The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-04-29
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: 'The Plague of Crime"

Subject: "The Plague of Crime"
TEXT: "AU the ,caters that ,oere in tn
20.
Among all the Egyptian plaques none could
have been worse than this. The Nile is the
wealth of Egypt. Its fish the food, its waters
the irrigation of garden and fields. Its con
the empire. What happens to the Nile hap
pens to all Egypt. And now in the text thai
great river is incarnadined It's q 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
a fact, a great crimson, appalling condition
described. The Nile rolling deep of blood
Can you imagine a. more awful plague?
The modern plague which nearest CORE.
spends with that is the plague of crime in
all our cities. It halts not for bloodshed.
1t shrinks from no carnage. 1t bruises and
cuts and strikes down and destroys. 1t re-
vels in the blood Of body and soul, this plague
of crime rampant for ages, and never bolder
or more rampant than now.
The annual police reports Of these cities as
examine them are to me more suggestive
than Dante's Inferno, and all Christian people
aswell as reformers need to awaken to pres
ent 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
majority of the criminals who take ship from
Europe come into our own port. In 1869, OF
the forty mine thousand people who were in.
carcerated in the prisons 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 city,
waiting for an opportunity to riot and steal
and debauch joining the large gang OF
American thugs and cut-throats.
There are in this cluster OF cities-New
York, Jersey City and Brooklyn-four
thousand people whose entire business III
life is to commit suicide. That is as much
their business as Jurisprudence or medicine
or merchandise is your business. To it they
bring all their energies Of body, mind and
soul, and they look upon the intervals which
they spend in prison as SO much unfortunate
loss Of time, just as you look upon an attack
of influenza and rheumatism which fastens
you in the house for few days. It is their
lifetime business to pick pockets and blow
up safes and shoplift and ply tho panel game,
and they have as much pride of skill in their
DuSIaCSS co YOU navy Ill JOul "aOh Jbo III
set the argument Of an opposing counsel, or
cure gunshot fracture which other sur
geons have given up, or foresee turn in the
market as you buy goods just before they 60
up twenty per cent. It is their business to
commit crime, and I do not suppose that
once in year the thought of the immortality
strikes them.
Added to these professional criminals
American and foreign, there are 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 fifty thousand for intoxication.
Drunkenness is responsible for much Of the
theft, since it confuses mans ideas OF
property, and he gets his hands on things
that do not belong to him. Rum isresponsi-
ble for much of the assault and battery, in
spring 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 in one year
You cannot, as good citizens, be independent
If that fact. twill touch your pocket, since
have to give you the fact that these three
cities pay about eight million dollars worth
Of taxes year to arraign, try and support
the criminal population. You help to pay
the board Of every criminal, from the sneak
thief that snatches spool Of cotton up to
some man who swamps bank. More than
hat it touches your heart in the moral de-
preston of the community. You might as
we'll think to stand in a closely confined
room. where there are fifty people and yet
not Breathe the vitiated air, as to stand In
community where there is such great
multitude Of the deprayed without some-
what being contaminated. What is the fire
that burns your store down compared with
the conhagration which consumes your
moralsy What is the theft of the gold and
silver from your money safe compared with
the theft of your children's virtue?
We are all ready to arraign criminals.
We shout at the top Of our voice, "Stop
thief~ and when the police get on the track
we come out, hatless aud in our slippers, and
assist in the arrest. We come around the
bawling ruffian and hustle him off to justice,
and when he gets in prison what do we do for
nim? With great gusto We put on the hand
cuffs and the hopples; but what preparation
are we making for the day when the hand
cuffs and the hopples come OFT? Society
seems to say to these criminals, VILLAIN, go
in there and rot" when it ought to say,
"You are an offender against the law, but
we mean to give you an opportunity to re-
pent; 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 prison; but
we want something more than hammers
and shoe lasts to reclaim these people. aye,
we want more than sermons on the Sabbath
day. Society must impress these men with
the fact that it does net enjoy their SUI
fering. and that it is attempting to reform
and elevate them. The majority Of GRIMM
ais suppose that society has grudge against
them and they in turn have grudge against
society.
They are harder in heart and more infuri-
ate when they come out Of Jail than when
they went In. Many Of the people who go
to prison 60 again and again and again.
Some years ago. of fifteeL hundred prisoners
who during the year had been in Sing Sing,
four hundred had been there before. In a
house pf correction in the country, where
during a certain reach OF time there had
been five thousand people, more than three
Thousand had been there before, So. in one
case TIM prison, and in the other the house OF
cprrectSn, left them just as bad as they were
before
The secretary of one of the benevolent
societies of New York says alad fifteen years
o. age had spent three years of his life in
Z. lson. and he said to the lad, 'What have
they done for you to make you better? !?
"N ell" replied the lad, 1.-THE first time ]
was brought up before the judge he said.
You ought to be ashamed of YOURSELF And
then committed crime again. and was
brought up before the same judge, and he
said, You rascalr And after while
committed some other crime, and 1 was
brought before the same judge, and he said
You ought to be hanged; That was al
they had done for him in the way Of reforma'
ton and salvation. 'Oh, you say, "these
people are incorrigible." suppose there
are hundreds of persons this day lying IN the
prospect of reformation if society would
only allow them way into decency AND
respectahiity. =.
"Oh," you say, 'I have no patience with
these rogues." ask you in reply, how
h ,ra,,ld haer, iInder the