The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-04-12
COLUMBIA.
Friday Morning, April IL, 1867.
A hIournful Decadence.

AN oOeSSOA SAV01LdtlOu VI
enlightened nineteenth century ha.
not done much for the advancement
of public morals or private virtue in
this country, living, as its people
are, under "the best Government
upon earth. The records of the daily
Journals of the great cities furnish
abundant evidence of an increasing
and fearfully widespread demoraliza-
ton among all classes of society
none, apparently, have escaped the
corruption and vice which stalk un-
blushingly through their streets day
and night, and which are very ten
derly treated by the press, the pulpit
and the courts of justice. And this
is accounted for very naturally-for
from the highest circles to the organ
lied gangs Of burglars, thieves and
,assassins, the contagion has fastened
itself upon. all the members of So
,ciety.
While the local criminal records of
the daily press are read, OF course, as
mere news matter, that branch of
Journalism seems timid to reprove
and rebuke this general departure
from virtue and uprightness. Now
and then, when some enormous crime
has been committed, some gigantic
swindle successfully practiced, there
is great parade of the revolving de-
tails; but scarcely ever is there
word of depreciation of the decad-
ence of public virtue, or word of
reproof to the prominent actors in
this universal carnival of crime.
One of the semi-religious, semi
political papers which abound in the
city of New York-the Methodist in
one or two of its recent issues, gives
fearful account of the reign of de-
moralization throughout that Babel
OF vice. It tells us that crime daily
multiplies and increases in boldness,
claiming the impunity, if not the very
innocence, of virtue. We give n
single paragraph of the editors vail
ings:
"Lechery riots and putrefes in our
streets openly; murder does its work
in broad daylight, and in our very
courts of justice; groggerjes keep
open by the thousand on Sundays, in
the face of the law and its worthless
officers; publishers and sellers of
obscene books and papers take no
pains to conceal their nefarious trade;
filthy performances draw crowded
audiences to the theatres, without
raising question among law makers
or law executors, and gambling goes
on furiously all around us, quite the
same as though the State authorized
it."
This brief extract gives us a horri-
bic idea of the state of society in
the great metropolis of a great coun-
try. Another editor tells us that not
long sincc-about New Years Day
two Congressman met in public
faro bank in New York, owned by
one of them, and that, after pro-
tracted bout over the gaming table,
one rose the winner and the other
the loser of $3.50, 900; that at about
the same time, two men, one just
elected to high position in the
New York municipal government,
the other his defeated opponent, met
in an empty lot in the upper part of
the city, and fought at fsticuffs-
both Of them being pugilists-until
one of them was insensible; that
within the same period, high civil
functionary resigned his Office to
avoid inquiries which involved enor-
nous frauds; and lastly, that it ap-
peared about the same time, in q city
court, that noted female wretch
was living unmolested in one of the
choice mansions in the centre of the
most fashionable part of Fifth Ave-
nue., carrying on her beastly trade.
And this editor tells us that the pub
lie press took no notice of what, in
oil these cases, was notoriously public.
Such is life in New York, and, on