The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-01-08

I
' original rental. It is common for thirty an
forty children to sleepin single room Is
~ feet. These are the scenes Of defilemer
and pestilence in which thousands of chi
dren are reared. Theironly education is OF
/ tanned in such homes ana in the streets roun
! about them. They are constant witnesses {
u drunkenness which grows out OF this state {
\ physical defilement. and thus become fami
/, lar with beastly scenes. ~ = L
4 From these dens and haunss issue the Law
! less, roaming and deserted children Of til
Metropolis, over fifty thousand in number
] One-half OF these dine out,9 living OF
garbage and sleeping under porticos
4 sheds, carts. the dry arches OF bridges AM
4 viaducts, in out houses, saw pits, stair cases
ia the open air, or in those cheap lodging
houses where forty are placedein small
room l2x1S. the floor Of which is covered will
straw, shayings or old rags, and where the.
pay apenny each for the nights aecommo
dation. In one'of these rooms, to which thu
writer was carried by the incumbent'of one
OF the Peekham churches, he counted TWEEN
ty-eighta men and women, thirty children
and four dogs. The room was without ligh
or air, alive with vermin and the constant
scene OF immortality which cannot be describ
ed. 1t is in such haunts that the larger part
OF the crime which is committed is conceal
ed. They are but nurseries or breeding
places for the prisons; the homes of wild,
neglected, lawless children. These gansiaa
are seen in every part of London. They are
bold, pert and dirty, half starved, half clad,
haggard, yet vivacious. They talk obscene
slang, raise the shout of laughter at the reel
ing drunkard, pick pockets and prowl in all
directions in search of prey. Their only ed
ucation is obtained in their lodging houses
or gathered from the fostering cutters. The
principal part of their education consists in
learning the art Of picking pockets and CONS
mitting other crimes without detection. To
facilitate the work of instruction, the profess
sors, who are aged and experienced old
rogues, who have retired from active life, re-
sort to many ingenious devices and contri-
vances. Among those for testing the inge-
nuity and skill Of youth aspiring to become
a pick-pocket, is lay figure suspended by a
small elastic chord from bell fastened in
the ceiling. Stuffing the pockets of this figure
with port-monies. pencil cases, handker-
chiefs, ETC., they are then buttoned up and
the senior class of light-fngered gentry is
brought in for instruction, The professor
now diligently practices them mall the arts
and ways of emptying the pockets OF the lay
figure without sounding the bell. Those
who perform the task again and again with
dexterity, are graduated and sent abroad to
prey upon the public, while those who do
not, are soundly fiogged. If after repeated
hoggings and months of instruction, they
do not acquire the requisite delicacy OF touch
and agility Of action to perform such slight
ofhond feats, they are permanently passed
into another class and become apprentices to
less difficult branches of the robbipg profess
sion. s<
In the complicated state of modern society
there are many causes operating to produce
the crime that nestles in the streets of the
great cities, which meets us at every turn in
the rural districts, which haunts US in our
going out and coming in, which spares nei-
tker age nor sex. 1t may be born OF igno.
rance, of depravity, Of want, but above all
it must be set down to intemperance; to the
whiskey bottle and the sinpalace. These
are the fruitful sources of the frightful de-
moralization of the people. In London there
are 10000 gin drinkers, who spend $l5,-
100000 year in this spirituous drink alone.
During period of thirteen years $4,000
males anG lS3,920 females were taken in
custody in London alone, for being drunk
and disordery. OF the ten or twelve thou
sand charges entered annually at Bow Street
police station, one half are for being drunk.
Mr.. Samuel Warren, author of ZEN thousand
a yeGr,'' who was in 1871 Recorder of Hull,
in the course of long and luminous charge
TO the grand jury, recently said: ''As all
crimes have their origin in intemperance or
ignorance, there are two causes to which it
IS your duty to pay particular attention -
$4,000 persons are annually committed to
prison in Scotland, 10000 in England and
it is estimated that 90 per cent of these
crimes arose out of the drinking custom of
society. These are terrible facts.
The existence Of the dangerous classes, to
which we have referred briefly, in the midst
Of modern society, under the shadow of our
churches and schools and libraries, is one OF
The most deplorable incidents connected
withth Wanted progress of the age. Glasses
who owe nothing to society, but bitter
grudge-who owe nothing to, as they never
derive anything from, civilization. The fero-
city OF these classes was brought to light in
Paris by the French Commune-classes Of
whose existencesscarcely any one had pre-
vious knowledge, and greatly added to the
horrors and terrors of that era of crime and
bloodshed. Asst and his associates were
little else than ''tiger apes, demons in hui
man shape. They were gaunt, inhuman,
merciless and savage; frightfully democrat
lied brood, who sprung as if from the earth
and filled the streets of the city, the halls of
the Tuileries and the saloons OF the
aristocracy. All law and order was over
turned and these barbarians held for time
supreme command. Everybody knows the
excess and crimes of that second 'sreign of
terror" There cannot be doubt that Lon
don contains an equally savage race of "tiger
apes ready to rush forth, on the least occa-
sion, to commit the equally savage and
revolving excuses.
s.The world is not their friend, or the
worlds law" Nor have they any idea of
the governing authorities than that they
constituted an armed despotism which pre-
vents their earning a livelihood. They hate
all law, because they are taught to believe
that it is but tyranny administered for
their oppression. They have no idea of re-
ligious or moral principles, and when
they are aroused, what is to restrain
the exercise OF their grossest passions?