The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-12-22
THE INCREASE OF CRIME.

THE INCREASE OF CRIME.
The press in New York, and elsewhere, Is
complaining Of the increase of crme The
subject is even arresting the notice of magis-
tTates and judicial officers, who speak of it
with unusual earnestness and apprehension
The dockets of the Courts Of Oyer and Terminer
are swelled with criminal cases of greater or
less degree, and their docks are daily crowded
with culprits, from the petty thief TO the gar
roter and the murderer. 1t must be confessed
that all Of our large cities are the scene Of
much deprayity and violence Of one kind or
another, and that the amount of crime daily
and nightly committed may be on the increase.
Yet we doubt whether VIC are much worse of
in this matter than most ofthe capitals ofother
countries. Wherever population is concen-
tratcd in dense masses, there must be much
more motive and opportunity for violations of
both the civil and moral law, than in sparsely
settled communities.
Great cities are the natural rendezvous of
adventures and vagabonds Of all sorts and
grades, from the fashily-apparelled and impu-
dent blaclleg, who caricatures in his person
the exterior Of a wel-to-do man Of the world
who has no visible vocation, to the hard-fea-
tured and hare. d.up-loolsing cove, who evidently
earns his bread in no very reputable way, and
has written, in quite legible characters, all
over his grim and forbidding presence, the
piratical motto that "the world owes him
living" The streets Of every metropolis are
filed with beggars, who might be honest, self
in,
prefer to eat the dry crust Of charity in shame
less sloth, rather than labor for better meal.
And where we find the drone who begs his
subsistence, we very confidently look for the
harder rascal who steals it.
Criminals Of all classes cannot live in the
rural districts, and hence they flock to the
towns. There they find not only more prey,
but a better chance Of security in seizing it.
Besides, your professional rogue is no lover
OF solitude. His conscience, small and obdu-
lated as it may be, is most uncomfortable
companion he does not like to be too much
alone with it, and hence he seeks and is fond
of society, which he enjoys in the din and
crowd and excitement OF such human hives as
Paris, London, and New York. In such
places he feels his individuality quite lost, and
while he diverts himself in the hurly-burly of
the streets by day, and has at night his jolly
carousals with a set Of fellow-ielons in some
low stye in back alley, he aatter5 himself
that, in pursuing his scape-gallows business, he
, has the odds heavily against the police
/ The cities, then, are the centres of crime ;
/ but when crime increases in those centres, we
are not warranted in drawing general con-
/ clusion that the whole people everywhere are
declining in virtue. Yet there are persons and
papers among us guilty of that ridiculous
4 fall6cy. They tell us that the entire country is
in arapid progress to depravity and the Devil /;
and that this tact, deplorabe and portentous,
/ ii it were true, is TO be attributed TO the war,
which is fast converting us into a nation of
, robbers aud cutthroats. All such talk is much
more than absurd; it has in it large element
oftreason, or, what is equivalent, sympathy
/ with the Rebellion.
The croalyers would have the war cease, in
order that DAVIS aud his followers in the
South may be let alone; and one argument
against the is, that il is universally cor
ruptins In rs influence. There is but little
truth in all that kind of bather. Wars are,
no doubt, preiudicial, TO a certain extent, to
morality. They not only arouse and cul-
tivGte the ylndictive passions Of men, but, by
creating extraordinary conditions in the busi-
Icss economy Of a people, they afford occa-
sions for the sudden achievement Of private
fortunes Of great magnitude.
A general spirit Of speculation arises with
thc abundance of currency and the imitation
OF all values which the war produces, and a
J great many visionary persons hope to get rich
/ by taking advantage ofthe times and the rapid
| fluctuations in trade and finance which are
| coincident with them. The desire and oppor-
tunity to amass wealth quickly are apt to rem
| der most men rather INSCRIPTIONS as TO the
! ways and means Of electing their object; and
therefore il is not at all to be wondered at il
the tone Of the business community is some-
what depressed below the standard that pre-
walls ordinarily.
But while admitting this tendency Of a sea-
son Of war, especially civil war, TO beget a
strange spirit Of Speculation and aVarice, there
is no reason, nevertheless, to base on such
foundation the idea that the morality Of the
whole nation is being depraved, simply be-
cause 1t is contemporary with certain in
crease Of crime in the cities of the land.
1t should be borne in mind, in the discus
sion Of this question, that a great and pro-
tracted war in any country brings into it a
large accession Of foreign population, among
which, Of course, are many desperate adven-
turers, who have lived dishonesty ct home,
and who seek 70 improve their fortunes
wherever serious social disturbance offers
them better chance for plunder. Such
tellows-the 'Gipsies and Bohemians Of
the criminal fraternity evOrywhere-rgsh
instnctyely to any scene Of turmoil