The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-06-13
TALMAGE ON THE WAITS.
A TERRIBLE ARMY OF YOUTHFUL
SINNERS,

Lecture.
From, the Baltimore American.
BROOKLYN, June S.-Rev. DR.. T. Dewitt
Talmage tonight, at the tabernacle, talked
on "The Waits of the Streets" He said.
Patrick Campbell, superintendent of the
Brooklyn police, who keeps his Office
through all styles of Observation-Disclosures
publican, democrat and mugwump-be-
cause he is unequaled for skill and fidelity
In that position, and the city cannot do
without him, this week sends me copy of
his annual report; and document more
thrilling for facts and statistics has not for
a long time come to my table. The
STYLE of crimes committed, the occu-
pations and professions from which
fhe criminal classes come, the
4.2S4 who had no occupation at all, the /, 116
persons who, in this city of good schools,
could neither read nor write, make up a
budget of information that every good citi-
zen should study. All nationaliies are
represented in this black column of crime
England 759, Germany 2, IT'S, Ireland 6,379,
United States IL, 1852 China 90. That proves
tnat the Chinese must CO. II they cannot
steal better than that, we cannot have
them here. Only 90 from China, as
compared with the more than 1900
Of one nationality, and the more than
5000 of another and the more than L, 900
Of another, shows such lack of enterprise in
crime that we cannot stand these Mongo-
lans. Besides that, the most of these
Chinese are engaged in the business of
washing, and we do not want to be washed.
The removal of so much dirt exposes the
system to sudden colds. AS the Chinese,
according to this annual report, show such
dullness for crime, and, as it is generally
established that they are doing such devas-
tating work with soap and water and wash
ing machine, / propose for the political
platforms of all the parties the following
plank: "Confound the Chinese"
But nothing in this police report 50 i'm
presses me as the thirty eighth page, which
states that among the arrests of the last
wear were 1,104 children between the ages
of and IA, and 4, 1893 youths between the
ages of 10 and 20, The biggest school in
Brooklyn and the bigg at school in all the
cities is the street.
1t has got to be question of stupendous
import what is to be done with the destitute
children of our streets, or the ragamuffins,
as society contemptuously calls them We
must act upon them or they will act upon
us. We must christianize them or they will
heathenize us.
All over this Land, what multitudes of
the homeless and the houseless and the god
less Could you gather them all together,
what scene of rags, and filth, and hunger
and desolationl If you could see those little
feet on the broad way to death, which,
through christian charity, ought to be
pressing the narrow path of life; if YOU
could hear the words of cursiug blistering
those lips which ought to be singing the
praises of God, if you could see those hearts
which, at that age, ought not to have been
soiled by one vile thought, already become
the sewers Of iniquity, through which floats
the most disgusting depravity; if you could
see these suffering little ones sacrificed on
the altar of every iniquitous passion, and
scalded with baptism of fire from the very
lava of the pit-your soul would recoil from
the scene, crying, 'Begone, thou dream of
hellp
The Spartans, who threw their sickly
children to the wild beasts, were merciful,
compared with that stolid indifference
which, in this age, would give up the desti-
tute youth of our country to be eaten up of
their own depravity.
ON THE ROAD TO RUIN
These so-called ragamuffins are coming
up to be the men and women. That spark
ofiniquity which you might put out with one
drop Of the water of life, will fame up into
confagration of every green thing that
God planted in the soul, and that which was
will be a SCARED and blasted ruin, every
light quenched, and every altar in the dust.
The petty thief, who slipped into your store
and TOOK a yard of cloth from your counter,
will be the highwayman of the forest, or
the burglar at midnight, picking the lock of
your money-safe, and blowing up your
store to hide the villainy. A great army,
with staggering step, and bloodshot eye and
drunken boot, they will come on, gathering
recruits from every grog-shop and den of
infamy, to take the ballot-box and hurrah
at the elections.
The great, hard-knotted fist of ruffian-
ism will have more power than the gentle
hand of sobriety and intelligence Men
bloated, and with the signature of crime
burned in from the top of their forehead to
the bottom of their chin, will look honest
men out of countenance Moral corpses
which ought to be buried hundred feet
deep to keep them from poisoning the air,
will rot in the face of the sun at midday.
Industry, in her plain frock, with her hand
at the spindle, will be unappreciated, while
multitudes of able-bodied men will wander
about in utter idleness, with their hands
on their hips, saying: "The world owes us
living
Oh, what terrible force there is in In
iquity when, uneducated, unrestrained and
unblanched, it goes on concentrating and
deepening, and widening, and gathering
momentum, until it swings ahead with a
very triumph of desolatIon, drowning like
surges, scorching like fame, crushing like
rocksl
Cold Indifference meets these desperate
ones, and says: "What PITY but it can't
be helped The law meets them and says:
The house of correction and the prison are
the places for you" Fashionable fastidious-
ness meets them, and, gathering up its
robes, says: They are so dirty cannot
bear to have them touch me-"
A city missionary gives his conversation
with one of these outcasts:
We'll, my boy, what do you wantp
A homo, please, sir"
What is your namep
"Hain't got no name, sir; the boys call
me Pickety"
Well, Pickety, where do you liver
Don't hive nowhere, sir"
But where do you stay"
Il don't stay nowhereS in the daytime
but sleeps in hay barges, sir. and some
times in dry goods boxes ard down on the
bteamgratings in winter till the NJ P.'s
come along, and just now a cove has taken
me IN at the iron bridge at Harlem"
Iron bridget What do you meanp
Why, them holler iron things what holds
the bridge up he got it first and he lets
me in"
"Pickety. who is your fatherl"
"hain't got no father, sir; he died afore /
Knew, and mo mither, she drinked and bate
mo- and we was put out by the landlord,
CHI u i'll ID IL 4 49,