The Brookhaven leader., 1891-04-23

matters were "hxed up" while the in
terests of society were fixed down"
You know as well as / do that one vii.
lian who escapes only opens the door
for other criminalities. When the two
pick-pockets snatched the diamond-pin
from the Brooklyn gentlemen in n
Broadway stage, and the Williams were
arrested, and the trial was set down for
the general sessions, and then the trial
never came, and never anything more
was heard of the case, the public Off
cials were only bidding higher TO, more
crime. 1t is no compliment to public
authority when we have in all the cities
of the country, walking abroad, men
and women notorious for criminality,
unwhipped of justice. They are pointed
out to you in the street day by day.
There you find what are called he
"fences," the men who stand between
the thief and the honest man, shclterinQ
the thief, and at a great price handing
over the goods to the owner to whom they
belong. There you will find those who
are called the ''slIinncrs," the men who
hover around Wall street, with great
straightforward in bonds and stocks.
There you find the funeral thieves, the
people who go and sit down and mourn
with families and pick their pockets.
And there you find the confidence
men," who borrow money of you Ee-
cause they have dead child in the
house and want to bury it, when they
never had house or family; or they
want to go to England and get a large
property there, and they want you to
pay their way, and they will send tho
money back by the very next mail.
There are the ''harbor thieves
the ''shoplifters," the ''pickpockcts," :"
famous all over the cities. Hundreds
of them with their faces in the
"Rogues' Gallery" yet doing nothing
for the last five or ten years but de-
fraud society and escape justice. When
these people go unarrested and unpuI.
ished, it is putting 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 be known III
this country that crime will have no
quarter, that the detectives are after it,
that the police club is being brandshed.
that the iron door of the prison is being
opened, that the judge is ready to call
on the case. Too great leniency to
criminals is too great severity to SO.
ciety.
| Again: In your effort 10 arrest this
plague of crime, you need to consider
the idle population. OF course, | do
not refer to the people who are getting
old, or to the sick, or to those who can
not get work; but | tell you to look out
for those athletic men and women who
will not work. When the French noble
man was asked why he kept busy when
he had 50 large n property, he said: II
keep on engraving so ! may not hang
myself" l do not care who the man is,
you can not 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 plung-
ing into the conflict and angles are fly
ing and God is at work, and the uni
verse is aquake with the marching and
counter-marching, that God lets His in
dignation fall upon a man who chooses
idleness? have watched these do-noth-
ings who spend their time stroking their
boards, and retouching their toilet, and
criticising Industrious people, and
pass their days and nights in
bar rooms and club houses lounging
and smoking and chewing and card
playing. They are not only useless,
but they are dangerous. How hard It
is for them to while away the hour |
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 hands 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
aims house, or stop at the gallows.
| have preached this sermon for four
or five practical reasons: Because I
want you to know who are the uproOt-
ing classes of society. Because l want
you to be more discriminating in your
charities. Because I want your hearts
open with generosity, and your hands
open with charity. Because | want you
| to be made the sworn friends of all city
evangelizatlon, and all newsboys' lodg-
ing g-houses, and all children's aid So
cieties and Dorcas societies, under the
skillful manipulation of wives and moth
ers and sisters and daughters; let the
spare garments of your wardrobe be
! fitted to the limbs of the wan and shiv-
ering. ] should not wonder if that hat
that you give should come back jew
eled coronet, or if that garment that
you hand out from your wardrobs
should mysteriously be whitened, and
somehow wrought into the Saviour's
own robe, so in the last day He would
run His hand over it and say: II was
naked, and Ye clothed Me-" That
would be putting your garments to
glorious uses.
But more than that, have preached
the sermon because l thought in the
contrast you would see how very kindly
God had dealt with you, and l thought
that thousands of you would go to you1
comfortable homes and sit at your
well-filled tables and at the warm reg
isters, and look at the round faces of
your children, and then you would
burst to tears at the review OF
Gods goodness to you, and that you
would go to your room and lock
the door, and kneel down and say: 20
Lord, have been an migrate; make mo
| rI- ab;lJ n Lord fhara ara m anv