Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-04-13
THE TEN PLAQUES.
Rgv. TLLyAGg BREACHES on ANOiaaR FRUIT.
FUL TOPIC.
This Time he Morallz4s On the Different Grades
Of Crime The Air Of The Pnxh ard
The Stencil Of The Sllms-1hs Rem
sdy IS the Love Of Christ.

]
pens to all Egypt And now In the text
that great river IS incarnadIned. IL b.
red cash across an empire. In poetic
license we speak OF wars which turn tho
rivers into blood. But my text is not .
poetic license. II was a fact. 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 oi
crime in all our cities. IL halts not for
blood shed. 1t ShrinkS from no carnage.
1t bruises, and cuts, and strikes down
and destroys. IL revclS In the blood 1f
body and soul. this plague Of Grim"
rampant FOR ages. and never boldrr or
more rampant than now.
The annual police reports u theS"
cities as examine them are to me- NOR"
suggestive than DdHtc'S Inferno. and Oh
Christian people aS well As rcformer-
need to waken TO present aud trc-
mendous duty. II you want this
plague OF Crime" 10 stop, there are
several kinds Of perS )ns you need To
consider. First, the public criminals.
You ought not To be sur
prised that these people make
up large portion la many
communities. The vast majority OF the
criminals who take ship from Europe
come into our own port. In lSG9. OF
the forty-ninc thousand people wh0
were incarceratcd in the prisons Of lhr
country, thirty-two thousand were oi
foreign birth. Many Of them were thr
very deSpcradoes of society. oozing into
the SlumS Of our cities. waiting for au
opportunity to riot and steal aud de-
bauch, joining the large gang of Amer
can thugs and cut.throat>. There arc
I'm the cluSterOf cities New York. lcr
Sey City and Brooklyn -four Thousand
people whose entire business in iifr I-
to commit crime That o., o.. much
their business aS Jurisprudence or medl
cine or merchandise is your business.
\ GREAT CRIME RECORD.
Ten million dollars worth Of property
stolen I'm this cluster ~ cities in one
year. You cannot, a. good citizens. Boo
independent OF that fact. IL viii touth
your pocket. since have to give yOl
the facts that these three cities pay about
eight million dollars worth Of taNes
year TO arraign. try. and support The
criminal population. You help to pa
the board Of every criminal. from thr
Sneak-thicf that Snatches a spool oi cot
ton, to some man who swamps
bank. More than that. lttouchos your
heart In the moral depression Of th"
community. Nou might a well think
10 stand IN cloSely-contncd room
where there are fifty people and Yet NOT
breathe the vltiated air. as 10 stand boz
community where there Is such o great
multitude OF the dcprayed without some
what being contaminated What 3. tho
fire that burns yOur store down com.
pared with the cOnhogratiou which com
Sumes your morals? What is the thor
Of the gold and silver from your money
safe compared with the theft of your
childrcn's virtue?
We are all ready 20 arraign criminal.
We shout at the top Of our voice. "Stup
thief" and when the police get on th"
track we come ont. hatlcSs aud iu our
slippers. and assist in the arrest W.
come around the hawiug ruiliau and
hustle him of 10 Justice. and when hc
gets in prison, what do We do for him.
With great gusto we put on the hand
cuffs aud the hobbies. but what propl
ration are We making for the day when
the handouts and the hobbies come oH'
Society seems To say 10 these criminal.
"Nillan, 90 in there aud rot, when b.
ought 10 say, "lou are an offender
-
you an opportunity To repent. We mean
to help you. Here are Bibles and tracts
and Christian Influences. Christ died
for you. Look, and live.
Vast Improvements have been made
by introducing industries into the pri--
on; but wo want something more than
hammers and shoe lasts 10 reclaim these
people. Aye we want more than .-r-
mons on the Sabbath day. Society
must impress these men with the flrf
that it does not enjoy their suncriugs.
and that it is attempting 10 reform aud
elevate them. The majority " crimIn-
ais suppose that society has a grudgr
against them. and they iu turn have
grudge against society.
TmE AIR or PRI,oN..
In some Of the city prison, the air is
like that Oi the Black Hole of Calcutta.
have visited prisons where. %. the air
swept through the wicket. it almost
Knocked me down. No sunlight.
Young men who had committed their
first crime crowded iu among old of-
tenders saw IN one prison a woman.
with a child almost blind, who had been
arrested for the crime Of poverty. who
was waiting until the slow law could
take her 10 the almshOuse, where she
rightfully belonged but she was thrust
in there with her child amid the most
abandoned wretches Of the town Many
OF the offenders In that prison sleeping
on the floor, with nothing buta yermin-
covered blanket over them. Those pe0-
pie crowded and wan and wasted and
half suffOcated and infurlated. ! said
TO the men, How do you stand IL herc?'
"God knows" said one man, "we have
to stand it," Oh. they will pay you
you when they get ont. Where they
burned down one house they will burn
three They will strike deeper the a.-
sassin's knife. They are this minute
plotting worse burglaries. Some ~ The
city iails are the best places know of
TO manufacture fOOt.pads. yagabOnd,
and cut-thTOatS. Yale College is u0i -r
well calculated 10 make scholars. nor
Harvard so well calculated 20 make
scientists, nor Princeton 80 well calcI-
lated 10 make theolOgians. a. many oi
our jails are calculated 20 make crlm'-
mails. All that those men do not know
OF crime after they have been in thar
dungeon for some time. Satanic machi
nation cannot teach them. IN the ln
snfferable stencil and sickening >pr
roundings Of such places there is moth
Ing but disease for the body, idiocy ior
the mind. and death for the soul Sufed
air and darkness and yermin never
turned a thief into an honest man.
We want men ike John Howard and
Sir william Blackstone, and women
like Elizabeth Fry. 20 do for the prison
NJ the United States what those pcop."
did in other DAYS for the prison of
England. thank God for what Isaac
r Hopper and DR.. Wises and Mr.. iar-
ris and scores Of others have done Doe
the way Of prison reform: but we want
something more radical before will come
the blessing u him who -aid 'l ~f-
In prison. aud yr rainr na''
me.
ICoutnued an Thtrd Pogc