Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1891-04-24

IN some OF the city prisons the alr Is lise
that OF the Black Hole of Calcutta. have
visited prisons where, as the air swept
through the wicket it almost knocked ms
down. No sunlight Young men who had
mmitted their first crime crowded in
iong old offenders. / saw in one prison a
i oman, with a child almost blind, who had
ben arrested for the crime " |rVecty, VINO
was waiting until the slow law could take
! her to the almshouse, where she rightfully
belonged; but she was thrust in there with
her child amid the most abandoned wretches
| OF the town. Many Of the offenders IN that
ison selpt on the floor. with nothing but
vermin-coverei blanket over them. Those
people crowded and wan and wasted and
| half suffocate1 and infuriated. | said to the
men, How do you stand it here" God
knows" said one man, I'VE have to stand It,"
oh, they will pay you when they get out
Where thev burned down one house they.
will burn three. They will strike deeper the
asSassn's knife They are this minute plot
ting worse burglaries.
some Of the city iails are the bast places !
know of TO manufacture footpads. vaga-
bonds and cutthroats. Yale College is not
so well calculated tO make scholars, nor Har-
ward so well calculated To make scientists,
nor Princeton so well calculated TO make
theologians, as mauy of our jails are calcu-
lated TO make criminals. All that those men
do not know OF crime after they have besn
in that dungeon for some time, Satanic
machination cannot teach them. In the in
sutferable stencil and sckening surroundings
OF such places there is nothing but disease
for the body idiocy for the mimi ami death
for the soul. Stifled air and darkness and
vermin never turne1 a thief into an honest
man.
We want men like John Howard and Sir
William Blackstone and women like Eliza
beth Fry TO do for the prisons OF the Unite
I CNnNsG vAnN H.. l. n -.
for the prisons Of England. | thank God
for what Isaac 7. Hopper and DR.. Wines
and Mr.. Harris and scores of others have
done in the way Of prison reform, but we
want something more radical before will
come the blessing OF him who said, IL was in
prison, and ye came unto me-
Again, in your effort to arrest this plague
otc}ias Peel uht6 f tee snG Tnen tay
king is a child, and thy princes drink in the
morning" II is great calamity to n city
when bad men get into public authority.
Why was it that in New York there was
such unparalleled crime between 1866 and
/ lsIl' 1t was because the judges OF police in
that city at that time for the most part were
/ as corrupt as the vagabonds that came before
/ them for trial, Those were the DAYS Of high
/ carnival for election frauds. assassination
and forgery We had all kinds of rings
/ There was one mau during those years that
/ got one hundred and twenty eight thousand
! dollars In one year for serving the public.
1t is no compliment TO public authority
when we have III all the cities of the country.
/ walking ablOal men and women notorious
| Tor crimnality uuwhipped OF justice. Thay
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, shPltering the
/ thief, aud at a great price hanli Y over the
Ia hp f hon hos h.i., Fval
! There you will find those who are callei the
''skinners, the men who hover around Wall
street, with great sleight of hand in bonds
and stocks. There you fnt the funeral
thieves, the people who go and sit down aud
mourn with families and pick their pockets.
And there you find the confidence men,"
who borrow money OF you because they
have dead child III the house and want TO
bury it, when they never had house or
family. or they want to go to England AMI
get large property there, and they want
you to pay their way and they will send the
/ money back 10y the very next mail.
There are the "harbor thieves thu
'shoplfters,n the 'pickpocket4,n famous
all over the cities. Hundreds Of them with
their faces in the Rogues' Gallery. yet do
ing nothing for ths last five or ten years
but defraud society and escip, justice.
When these people go uuarreSted and uu.
punished it is putting a high premium
upon vice and saying to the young GRIMM
ais of this country, What a safe thing it
is to be a great criminal" Let the law
swoop upon them. Let it BE- known in
this country crime will have no quarter;
that the detectives are after it; that the
police club is being brandished: that tho iron
1oor of the prison is being opened; that the
Judge is ready to call on the case. Too great
eniency TO criminals is too great severity to
society.
Again in your effort to arrest this pIagus
Of crime, YOU need TO consider the idle popu-
lation. or course 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
will not work. When the French noblemau
was asked why he kept busy when he had so
large property, he said, II keep on engrav-
ing so | may not hang myself" | do not
care who the man is, you cannot afford to be
idle. 1t is from the idle classes that the
criminal classes are made up. Character,
like water, gets putrid If it stands still too
long. Who can wonder that in this world
where there is so much TO do, and all the
hosts of earth aud heaven and hell are
plunging into the conflict and angels are hy-
ing and God is at work and the universe is
a-auake with the marching and counter
marching, that God lets His indig ignation fall
upon man who chooses idleness.
| have watched these do-nothings who
spend their time stroking their beard and
retouching their toilet and criticising in
dustrious people, aud pass their days and
nights in barrooms and club houses, loung-
ing and smoking and chewing and card
playing. They are not only useless, but
they are dangerous. How hard it is for
them to while away the hours Alas, fol
theml II they do not know how to while
away an hour, what will they do when
Al. latr de
; These men for while smoke the best cigars
and wear the best clothes and move in the
highest spheres, but | have noticed that
: very soon they come down to the prison, the
almshouse, or stop at tho gallows.
The police stations OF this cluster OF cities
I furnish annually between two and three hun
dred thousand lodgings. For the most par
these two and three hundred thousand lodg
ings are furnished to able bodied men anc
I women-people as able to work as you and
5 are. When they are received no longer a
one police station because they are repeat
{ ersh they go to some other station and 3
they keep moving around. They get thei
! food at house doors, stealing what they CA
!, lay their hands on in the front basemen
d while the servant is spreading the bread !
IS the back basement. They will not worR
i Time and again, in the country district!
J they have wanted hundreds and thousand
II OF laborers. These men will not 60. The
!, do not want to work. | have tried them.
j have set them to saving wood in my celia
r. to see whether they wanted to work o
Sc fered to pay them well for it. / have hear
RI the saw going for about three minutes III
le then " ent down and 10, the wood, but 4
le sawl They are the pest of society, and tht
10 stand in the way of the Lords poor wi
lG who ought to be helped, and must be helpe
and will be helped.
Z While there are thousands Of industrio
W men who cannot get any work, these ms
lie who do not want any work come in NJ
er make that plea. | am in favor OF the IT
toration of the old fashioned whipping nc
id work-seeping at night at public G
id pense in the station house. during the d
RS getting their food at your doorstep. II
nd nrisonlnent ioes not solre them. III