Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-04-14
OF THE CITIES.
THE IDLE RICH, THE IDLE POOR, THE
DESPERATE, DANGEROUS POOR.

Dr. Talmage's Graphic Sketch Of the Dan
gerous Elements in City Life--Life in
aaae JaiIs, Cellars and Hospitais-The
Lava seethipg Below.
NEW YORK, April 10. DIR. Talmage,
IN continuance of the course of sermons
on THE Ten Plaques Of the Cities" to
day preached to large audiences in the
Brooklyn Academy of Music in the
forenoon and at The Christian Herald
service at the New York Academy Of
Music in the evening on The Plague
of Crime" He took for his text Exodus
vii, 20, "An the waters that were in
the river were turned to blood"
Among all the Egyptian plaques hone
could have been worse than this. The
Nile is the wealth of Egypt Its fish
Che food, its waters the irrigation of
garden and fields. Its condition de
cides the prosperity or the doom of the
empire. What happens to the Nile
happens to all Egypt. And now in
the text that great river is sincarnadined.
It is red cash across an empire. In
poetic license we speak of wars which
turn the rivers into blood. But my
text is not poetic license. 1t was
fact, great crimson, appalling condi-
tion described. The Nile rolling deep
of bloodi Can you imagine a more
awful plague1
The modern plague which nearest
corresponds with that is the plague of
crime in all our cities. It halts not for
bloodshed. 1t shrinks from no carnage.
and destroys. 1t revels in the blood of
body and soul--this plague of crime,
rampant for ages, and never bolder or
more rampant than now.
HORRORS Oh THE POLICE COURTS.
The annual police reports of these
cities as examine them are to me more
suggestive than Dantes Inferno, and
all Christian people as well as reform
ers need TO awaken to n present and
tremendous duty. If you want this
plague of Crime" to stop there are
several kinds of persons you need to
consider First the public criminals
You ought not to be surprised that
these people make up large portion
In many communities. The vast ma
jority of the criminals who take ship
from Europe come into our own port.
In 1869, of the forty-nine thousand peo-
pie who were incarcerated in the pris-
ons of the country thirty-two thousand
were of foreign birth. Many of them
were the very desperadoes of society,
oozing into the slums of our cities,
waiting for an opportunity to riot and
steal and debauch, joining the large
gang Of American thugs and cutthroats.
There are In this cluster of cities
New York, Jersey City and Brooklyn
four thousand people whose entire bust
ness In life Is to commit crime. That
is as much their business as jurisprud-
ence or medicine or merchandise Is
your business To II they bring all
their energies of body, mind and soul,
and they look upon the intervals which
they spend in prison as so much unfor
tunate loss of time, just as you look
upon an attack of influenza or rheuma-
tlsin which fastens you in the house Cor
a few days. 1t is their lifetime business
to pick pockets and blow up safes and |
shopllft and ply the panel game, and
they have as much pride of skill in
their business as you have in yours
when you upset the argument of an
counsel or cure gunshot
fracture which other surgeons have
given up, or foresee turn in the mar
ket as you buy goods just before they
60 up 20 per cent. Ii is their bust
ness to commit crime, and l do not
suppose that once in year the thought |
Of the immortality strikes them.
Added 10 these professional Grim
lnals, American and foreign, there is a
large class of men who are more or less
Industrious in crime. In one year the
police In this cluster of cities arrested
ten thousand people for theft and ten
thousand for assault and battery and
Iifty thousand for intoxication. Drunk
snneSs Is responsible for much of the
LbSita nAtAcS ~ Sciiltio0o ~ Aittil lutttS VI
and he gets his hands on
Ehings that do not belong TO him. Rum
Is responsible for much OF the assault
and battery, inspiring men TO sudden
bravery, which they must demonstrate,
though II be ON the face of the next
gentleman.
Ten million dollars worth of property
stolen In this cluster of cities In one
gear. You cannot, as good citizens, be
of.that fact. twill touch
your pocket, since have to give you
lhe fact that these three cities pay about
sight million dollars worth Of taxes n
gear 10 arraign, try and support the
population. You help to pay
Iho board of every criminal from tho
Ineak thief that snatches spool OF
sotton up 10 some man who owamps "a
bank. More than that, Il touches your
heart Ia the moral depression of the
You might as well think
% stand In a closely confined room
ghera there are ilfty people and yet not
1reathe the vitlated air as 90 stand In
, community where there Is such a
,roat lnultltude OF the depraved with.
,ut somewhat being contaminated.
What Is the tlro that burns your store
lown compared with the coniiagratlon
Ehlch consumes your nloralsl What
4 tho theft OF the gold and silver froln
i0ur money safo compared with the
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