The Red Cloud chief., 1891-04-24

dCsudlBu IOOIf DQttUIl2
influences in behalf Of public offenders
saw Ia q prisona woman, with .
child almost blind. who had been arrest
edfor the crime of poverty. whowas wait
ing till the slow law could take her &c
the almshouse, where she rightfully be
longed, but she was thrust in there with
her child, amid the most abandoned
wrctches OF the town Many of the Of.
tenders In that prison, sleeping on the
floor. with nothing but o vermin-cov-
cred blanket over them Those people
crowded and wan and wasted and half
suffocated and Infatuated. ] said TO the
men; How do you stand it here?-
GOD knows" said man, 1--WE have
TO stand it." o. they will pay you when
they get out Where they burned down
one house they will burn three. They
Will strike deeper the assassin's knife.
They Are this minute plotting worse
burglaries- Some OF the city jails arc
the best places I know of TO manu-.
facturc footpads, vagabonds and cut
throats- Yale college is not SO well cal
culated 70 make scholars, nor Harvard
so well calculated to make scientists.
nor Princeton 10 well calculated 20
make theologians, n many Of our ais
are calculated TO make criminals.
We want men like John Howard and
Sir William blackstone, and women
like Elizabeth Fry TO do for the prisons
of-the United States what those people
did in other days for the prisons Of
England.
Again, in your effort 70 arrest this
plague of crime you need TO consider
Enthusiastically officials "Woe unto
thee, o land, when thy king is a child
and thy princes drink In the morning"
II is a great calamity to u city when
bad men get into public authority.
Why vas it that in New York there was
such unparalleled crime between 1860
and 1871? II was because the Judges
of police in that city at that time, for
the most part, were as corrupt as the
vagabonds who am before them for
trial. These were the days Of high car
nival for election frauds, assassination
and forgery. We had all kinds of rings.
There was one man during those years
that got SIPS. 900 in N year for serving
the public. In a few years il was csti-
mated that there were fifty millions of
public treasure squandcrcd.
II is no compliment to public author
ity when we have in all the cities Of the
country, walking abroad, men and
womcn notorious for criminality, un-
whipped of justice. They 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, shelter
ing the thief and at a great price hand
ing over the goods 10 the owner to
whom they belong.
And there you find the confidence
men," who borrow money Of you be-
they have a dead child in the
house and want 10 bury it, when they
never had a house or a family; or they
want 10 go to England and get a large
property there, and they want you 20
pay their way, and they will send the
money back by the very next mail.
There are ''harbor thieves" the shop
lifters," the ''pickpockets," famous all
over the cities. Hundreds Of them with
their faces In the ''Rogucs' Gallery"
yet doing nothing for the last five OF G
years but defraud society and escape
justice. When these people go unar-
and unpublished, it is putting q
high premium upon vice. and saying To
the young criminals of this country:
What n safe thing il is to DE a great
Again; in your effort to arrest this
of crime, you need to consider
idle population. of course, l do
not refer To people who are getting old
pr 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 nobleman
was asked why he kept busy when he
had 30 large a property, he said: Il
on engraving SO l may not hang
myself" i do not care who the man
is, you cannot afford tn bc idle. IL is
are made up. Character. like
gets putrid il il stands still too
long. Who can wonder that in this
world, where there Il so much 10 do,
and all the hosts of earth and heaven
and hell nrc p%lunging into the conflict,
and angels are flying, and God is at
work, and the universe is awake with
the marching and countermarching,
God lets his indignation fall
upon a man who chooses idleness?
men for awhile smoke the best
and wear the best clothes, and
mov In the highest spheres; but have
that very soon they come down
To the prison, the almshouse. or stop ut
gallows. The police stations of
cluster Of cities furnished an
nually between 200. 600 and 800, 900 ludg- |
ings. For the most part these 20O,0 900
and 300, 900 lodgings are furnished 10
able bodied men and womcn-people as
able TO work rs you or I are When
are received no longer at one
police station. because they are 're-
they go - soIne other station. |
and SO they keep moving around.
They get their food ut house doors |
what they n lay their
hnnds ON In the front basement while
The servant is spreading the bread in
The back basement. They will not
work. Time and again. In the country
districts, they have wanted hundreds
md thousands of laborers These men
not GO. They do not want 10 work.
have tried them / have set them TO
,awing wood in my cellar to see
they wanted a. work. Of
10 pay them well for it. ] have
the saw going for about three
and then I went down, and To-
he wood but no saw! They are the
'est Of society and they stand In the
way of the Lords poor, who ought 10
e helped. and must Ice helped. an1 viii
&C helped While there are thousands
Il industrious men who cannot get any
work. these men who do not want any
work come IN and make hat plea
IN In favor Of the restoration of the
'~ld-fashioned whipping post for just
his one class of men who will not
work
! like for that class of people the scani
i'll Of fare that Paul wrote out for the
loafers: IF any work
'ot. neither should he eat" By wha;
rs - t.Ss Nv !, .. 4. ~s-l, ~. -