Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-04-17

beth Fry to do for the prisons OF the United
States what those people did in other days
for the prisons of England. thank God
for what Isaac I. Hopper and DR.. Wines
and Mr.. Harris and scores of Others have
done in the way Of prison reform, but we
want something more radical before viii
come the blessing of him who said, II was in
prison, and ye came unto me"
Again, in your effort to arrest this plague
| of crime you need to consider Enthusiastically
| officials WOE unto thee, 0 land, when thy
king is child, and thy princes drink in the
morning" 1t is d great calamity to city
when bad men get into public authority.
| Why was it that in New York there was
such unparalleled crime between 1865 and
4 1912 1t was because the Judges of police in
that city at that time for the most part were
as corrupt as the vagabonds that came before
/ them for trial, Those were the days OF high
| carnival for election frauds. assassination
and forgery. We had all kinds of rings.
| There was one man during those years that
| got one hundred and twenty-eight thousand
dollars in one year for serving the public
IL is no compliment to public authority
| when we have in all the cities of the country,
walking abroad, men and women notorious
for criminality unwbippsd of Justice. They
are pointed out to you in the street day by
| day. There you find what are called the
fences" the men who stand between the
| thief and the honest man, sheltering the
| thief. and OF a great price handing over the
goods to the owner to whom they belonged.
There you will find those who are called the
"skinners," the men who hover around Wall
street, with great sleight of hand in bonds
and stocks. There you find the funeral
| thieves, the people who go and sit down and
mourn with families and pick their pockets.
Aud there you find the confidence men,
l hn of hoCquc0 fhpV
have dead child in the house and want to
bury it, when they never had house or
family; or they want to 60 to England and
get large property there, and they want
| YOU to pay their way aud they will send the
money back by the very next mail.
There are the "harbor thieves" the
''shoplifters," the 'pickpockets," famous
all over the cities: Hundreds of them with
their faces in the Rogues' Gallery, yet do
lug nothing for the last five or ten years
but defraud society and esclps justice.
When these people go unarrested and I'M
punished it is putting a high premium
upon vice and saying to the young GRIMM
ais of this country, what a safe thing it
is TO be a great criminalw Let the law
swoop upon them Let it be known in
this country crime will hive no quarter;
that the detectives are after it; that the
police club is being brandished that the iron
Judge is ready to call on the case. Too great
ieniency to criminals is too great severity to
society.
Again in your effort to arrest this plague
If crime you need TO consider the idle popu-
Iation. OF course l do not refer to people
who are getting old or to the sicS or to those
who cannot get work. but tell you to look
out for those athletic men and women who
will not work. When the French noblemau
| 81 bo WIN ha hQd ca
large property, he said. II keep on engrav-
ing so | may not hang myself" / do not
care who the man is, you cannot afford to be
idle. 1t is from the idle classes that the
criminal classes are made up. Character,
like water, gets putrid if it stands still too
long. Who can wonder that in this world,
where there is so much to do, and all the
hosts of earth and heaven and hell are
pIunging into the conflict and angels are fly
ing and God is at work aud the universe is
a-9uake with the marching and counter
marching, that God lets His indignation fall
upon a man who chooses idleness
| have watched these do-DothingS who
spend their time stroking their beard and
retouching their toilet and criticising in
| dustrious people, and pass their days and
nights in barrooms ana Cub houses, loung-
ing and smoking and chewing and card
PLAYING They are not only useless, but
| they are dangerous. How hard it is for
them to while away the hours! Alas, for
them If they 40 not know how to while
away an hour what will they do when
they have all eternity OH their hands,
| These men for while smoke the best cigars
and wear the best clothes and move in the
highest spheres but | have noticed that
very soon they come down to the prison, the
almshouse, or stop at the galows.
The police stations of this cluster of cities
| furnish annually between two and three hun
bred thousand lodgings. Forthe most part
these two and three hundred thousand lodg-
legs are furnished to able bodied men aud
wOmen-people as able to work as you and
are. When they are received no longer at
one police station because they are repeat
ers' they 60 to some other station AMI SO
they keep moving around They get their
food at house doors, stealing what they can
Law their hands on in the front basement
while the servant is spreading the bread IN
the back basement. They viii not work.
Time and again, in the country dlStricts'
thew have wanted hundreds and thousands
of laborers. These men will not go. They
do not want to work. / have tried them. l
have set them to saving wood In my ceiiar
70 see whether they wanted u wors. l Of
fered to pay them we'll for it, have heard
the saw going for about three minutes, ana
then " emit down. and To- the wood but no
saw They are the pest OF society, ana thsy
stand in the way of the Lords poor VINO
who ought to be helped, and must be helped,
and will be helped.
While there are thousands ofindustriou'
men who cannot get any work, these men
who do not want any work come IN anu
make that plea. | am in favor OF the res
toration of the Old fashioned whipping post
for inst this one class of men VINO will not
work-sleeping at night at puOllc ex-
pense in the station house; during the day
getting their food at your doorstep I'M
prisonment ioes not scare them lhsy
would like It. Blackwelrs Island or Sing
| Sing would be a comfortable home tOr tnem.
They would have no objection 10 the aims
house for they like thin soup, II they can
not get mock turtle.
nroposs this for them On one side OF
them put some healthy WORK; on the other
side put a rawhide and lei them take their
choice. ] like Tor that class OF people the
scant bill Of fare that Paul wrote out for
the Thessalonian loafers IF any work not,
neither should he eat By what law OF
God or man is ii right that you and ] should
toll day in and day out. until our hands are
| biisteTe1 and our arms ache and our BRAN
gets numb, and then be called upon to sup
port what in the United States are about
two million losfers They are very danger
Gus class Let tie public authorities keep
their eyes on them.
Again, among the uprooting classes place
the oppressed poor. Poverty to a certain
extent is Christening but after that when it
drives a man TO the wall, and he hears his
children cry in vain for bread. it sometimes
makes him desperate. think that there are
thousands of honest men lacarated into vaga-
bondism Thera are men crushed under
burdens for which they are not half paid.
While there is no excuse for cTiminality,
even in oppression, | state it as a simple fact
that much of the scoundrelism Of the COM
munity is consequent upon ill-treatment.
There are many men and women battered
AMI bruised and stung until the hour of de-
spair has come, and they stand with the
ferocity of wild beast which, pursued until
it can run no longer, turns round, foaming
and bleeding, to fight the hounds.
There is a vast underground New York
and Brooklyn life that is appalling and
shameful II wallows aud steamS with puire-
faction. You go down the stairs, which are
wet and decayed with filth, and at the bot
tom you find the poor victims on the floor,
cold, sick, three-fourths dead, sinking iuto
still darker corner under the glenn Of the
lantern of the police. There has not been a
breath Of fresh air in that room for five