Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1891-04-16

kills Time" in Doing Nothing-At the
Other Extreme Are the Criminal Poor,
the Desperate and Despairing.
NEW YORK, April l2-Dr. Talmage. in
continuance Of the course of sermons on
The Ten Plaques of the Cities,'' today
preached to large audiences in the Brook
Ign Academy of Music in the forenoon.
and at The Christian Herald service at the
New York Academy of Music in the even
ing, on "The Plague of Crime" He took
for his text Exodus vii, 20, 'All the waters
that were in the river were turned to
blood"
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 condition decides the prosperity
or the doom of the empire What happens
to the Nile happens to all Egypt And
now in the text that great river is incarna-
dined. II is a red cash across an empire.
In poetic license we speak of wars which
turn the rivers into blood. But my text is
not a poetic license Il was fact, "A great
crimson, appalling condition described.
The Nile rolling deep of blood Can you
AiiHSiiS ~ HioiC oN idl
The modern plague which nearest CORE
spends with that is the plague of crime in
all our cities. 1t halts not for bloodshed.
1t shrinks from no carnage. 1t bruises
and cuts and strikes down and destroys.
1t revels in the blood of body and soul,
this plague of crime rampant for ages. and
never holder or more rampant than now
The annual police reports of these cities
gestive than Dante's Inferno, and all
Christian people as well as reformers need
TO awaken to a present 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 10 be surprised
that these people make up large portion
in many communities. The vast majority
of the criminals who take ship from Eu-
rope come into our own port. In 1869, of
the forty-nine thousand people who were
incarcerated in the prisons Of the country
thirtytwo thousand were Of foreign birth.
Many Of them were the very despera-
does of society, oozing into the slums
of our city, waiting for an opportunity 70
riot and steal and debauch, joining the
large gang of American thugs and cut.
throats
There are in this cluster sf cities-New
York, Jersey City and Brooklyn-four
thousand people whose entire business in
life is to commit suicide. That is rs much
their business rs jurisprudence or medicine
or merchandise is your business. To il 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 and rheuma-
tism which fastens you in the house for
few days 1t is their lifetime business to
pick pockets and blow up safes and shop.
lift and ply the panel game, and they
have as much pride of skill in their business
as you have in yours when you upset the
argument of an opposing counsel, or cure
a gunshot fracture which other surgeons
have given up, or foresee a turn in the
market as you buy goods just before they
go up 20 per cent 1t is their business to
commit crime, and do not suppose that
once in year the thought of the immor
alty strikes them
Added to these professional criminals
American and foreign, there are large
class of men who are more or less indus
trious in crime. In one year the police in
this cluster of cities arrested ten thousand
people for theft, and ten thousand for as
sault 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 is responsible for much Of the assault
and battery, inspiring men tosudden BRAY
cry, which they must demonstrate though
it be on the face of the next gentleman.
SOCIETY THREATENED ON ALL SIDES.
Ten million dollars worth of property
stolen 10 this cluster of cities in one yearl
You cannot, as good citizens, be indepen-
dent of that fact Ii will touch your
pocket, since have to give you the fact
chat these three cities pay about eight
million dollars worth of taxes year to
arraign, try and support the criminal pop
ulation. You help to pay the board OF
every criminal, from the sneak thief that
snatches a spool of cotton up To some man
who swamps bank More than that, 1t
touches your heart in the moral depression
of the community. You might as well
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 a great
multitude oil the uepIstNcu NAbhOut SoiuV
what being contaminated. What is the
fire that burns your store down compared
with the conhagration which consumes
vour moralsy What is the theft of the
gold and silver from your money safe COM
pared with the theft of your ehildren's vir-
tue?
We are all ready TO arraign criminals.
We shout at the top of our voice, stop
thiefr' and when the police get on the
track we come out, hatless and in our slip
pers. and assist in the arrest. We come
around the bawling ruflian and hustle him
off to Justice, and when he gets in prison
what do we do for him; With great g'isto
we put ON the handouts and the hopples;
mt what preparation are we making for
tbe day when the handouts and the hop
nles come Off Society seems to say TO
these criminals, william, 60 in there ana
rot. y when it ought to say, You are an
otfender against the law, but we mean to
Give YOU an opportunity to repent; we
mean to help you. Here are Bibles ana
tracts and Christian influences Christ
d;ed for Won. Look, and live"
QHt