Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-12-02
A PLAIN TALK.

A PLAIN TALK.
One of the leading clergymen of San
Francisco has been talking very plainly to
the people of that city about the wicked
ness of the metropolis. A great seaport
town is always a wicked one, but this
preacher has evolved from his reasoning
the novel doctrine that as the sun is fol-
lowed in its course the wickedness of cities
augments For instance, he said:
If statistics are to be believed San Francisco
is the wickedest city in Christendom. l hold in
my hand the report of Chief of Police Crowley
for the fiscal year ending June 80, 1886: The
Chief reports 26, 565 arrests in population of
go, 600. In other words, one arrest for every
nine persons. Compare this with Chicago and
we find the proportion of arrests to the popula-
ton to be one in sixteen; in Philadelphia ii is
one in twelve; in New York one in eighteen. A
great number of these arrests are misdemeanors
not ranked as crimes. Over IA, 600 such are re-
ported. This leaves l2,07S crimes properly so
called, or, in other words, one person in every
twenty-one of the population of San Francisco
commits crime. The same fact obtains in other
cities Making the same application to New
York that city shows one in forty-two. There
were twenty murders in San Francisco last year
and 112 attempts. In London there were only
sixteen last year. In other words, there was one
murder to oyery 1900 of population. In Paris
there is only one murder to every 1852 of pop
ulatiOn. In London only one in every 2SS, SSS.
These figures are startling. Beginning with
London, il seems that the cities grow worse
westward until we find here on this golden
shore the elimination of the great wave.
This is very courageous pulpit talk to a
people about themselves, but it is not at all
likely any one will cross lances with DIR.
Sprecher, for, as has been shown, her forti-
fies himself with statistics Coming down
to the causes of this vicious state of the
San Francisco public, the preacher laid the
blame first at the door of the saloon; next
at the door Of the executive and judicial
Offices, for non-enforcement and the delays
Of the law, though he subsequently ex-
cused them because of want of public sup
port; third, lack of moral sentiment in
the community to render prompt enforce
ment of the lawspossible; fouth, bad train
ing of children; lastly, impure politics and
contempt for religion.
In the third specification the speaker
covered the chief cause for criminal domi-
nance-lack of moral sentiment as fortif-
cation to the law. But a chief cause Of
that he neglected to mention, and that is
the impure literature of the day. The ed.
ucation of the people is largely dependent
upon current periodical literature their
sensibilities harden, not from contact with
crime, for only the few are witnesses to It's
commission, but from reading its literature
and printed matter in varied forms, that
gid and excuse vicious and demoralizins
influences, and the perusal of matter
that creates false ideas, appeals to the pas
slons and corrupts the moral sentiments.
We venture the assertion that could an ac-
curate and full census be taken in the
case, it would demonstrate that seven
out of ten Of the youths who are lawless or
criminal, who are in training for prison
and the igallows, are readers Of vicious lit
erature, and especially that of the flash
press. Familiarity with accounts of crime
and debauchery deaden the sensihilities
and render the nature callous to the enor-
nifty of vice. Rum and the vile haunts of
a great city have great deal to do with
the training of youth for criminal paths,
but the chief ally of the spirit of evil is
the influence that plants the seeds of vice
in the mind. That which renders a COM
munity inssnsible to the dangers of vicious
growth is ehargeable, as a matter of course,
with the results. Said the speaker referred
to: "a generation is growing up in this
city as violent, impure, immoral and Grim
inal as ancient Rome; l look with fear
and trembling to the result"
Precisely; and let him search for the
roots of the evil, and he will find them
largely in street and secret literature, that
begins to poison the mind, harden the con-
science and deaden the sensibilities of the
child from the day it is capable of reading
and understanding, or seeing and being
influenced by pictorial vice.
The full import of our charge; the full
significance of the truth to which we refer
the alarming extent and power of the in
fuence we have indicated, can be appreci-
ated only by those who have given some
special attention to the subject. We again
aver, extravagant though it may seem, that
more potent for i'll than strong drink
more dangerous than dives; more men
acing than the slums; more debasine
than the house of the harlot, and alto
gether more mischievous and contamina.
ting than the companionship of the
vicious, is the almost incaleulable variety
and multitude of fendish prints, books
papers and publications that sow the seeds
for the crop of vice, in San Francisco, and
for the harvest of ruined men and women
in the great cities of the land