The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-04-29

men, "HOW DO you SCanQ IL neIef 0ou
knows" said one man, I'VE have to stand it. !"
they will pay you when ots they yoss get tSsx 9uS
will burn three. They will strike deeper the
assassin's knife They are this minute plot
ting worse burglaries.
Some Of the city jalls are the best places I
know Of to manufacture footpads vaga-
bonds and cutthroats. Yale College Is not
so we'll calculated to make scholars, nor Har.
ward so we'll calculated to make scientists,
nor Princeton 80 well calculated to make
theologians as many Of our jails are calcu-
lated to make criminals. All that those men
do not know of crime after they have been
in that dungeon for some time Satanic
machination cannot teach them. In the In
sufferabls stencil and sickening surroundings
of such places there Is nothing but disease
for the body, idiocy for the mind, and death
for the soul Stifled air and darkness and
vermin never turned thief into an honest
man.
We want men like John Howard and Sis
William Blackstone and women like Eliza
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 T. 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 will
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
king is child, and thy princes drink in the
morning" It is great calamity to a city
when bad men get into public authority.
Why was it that in New York there was
such unparalleled crime between 1858 and
1912 1t was because the judges Of police in
that city at that time for the most partwere
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
dollars in one year for serving the public.
It is no compliment to public authority
when we have in all the cities Of the country,
walking abroad, men and women notorious
for criminality unwhipped of Justice. They
are pointed out to you in the street day by
day. There you fnd what are called the
''fences," the men who stand between the
thief and the honest man, sheltering the
thief, and at 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
anu bbOChS. luoTo SOu uuu puo Ao'AoA a.
thieves, the people who go and sit down and
mourn with families and pick their pockets.
And there you find the confidence men"
who borrow money Of you because they
have dead child in the house and want to
bury it when they never had house or
family: or they want to go to England and
get a large property there, and they want
you to pay their way and they will send the
money back by the very next mail.
TLoro ora tha fhinuas fha
,,'shoplifters," the ''pickpockets," famous
all over the cities. Hundreds Of them with
their faces in the Rogues' Gallery, yet do
ing nothing for the last five or ten years
but defraud society and escape Justice.
When these people go unarrested and un.
punished it is putting a high premium
upon vice and saying to the young crimin.
ais of this country, "What safe thing it
is to be great criminalp Let the law
swoop upon them. Let it be known in
this country crime will have no quarter;
that the detectives are after it; that the
/ police club Is being brandished; that the iron
door Of the prison Is being opened; that the
Judge Is ready to call on the case. Too great
leniency to criminals is too great severity to
society.
Again in your effort to arrest this plague
Of crime, you need to consider the idle popu-
lation. OF course do not refer to people
who are getting old. or to the sick or to those
who cannot get work, but I tell you to look
out for those athletic men and women who
will not work. When the French nobleman
was asked why he kept busy when he had so
large property, he said. II keep on engrav-
ing so may not hang myself" I 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
punging into the conflict and angels are fly
| ing and God is at work and the universe is
a-ouake with the marching and counter
marching, that God lets His indignation fall
upon q man who chooses idleuess
I have watched these do-nothings who
spend their time strokng their beard and
! retouching their toilet and criticising in
dustriouS people. and pass their days and
nights in barrooms and club 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 do not know how to while
away an hour, what will they do when
they have all eternity on their hands?
These men for a while smoke the best cigars
and wear the best clothes and move in the
highest spheres, but I have noticed that
very soon they come down to the prison. the
almshouse, or stop at the galiows.
The police stations Of this cluster OF cities
furnish annually between two and three hum
dred thousand lodgings. For the most part
these two and three hundred thousand lodg-
ipps are furnished to able bodied men and
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 20 to some other station and 30
, 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
che back basement. They will not WORK.
Time and again, in the country districts,
they have wanted hundreds and thousands
of laborers. These men will not 60. They
do not want to work. I have tried them.
have set them to saving wood in my cellar
to see whether they wanted to work. Of
fered to nav them we'll for it. have heard
the saw going for about three minutes, and
then went down and 10! the wood, but no
saw! They are the pest OF society, and tney
stand In the way of the Lords poor who
who ought to be helped, and must be helped,
and will be helped.
While there are thousands of industrious
men who cannot get any work, these men
who do not want any work come IN ana
make that plea. I am in fsvor OF the res
toration Of the old fashioned whipping post
for lust this one class Of men who will not
work-sleeping at night at public ex-
pense in the station house; during the day
getting their food at your doorstep. lm-
orisonment does not scare them. They
would like 1t. Blackwelfs Island or Sing
Sing would be comfortable home for tkem.
They would have no objection to the aims
house, for they like thin soup, If they can
not get mock turtle.
Iproposs this for them: On one SIDE OF
them put some healthy work; on the other