The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1891-04-17

Esect OF reformation If society would
only allow them a way into de-
ceney and EesPeetability- 20. "
you say, nave no PAtieIice
with these rogues'' ask yOu.
in reply. how much better would
you have been under the same circum-
stances? Suppose your mother had
been 3 blasphemer ana your father a
sot, and you had started lie with a
body stuffed with evil proclivities, and
you had spent much of your time in a
celTaz- amid Obscenitiss and cursing,
and IL at 10 years Of age you had been
compelled to 20 out and steal battered
and banged at night if you came in
without any spOils, and suppose your
early manhood and vvOmanhOOd had
been covered with rags and filth, and
decent society had taEBsdlits back upOn
you, and left you % eOGsOEt with yaga-
bonds and wharfsrats-hOtv much bet
ter would you haze been? / have no
sympathy with that executive eaemsEeE
which would let crime run loose or
which would sit in the gallery of a
court room weeping because some hard
heAEEsd syTreteh] is brought to justice;
but i 90 say that the safety and life of
the continuity demand more potential
anfluencea in behalf of public offenders
Il saw in one prison a woman, with a
child almost blind, who had been arrest
ed for the crime of poverty, who was wait
ing I'LL L4AS SLOW Law GOu1u take neE 70
the alnshOuse, where she rightfully be
lOnged, but she was thrust in there with
her child, amid the most abandoned
yvretches of the towns Many of the a.
Tenders In that prison. sleeping on the
EOoz, svith nothing but a verminscov-
cred blanket over them Those people
crowded and wan and wasted and half
suffocated and Infatuated. I said to the
men: ''HOw do you stand it here?"
''GOd knows" said one man, 1--WE have
to stand it" o, they viii pay You when
they get out. WheFe. they burned down
one house they viii burn three They
will strike deeper the assassin's knife
We want men like John Howard and
Sir William Blackstone, and women
like Elizabeth Fry to do for the prisons
of the United States what those people
did in sother< days for the prisons of
England
Again, in your effort to arrest this
plague OF crime you need to consider
Enthusiastically officials Woe unto
| thee, o land, when thy king is a child
and thy princes drink in the morning. -
| It is a great calamity to q city when
bad men get into public authority.
| Why was it that in New York there was
such unparalleled crime between 1866
and 1871? 1t was because the judges
| OF police in that city at that time, for
| the most part, were as corrupt the
| vagabOnds who came before them for
trial. These We're the days of high car
nivaI for election frauds, assassination
and forgery. We had all kinds of rings.
! There was one man during those years
| that got SIPS, 600 in one year for serving
/ the public. In a few years it was esti-
mated tnat there were fifty millions of
| public treasure squandered-
1t is no com pliment to public author
| ity when we have in all the cities of the
country, walking abroad, men and
| women notorious for criminahty, IN
| whipped of Justice. They are pointed
| out to you in the street day by day.
| There you find what are called the
| fences the men who stand between
| the thief and the honest man, shelter
| ing the thief and at a great price hand
ing over the goods to the owner to
whom they belong.
Again; in your effort to arrest this
| plague of crime, you need to consider
the idle population Of course, I 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 viii
not work. When the French noblenan
was asked why he kept busy when he
! had so large a property, he said: =
| keep on engraving SO may not hang
myself do not care who the man
is, you cannot afford to be idle It IS
from the idle classes that the criminal
classes are made mp. Character, like
| water, gets Putrid if it stands still toe
| 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 are flying, and God is al
work, and the universe is awake with
the marching and cOuntermarching
that God lets his Indignation fall
upon a man who chooses idleness;
/ These men for awhile smoke the best
cigars. and wear the best clothes, and
move in the highest spheres; but I have
| noticed that very soon they come down
| to the prison the almshOuse, or stop al
the galIovvs- The police stations o.
| this cluster OF cities furnished an
nually between 200, coo and 500. 600 lodg
ings- For the most part these 200, OOC
and 500, 600 lodgings are furnished t
/ able-bodied men and sEomen-psOple a:
/ able TO work as you or I are WheE
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