New-York daily tribune., 1855-08-27
yICE-PUBLICJTY.

yICE-PUBLICJTY.
If the notion were correct that children should
be reared, so far as may be, in ignorance Of the
mass of vice and crime which testers all around
us, then the Bible would be the most pernicious
ard dangerous book ever printed. We do not
know another that is so manifestly and thorough
ly imbued with contrary spirit-so frank in
ts exhibition and so fearless In its character
ization Of every phase of human defornity and
lust Yet we think few observers, no matter of
what faith, will dispute that the mass of those
who from infancy have been accustomed to read
the Bible, or hear it read are at least as pure
and morally upright as those reared in the ut
most possible ignorance of evil doing.
Every year numbers its thousands, if not tens
of thousands, freshly stranded on the sunken
rocks of vilany which underie the heaving
tides of life in this as in every other great city.
Youth of both sexes flock hither from every
quarter, aud are speedily numbered with the
victims Of drink, play, robbery, swindling,
lechery, or some other of the chronic forms of
iniquty here developed. You are assOunded
at hearing that so poor and thread-bare swim
die as pOcket-boOk dropping or the " little
"joker," mock auctions, or almost any other
whereby Knavery ever eulled Folly, can still
be repeated with impunity and success; but on
inquiry you will find that the victim springs
from that still numerous class which " don't
9 sake the papers, )" or takes only periodicals Of
that ulrra.delicate and genteel order which
.hlinks from tho portrayal Of sny dePraviSy
more modern than that which impelled the
Lamentations OF Jeremiah. The prisons, the
brotbels, the multiform dens Of moral bank
ruptcy in our city, are this day crowded with
victims whose frat decisive steps on the road to
ruin were taken in gross ignorance Of the snareS
whereby the feet Of uDguarded innocence are
here perpetualy envirouec,
The cunning and powerful whose Golfers are
filed OF whose passions are gratihed at the cost
of these victims of course, swell the cry against
exposure and in favor of covering all chronic
corruption with the llimsy fg-leayes of fDecordm.
The libertine, the gambler, the fabrlcltOr of
drugged and poisonous liquors, the highly re-
spectacle Pharisee who is living slmptuously
and amassing wealth from the exorbitsnt rents
of Mercer-ssreet or of our Fourth and Sixth
Ward grOggeries, are shocked at the idea of any
bold uncovering of the caldron Of sin which
seethes and bubbles beneath Us. They nasu-
rally insist that everything should be kept quiet
that vice should not be named or publicly
hinted at, and that the Press should blindly ard
dumby let the mighty river of iniquity run by
unheeded, merely chToniclng some o! its most
obvious superficial manif stations, but never
seeking to trace il TO its source, or inquiring
by what means its volume may be diminished.
Since the PrOhibitory Liquor Law became OBJ
ligatOry in our City, but was temporarily null
hfsd by the powerful conspiracy to which our
Mayor, Corporation. Counsel, d strict Attorney,
&c, have lent themse Ives, we have seen fit TO
have reported for a season the doings at our
Police Courts, in order that the public might
see ard realize how thoroughly Alcoholic
Liquors are the handspring of all the moral evil
which afronts the Law in this community
We verify believe that if Fernando Wood,
Robert J. Dillon, Robert II. Mogris, James NJ.
Smith and A. Oakley Hall had chosen to uphold
and enforce the PrOhibitory Act, as it was
their official duty to do, instead of taking
the business of unlawful lquor.selling IN.
der their special protection and guardianship,
the numbes Of ofIenses against our penal laws
would already have been reduced one. half
since the All of July, ana would be stin further
diminished enc half Of their present amount be-
fore the meeting Of our next Legislature. And
he'd this City been kept free from the curse Of
public ayOwed, licensed lquor.selling for six
months, we are confident that this gigantic
e7il-thepsrent Of so many shomes and crimes
would never have been tolerated again. Ba.
now the very fac. that the law is deici here,
through the connisance of public func.onaries
who owe their elevation directly to the Liquor
interest, is made 9 pretext for demanding its re-
peal, and It's failure 10 overcome in two or three
months tie vested wrongs Of two centuries and
the shameful recreency Of those whose off ,ial
duty Il is to be foremost in upholdng it, is to be
made apretext BY The timid and selfish for be-
trayIg it altogether.
Tbeywill not succeed, though they will raise
dtsfcning clamor aud shake scme weakly well
incoming people for a tims. They will obs'ruct