The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-24

introduced by Mayor Bsnks in few pertinent
remarks. On coming forward, Mr.. Colfax, after
brief predatory remarks, continued
A work of benevolence and of humanity
towards our brethren like this should enlist
every heart that is touched with the feelings of
human infrmity. There is question that comes
down to all of us, through the centuries from
the very birthplace of mankind, full of mo-
mentous interest to every one upon the foot
stool of God 1t is that question which Cain
asked of the Almighty; not as a question, but
as q defense against the arraignment for his
crime to his brother. 1t was, "Am l my
brothers keeperY
In every civilized land throughout the globe,
in every civilized nation and State and commu-
nifty, the answer comes back to that question,
You are your brothers keeper. 1t is respon-
sibility that some of you can deny or evade.
Every statute that you find in your statute-book
for the punishment of crime and fraud is the
answer to the question, "Am / my brothers
keeper" Every Jail and prison that cast their
gloomy shadows over the land, every sheriff and
police officer, is the answer that the commu-
nifty makes to the question rs old as man
kind itself, and besides this, and better than
this, every reformatory and amcliatory institu-
tion that blesses this land joins in the answer
that we give to the question that comes to us
almost from the Garden of Eden ITSELF
In the institutions of which we are so justly
proud, where the mind is restored to those
whose reason has been dethroned; in the asylum
for the insane; in those institutions where the
blind are almost made to see, the dumb to speak,
and the deaf to hear; in every institution for the
relief of the poor and distressed, we have the
answer OF society to the question, Am ] my
brothers keeper!" and in this nozzle work which
you haYe inaugurated here Tonight for those
who have been the deluded and self-destroying
victims of temptation, that even the most
gifted in our land bring the answer of the be-
nevolent in the State of Maryland, that they are
their brothers keepers. God speed you! God
bless you in this noble work!
In fhic rpot world OffOure c1NrioiOo W. oil
do from the hand of q common Creator believ-
ing as we do in the fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of man, every one whom you meet
on your pathway is your brother. He may be
poor, he may be penniless, he may be humble;
but they are brethren of the same dust, pilgrims
of the same family, travellers to the same tomb.
If God has blessed you with strength of will,
that you have been enabled to fortify yourselves,
it is for you to lift him up from that depth to
which he has fallen and put him upon his feet
and to redeem him. if possible, from a living
death, worse even than the death of the tomb.
After alluding to the brilliant intellects that
have fallen victims to intemperance, Mr.. Colfax
continued:-It is the miser, it is the stingy and
the penurious, and tight-fsted, who are free from
this evil; it is the large-hearted, the social man.
who cannot resist the temptation of the social
glass; the genial man, the generous man, whom
this tempter finds its victims. 1t assails all
classes alike; you can find it crouching at the
hearth-sones of the poor, and it casts its gloomy
shadow over the marble mantels of the rich.
tell you my friends, there is only one way in
which you can resist the temptation. There is
only one talisman, and that is, 'rouch not taste
not, handle not the unclean thing. In the
earlier years of my manhood, when / saw a
young friend who had been travelling the same
pathway with myself. when ! stood by his bed
side and saw his soul leave his body, calling
upon God to damn his soul in his delirium, /
for one resolved that would turn my back upon
it henceforth and forever. 1t is the true path
way in private life, in public life, in social life
and in individual life.