New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-08-21


expanding intelligence and physical plenty, the
number Of those who seek personal gain, grat'hca'
ton or enjoyment, by means inimical to the puohc
GOOD, is constantly augmenting. Our prisons are
crowded, our Courts choked with untred indics-
ments, and the cry is still, they come. And 1t Is
a noticeable fact that, while the greater number OF
criminals are taken, as heretofore from tho ranks
of the terate and poverty-stricken, an unusual
proportion of them have enjoyed the benefits OF
Education and Competence, while not a few have
been conspicuous and reputable professors OF
religion.
Can this swelling delugc of Crime be stayed If
so, by what means'
We have little faith in the remedial influence OF
what is called Punishment-that is, the intilc-
ton Of penalties by the State. 1t the paramount
duty of the State to arrest the career OF msefac-
tors and so treat them to protect society 50 far
as possible from their depredations; but punish
ments, while they sometimes deter the evil'dis-
posed from crime, seldom change their dispositions
If the penalty of stealing were DEATH there would
probably be somewhat fewer thefts, but hardly
fewer thieves. The certainty of punishment tends
to dissuade from crime; net so, its severity. The
calculation Of the criminal so far as be calculates at
ALL generally runs in this channel: 81 shall escape
detection or at least conyichon--the chances are
"three to one that may"-nOt The penalty so
"light that will brave it for the sake of the graft
"fcaton.' To augment penalties tends to dmin-
ish the chances Of conviction by rendering Courts
more rigid in holding the prosecutor to an observ-
snce of all the laws technicalties, and inducing
Jurors to magnify their doubts. Were LIE never
taken as a penalty, we are confident that the
number of convictions of crimes now capital would
be at least double what it is.
A critical investigation of the history of crimes
and criminals would show these causes to have
marked the outset of nearly every criminal career:
/. Vicious aud ill.assOrted parentsge. 2. Immoral
Influences in the parental home, or early Danish
ment therefrom. 3. Evil communications outside.
4. Deficient or misdirected education. D. Lack OF
early training to industrial skill and efficiency, the
natural basis of honesty in after life. q. Early
addiction to strong drink. Z. Lewdness.
We shall speak henceforth of the two vicious
influences last named, because they are more pal
raby within the reach of correction through the
agency of Law. Let the career of the last hundred
persons who have fallen from respectability into
felony be scrutnized and it will be found that the
departure of at least ninety. five of them from the
path Of virtue began in drink lewdness and that
this i. especially the case with those who have dis
credited good education and disgraced profession
Of religion.
The woes and shames Of Intemperance have been
frequently and thrillipgly depicted. The soft &C.
auctions of the social wine-cup; the mild persua-
sons of malt liquors, especially Of the bland and
gentle Lager; the smiles Of beauty and the flashes
Of wit which wreathe the first approaches of the
sren are by this time familiar to all but the blind
who positively will not see But the sister demon,
Lewdness, is even more deceitful and darker
spirit. Making its approaches in the guise of admi
ration and with fir-seeming preten,es of honorable
love, it is the fruitful source Of deeper wretched
ness and completer moral ruin than even Intemper
ance itself. 1t has been characterized as The
sin of great cities" but where is tho township 40
rural or so sparsely peopled as to be wholly free
from it1 From every eide, the victims Of seduc-
ton hurry in thousands to the great seapors, there
to hide their shame and prOlong their nfamy; from
every rural neiehborhoOd flock bither corrupt men
to seek and find cOmpanionship with these more
pitable butnot more depraved female victims If the
Cities reek with pollution it is the Country which
perpetualy supplies and repenisbes the fount.
Ard if women are generally, though not always,
the tempted beguled and betrayed at the outset Of
guilty career, they often take fearful vengeance
On their paramOurs before its close.
The aggregate Of loss, deprayity, pecuniary
wreck and moral ruin whereof Lewdness is the
source is more fearful than can be realized. The
mere physical torture and agony which flows from
it were CROUCH to make devils weep. The young
girl of tender nurture, decent education and mod
EFT bearing, who falls victim at seventeen to some
villains lying prOtestatiOns and her own unbridled
passons-for it must not be forgotten that she too,
aims willfully and consciously in submitting to her
own dishOnor) lis next hurried away to the City
to hide her shame, and finds herself OF eighteen or
nineteen the inmate of Of the genteeIer broth
els. She does lot at once consent to become
thns sbhorred; but the dsseIiion Of her betrayer,
her own utter restitution and helplessness, the
terror with which she shrnks from the idea Of
returning to be spurned and loathed BY
those into whose faces che has ever looked
proudly, the arts and lies of the she.dev in whose
clutches che has been left, and possibly lark
ing faint of vicious propensity in her own nature,
soon master her repuguance; or if not, violence
comes to the aid Of villany, and her second fall is
accomplished. Henceforward, her career is rapid,
ard it's end inevitable. Probably three years
often less-sufice to perfect it By death of TN
imaginable agony and horror in the female hospital
Of the City Aims House. to which she has been
consigned, worn gu. with intemperancc aad mid