The Yazoo sentinel. (Yazoo City, Miss.) 1878-1916, 1891-05-07

hunitY demand more potential influences
behalf Of public offenders
In some Of the city prisons the air Is m
that OF this Black Hole Of calcrtta. / hay
visited prisons where, as the air swet
through the wicket IL almost knocked No
down. No sunlight Young men who ha
. committed their first crime crowded
among old offenders. | saw In ono prison
woman, with child almost blind, who ha
been arrested for the crime OF poverty. VIII
was waiting until the slow law could tak
her 10 the almshouse, where she rightfull
belongedi but she was thrust In there wit
her child amid the most abandoned wretehe
Of the town. Many Of the offenders 10 tha
prison seipt on the door, with nothing but
vermin-covered blanket over them. Thos
people crowded and wan and wasted an.
half suffocated and infuriated, said 10 IN
men, How do you stand IL hereT go,
knows" said one man. 1--WE have to stand IL
On, they will pay you when they get ont
Who're they burned down one house tbe1
will burn three. They will strike deeper IN;
assassfn's knife. They are this minute plot
ting worse burglaries.
Some Of the city Jails arc the best places
know OF 10 manufacture footpads. vaga,
bonds and cutthroats. Yale College IL MOI
30 well calculated 10 make scholars. nor Har.
ward so well calculated to make scientists.
nor Princeton 50 well calculated to make
theologians, as many of our jails are calcu-
lated TO make criminals. All that those men
do not know of crime after they have been
In that dungeon for some time, Satanic
Vaccination cannot teach them. In the in
sureraole stencil and sickening surroundings
| OF such places there is nothing but disease
for the body, idlocy for the mind, and death
for the soul. Stihed air and darkness and
] Vermin never turned 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 United
STATES what those PEOPLE did in other days
for the prisons Of England. thank God
Tor what Isaac 7. Hooper and DR.. Wines
and Mr.. Harris and scores of others have
done In the way of prison reform, but we
want something moro 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, 0 land, when thy
king Is child, and thy princes drink in the
morning. 1t is great calamity to city
when bad men get into public authority.
Why was IL that in New York there was
such unparalleled crime between 1866 and
loHY 1t was because the judges Of police in |
tnat 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 man 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 in all the cities Of the country,
walking abroad, men and women notorious
for crininality 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 between the
thief and the honest man, sheltering the
thief, and az great price handing over the
goods to the owner to whom they belonged
There you will find those who are called the
'skinners, the men who hover around Wall
street, with great sleight of hand in bonds
and stocks. There you find the funeral
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 a large property there, and they want
you to pay their way and they will send the
money back by the very next mail.
shopiitSsee tAshs hSEROy tAIsyesa tAs
all over the cities. Hundreds of them with
their faces in the Rogues' Gallery, yet do
ing nothing for the last five or ten years
but defraud society and escape justice.
When these people go unarrested and un-
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 great criminalw 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 the iron
door 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 plague
If crime, you need to consider the idle popu-
alton. Of course l 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
'ut for those athletic men and women who
will not work. When the French nobleman
vas asked why he kept busy when he had so
arge aproperty, he said. Il keep on engrav-
Nc so ! may not hang MYSELF do not
care who the man is, you cannot afford to be
die. IL is from the idle classes that the
Timlnal classes are made up. Character
ike water, gets putrid if it stands still too
ong. Who can wonder that in this world
where there is so much to do, and all the
losts of earth and heaven and hell are
,lunging into the conflict and angels are fiy-
ne and God is at work and the universe is
I-quake with the marching and counter .
lpon a man who chooses idleness.
/ have watched these do-nothings who
pend their time stroking their beard and {
their toilet and criticising in !
ustrious people, and pass their days and !
lights in barrooms and club houses, loung-
nc and smoking and chewing and card
laying. They are not only useless, but {
hey are dangerous. How hard it is for y
hem TO while away the hours Alas, for q
heml If they do not know how TO while 5
way an hour, what will they do when
hey have all eternity on their handsi
'heSe men for while smoke the best cigars !
highest spheres, but | have noticed that
cry soon they come down to the prison, the {
lmshouse, OF stop at the gallows.
The police stations Of this cluster Of cities !
urnish annually between two and three hun :
red thousand lodgings. For the most part !
hese two aud three hundred thousand lodg- I
ngs are furnished TO able bodied men and q
as able to work as YOU and / $
re. When they are received no longer at q
me police station because they are repeat 2
rs they go to some other station and so !
hey keep moving around. They get their .
God at house doors, stealing what they can :
~ their hands on in the front basement 4
Thile the servant is spreading the bread in 5
be back basement. They viii not work. b
line and again, in the country districts,
hey have wanted hundreds and thousands Q
laborers. These men will not 60. They .
o not want to WORK. / have tried them. ] Q
ave set them to saving wood in my CELLAR
D see whether they wanted to work. I Of s
ared to pay them well for it, have heard J
be saw going for about three minutes, and q
hen went. down. and lo the wood, but no $
awl They are the pest Of society, and they ?
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