Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1891-05-07
CRIMES AND CRIMINALS.
TaIMhGE TELLS SOME STAhr.
LING FACTS ABOUT THEM.
Over seventy Thousand Arr-srs IN
New York, Brooklyn aud New Jer-
sey in a Single Year.-What Causes
the Plague and What Will Cure It.

| NEW YORK, April IL, 1S91.-Dr. Tai
mage, in continuance Of the course Of SER
mons ON ''The Ten Plaques Of the Cities"
Today preached to large audiences in the
brooklyn Academy of Music in the fore
noon, and at the New York Academy of
Music in the evening, on 1.-The Plague OF
Crime" He took for his text Exodus
Z. 70: IAN the waters that We're in the
river were turned to blood"
Among all the Egyptian plaques none
could have been worse than this. The
ME- Is the wealth Of Egypt. Its fish the
1000. Its waters the irrigation of garden
and helds It's condition decides the pros
perity or the doom of tho empire. What
happens to the Nile happens to all Egypt.
And now in the text that great river is in
carnadined. 1t is red cash across on
empire. In poetic license we speak of wars
which turn the rivers into blood. But my
Text Is not poetic license. 1t was fact,
o great crimson appalling condition,
described. The Nile rolling deep OF blood.
Can you imagine more awful plague?
The mo Tern plague which nearest cor
responds with that is the plague Of crime
IN all our cities. 1t halts not for blood
shed. 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 FOX
| ayes, and never holder or more rampant
than now.
The annual police reports of these cities
as examine them are to me more suggest
I've than ''Dan:a's Inferno" and all
Christian people as well as reformers need
TO waken 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. You ought not to be surprised
that these people make up q large portion
In many communities. Tho vast majority
| OF the criminals who take ship from
Europe come into our own port. In 1862
OF tho forty-nine thousand people who were
lucarcerated in the prisons Of the country,
thirty-two thousand were of foreign birth
Many Of them were the very dcspfradc-s
OF society, oozing into the slums Of car
cities, waiting for an opportunity to rot
and steal and debauch, joining The large
gang OF American thugs and cut throats.
There are in this cluster Of citics--riew
York, Jersey City and BrooklYn-Four
thousand people whose entire business in
life is to commit crime. That is as much
their business as Jurisprudence OF 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 al attack
Of influenza or rheumatism which fastens
you in the house for few days. 1t is
their lifetime business to pick pockets, and
blow up safes, and shoplift, and ply the
panel game, and they have ss much pride
OF skill in their business as you have in
yours when you upset the argument Of an
opposing counsel or cure gunshot frac-
ture which other surgeons have given up,
or foresee turn in the market as you buy
goods just before they so ZIP twenty per
cent. 1t is their business to commit crime,
and l do not suppose that once in q year
the thought of the immortality strikes them.
Added to these professional criminals,
American and foreign, there is large
class of men who are more or less industri-
Gus 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 q
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 to sudden brav.
cry, 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,
Of that fact It will 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 helr
to pay the board Of every criminal, from
the sneak-thef who snatches spool of cot
ton up to the man who awamps a bank
More than that, it touches -FOUR heart in thu
moral depression Of the community. Yor
might as well think to sfnnd In closely
confined room where there arr fifty people
and yet not breathe tho vf:iated air, as t.
stand in community where there is such
great multitude Of the Gepraved without
being somewhat contaminated. What /!
the fire that burns your store down com
pared with the conhagr ton which con
sumes your, morals? WIS is tho theft O
the gold and silver from your money SAT,
compared with the theft n your children.
virtue?
We are all ready to srralgn criminals
: We shout at the top Of our voice, ''Sto]
thiefw and when the polics get ON the tract
, we come out, hatlcss and ii our slippers ans
assist in the arrest We come around tn,
bawling ruffian and hustle him OF to JUS
tice, and when he gets IN prison what d.
we do for him? With gteat eusto we pu
on the handouts and the hopplss; but wha
preparation are we mslking Tor the da,
! when tho handouts and the hopples com
, on? Society seems to ny to these Grimm
ais: civilian, 60 in there and rot" whe,
1t ought to say: ''Ycu are an offende
against the law, but We mea,l to give 70,
an opportunity to repent; we mean to bel
you. Here are bibles aad tracts and Chris
tan influences. Christ died fer you Look
and live!'
Vast improvements have been made b
} introducing industries into the prison; bu
We want something &cre Than hammer
and shoe lasts to recl8;m these people. Ay
we want more than sermons on the SAT
bath day. Society must impress thes
men with the fact tkat Il does not EMO
their suffering, and tf'at !. 10 attempting I
} reform and elevate thsm. The majority q
!, criminals suppose thae society has a RrudR