The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1891-04-17
PLAGUE OF CRIME.
Dr. Ta1maze Continues His Ser
mons on the Ten Plaques
Fr0fessionaI Criminals That Inrest the
Cities-S1Odern Systems OF Repression OF
little yaIue-A Plea For More
ChFIstiaR EEethSds.

Ten Plaques Of the Cities, DR.. Tai
mage in a late sermon at Brooklyn
took his text from Exodus vii 20: IAN
the waters that were in the river were
turned TO blood He said:
Among all the Egyptian plagaes none
could have been worse than this The
Nile is the wealth of Egypt. It's fish
the food It's waters the irrigation of
garden and fields. It's condition decides
the prosperity or the doom OF the En-
pire- What hsppens to the Nile hap
pens to all Egypt And now in the text
that great river IS incarnadined It is
red cash across the empire. In poetic
license we speak of wars which turn
the rivers into blood. But my text was
not a poetic license 1t was a fact, a
great crimson appalling condition. de-
seribed- The Nile rolling deep of blood.
Can you imagine more awful plague2
The modern plague which nearest
corresponds with that is the plague of
crime in all our cities 1t halts not for
bloodshed- It shrinlrs from no carnage.
It 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 bOI1er or
more rampant than now.
The annual police reports of these
cities as I examine them are to me more
suggestive than Dante's ''InfernO,' and
all Christian people as well as REFORM
-ers need to wsken to present and
tremendous duty. II you want this
plague of crime" to stop, there are
several kinds of persons you need TO
consider. First, the public criminals.
The vast majority of the criminals who
take ship from Europe come into our
own port. In 1869, of the 40. coo people
who were incarcerated in the prisons
- Of the country, 50, 600 We're of foreign
birth. Many of them We're the very
~
-slums of our cities, waiting for an Op-
portunity 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
4, 600 people whose entire business in
life is to commit crime. 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 un-
fortunate loss of time, just as you look
upon an attack of influenza or rheuma-
-tisn which fastens you in the house for
a few days 1t is their lifetime bust
ness to pick pockets, and blow up safes,
and shOplift, and ply the panel game,
and they have as much pride of skill in
their business as you have IN yours
posing counsel, or cure a gunshOt
fracture which other surgeons have
given up, or foresee a turn in the mar
.ket as you buy goods just before they
go mp twenty per cent 1t is their
business to commit crime, and do not
suppose that once in a year the thought
of the immortality strikes them. Added
to these professional criminals, Amer
lean and foreign, there is a large
class of men who are more or less in
dustriOus in crime. In one year the
police OF this cluster Of cities arrested
TO, 900 people for theft and 10, 600 for as
=sault and battery and so, 600 for into1i-
cation Drunkenness is responsible for
much of them since 1t cOnfuses a mans
ideas of property and he gets his hands
on things that do not belong to him
We are all ready to arFaign criminals,
We shout at the top of our voice: ''StoE
thiefi'' With great gusto we put on the
handouts and topples; but what prepa
ration are we making for the day when
the handouts and hopples come off,
Society seems to say to these criminals
william, go in there and rot when il
ought to say: You are an offender
against the law, but we mean to give
you an opportunity to EePents we NEAR
to help you Here are Bibles AND
tracts and Christian influences
Christ died for you. Look and live
by introducing industries into the
prison, but want something more
than hammers and shoe lasts to reclaim
these people Aye, we want mare thar
sermons on the Sabbath day. Society
must impress these men with tina fac
that it does not enjoy their sufferings
and that it Is attempting to reform AM
elevate them The majority Of Grim
mails suppose that society has grudg'
against them, and they in turn have
syrudge against society. They are harde
in heart and more infuriate when the,
20 come out OF jail than when they Wen
in.
The secretary of one of the benevo
lent societies OF New York saw a lad 7
years of age, who had spent three year
of his life in prison. and he said TO tn
lad: What have they done for you Z
make you better?" ssYYell, o. replied tn
lad. the first time was brought u
before the Judge he said; You ought I