The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1891-04-15
THE PLAGUE OF CRIME.
How the Criminal Classes Of Great
Cities Prey Upon Society
Which is Unable to Protect Itself-More
Honesty and Vigilance in Oficlals
Needed-Rev. DR.. Talmago
Continues His Sermons
on "The Plaques
OF the Cities"

NAtiCo, Di' ldihidBO Prcuciicu ihop oui-
day to large audiences In the Brrolslyn
Ac deny Of Music in the forenoon, and
at the service at the New York Academy
of Music in the evening, on the "Plague
Of Crime" He took for his text Exodus
vii. 20: "All the waters that were in the
river were turned to blood" The SER
mon follows:
Among all the Egyptian plaques none
could have been worse than this. The
Nile Is the wealth of Egypt. Its fish
the food. It's waters the irrigation of
garden and fields. Its condition decides
the prosperity or the doom of the en-
pire. What happens to the Nile hap
pens TO all Egypt. And now in the text
that great river is incarnadined. 1t is d
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 fact, great
crimson appalling condition, described.
The Nile rolled deep Of blood. Can you
imagine more awful plague?
The modern plague which nearest cor
responds with that is the plague of
crime in all our cities. It halts not for
bloodshed. 1t shrinks from no carnage.
II bruises and cuts, and strikes down,
and destroys. 1t revels In the blood of
body and soul, this plague Of crime ram
pant for ages, and never bolder and
more rampant than now.
The annual police reports of these
dties as examine them are to me more
suggestive than Dante's Inferno, and
al Christian people as well as reform
ers' need TO awaken to a present and
tremendous duty II you want this
plague 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
the criminals who take ship from Eu-
rope come into our own port. In 1869
Of the forey-nine thousand people who
were incarcerated in the prisons of the
country, thirty thousand were of for
eign birth. Many Of them were the
very desperadoes OF society, oozing into
the slums Of our cities, waiting for an
opportunity TO riot and steal and de-
bauch, joining the large gang of Amer
lean thugs and cut-throats. There are
In this cluster of cities-New York, Jer-
sey City and Brooklyn-four thou
sand people whose entire busi-
ness in life is to commit crime.
That Is as much their business as juris-
prudence 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 unfor-
tunate loss of time, just as you look
upon an attack of influenza or rheuma-
Hsm which fastens you in the house for
few days. II is their lifetime business
10 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
upset the argument Of an opposing
counsel, or cure a gun-shot fracture,
which other surgeons have given up, or
foresee turn in the market as you buy
goods Just before they go up 20per cent
II Is their business 10 commit crime,
and do not suppose that once in year
the thought of the immortality strikes
them. Added TO these professional
criminals, American and foreign, there
Is large class of men who remore or
less industrious in crime. In one year
the police in this cluster OF cities ar
rested ten thousand people for theft, and
ten thousand for assault and battery, and
6fty thousand for intoxication. Drunk
enness Is responsible for much of the
theft, since IL confuses 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, inspiring men to sudden
bravery, which they must demonstrate,
though II be on the face Of the next gen.
tleman.
Ten million dollars worth ofproperty
stolen In this cluster Of cities in one
year. You can not, as good citizens, be
independent of that fact II win touch
your pocket, since have to give you
the fact these three cities pay about
$4,000, 900 worth Of taxes year TO ar
raign, try, and support the criminal
population. You help to pay the board
Of every criminal, from the sneak thief
that matches spool OF cotton, up TO
some man who swamps a bank. More
than that, IL touches your heart in the
moral depression Of the community.
You might as well think TO stand In q
closely confined room where there are
hfty people and yet not breathe the
vitiated air, n TO stand In q community
where there Is such = great multitude
Of the depraved without somewhat be-
ing contaminated. What Is the Ere
that burns your store down compared
with the confagration which consumes
your morals? What Is the theft Of the
gold and silver from your money safe
compared with the theft Of your chill
dren's virtue?
We are all ready TO arraign criminals.
We shout at the top Of our voice. "Stop
thiefr' and when the police get on the
track we come out, hatless and In cur
slippers, and assist In the arrest. We
come around the bawling ruffian md
hustle him of 10 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 prepar-
alton are we making for the day when
the handouts and the hopples come of?
Society seems TO say TO these criminals,
"villain, 90 In there and rot" when II
ought TO say, "You are an offender
against the law, but we mean to give
you an opportunity TO repent; we mean
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