device to lure the poor into
the trap of submission to their exploiters. And as I went on probing
into the secret life of the great Metropolis of Mammon, and laying
bare its infamies to the world, I saw the attitude of the church to
such work; I met, not sympathy and understanding, but sneers and
denunciation--until the venerable institution which had once seemed
dignified and noble became to me as a sepulchre of corruption.

#Trinity Corporation#

There stands on the corner of Broadway and Wall Street a towering
brown-stone edifice, one of the most beautiful and most famous