Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-04-23
RHEDANGEROUSCLASSES
Dr.. TALMAeE FINDS THEM AMONG
THE RICH AND THE POOR.


the Desperate and Despairing.
NKw 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
lyn 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,
It's waters the irrigation Of garden and
fields. Its condition decides the prosperity
or the doom of the empire. What happens
10 the Nile happens to all Egypt. And
now in the text that great river is incarna-
dined. 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. 1t was fact, great
crimson, appalling condition described.
The Nile rolling deep of blood. Can you
imagine more awful plague?
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
It revels in the blood of body and soul,
this plague of crime rampant for ages, and
never bolder or more rampant than now.
The annual police reports Of these cities
as Iexamine them are to me more sug-
gestive than Dante's Inferno, and all
Christian people as well as reformers need
to awaken to a 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 large portion
in many communities. The vast majority
Of the criminals who take ship from Eu-
rnpe come into our own port. In 1869, of
the forty-nine Thousand people who were
incarcerated in the prisons of the country
khirty-two 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 to
riot and steal and debauch, joining the
large gang of American thugs and cut
throats.
There are in this cluster of cities-New
York, Jersey City and Brooklyn-four
thousand people whose entire business in
life is to commit suicide. That is as much
their business as jurisprudence or 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 un.
fortunate loss of time, Just as you look
- s,.n, l.
tism which fastens you in the house for a
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
gunshot fracture which other surgeons
have given up, or foresee turn in the
market as you buy goods just before they
60 up 90 per cent. 1t is their business to
commit crime, and do not suppose that
once in year the thought of the immor-
ality 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 a
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.
SOCIETY THREATENED ON ALL SIDES.
Ten million dollars worth of property
stolen in this cluster of cities in one year!
You cannot, as good citizens, be indepen-
dent of that fact. 1t 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 pop.
ulation. You help to pay the board Of
every criminal, from the sneak thief that
snatches spool of cotton up to some man
who swamps q bank. More than that, ii
touches your heart in the moral depression
of the community. You might as well
think to stand in 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 some
what being contaminated What is the
fire that burns your store down compared
with the confagration which consumes
your morals? What is the theft of the
gold and silver from your money safe com.
pared with the theft Of your children's vir
tuee
We are all ready to arraign criminals
We shout at the top of our voice, ''Stol
thiefp 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 ruffian and hustle him
off to Justice, and when he gets in prison
what do we do for hims With great gustc
we put on the handouts and the hopples
but what preparation are we making fol
tie day when the handouts and the hop
Piles come off? Society seems to say te
these criminals, ''Villain, go in there and
rot," when it ought to say, "You are ar
offender against the law, but we mean to
give you an opportunity to repent; we
mean to help you. Here are Bibles and
tracts and Christian influences. Christ
died for you. Look, and live."
Vast improvements have been made BY
introducing industries into the prison; but
we want something more than hammers
aud shoe lasts to reclaim these people. Aye
we want more than sermons on the Sab
bath day. Society must impress these mer
with the fact that it does not enjoy theil
suffering, and that it is attempting to re
form and elevate them. The majority o.
criminals suppose that society has agrudg'
against them, and they in turn have ,
grudge against society.
They are harder in heart and more infuri