Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1891-04-17
CRIMES AND CRIMINALS.
TAlMAGE TELLS SOME START.
LING FACTS ABOUT THEM.
Over Seventy Thousand Arrests In
New York, Brooklyn and New Jer-
sey I'm "a Single Year.-What Causes
the Plague and What Will Cure IL.

NEW DIRK, April IL, 1Sol.-Dr la
mage, in continuance of the course of ser
r mons on THE Ten Plaques OF the Cities.
today preached to large audiences in tn
. Brooklyn Academy of Music in the fore
/ noon, and at the New York Academy o
Music in the evening. on 1.-THE Plague o
Crime" He took for his text Exodus
:. 20: 'All the waters that were in tn,
river were turned TO blood"
Among all the Egyptian plaques non,
could have been worse than this. III,
Nile Is the wealth OF Egypt Its fish the
) food. Its waters the irrigation of garden
and fields It's condition decides the pros
perity or the doom Of the 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 an
empire. In poetic license we speak of wars
which turn the rivers into blood But my
text Is not poetic license. II was a fact,
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. IL halts not for blood
shed. IL shrinks from no carnage IL
bruises, and cuts, and strikes down, and
destroys. IL 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
as l examine them are 10 me more suggest
i've than "Dante's Inferno" and ali
Christian people as well as reformers need
10 Waken to present and tremendous
duty. If you want this PLAGUE of Crime"
10 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-ninc thousand people who were
iucarcerated in the prisons Of the country.
thlrty-two thousand were Of foreign birth.
Many or them were the very desperadoes
OF society, ooziug into the slums Of our
cities, waiting for an opportunity to riot
and steal and debauch. joining the large
gang OF American thugs and cut-throats
Ihere are in this cluster of cities-New
YORK Jersey City and Brooklyn-four
thousand people whose entire business in
life is to commit crime. That is as much
tHelr business as Jurisprudence OF 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 unfortunate loss OF time. lust
as you look upon an 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 as 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 gwen up. |
or foresee turn in the market as you buy |
goods just before they go up twenty per |
cent. II is their business to commit crime |
and do not suppose that once in year
the thought OF the immortality strikes them
Added 10 these professional criminals,
American and foreign, there is large
class OF men Who are more or less industrl-
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
Tor much of the theft, since ii confuses a
man S ideas OF property, and he gets his !
hands on things that do not belong 20 him.
Rum is responsible for much Of the assault
and battery inspiring men 10 sudden BRAY
cry, which they must demonstrate though
II be on the face OF the next gentleman.
We are all ready TO arraIgn criminals.
We shout at the top of our voice. "Stoy
thief" and when the police get on the track
we come out, hatless and in our slippers and
assist in the arrest. We come around the
bawling ruffian and hustle him of TO Jus.
tlce, and when he gets In prison what do
we do for him? With great gusto we put
on the handouts and the hopples; but what
are we making for the day
when the handouts and the topples come
off2 Society seems TO say TO these GRIMM
ais: william, go in there and rot" when
II ought TO say: ''YoN are an offender
against the law, but we mean 10 give YOU
an opportunity 10 repent; we mean to help
you. Here are bibles and tracts and Chris
tian influences. Christ died for YOU Look.
and livew
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. Ave
we want more than sermons on the Sab
bath day. Society must impress these
ulcu WIN Tue IdCJ llaJ IL does not enjoy
their suffering, and that it is attempting to
reform and elevate them. The majority of
criminals suppose that society has a grudge
against them, and they in turn. have a
yrudge against society.
We want men like John Howard and Sir
William Blackstone. and women like Eliza
beth Fry, TO do for the prisons OF the
United States what those people did in
)ther days for the prisons of England. /
thank God for what Isaac r. Hopper and
DR.. Wines and Mr.. Harris and scores of
'thers have done in the way of prison re-
'orm; but we want something more radical
before will come the blessing OF him who
iaid; Il was in prison, and We came unto
ne"
Again, in your effort to arrest this plague
II crime you need TO consider untrust-
worthy officials. ''Woe unto thee. O land
when thy king is child. and thy princes
rink In the morning. 1t is "A great
TO city when bad men get into
public authority. Why was IL that in
New York there was such unparalleled