Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-04-14


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,
II was in prison, and ye came unto
me-"
Again, in your effort to arrest this
plague of crime you need to consider
untrustworthy officials. WOE unto
thee, o land, when thy king is a child
and thy princes drink in the morning.
1t Is great calamity to city when
bad men get into public authority
Why was 1t that in New York there
was such unparalleled crime between
1866 and 1872 1t was because the
judges of police in that city at that
time, for the most part, were as cor
rupt as the vagabonds that came be-
fore 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 man
during those years that got one hun
dred and twenty eight thousand dollars
in one year for serving the public. In
few years it was estimated that there
we're fifty millions of public treasure
squandered. In those times the Grim
inal had only to wink at the Judge, or
his lawyer would wink for him, and the
question was decided for the defend
ant.
Of the eight thousand people arrest
ed in that city in one year only three
thousand were punished. These little
matters were fixed up" while the in
terests of society were fixed down"
| You know as well as | do thai one vii
lain who escapes only opens the door
for other criIninalities When tie two
pickpockets snatched the diamond pin
from the Brooklyn gentleman in a
Broadway stage, and the villains were
arrested, and the trial was set down
for the general sessions, and thea the
trial never came, and never anything
more was heard of the case, the public
officials were only bidding higher for
more crime,
WHEN THE WICKED RULE THE PEOPLE
MOURN
1t is no compliment to public authori-
ty when we have in all the cities of the
country, walking abroad, men and
women notorious for criIninality 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 great price hand
ing over the. goods to the owner to
whom they belong There you will
find those who are called the 'skin-
ners," the mon who hover around Wall
street, with great sleight OF hand in
bonds and stocks. There you find the
funeral thieves, the people who so and
sit down and mourn with families and
pick their pockets And there you find
the confidence men," who borrow
money of you because they have dead
child in the house and want to bury it.
when they never had a house or n fami- !
ly; or they want to go to England and |
get large property there, and they |
want you to pay their way, and they
will send the money back by the very
next mail.
There are the ''harbor thieves" the
"shoplifters, the ''pickpockets," fa-
nous all over the cities. Hundreds of
them with their faces in the "rogue's
gallery" yet doing nothing for the last
five or ten years but defraud society
and escape justice. When these people
go unarrested and unpunished, it is
putting high premium upon vice and
saying to the young criminals OF this
country, "What safe thing it is to be
a great criminalp Let the law swoop
upon them. Let it be known in this
country that crime will have no quar-
ter, that the detectives are after it, that
the police club is being brandished,
that the iron door of the prison is be-
ing opened, that the judge is ready to
call on the case. Too great leniency to
criminals is too great severity to soci
ETY..
Again, in your effort to arrest this
plague Of crime you need to consider
the idle population. OF course | do
not refer to people who are getting old,
or to the sick or to those who canno:
get work, but tell you to look out 70.
those athletic men and women who
will not work. When the French no
bleman was asked why he kept busy
when he had SO large a property he
said, IL keep on engraving SO may
not hang myself l do not care who
the man is you cannot afford TO be
idle. 1t is from the idle classes that
che criminal classes are made up.
Character, like water, gets putrid If il
stands still too long Who can wonder
that in this world, where there is so
much to do, aud all the hosts of earth
and heaven and he'll are plunging into
the conflict, and angels are flying and
God is at work, and the universe is
a-quake with the marching and counter
marching, that God lets his Indignation
fall upon man who chooses idlenessl
have watched these do-nothings who
spend their time stroking their beard,
and retouching their toilet, and criti-
cising industrious people, and pass THEN
days and nights in barrooms and club
houses, lounging and smoking and
chewing and card playing, They nre
not only useless, but they are danger
Gus. How hard it is for them 20 while
away the hOuRl Alas for theml If