The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1873-02-20
CHILD MURDERERS.


'!riously wounded on Friday night by a
''shot from another boy of thirteen. His
''life is despaired of. The lads were in
"a public house on Sixth-ave., inspecting I
''some fancy dogs There is text that
needs no sermon. When the Spartans
wished to disgust their children with vice, |
the story goes that they showed them
drunken slave; but this country must see
its children drunken and debauched be- |
fore it can realize as it ought
the british condition of its morals. Peo- |
pie abroad point to the story of Fisk's |
life and death, or to the Credit Mobilier
scandal, as peculiar to our civilization,
and symptoms of the uncleanness and
rottenness of American society; but to
our mind, they are not half so significant
as this little extract from our police re-
ports The man who, out of the tapes
and buttons of his peddler's wagon, con-
structed an enormous fortune, who ruled
men and won women without education
or personel charm of any sort, was an en-
CINE of tremendous power, which needed
but the right controlling motive to have
become a helper for humanity and
| God
The men who have lately sold them
selves openly, and made our legislative
houses a den of thieves, have yet the in
| tellectual force, the culture, the knowl-
edge of all that goes to make up an hon
orable man; every qualification, in fact,
but the will to become honest men and
efficient servants of the people. The lamp
was all ready to burn; only the oil was
lacking. 1t is the fault of individual ed
ucation, not of society, that the oil was
not there
But that children, barely clear of their
cradles, should assemble at night in tav-
erns to inspect bull-pups, with pistols in
| of
ety little raised above the brute They
have parents as degraded no doubt as
they will be; the facts show that. Put
4 ting all question of humanity aside, what
does society do to guard itself against
this rank future growth of vice? What
becomes of the children massed together
in our Houses of Correction or Reforma-
tories The truth may as well be told
there is an occasional outbreak of indig
nation because they are unwholesomely
or ineffciently fed, or cruelty treated,
which allegations may be just or not
What is a fact, however, is that with a
few notable exceptions these institutions
are hot-beds of crime, where the home
less child, whose only fault is vagrancy,
goes i'll comparatively innocent, and
comes out an accomplished thief and ruff
fan. Thousands of gentle, gracious wo-
men and honorable men will read these
words this morning, whose chief hopes in
life, most probably, center on boys just
the ages Of these lads. 1t is for their fair
honorable future that they plan and
scheme to lay up wealth; it is that they
may be kept pure and free from shame,
that their fathers follow them with in
cessant, watchful care, and their mothers
have besieged Gods throne with prayers
since they carried them babes upon their
breasts. These fathers and mothers are
Christian men and women. asking night
and morning that His kingdom may
speedily come. How do they hasten its
coming? Where are John Schafer, aged
2 ten, and William Barker, aged thirteen,
l to find it? In the police-court or the
l Tombs? Who goes in search of them
t there to tell them of the God that made
S them, that left the chance for them too
5 to be honest, honorable men?
When on one column of one page we
: read such facts as these, and on the next
. an appeal for half a million to pay off the
> debt on the carvings and pictures OF a
), city church, and on the third an outcry
! from educated Christian women for 'ca
/ reers" and Opportunities to use then
talents, we are sure that there is q
e strange lack Of common sense and some
I thing yet more essential in the ordinary
: system of sectarian working. System
{ and thoroughness, such as are introduced
{ into every other business, with the steady
i application of the wealth of the Christian
church to preaching its gospel would
: bring every waif and stray like these
poor boys under the direct influence O
V the church of Christ.
, The above, from the New York Tribune
; contains much that is true. But wha
n and where is the remedy for this state o
D things? What is the use for Christian
5 mon and women to seek out these child
9 rem? They may be induced to attenc
b. Sabbath school, and may receive man.
n good lessons there and elsewhere iron
a selfsacrifcing missionaries but still pa
20 rental example is what is working tn
ic ruin of the rising generation. Where d
you generally find parents and childrel
u at night, in all cities and villages? Th
5. father, with crowd of others like hin
10 SELF sitting around the card table, with
ye cigar or pipe in his mouth, the beer glas
IS before him, a cloud of tobacco smok
n filling the disgusting room. This wi
er continue until midnight, while his lttl
in boy, with the boys of his drinking, SIN,
N king companions, is peeping through tn
Nv windows, anxiously desiring to be maj
I'd so he can enjoy himself as father is doin:
We The little fellow is sucking the stump
nv a cigar which he has picked up from I'll
m pavement, thus taking the first and SUI
in step to ruin.>
IN Mothers, you can keep your boys
IN home Of nights if you cannot keep yol
nv husbands at home.
d. -==
he "The GAINESVILLE Times and Mt Verne
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