The Orangeburg news. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1867-1875, 1871-10-28
"A Terriblel Retribution.


mouldesing ruins, Perhaps no city on
,,the the American continent was 30 devoid
/ ofa high-toned aociety, and so given to
!, immorality as the once proud city of
Chicago. The character of its people,
five are to judge from the the popular
verdict, was very loose, and sse.sed
Erone trait to commend it to the respect
and confidence Of an: enlightened public
j, sentiment. Men and women there Weso
truly actors and actresses on one vast
stage of proaigacy and extravaganza.
/, Religion was mockery with them, and
every instinctof morality was tost in the
it. great whirlpool of social recklessncss
and tnrpitude; it was modern Sodom
and Gomorrah, and truly it has met the
fate of its ancient prototype. . .a
:, The magnitude of the evils which af.
a;a.ed that city, can never be! properly
estimated until tho full measure Of its
;, Hickedness IS brought to light; aaa nc
human can tell the utter absence Of NOR
atty from its habits and customs. until
,sshs whole truth is known. We have
been accustomed to'regard that city, in
.. social ~ssd moral point of, view, as a
stigma upon, all the teachers of that
good Book, which foretold long years
ago. its destruction, and the destruction
ofall its like and kind. The marriage
tie, the most sacred of all human obli.
cations, was no more regarded in Chi
cago than the demoniac walls Of o forest
brute, or the wild sobs of a Gagged lioness.
The men were, almost without exception,
o mass Of libertines, and the women in
the same proportion, a bcvy of fashion
able poems, whose careers were as furious
and Aimsy as the pctroleases Of Paris.
There were good men and women in
Chicago; but their examples and influ.
rences amounted to nothing. They
,could no more arrest the mad tide of
fashion and. resaaessness, than pop
gun could batter down The Chinese wall;
they We're merely the few stars that
,shone forth from amidst darkness so
terrible that its blackness makes the
heart sick at its observation, anH Halnost
stiles the very air we breathe Human
chastity was base mockery, and the
st'bloodss Of Chicago assailed it with tho
she most relentless cruelty, untlit sue.
icummed beneath the wild onslaught of
ths'ganing den, the assignation house
and base luere.. Indeed, SO fatal to virtue
and morality lad that city become, that
it was sough. by the reckless husband
and the s'indiscreet" wife rs the palla.
drum oftheir domestic troubles, and Gom
IFS confines, have such been turned loose
upon the bottomlass sea of remorse. with
every bic Of the heart, severed, and no
hopes Of life save as outlaws and prosti-
tutcsi.' 1t has been scourgeG may be
shat henceforth Chicago will learn a
lesson from the terrible owls which have
brought-aBout tbs chasteniDg. It were
far better that those heaps of ruins
should remain forever as they are than
80 -. c-.tl:-- "r.c-l c-l -I---.r -l-,l
reared over them, and. another curse
Yiso, above the destroyed monsters Of
vice and population
We have thus witnessed i, one brief
year the destruction of the two principal
cities of vice-Paris in the East aud
Chicago IN the West-and surely if men
7abd women can be made any better than
they are, these awful Tetributions must
near something towards the accomplish
'theit' oS 20. desirable triumph. We
sympathize deeply with the innocent
people Of Chicago; would to Heaven
they could have been spared; but we
shali,hope the. the Chicago of hereafter
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