Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1891-05-07
Again, IN your effort to arrest this p,arue

Again, IN your effort to arrest this plague
Ct crime you need to consider untrust-
worthy officials. "Woe unto thee. G 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 it that in
New York there was such unparalleled
crime between 1866 and 1871? l.. was
because the Judges of police III 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, assassin
alton and forgery. We had all kinds Of
rings. There was one man during those
years who got one hundred and twenty
eight thousand dollars in one year for
serving the public. In few years it was
estimated that there were nifty millions Of
public treasure squandercd. In thor
times the criminal had only to wink to the
Judge. or his lawyer would wink for him,
and the question was decided for tho
defendant. OF the eight thousand people
arrested in that city in one year. only three
thousand were punished. These little
matters were ''ixed up" while the inter-
ests Of society were fixed down. You
know as well as do that one villain who
escapes only opens the door for other
criminalities. When these people go
unarrested and UNPUBLISHED, it is putting
high premium upon vice, and saying to
the young criminals of this country,
"What a safe thing it is to be great
criminal Let the law swoop upon them
Let it be known in this country that crime
will have no quarter, that the detectives
are after it, that the police club is being
chnA hat thn 80
prison is being opened, that the Judge Is
ready to call ON the case. Too great
leniency to criminals is too great severity
to society
Again in your efforts 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 tho
sick, or to those who cannot get work; hut
! tell you to look out for those athletic men
and women who will not work. 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. l have watched these do-nothings
who spend their time stroking their boards,
and re-touchng their toilet, and criticizing
industrious people, and pass their days and
nights in bar-rooms and club -houses,
Longing and smoking and chewing and
card playing. These men for awhile smoke
the best cigars, and wear the best clothes,
and move in the highest sphere; but have
noticed that very soon they como down to
the prison, the almshouse or stop at tho
gallows
In this cluster of cities, whose cry Of
want interpret, there are said to be, as
far as l can figure it up from the reports,
n hhn
who are dependent upon individual, city or
state charities. If all their voices could
come up at once, it would tie groan that
would shake the foundation of tho city,
and bring all earth and heaven to the
rescue. But, for the most part it suffers
unexpressed. 1t sits in silence, crashing
its teeth, and sucking the blood of its own
arteries, waiting for the judgment day.
Oh, should not wonder il on that day 1t
would be found out that some of US had
some things that belonged to them; somo
extra garment which might have made
them comfortable in cold days; some bread
thrust into the ash barrel that might have
appeased their hunger for little while;
some wasted candle or gas jet that might
| have kindled up their darkness: some
fresco on the ceiling that would have given
them a roof; some jewel which, brought to
that orphan girl in time. might have kept
her from being crowded Off the precipices
of an unclean life; some New Testament
| that would have told them Of him who
''came to seek and save that which was
lost" Oh, this wave of vagrancy and
hunger and nakedness that dashes against
| our front door step! If the roofs of all the
houses of restitution could be lifted so we
| could look down into them just as God
nko LD
| enough to stand it? And yet there they
are. The fifty thousand sewing women
| in these three cities, some of them in
| hunger and cold, working night after
night, until sometimes the blood spurts
from nostril and lips. How we'll their
grief was voiced by that despairing
woman who stood by her invalid husband
and invalid child, and said to the city mis-
sionary: Il am down hearted. Every
things against US; and then there are
other things" ''What other things?"
said the city missionary. 49," she re-
piled, ''my SIM" 'What do you mean by
that?' ''Well," she said. II never hear or
see anything good. It's work from Mon
day morning till Saturday night, and then
when Sunday comes can't go out, and I
walk the floor, and it makes me tremble to
think that have got to meet God O sir,
it's so hard for US. We have to work So
and then we have so much trouble, aud
then we are getting along 80 poorly; and
sec this wee little thing growing weaker
and weaker; and then to think we are not
getting nearer to God, but floating away
from him. o, sir, do wish was ready
to de-"
should not wonder if they had a good
deal better time than we in tho future, to
make up for the fact that they had such a
bad time here. 1t would be just like Jesus
to say: ''Come up and take the highest
seats. You suffered with me on earth;
now be glorified with me in heaven" 0,
thou weeping One Of Bethany! o, thou
dying One of the cross! Have mercy on
the starving, freezing. homeless poor Of
these great cities!
have preached this sermon for four OF
dve practical reasons: Because I want yor
to know who are the uprooting classes Of
society. Because want you to be mors
discriminating in your charities. Becaus.
I want your hearts open with generosity
and your hands open with charity
Because want you to he made sworz