The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-04-13
THE PLAGUE OF CRIME.
ALL THE WATERS IN THE RIVER
TURNED TO BLOOD.

RestlVe Inan Dante'S InfernO-t our
Thousand Peop.e in New York,
Brooklyn and Jersey City Whose
Entire Business in Life is to Commit
Crime.
NEW YORK, April l2-Dr. Talmage. in
continuance OF the course Of sermons on
Ten Plaques Of the Cities, to- day preached
tolarge audiences in the Brooklyn Academy
of Music in the forenoon, and az The Chris.
tidn Herald services at the New York
Academy OF Music in the evening, on "Ths
Plague OF Crime.p He took for his text
Exodus VIII, %. "All the waters that were in
the river we're turned TO blood.
Among all the Egyptian plaques none
could have been worse than this. The Nils
is tho wealth of Egypt It's 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 incarnadined.
II is red gRsh across an empire. In poetic
license We speak Of wars which turn the
rivers into blood. But my text is not a
poetic license. II was a fact, great Grim
ron appalling condition, described. The
Nile rolling deep OF blood Can you imag-
inc more awful plaguei
The modern plague which nearest core
responds with that is the plague Of crime in
all our cities. 1t halts not for bIoodshed
10 shrinks from no carnage. IL bruises, and
outs, aud strikes down, and destroys It
reyels In the blood Of body and soul, this
plague OF crime rampant for ages, and
never bolder or more rampant than now.
The ANIMAL police reports Of these cities
as examine them are to me more sugges,
i've than "Dante's Inferno aud all Christ.
tian people as well as reformers need to
Walxan Ia n pragpDE and trarnendot1a dutv
IL you want this plague Of Crime" TO stop,
there are several kinds Of persons you need
to consider. First, the public criminals.
Yoe ought not TO be surprised that these
people make up large portion in many
communities The vast majority OK
the criminals who take ship from
Europe come into our own port. In
1869, of the forty-ui thousand people who
were incarcerated in the prisons Of the ooun-
try, thirty-two thousand were OF foreign
birth. Many Of them were were very des-
peradoes OF society, oozing 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. There are in this cluster of cites--
New York, Jersey City and Brooklyn---four
thousand people whose entire business in
life Is to commit crime. That is as much
their business as iurisprudencs or medicine
or marchandise 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 or rheumatism whion
fastens you IN the house for few days. IL
is their lifetime business to pick pockets,
and blow open safes, and shopllft, 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
Runshot fracture which other surgeons have
given up. OF foresee turn In the market as
you buy goods just before they go up
twenty per cent. It is their business 90
commit crime, and / do not suppose tbat
once in year the thought of the immoral.
ity strikes them. Added to these profes.
sional criminals, American and foreign,
there is large class OF men who are more
or less industrious in crime. In one year
the police In this cluster Of cities arrested
ten thousand people for theft and ten thou
sand for assault and battery and fifty
thousand for intoxication. Drunkenness is
responsible for much of the theft, since Il
confuses mans ideas Of property and he
gets his hands on things that do not belong
10 him. Rum is responsible for much Of this
assault and battery, inspiring men to sud-
den bravery, which they must demonstrate
though it be on the face Of the next gentle.
man.
stolen in this cluster OF citiee in one year.
You cannot, as good citizens, be inde-
pendent of that fact. 1t will touch your
pockets. since ] have to give you tie fact
that these three cities pay about eight mill
lion dollars worth OF taxes year to ar
raiRn, try, and support tho criminal popus
latIon. You help to pay the board Of every
criminal, from the sneak thief that snatches
q spool of cotton, up to some man who
swamps a bank. More than that, it touches
your heart In the moral depression of this
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 a community
where there is such a great multitude of
the depraved without somewhat being con-
taminated. What Is the fire that burns
your store down compared with the confia-
grafton which consumes your moralsi
What is the theft Of the gold and silver
from your money safe compared with the
theft of your children's virtuel
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, hatlsss and In our slippers.
and assist in the arrest. We come around
the brawling ruffian and hustle him of tt
justice, and when he gets In prison what do
we do for bim2 With great gusto we put
on the handouts and the hopples; but what
We Cu0 uhy
when the handouts and the hopples come
OFF, Society seems 70 say to these crini-
mails, "Villain, go in there and rot. p when 10
ought to say: "You are an offender against
the law, but we mean to give you an oppore
tunity 70 repent; we mean TO help you.
Here are Bibles and tracts and Christian
influences. Christ died for you. Look aud
live"
Vast improvements have been made by
introducing industries into the prison; but
we want something moe than hammers
aud shoe lasts to reclaim these people. Aye,
we want more than sermons on the Sabbath
day. Society must impress these men With
the fact that it does not enjoy their suffer-
| ing, and that 10 is attempting to reform and
elevate them. The majority Of criminals
suppose that society has grudge against
them, and they in turn have grudge
| against society.
They are harder in heart and more in
| furiate when { ey come out OF jai'
than when they went in. Many Of
the people who go to prison go again and
again and again. Some yerrs ago OF fifteen
hundred prisoners, who during the year had
been in Sing Sing, four hundred had been
-, T,.n f,fs aftffN in