Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1878-11-12
THE MILLS OF DEATH.
EVER GRINDING IN THE GREAT CITY
Rev. T. Dewitt TaImage's Awful Pictures
of the Night.Side of City Life, as
Seen by the Red Eye Of
the Police Lantern.

AS seen during MS tNploratlunS- viii
high officials OF the city. Fully six
thousand people were in the building,
and aS many more cluStercdin the streets
adjoining. The audience paid the clos
est attention to the great preacher, and
as the terrible pictures of want, and woe,
and sin and suffering were uniolded be-
lore them, many paid the silent tribute
OF tears. The following is the sermon in
full:
Under the Police Lantern"
Proverbs ", 10: The destruction oI
| the poor is their poverty.
On an island nine miles long by two
and hall wide stands the largest city OF
the United States, mightieSt for virtue
and for sin Before We get through we
shall sce its udnoon oi magnificent
| progress and philanthropy, as well as
! its midnight OF sin and crime and woe.
! Twice every twcnty-fOur hours our city
hall and old Trinity strike twelve, once
while business and art are in full blast,
and the other while iniquity is doing its
! uttermOSt. Both stories must be told
1t is pleasanter TO put on a plaster than
! to thrust in a probe, but it Is absurd to
propose remedies until we take
/ the complete diagnosis Of municipal
| disease. The patient may cringc, and
! suuirm, and fight back, and resist. but
| the surgeon must 90 on. Before | get
! through this course ul sermons, | Will
| make all the people smile with approval
ut the beautiful things shall say about
! the bencticencc and grandeur OF these
| cities clustering about the mouth Of the
Hudson and East Rivers, but now my
work is excavation and exposure. !
| can't put on the balm till rip OFF the
| bandagc. 1t affords me aSmuch amuse-
mcnt aS any man of my profession cam
with propricty indulge in at any time, to
scc many uf the clerical rctOrncrS Ul our
day bravely mOuntingtheir war-chargcrs.
plunging in the spurs and daShlng down
with glitterng lance +" plunge II into the
iniduities Oi the anciant cities that have
been dead three or four thousand years.
They get All old sinner Of eighteen CEN
urics ago i'm corner, and scalp him
and hang him and cut him to
! pieces, and cry out, ''See what
| have done" With utmost proweSS
they fling sulphur AT S"dom, and fire at
Gomorrah. and worms at King HerOd,
and pitch Jrzah.l off the wall, but put
| on their best kid gloves and wipe their
cold spectaccS To read from sermons lu-
closed in morocco cover any remarks
about the sins Oi our own times, con-
sidering the subject So delicate that II Is
Il shame even 10 speak "i II. The hyPo-
critics The simple TACT Is that they are
afraid OF the libertInes III their board OF
trustees or their dcaCOnS, who drink too
much, or their sessions who grind the
face oi the poor. | say. clear out our
churches OF all audience from pul pit to
storm door, with no one left but the
sexton. and he only waiting because ii
is his business 10 lock up, rather than
have our pulpits shivering before the
pew 1t is the living lirrods and
Judascs and JezabclS of this day who
need to be- arraigned. That is one reason
whv like big church. If dozen men
get mad at the truth and go out We don't
find il out until the year after they are
gone. 1t is the city on the top OF the
ground that needs 10 be reformed, and
not the llerculancums buried in vol
canic ashes or the Cities Of the Plain
sixty icct down under the Dead Sea.
THE MIDNIGHT rArPERIsN.
This morning | turn over new leaf
in NV midnight exploration. In com
panv with city missionaries and the po-
lice Of Brook yn and New York, | have
seen other things than those mentioned
in my previous disCourscs on the Night
Side Of City Lie. This night is dar ker
than anv ! have mentioned. There are
no glittrring chandeliers or blazing mir
rnrs or diamonds 10 adom il. 1t is the
long. deep, bitter night Of city pauper-
ism. I'VE will want no carriage Tor TO-
night said nv police attendants, "a
carriage would be hindcrancc where
We are going. \ carriage rolling up TO
the places oi our exploration would cX-
cite wonder, and the people would flock
round asking what was the matter. 30
AZ eight o'clock We started on foot and
walked through the lanes o1 poverty and
crime Everything was revolving TO the
eve and Tar and nOstril-unwashed and
uncombcd the population, unventlllated
the rooms. three mldnightS overlapping
the darkness OF each Other--nldnlght
in the natural world, midnight OF crime,
midnight OF pauperiSm! Stairs ""zing
with filth, inhabitants Ncrmin-cov-
cred, They had gone nine-tenths
OF the way toward their final
loom. They startcdin unhappy homes
nicitv or country. They entered lnlqmty
lar up town, in the shamblcs OF death
within ten minutes walk OF the Filth
Avenue hotel. and came gradually on
down tu the Fourth ward. When they
move out from here they will =" "a
Bellevue Hospital, thence to Blackwell :
Island, thence I" the Potter lrlh hhI
thence To- hell. Bellevue Hospital
and Rlakwrll's Island receive in tn"
wear 1900 patients. We don't Know
bow many yearly =" into the Potter :
Field As we went on, the rain iia~h"d
and dropped about the dn"rways, add
ING more gloom I" the night. Let the
police 90 ahead and flash his lantern
upon the scene. Fourteen people
asleep in this one room, or trying TO get
asleep. some on few handlulS ri straw,
but more on the bare floor, neither
blanket nor pillow. You say this j. eH-
ccptional. Ii i not. Thousands sleep
night hy night with no better comfort.
one hundred and seventy thousand
families live i'll the greater "r lesser
squalor OF tenement houses. Their arc
a hall million OF people III New York
. diving by inches i'll tenement houses. Out
OF 5000 people who die in New York in
year, l4.C0O die in tenement
houses. No lung that God ever
made can Tor great while endure
such an atmosphere. In the Fourt
ward there are 1000 people crowded
I within the space Of thirty acres. Why
does not New York, like Liverpool,
clear out these cellars? Liverpool
/ cleared out 10000 Of such people and
saved not only the city from moral pes
/ thence. but saved many OF those who