The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1891-04-23
PLAGUE OF CRIME.
DR.. TALMAGE DIscoURsES ON LAW
BREAKING.

ferno--Ways Outlined In which Chris
Plague.
New YORK, April l2.-Dr. Talmage,
in continuance Of the course Oh sermons
on ''Thc Ten Plaques of the Cities" to-
day preached to large audiences in the
Brooklyn Academy of Music in tho fore
noon and The Christian Herald service
at the New York Academy of Music In
the evening, on 1.-The Plague Of Crlme."
lie 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. Its waters the irrigation Of gar
den and fields. Its condition decides the
prosperity or the doom Of the empire.
What happens tc the Nile happens to
all Egypt. Ana now in the text that
great river is incarnadincd. 1t is rcd
cash across an empire. In poetic license
we speak of wars which turn the rivers
into blood, But my text is not q poetic
licenser 1t was a lact, q great crimson
appalling condition described. The Nile
rolling deep of blood. Can you imagine
a more awful plague?
The modern plague which nearest
corresponds 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, 1t rcvcls in the blood Of
body and soul, this plague of crime
rampant for ages, and never boldcr or
more rampant than now.
The annual police reports of these
cities as / examine them arc to me more
suggestive than Dante's Inferno, and all
Christian people rs well as rcformcrs
need to wakcn to present and trcmcn-
dous duty. lfyou want this ''plaguc OF
Crime" to stop, there are Scrvcral 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 commune
ties. The vast majority Of the GRIM
inals who take ship from Europe come
into our own port. In 1869, Of the
$4,000 people who were incarccratcd in
the prisons Of the country, $4,000 were
of foreign birth. Many of them were
the very despcradOcs OF society, oozing
into the sums Of our cities, waiting Tor
an opportunity to riot and steal and
American thugs and cut throats. There
are in this cluster of citics-New York,
Jersey City and Brooklvn-.l, 900 pco-
pie whose entire business IN life is to
commit crime. That ls as much their
business as jurisprudence or medicine
or merchandise Is your business. 10 l.
they bring all their energies of body,
mind, and soul, and they look upon the
intervals which they spen! in prison as
SO much unfortunate loss Of time, lust
as you look upon an attack of influenza
or rheumatism which iastens you in
the house for few days. 1t is their
lifetime business to plck-pockcts, and
blow up safes, and shophtt, and ply the
panel game, and they have as much
pride OF skllkin their business as you
nave III yours when you upset the argu-
Tncnt o: an opposing counsel, or cure a
gunshut fracture which other sur
gcons have given up, or tOrcscc q turn
OF the market as you buy goods Just be-
lore they so up twenty per cent. IT is
their business TO commit crime, and do
not suppose that once i'll year the
thought Of the immortality strikes them.
Added to these professional criminals,
American and foreign, there is a large
class OF men who arc m ore or less indus
tlous in crime. In one year the
police in this cluster of cities arrested
10000 people for theft, and 10000 for
assault and battery, and $4,000 for in
toXlcattion. Drunkenness is respon-
sible for much of the theft, since it con-
fuses 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, inspir-
ing men to sudden bravery, which they
must demonstrate though it be on the
face of the next gentleman.
Ten million dollars worth of property
stolen In this cluster OF cities in one
year. You cannot, as good citizens, be
independent Of that fact. 1t will touch
your pocket, since | have to give You the
TACT that these three cities pay about
$S,OO0,000, worth Of taxes year to az
raign, try and support the criminal pop
ulation. You help to pay the board of
every criminal from the sncak-thlef that
snatches spool of cotton up to some
man who swamps bank. More than
that, 1t touches your heart i'm the moral
depression af the community. You
might as w2ll think to stand in closely
confined room where there arc fifty pco
pie and yet rot breathe the vitiatcd air,
ls such great multitude of the dcpraved
without somewhat being contaminated.
what is the fire that burns your store
down compared with the confagration
winch consumes your morals? What is
the thclt Of the gold and silver from
your money safe compared with the
hcit ofyour childrcn's virtue?
We are all ready to arraign criminals.
We shout at the top/o our voice, "Slop
thlei!" and %hen the police get on the
track we come out, hatlcss and in our
slippers, and assist in the arrest. We
come around the bawllng rutlian and
hustle him of to justice, when he
gets in prison. what do we do for him?
With great gustO we put Oh the hand
cuffs and the hopples: but what prepara-
tion are we making for the day when
the handouts and the hopplcs come of?
Society seems to say to these criminals,
WILLIAM, go there and rot" when
ought to say, "You are an offender