The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1891-04-15

were 'fixcd down" You know as well
as do that one villain who escapes
only opens the door for other criminali-
ties. When the two pickpockets
snatched the diamond pin from the
Brooklyn gentleman in Broadway
stage, and the villains were arrested,
and the trial was set down for the gen.
eral sessions, and then the trial never
came, and never anything more was
heard Of the case, the public officials
were only bidding higher for more
crime 1t is no compliment to public
authority when we have in all the
cities Of the country, walking abroad,
men and women notorious for criminal
tiles, unwhipped 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 be-
tween the thief and the honest man,
sheltering the thief and at great price
handing over the goods to the owner to
whom they belong There you will
find those who are called the "skin-
ners," the men who hover around Wall
street. with great sleight-of-hand In
bonds and stocks. There you find the fu-
neral thieves, the people who go 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 house or family; 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 'rharbor thieves" the
"shoplifters," the '''pickpoclsets," ia
nous all over the cities. Hundreds Of
them with their faces in the ''rogues'
gallery" yet doing nothing for the last
five or ten years but defrauding society
and escaping justice. When these peo-
pie go unarrested and unpunished, II is
putting high premium upon vice, and
saying to the young criminals Of this
country, "What safe thing II is to be
a great criminal" Let the law swoop
upon them. Let II be known In this
country that crime will have no quar-
ter, that the detectives are after Il, that
the police club is being brandished, that
the iron door of the prison is being
opened, that the judge is ready to call
on the case. Too great leniency to
criminals is too great severity to so
ciety.
Again: In your effort to arrest this
plague Of crime you need to consider
the idle population. OF course, / do not
refer to the people who are getting old,
or to the sick, or to those who can not
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 so large a property, he said: 81
keep on engraving so may not hang
myself" I do not care who the man is,
you can not afford to be idle. 1t is from
che idle classes that the criminal classes
are made up Character, like water,
gets putrid IL II stands still too long.
Who can wonder that in this world,
where there is so much to do, and oil
|
hell are plungine 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 let's his indignation
fall upon man who chooses idleness?
have watched these do-nothings who
spend their time strolking their boards,
and retouching their toilet, and criticiz-
ing Industrious people, and pass their
days and nights in bar-rooms and
club houses, lounging and smoking
and chewing and card playing.
They are not only useless, but
they are dangerous. How hard II Is
for them to while away the hoursl Alas
for them! II they do not know how TO
while away an hour, what will they do
when they have all eternity on their
hands? These men for awhile 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 aims
house, or stop at the gallows.
The. police stations Of this cluster Of
cities furnish annually between two and
three hundred thousand lodgings. For
the most part, these two and three hun
dred thousand lodgings are furnished to
able-bodied men and women-people as
able TO work as you and are. When
they are received no longer at one po-
lice station, because they are ire
| -. ~ 80
and so they keep moving around. They
get their food at the house doors, steal
ing what they can lay their hands on in
the front basement while the servant Is
spreading the bread in the back base
ment. They will not work. Time and
again, in the country districts, they
have wanted hundreds and thousands of
laborers. These men will not go. They
do not want TO work. l have tried
them. have set them to saving wood
In my cellar 10 see whether they wanted
10 work. 1 offered TO pay them we'll
for IT, have heard the saw going for
about three minutes, and then went
down, and 10, the wood, but no saw.
They are the pest Of society. and they
stand in the way Of the Lords poor,
who ought 10 be helped, and must be
helped, and will be helped While there
are thousands Of industrious men
who cannot get any work, these men
who do not want any work come in and
make that plea. / am In favor OF the
restoration Of the old-fashioned whip
ping post for just this one class Of men
who will not work; sleeping at night at
public expense in the station-house;
during the day getting their food at
your doorstep. imprisonment does not
scare them. They would like It. Black