Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-08-07

flowers are born equal. or trees are
born equal, or animals are born equal.
Why does one horse cost 800 and an
other horse cos 100000? Why does
one sheep cost so and another sheep
cost $500p Differences in blood. We
are wise enough to recognize the differ
encc Of blood i'm horses, in cattle. in
sheep, but we are not wise enough to
make allowance for the difference in
the human blood. Now | demand by
| the law of eternal fairness, that YOU be
more lenient in your criticisms of those
who were born wrong, in whose ances-
ira line there was "a hangmans knot.
or who came from "A tree the fruit of
which for centuries has been gnarled
and worm eaten. DR.. Harris, Il re-
former, gave some marvellous Stats
tics in his story of what he called
Margaret. the Mother OF Criminals"
Ninety years ago she lived in a village
in upper New York state. She was
not only poor but she was v%iciouo.
she was not well provided for. There
were no almshouses there. The pub
lie, however, somewhat looked after
her, but chiefly scoffed at her, and
derided her, and pushed her far
Their down in her crimes. That was
ninety years ago. There have been
623 persons in that ancestral line, two
hundred of them criminals. In one
branch of that family there were TWEEN
ty and nine of them have been in state
prison and nearly ell of the Others
have turned out badly. 1t is estimated
that that family cost the county and
state 500, 900, To say nothing " the
property they destroyed. Are you not
willing, as sensible people. to acknowl-
edge that it is n fearful disaster to be
born in such an
ANCESTRAL LINEp
Does it not make a great difference
whether one desceDds from Margaret,
the mother of criminals, or from some
mother in Israel? whether you arc the
son of Ahab, or the son of Joshua? 1t
is a very different thing TO swim with
the current as some of you no doubt
found in your summer recreation. If
a man find himself in an ancestral cur
Ithb Jitlt lliElC IL HOpl DlO'h u
smoothly from generation to genera
ton, it is not a very great credit to him
if he turn out good, and honest, and
pure, and noble. He could hardly help
it. But suppose he is born, in IN an
%cestral line, in "A hereditary line, where
the influences have been bad and there
has been Il coming down over a moral
declivity, if the mar surrender to the
influences he will 90 down under the
overmastering gravitation unless some
supernatural aid be afforded him. Now,
such a person deserves not your excor-
%iation, but your pity. Do not sit with
the lip curled in scorn, and with an as.
sumed air of angelic innocence looking
down upon such moral precipitation.
You had better get down on your knees
and first pray to Almighty God for their
rescue, and next thank the Lord that
you have M been thrown under the
wheels of that Juggcrnaut.
In Great Britain and in the United
States, in every generation, there are
tens of thousands of persons who are
fully developed criminals and i~ncarcer
ated. | say, in every generation
Then, | suppose, there are tens o.
thousands of persons who, not posi-
lively becoming criminals, nevertheless,
have a criminal tendency. Any one o.
all those Il ousands by the grace o.
God may become Christian and resis'
the
ANCESTRAL INFLUENCE,
and open a new chapter of behavior
but the vast majority of them will not
and it becomes all men, professional
unprofessional, ministers of religion
Judges of courts, philanthropists and
Christian workers, to recognize the
fact that there are these Atlantic and
Pacific hereditary evils rolling or
through the centuries
say. of course, a man can resist
this tendency, just rs the ancestral line
mentioned in the first chapter o.
Matthew. You see in the same line in
which there was Il wicked Rehoboan
and a desperate Manassas. there after
ward came a pious Joseph and glor
ious Christ. But, my friends, yot
must recognize the fact that these in
~tluences 90 on from generation to gen
Grafton. | am glad tp AEow, however
that a river which has produced moth
inc but miasma for a hundred piles
may after a while turn the wheels o
factories and help support ir4ustriou'
and y%irtuous populations, and there
are family lines which were poisoned
that are a be~nedictiJn now. AT tn,
last day it will b. found out that Their,
are mel who lave gone clear over into
all forms o. iniquity and plunged into
other Abandonment, who before they
yielded to the first temptation resisted
more evil than many a man who
has been moral and upright
all his life. But supposing now,
that in this age when there are SO
many good people, that come down
into this audience and select the very
Iest man in it. | do no: mean the
man who would style himself the best,
for probably he is a hyrocrita; but ]
mean the mM who hefo e God is really
the best. | will take You out from al
your Christian surroundings. | will
take yo" back to bovhCCd. will put
you in a derraved home. ] ~ill put
you in a cradle of iniqu'ty. Who i,
that JnnIinr, D,n,. tbat nrol1aD IN