Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1891-04-18

| LII Ul1oS0 tiibCo biiO Va LII
inal had only to wink at the judge, or
his lawyer would wink for him, and the
question was decided for the defend
ant
Of the eight thousand people arrest
ed in that city in one year only three
thousand were punished. These little
matters were liked up" while the in
terests of society were liked down. !"
You know as we'll as do that one vii
lain who escapes only opens the door
for other crilninalities. When the two
pickpockets snatched the diamond pin
from the Brooklyn gentleman in q
Broadway stage, and tho villains were
arrested, and the trial was set down
1 for the general sessions, and tlcp the
], trial never came, and never anything
A smorc was heard of tho case, the public
! officials were only bidding higher for
.lnorp crime
MHEasIIIIs gEIsgH sIE
It's no compliment to public authori-
ty when we hnvein all the cities of the
country, walking abroad, men and
women notorious for crininality I'M
whipped of justice. They are pointed
out to you i'll the street day by day.
There you find what arc called the
fences" the men who stand between
the thief and the honest man, shelter
ing the thief and at u great price hand
ing over the goods to the owner to
whom they belong. There you will
find those who are called the Skin
ners." the rnen who hover around Wall
street, with great slcight of hand in
bonds and stocks. There you find the
funeral thieves, the people who so and
sit down and mourn with families and
pick their pockets. And there you find
tho confidence men," who borrow
money OF you because they lave dead
child in the house and want to bury it,
when they mover had house or g fani-
Iy; or they want to 60 to England and
get q large property there, and they
want you to pay their way, and they
will send the money back by the very
next mail.
There aro the "harbor thieves" the
''slopliftcrs," the "pickpockets," fa-
nous all over tho cities. Hundreds of
them with their faces in the "rogue's
gallery" yet doing nothing for the last
five or ton years but dcfraud society
and escape justice. When these people
go unarrestcd and UNPUBLISHED. it is
putting q high premium upon vice and
saying to the young criminals OF this
country, What safe thing it is to be
great criminal" Let the law swoop
upon them. Let it he known in this
country that crime will have no quar-
ter, that the detectives are after 1t. that
the police club is being brandislled,
that the iron door of the prison is be-
ing opened, that the judge is ready to
call OH the case. Too great leniency to
criminals is too great severity to soci-
ETY..
Again. in your effort to arrest this
plague of crime you need to consider
the idle population. Of course / do
not refer to people who are getting old,
or to the sick or to those who cannot
get work, but tell you to look out for
those athletic men and women who
will not work. When the French no
bleman was asked why he kept Busy
when he had SO large u property lie
said, 81 keep on engraving 80 / may
not hang myself" 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 hosts of earth
and heaven and hell are plunging into
the conflict, and angels arc flying and
God is at work, and the universe is
a-quake with the marching and counter
marching, that God lets his indignation
fall upon q man who chooses idleness?
have watched these do-notllings who
spend their time stroking their beard,
and retoucbing their toilet and criti-
cising industrious people, and pass their
days and nights in barrooms and club
houses, lounging and smoking and
chewing and card playing. They are
not only useless. but they are danger
GUS. 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 hands2
These men for awhile smoke the best
cigars, and wear the best clothes, and
move in the highest spheres, but / have
noticed that very soon they come down
to the prison, the almshouse, OF stop ut
the gallows.
INyINCIBLE LAZINESS.
The police stations of this cluster OF
cities furnish annually between two
and three hundred thousand lodgings.
For the most part, these two and three
hundred thousand lodgings arc fur
nished 30 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
''repeaters," they 60 to some other sta
ton, and SO they keep moving around.
They get. their food at house doors,
stealing what they CON lay their hands
on in the front basement while the SER
want is spreading the bread in the back |
basement. They will not work. Time
and again, in the country districts,
they have wanted hundreds and thou
sands of laborcrs. These men will not |
go. They do not want to work.
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