The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1880-01-22
cincinnati Gazette.1
Cincinnati-Decay of MOrals-Can it be
Remedied9

An old and intelligent merchant not
long since complained of the preva-
lence of vice and immortality in Gin
cinnati. Whether this be so or not,
there is enough, according to the
newspapers, to startle and alarm a
good citizen for the future fame of
this great city. Beautiful in situation
and growing in material prosperity,
why should it suffer this reproach?
It is true that all cities contain large
mass Of vice and corruption. Where
the carcass is, there the eagles are
gathered, and, it should be added,
there the buzzards gather to feed on
the carrion. johnson, in his Lon
don" says:
Here malice, rapine, accident, conspire,
And And now rabble , RACES snfSSsa now fire;
ee oase s sGrneg nagepp Sn 1F
And here a female atheist talks you dead.
Comparatively, perhaps even coun-
try villages contain a proportion of
vice and scandal. But there is great
difference among towns in this res
pect, and to this difference and its
causes we should turn our attention.
What makes this difference? Why is
it that some towns are quiet, orderly,
and moral, and others are not? To
my mind the reason is evident; but
perhaps others may not agree with
me. In those communities where the
laws are enforced, where there is in
telligent Christian sentiment, and
where Christians think it is their du-
ty to act as well as preach, there is
peace, quietness, and comparatively
little vice. There always will be a
few vicious persons, and there always
will be some vice hid behind the coun-
ter, but there is no fragrant, faring,
impudent exhibition of vice, no bold
defiance of the law. 1t will be a quiz
ct, decent community where people
can live at peace, and not have their
sensibilities roughly excited every day.
Paris used to be the most vicious town
in Europe; but Paris was decent. The
police compelled people to be decent.
Vice was civil, decent, and polite.
Can that be said of Cincinnati? If
we are to believe the newspapers, vice
is the boldest thing in the city, and
the one which, if we are to believe
some accounts, is most feared by the
pulpit as well as the police. If this
be true, Cincinnati has acquired the
vices without the decencies of Paris.
We hear lately great deal said about
music, and art, and institutions of art,
and sort of boasting that we are su-
perior in these things. In themselves
they are estimable and agreeable, but
it is not very consolatory to know
that they have fourished most in the
most corrupt cities upon earth, and
that they have been made the instru-
ments Of vice, rather than of virtue,
as the ruins Of Babylon, Rome, and
Pompeii abundantly testify. Nor is it
more consolatory to know that half
the care and money bestowed upon
them would have given strength to
the cause Of law, order. and virtue.
The world has had to suffer more from
its pleasure, i'll directed, than it ever
did from the pains Of labor imposed
upon it by original sin. The ruins of
the earth teach the sad lesson of pleas
ures corrupted. But let us stop by
the way to inquire whether there is no
remedy for a fast approaching evil.
Juvenal painted Rome, and johnson
London, in the same colors, which, we
are afraid, must, in large degree, be
applied to Cincinnati, though we Ger
tainly hope not to such an extreme
Rome perished, but London lives, we
may hope, in some manner reformed
by that Christian salt which alone
gives saving strength in Christian
country. But what remedies have we?
In the first place, the law, although
quite defective, would have preserved
Cincinnati from its present evils had
it been enforced. The law is the evi-
dence of the collective will of the peo-
pie. But the people are just like an
individual who admits certain great
principles, embodies them in rules of
conduct, and resolves that he will OBJ
serve them, then goes out and fails.
But the individual has the power to
reform, and often does, so as to be
conspicuous example of virtue and
good conduct. The community has
the same power, and now Cincinnati
is called upon to answer this question:
Will it obey its own laws? Will it
reform its own conduct? The moral