Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-04-17
REV. DR.. YALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.
subject. era Plague Of Crime

have been worse than this. The Nile is the
wealth of Egypt Its fish the food its waters
the irrigation of garden and fields Its con-
dition decides the prosperity or the doom OF
the empire. What happens to the Nile hap
pens to all Egypt And now in the text that
great river is iDcarnadined. tits 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. IL was
a fact great crimson, appalling condition
described The Nile rolling deep of blood.
Can you imagine a more awful plague?
The modern plague which nearest CORE
spends with that is the plague of crime in
all our cities. Ii halts not for bloodshed.
Il Shrinks from no carnage. Ii bruises and
cuts and strikes down and destroys 1t re-
vels in the blood of body and soul, this plague
of crime rampant for ages. and never holder
or more rampant than now.
The annual police reports of these cities as
examine them are 10 me more suggestive
than Dante's Inferno, and all Christian people
tsweli as re-ormers need to awaken to pres
ent and tremendous duty. If you want this
'Piague 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
Europe come into our own port. In 1852 Of
the forty-nine thousand people who were in
carcerated in the prisons of the country
thirty-two thousand were of foreign birth.
Many of them were the very desperadoes Of
society. oozing into the slums of our city,
waiting for an opportunity to riot and steal
and debaucb, 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 IL they
bring all their energies OF body, mind and
soul. and they look upon the intervals which
they spend in prison as so much unfortunate
loss of time Just as you look upon an attack
of influenza aud rheumatism which faStens
YOU in the house for few days. lt is their
lifetime business to pick pockets and blow
up safes and shoplift and ply the panel game,
and they have as much pride of skill in their
business as you have in yours when you up
set the argument OF an opposing counsel, or
cure gunshot fracture which other sur
geons have given up. or foresee turn In the
market as You buy goods just before they go
Up twenty per cent. 1t is their business to
commit crime. aud l do not suppose that
once in year the thought of the immortality
strikes them.
Added to these professional criminals,
American and foreign there are large
class Of men who are more or less Industrious
in crime. In one year the police in this
cluster of cities arrested ten thousand people
for theft, and ten thousand for assault 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
fl>oN 40. ,of ho1npr~ 70 him Rtspn lie rcorOnS,-
bic for much of the assault anl battery, in
spring 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 il this cluster OF cities i'll one year
You cannot, as good citizens be independent
Of that fact II will touch your pocket since
/ have to give you the fact that these three
cities pay about eight million dollars worth
OF taxes a year to arraign, try and support
the criminal population. You help TO pay
the board Of every criminal, from the sneak
thief that snatches a spool Of cotton up to
some mal who swamps bank. More than
that il touches your heart in the moral de
preston of the community. You might as
well think to stand in a 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 teng contaminated What is the fire
that burns your store down compared with
the conhagration which consumes your
morals What is the theft of the gold and
silver from your money safe compared with
the theft OF your children's virtue'
We are all ready to arraign criminals.
We shout at the top OF our voice, stop
thiefw and when the police get on the track
Io<1 ,,,1 .clir
assist in the arrest. We come around the
bawling ruf1ian and hustle him of to justice,
and when he gets in prison what do we do for
him. With great gusto we put On the hand
cuffs and the hopples; but what preparation
are we making for the day when the hand
cuffs and the hOpples como of? Society
seems 10 say TO these criminals, VILLAIN, go
in there and rot when it ought to say,
.'You are an offender against the law. but
we mean 10 give you an opportunity TO re-
pent; we mean to help you. Here are Bibles
and tracts and Christian influences. Christ
died for You. Lcok and live"
Vast improvements have been made by
introducing industries into the prison; but
we want something more than hammers
and shoe lasts TO reclaim 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 SUI
feriDg, and that it is attempting TO reform
and elevate them. The majority of Grimm
o. ais suppose that-soeiety has grudge against
them and they in turn have grudge against
society.
They arc harder in heart and more infuri-
ate when they come out of Jail than when
they went H. Many Of the people who go
10 prison go again and again aud again.
Come years ago of fifteen hundred prisoners
VINO during the year had been in Sing Sing.
four hundred had been there before In a
house Of correction in the country, where
during a certain reach Of time there bad
been five thousand people, more than three
thousand had been there before, So, in one
case the prison. and in the other the house of
correction, left them just as bad as they were
before
The secretary Of enc of the benevolent
societies OF New York says lad fifteen years
Of age had spent three years of his life in
prison. and he said to the lad, What have
they done for you to make you bettery7
"N ELL replied tho lad. "the FIRST SINE
was brought up before the judge be said,
You oughtto Re ashamed of yourself. Apd
then committed crime again. and was
brought no hefore the same Judge, and he
said. You rascalr And. aftera while
committed some otheg crime, and | wa:
brought before the same judge, and he said,
you ought to be hanged That was al
they Rad done for him in the way ofreforma'
.-tion aud salvation. "Oh," you say. "these
people are incorrigible" / suppose there
are hundreds Of persons this day lying in the
prison hunks who would leap up at the
prospect Of reformation il society would
only allow them a way into decency and
responsibility.
sob" you say, II have no patience with
these rOgucs.n | ask you in reply, how
much better would you have been under tn:
same circumstances Suppose your mother
had been a blasphemer and your father 9
sot. and you had started life with body
stuffed with evil prOclivities, and you hat
spent much of your time in a cellar amid
obscenites and cursiDg, aud if at ten years
of oge you had been compelled TO go out anC
steal. battered and banged at night Il you
came in without any spoils, and suppos'
your carly manhood aud womanhoOd haC
been covered with rags aud filth. and decent
society had turned its back upon you, anC
left YOU 10 consOrt with vagabonds anC
wharf rats-how much better would yol
have beens have no sympathy with thai
executive clemency which would let CRIME
run loose, or which would sit in tn gallery
of a court room weeping because soma har1
hearted wretch is brought TO justice: but
do say that the safety and life Of ths com
munity demand more potential influences il
behalf OF public offenders.