"_I have one weakness. Even the very strongest minded men will bet on horses. I do it. I admit it._ But why do they pick on me? Nobody notices the corruption of officials, but when the Agent for the Enforcement of Criminal Law bets on horse races and defaults on his debts, everybody sets up a howl." [3] In the New York _Morning Advertiser_ of September 10, Mr. Britton thus denounces the judiciary of the empire city:-- "The police are down on me, but I am not afraid of 'em. I can prove that the police force is subsidized to wink at crime. Nine tenths of the crime in New York is under police protection. I can prove it, and I could begin with the inspectors and captains. Oh, I'd strike high. I don't go into the courts and prove it, because every judge in this city, and I don't make a single exception, is subsidized." [4] The _Morning Advertiser_ of Sept. 10, 1891, thus records Mr. Britton's embarrassing position:-- Joseph A. Britton is agent of the New York Society for the Enforcement of the Criminal Law. Agent Britton has become so absorbed in the enforcement of the criminal law that he has, it is said, forgotten that there is a civil law, and defaulted on the payment of _betting debts_. His creditor, in the sum of $1,085, is Robert G. Irving, a bookmaker, who has tried to collect the debt since last fall, and failing has resorted to the courts. According to Irving, Agent Britton, upholder and advocate of the majesty of the law, placed some bets with him, won, and drew his winnings. Then Britton continued to bet, on credit, and lost; but, _instead of settling in hard cash, gave a check, which the bank stamped N. G. when presented. Finally, Britton exchanged three notes for the worthless check_, but the first two notes have fallen due, and have proved as worthless as the check. So the case is on the court docket. Agent Britton admits the debt, and its nature. And this is a specimen of the men which a Christian people are supporting and encouraging, owing to their loud and pharisaical protestations of superior virtue. The words spoken by the great Nazarene teacher, and which ring down the corridor of the ages, apply to-day as aptly as when in old Judea he said, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so ye outwardly appear righteous, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."