The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-06-13

SANDS to torsake alcoholic for other and
more dangerous stimnlants. The police
magistrate is now confronted with opium-
smokers. laudanum-drlnkers hasheesh-
eaters and the slaves OF bromides, chlOral-
hydrlate, chloroform, ether, cocaine and
other deadly drugs. If the word intoxica-
lion We're used IN its genealogical sense,
being poisoned" instead of being res
stricted to the alcoholic phase, am certain
that its ratio to the population would be the
same, II not greater than it was when the
desire Tor physical excitement was confined
10 the use OF splrituous liquors.
ne same condition of affairs exists in re-
gard to. vice. The improvement which
optimistic thinkers vaunt so largely and
loudly is merely superficial. There has
been vast Improvement in its outward
mlen. The street-walker seldom dsfigures
the great thoroughfares, and the establish
ments which made night hideous with out
cry and orgy are now compelled to be quiet
and respectable in appearance and behavior.
In this respect New York has become the
most moral city of the civilized world
The seeming change for the better is due
partly to the efforts of the police, partly to
the action of public opinion, but CHI eay to
the discovery that vice is a far better pay
ing investment when clothed in respecta-
olllty and style than when displayed in
ODOA WaAbOuHcos. TUT LQlS reason new
York has become the Mecca of all depraved
women in the United States. LAST week
over fifty cases came before me officially,
IN which woman was the chief malefac-
tor. In every case they were of out-of-
town birth and breeding. In the most
prominent case, where a beautiful but
wicked woman attempted to avenge her
self upon man who had lost his affection
for her by charging him with an attempt
to murder her with poison, she proved to be
from Frankfort, KY, and her witnesses
and accompllces from other parts of the
union.
A marked change has occurred in the
green goods industry as the practice of
selling pretended counterfeit money has
been happily termed. Only ten years ago
there were hundreds engaged in the bust
ness, some of whom like Barney Mcguire,
Doc. Smythe and Tom Davis reaped hand
some fortunes from their nefarious calling
To-day, owing to wise legislation, the voca-
ton is well-nigh dead.
The same rule applies to garroting, high
way robbery, manslaughter and in general
to the coarser or more brutal forms of
crime. They belong to past age and die
out in the present one. Their fol-
lowers go into new fields. But the amount
or rather the ratio of crime and criminals
to the population remains unaltered, no
matter how much the forms max change.
1t may be asked if the iminal classes
are irreclaimable. Under present condi-
tons they are, most Individually The
machinery for the prevention and punition
of crime are superb, those for It's cure are
laughable. Yet it need not be so. Every
year millions are expended for the CONVEX
sion of moral and withdrawing Buddhists,
MoSlems, Brahmins and Confucians, who
would be unappreciablY bettered if they
were converted, which they never are,
which might and would convert thousands
of savages in this city who are fiercer,
wickeder and worse than any heather
known. The most horrible tale of pagan
i'm never equaled the case of the people
against Smith in my own court, in whic
a christian American, so-called, was con-
victed of having rubbed Tuning nitro acid
into the arms of little boys in order to in
crease their value as beggars by having the
limbs rot off in the presence of the public
What is needed is the regular visitation of
the poor and suffering, the improvement 10
living quarters, the reduction of rents to
conform with the reduction of wages that
has gone on during the past decade and a
greater care and scrutiny over the training
and nurture of the child
PATRICK G. AVAN DTTFFy