The Princeton union., 1891-04-23
PLAGUE OF CRIME.
Dr. Talmage Says It is Rampant
Every where Destroying the Life
Of Cities.
.Multitudes Of Depraved and Aband-
0ned Wretches Who Fill the Pris-
ons Of the Country.

New YORK, April 12-[Special]. -
DIR. Talmage, in continuance OF the
courses OF sermons on :"The Ten
Plaques OF the Cities" took for his
text Exodus wi, 20: "All the waters
that were in the river were turned to
blood"
Among all the Egyptian plaques none
scould have been worse than this. The
Nile is the wealth Of Egypt. Its fish
the food. Its waters the irrigation of
garden and fields. It's condition de-
cides the prosperity or the doom OF
the empire. What happens to the
Nile happens to all Egypt. And now
uadined. 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 a poetic license.
1t was q fact, g. great crimson appal-
ling condition, described. The Nile
rolling deep OF blood. Can you i'm
agine a more awful plague?
The modern plague which nearest
corresponds to 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 revels
in the blood Of body and soul, this
plague OF crime rampant for ages, and
never bolder or more rampant than
now.
We are all ready to arraign crini-
mails. We shout at the top Of our
voice, 'stop thief!'' and when the po-
lice get on the track we come out hat
Jess, and in our slippers, and assist in
the arrest. We come round the baWl-
ing ruffian and hustle him off to U.S.
tice and when he gets in prison what
do we do for him? With great gusto
we put on the handouts and the hop
piles; but what preparation are we
making for the day when the hand
cuffs and the hopples come off? Socie-
ty seems to say to these criminals,
,E'Villain, 60 in there and rot, " when
1T ought to say, "You are an 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 and shoe lasts to re-
claim 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 suffering and that it is attempt
ing to reform and elevate them. The
majority OF criminals suppose that
society has a grudge against them,
and they in turn have agrudge against
: society.
They are harder in heart and more
e infuriate when they come out of Jail
than when they went in. Many of the
people who 60 to prison go again and
again and again. Some years ago OF l.
500 prisoners who during the year had
been in Sing Sing, 400 had been there
before. In a house Of correctionin the
, country, where during a certain reach
Of time there had been 5000 people,
more than three thousand had been
there before. So, in one case the
prison, and in the other case thehouse
OF correction, left them just as bad as
they were before. The secretary of
~one of the benevolent societies of New
York says a. lad Of Is years of age had
spent three years OF his
LIFE IN PRISON,
and he said to the lad, "What have
they done to make you better?"
s'Well," replied the lad, the first time
Twas brought up before the judge he
said, You ought to be ashamed of
yourself And then I committed a
crime again. and was brought up be-
lore the same judge; and he said, You
rascaln And after a while [ commit
ted some other crime, and | was
brought before the same judge, and he
said, You ought to behanged.'" That
is all they had done for him in the way
of reformation and salvation. "Oh, i"
you say, "these people are incorrigi-
BILE" | suppose there are hundreds of
persons this day lying in the prison
hunks who would leap up at the pros
pect OF reformation, if society would
only allow them way into decency
and respectability. ooh" you say, II
have no patience with these rogues." ."
ask you, in reply, how much better
would you have been under the same
4 circumstances suppose your mother
had been blasphemer and you fa-
.ther g. sot, and you had started life
with body stuffed with evil proclivi.
ties, and you had spent much Of your
time in a cellar amid obscenities and
scursing and if at ten years Of age you
had been compelled to 90 out AND
steal, battered and banged at night j.
you came in without any spoils, anC
suppose your early manhood anG
womanhood had been covered with
rags and filth, and decent society ha6
turned it's back upon you, and left
you to consort with vagabonds anc
wharfrats-how much better would
YOU have been? / have no sympathy
with that executive clemency which
would let crime run loose, or which
would sit in the gallery OF q court room
weeping because some hard-hearteC
wretch is brought to justice; but I dc
say that the safety and life ofthe com
munity demand more potential in
fiuences in behalf OF public offenders
In some Of the city prisons the ali
10 lita th at Of the Black Hole of Gal