The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1877-02-17

have living ulcer in the center of
their hearts. London has its ST.
Giles and Saffron Hill; Paris has its
Faubourg St. Antoine T; Vienna,
Berlin. St. Petersburgh, all have
these living cancers-within rife
shot of mighty buildings where
Bibles are printed for the heathen-
and near churches from which
thousands of missionaries go out to
the four Quarters of the globe and
the scattered islands of the sea. /
look up towards the Five Points
Mission and I read on a tablet !:
Erected on the site of the old
brewery, A. D., 1862" For four
and twenty years theas saints have
been wrestling with the. devil, aud
it's astonishing to see how healthy
the old man looks; they don't ap-
pear to have worried him a bit.
Here are his camp followers all
around US by hundreds; the very
aiy is redolent of crime and sin:
it rises like a miasma from the
filthy cutters in the streets, it oozes
out Of tie damp walls; it floats up
from the dark cellars, and down
from the ricketty garrets-it is all
around us,-virtue finds it hard to
maintain a foothold here, for the
soil is barren, sterile and foul. Look
in those faces, soiled and SCARED
with crime aud sin, and you almost
doubt, notwithstanding the promise
ofthe Savior, if they were ever in
tended to be redeemed. There
goes a party Of young thieves into
Teddy Mannix's junk-shop; see
how suspiciously they look around
to see if the police are in sight, and
now they are down with Teddy in
the cellar, driving a hard bargain
for their rlunder: That girl with
the read head is scarcely twelve
years old, yet she Is as deeply
versed in crime as vicious woman
of thirty. Look at that group
around the lamp-post, they are pick
ing each others pockets just for
practice; here are your incipient
Jack Sheppards, Dick Turpins and
Claude Duvals. Every one of these
mugs is already in the rogues'
gallery-all Of them have served
terms in the county Jail or peniten-
tiary, and they are looking forward
to the day, with pardonable pride,
when some first-class burglary, or
highway-robbery, will enable them
to graduate with the honors of Au-
burn or Sing Sing. On the corner
OF Baxter and Worth streets, is the
celebrated Grand Duke theater, the
boot-blacks, news-boys, and rag
pickers' temple of the drama. Pick
your steps, and mind how you go,
for it's under the ground-nowhere
in New York-perhaps nowhere in
the world will you see exactly such
an assembly. That big fellow in
the gray ulster, leaning against the
post with his hat slouched down
over bis eyes, is prominent Wall
street broker; that little man in the
old brown coat, who looks so suspi-
ciously about and keeps his hands
SO tightly on his pockets, is coun-
try clergyman-he has disguised
himself for the purpose Of seeing
the Grand Duke, but the gamins
know him at glance and they'll
go through HIM before he gets out.
Merchants, doctors, lawyers, boot
blacks, scavengers and thieves are
all mixed up together. There is
fetid, sickly smell of the sewers, min
gled with the stale pipes and bad
gin but the audience of the Grand
Duke care nothing for these, they
are used to it; it's aroma is sweeter
to them than the pure breath of the
mountains or the fields. / broke off
here, and have been waiting for
the last fifteen minutes to hear of
some startling murder, robbery or
suicide to wind up with, but nothing
comes except what you already
have in your exchanges, and so /
must close, as the mail is going.
Truly you're,
3.