National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-07-27
AN Era OF CRIME.

There is an old ecclesiastical superstition
that at certain periods his Satanic majesty,
with a goodly portion of his imps Of evil,
is permitted 10 walk the earth and kick
up all manner of deviltry on this globe of
ours. The present state of society, the &C.
Currences of the last few months, not in one
particular section Of the country, but all
over it, would seem to give a color Of truth
to this old idea. The newspapers have not
for years been so full of sensations, horrible
accidents and crimes as they are at the
present time. Take, for instance, the
Beecher scandal. Morning after morning,
for the last two weeks, the columns Of the
public prints have been blackened with
story OF alleged crime upon the part of the
most famous preacher of his generation,
whose influence is felt on two continents,
who has done more to shape the religious
and moral convictions of his time than any
living man. Now, in his old age, in the
last decade Of the years which the psalmist
has allotted as the sum of human life, we
are asked to believe that for a quarter of a
century he has been worse than the worst
sinner he summoned TO repentance. We
do not pretend TO condemn Mr.. Beecher;
on the contrary, we trust that he may be
shown to be entirely innocent of the terri
bic accusations made against him; that he
is, as his friends claim, the object of a dark
and foul conspiracy to destroy him. But
suppOsing that this theory is true, the fact
that an assault of this character should be
made upon his reputation is only another
evidence of the Generalization of the times,
crime only second in atrocity to that
which has been laid to his charge.
The abduction of the Ross child in open
day, and in the centre of a crowded city, is
an offence which has scarcely parallel in
the criminal annals of our country. For
weeks and weeks his abductors have been
able to defy the law, and at last to compel
the parents to yield to their Infamous de-
mands Within short period the whole
country has been Mortified by the publica-
ton Of the atrocities of two youthful muir
derers, one in the East and one in the
West, who have shown degree of fendish-
ness in the preparation of crime almost in.
credible in persons so young. The lesser
crimes-wrecking of railroad trains, politi-
cal assassinations, defalcations, seductions-I
which go to fill up the dark and disgusting
picture, are almost innumerable OF course,
1t Is impossible to account for this epidemic
OF sin and villainy. The duty of the Jour
nallst is discharged when he points them
out and warns the innocent to beware of
now they too may be led into temptation.
AT recent religious meeting, the voice of
the strictly orthodox portion Of society, when
in alluding to the subject of the preacher,
declared: ''He was blind who did not recog-
''nize the fearfulness of the times in which
1--WE live. Morals are upheaving; thought
lis drifting from her moorings; foundations
''are barred. 1t is an era of free-thinking.
"a refined, Christless system of Christianity
"is largely misplacing the purer faith As
''the result truth loses hold On the COM
'tmoD conscience, and carnival of crime