The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1891-04-22
PLAGUE OF CRIME.
DIR. TaLMAGE DiscOuRsEs ON LAW
BREAKING.

BREAKING.
Police Reports of New York and Brook
lyn More Suggestive Than Dante's In
ferno-Ways Outlined in which Chris
tians Should Work to Arrest This
Plague.
New YORK, April i2.-Dr. Talmage,
in continuance of the course o. sermons
on 1.-THE Ten Plaques of the Cities" to-
day preached to large audiences IN the
Brooklyn Academy Of Music IN the tore
noon and 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, 70,
aAll the waters that were. in the river
were turned to blood"
Among all the Egyptian plaques none
could have been verse than this. Inc
Nile is the wealth ofEgypt. Its fish the
food. Its waters the irrigation OF gar
den and fields. It's condition decides the
prosperity or the doom of the empire.
What happens to the Nile happens 10
all Egypt. And now in the text that
Great river is incarnadined. 1t IS areo
cash across an empire. In poetic license
we speak of wars which turn the rivers
into blood, But my text IS not a poeuc
licenser It was tact, great crimson
appalling condition described. The Nile
rolling deep of blood. Can you imagine
a more awful plague?
The modern plague which nearest
Corresponds with that IS the plague OF
zrime in all our cities. It halts not Tor
bloodshed. It shrinks from no carnage.
II bruises. and cuts, and strikes down,
and destroys, It revels in the blood OF
body and soul, this plague OF crime
rampant for ages, and never oolcer OF
more rampant than now.
The annual police reports OF these
cities as Iexamine them are to me more
suggestive than Dante's Inferno, and all
Christian people as well as retormers
need to waken to present and tremen-
dous duty. 1fyou want this Plague OF
Crime'' to stop, there are serveral k!ndS
= of persons you need to consider. flrst,
the public criminals. You ought not to
be surprised that these people make up
large portion. in many communi-
ties. The vast majority Of the crlm-
inals who take ship from Europe come
into our own port. In 1869, OF tne
$4,000 people who were lncaIcerateo IN
the prisons of the country, 1900 were
of foreign birth. Many Of them were
5 the very desperadoes OF society, oozing
Z into the slums of our cities, waiting tor
an opportunity to riot and steal and
dabauch, ioining the large gang OF
American thugs and cut throats. There
are in this cluster Of cities-NeW ork,
Jersey City and Brooklvn-4,OOO peo-
ple whose entire business ID LIE Is 10
conamit crime. That IS as much their
business as jurisprudence or medicine
or merchandise IS your business. 10 l.
they bring all their energies OF body,
mind, and soul, and they look upon the
intervals which they spen" IN prison as
so much unfortunate loss OF time, just
as you look upon an attack OF influenza
or rheumatism which fastens you IN
the house for few days. 1t IS their
Efe-time business to pick-pockets, and
blow up safes, and shopilft, and ply the
panel game, and they have as mucn
pride Of skill II their business as you
have in yours when you upset the argu-
ment OF an opposing counsel, Or cure a
gunshot fracture which other sur
gsons have given up, or foresee turn
OF the market as you buy goods just be-
fore they go Up twenty per cent. II IS
their business to commit crime. and do
mot suppose that once in a gear the
theught of the immortality strikes them.
ADDED to these professional criminals,
American and foreign, there Is a large
class Of men who are more or less INDUS
tious in CRIME. In one year tne
police in this cluster of cities arrested
10000 people for theft, and 10000 tor
assault and battery, and $4,000 tor III
toxieattion. Drunkenness is respen-
sible for much Of the theft, since it con-
fuses mans ideas of property, and he
gets his hands on things that do not
belong to him. Rum is responsible tor
much Of the assault and battery, lnsplr-
ing men to sudden bravery, which they
must demonstrate though it be on the
face of the next gentleman.
Ten million dollars worth of property
stolen in this cluster Of cities ID one
year. You cannot, as good citizens, be
independent of that fact. It will touch
ycur pocket, since haye to give you the
fact that these three cities pay about
$4,000, 900, worth Of taxes year to ar
ralgn, try and support the criminal pop
1lation. You help to pay the board Of
every criminal from the sneak-thlef that
snatches a spool Of cotton up to some
man who swamps a bank. More than
that, it touches your heart in the moral
depression af the community. You
might as well think to stand IN closely
confined room where there are fifty peo
pie and yet rot breathe the Vitiated air,
as to stand in community where there
IS such a great multitude Of the depraved
without somewhat being contaminated.
What is the fire that burns your store
down compared with the conhagration
which consumes your morals? What IS
the theft of the gold and silver from
your money safe compared with the
theft of your children'svirtue:
We are all ready to arcaign criminals.
We shout at the top Of our voice, 'Stop
tmefW and when the police get on the
track we come out, hatless and IN our
slippers, and assist in the arrest. We
come around the bawllng ruffian aud
hustle him of to justice, when he
gets in prison. what do we do for BIN?
I With great gusto we put Cd the hand
cuffs and the hopples: but what prepara-
ton are we making for the day when
the handouts and the hopples come of?
Society seems to say to these criminals,
81 VILLAIN, 60 there and rot" when i
ought to say, ''You are an offender
against the law, but we mean to give
20. axx,a.4,,r,;txr % ro,aant. we