The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-04-16
PLAQUES OF THE CITIES.
THE IDLE RICH, THE IDLE POOR, The
DESPERATE, DANGEROUS POOR.

in continuance OF the course Oh serilofiS
on 1.-THE Ten Plaques of the Cities, to-
day preached to large audiences in the |
Brooklyn Academy of Music in the |
forenoon and at The Christian Herald |
service at the New York Academy OF |
Music in the evening on '"The Plague
of Crime" He took for his text Exodus
vii, 20, "All the waters that were in
the river were turned to blood.
Among all the Egyptian plaques none
could have been worse than this. The
Nile is the wealth of Egypt. It's fish
the food, its waters the irrigation of
garden and fields. It's condition de-
cides the prosperity or the doom of the
empire. What happens to the Nile
happens to all Egypt. And now in
the text that great river is incarnadined.
It is red cash across an empire. In
poetic license we speak of wars which
turn the rivers into blood. But my
text is not a poetic license. 1t was
fact, great crimson, appalling condi-
| ton described The Nile rolling deep
| of bloodl Can you imagine Il more
awful plague!
The modern plague which nearest
corresponds with that is the plague of
crime in all our cities 1t halts not for
bloodshed It shrinks from no carnage.
| 1t bruises and cuts and strikes down
and destroys. 1t revels in the blood of
body and soul-this plague Of crime,
rampant for ages, and never bolder or
more rampant than now.
HORRORS OF THE POLICE COURTS.
The annual police reports Of these
| cities as examine them are to me more
suggestive than Dantes Inferno, and
all Christian people as well as reform-
ers need to awaken to a present and
tremendous duty. If you want this
"Plague of Crime" to stop there are
several kinds of persons you need to
consider First, the public criminals.
You ought not to be surprised that
these people make up large portion
in many communities. The vast ma
iority of the criminals who take ship
from Europe come into our own port.
In 1869, of the forty-nine thousand peo-
pie who were incarcerated in the pris-
ons of the country thirty-two thousand
were of foreign birth. Many of them
were the very desperadoes of society,
oozing into the slums Of our cities,
waiting for an opportunity to riot, and
steal and debauch, joining the large
gang of American thugs and cutthroats
There are in this cluster of cities
New York, Jersey City and Brooklyn
four thousand people whose entire busi
ness in life is to commit crime. Tha
is as much their business as jurisprud
ence or medicine or merchandise i
your business. To it they bring al
/. their energies of body, mind and soul
and they look upon the intervals which
s they spend in prison as so much unfor
tunate loss of time, just as you lool
:. upon an attack of influenza or rheuma
tism which fastens you in the house fo
;. a few days. 1t is their lifetime bushes
to pick pockets and blow up safes an
Q shoplift and ply the panel game, an
they have as much pride of skill i
their business as you have in youl
WIleu YOU UpSSt llic eii SuulSho VI 81
> opposing counsel or. cure a gunshe
fracture which other surgeons hav
given up, Or foresee turn in the ma
st ket as you buy goods just before the
+ go up 20 per cent. 1t is their bus
5. ness to commit crime, and l do nt
l. suppose that once in a year the though
:, of the immortality strikes them.
u Added to these professional Grin
l. inals, American and foreign, there is
large class of men who are more or le
industrious in crime. In one year tt
police in this cluster of cities arreste
;; ten thousand people for theft and te
,d thousand for assault and battery al
III fifty thousand for intoxication. Drum
m enness is responsible for much of Il
10 theft, since it confrrses a mans ideas
C. property, and he gets his bands {
ne things that do not belong to him. Ru
te is responsible for much of the assau
and battery, inspiring men to sudd'
st bravery, which they must denonstrat
be though it be on the face Of the ne
he gentleman.
Ten million dollars worth of proper
be stolen in this cluster of cities in o.
n year You cannot, as good citizens,
independent of that fact. It will tou
ne your pocket, since I have to give y
, the fact that these three cities pay abo
ay eight million dollars worth of taxes
no no year to arraign, try and support
". criminal population. You help to p
"' the board of every criminal, from t
,,,s sneak thief that snatches a spool
f,I cotton UP to some man who swamps
bank. More than that, it touches yc
ne. heart in the moral depression of
NO community. You might as well thi
to stand in closely confined ro
where there are fifty people and yet !
breathe the vitiated air as to stand
community where there is such
great multitude of the depraved wi
III out somewhat being contaminat
TX: What is the fire that burns your st
Wy down compared with the confagrat
. . which consumes your morals? w
ga ga is the theft of the gold and silver fr
~ your money safe compared with
IN theft of your childfen's virtue2
for CAN THE CRIMINAL BIZ REFoRME
r;t- We are all ready TO arraign cri
the mails. We shout at the top OF
, in voice, "Stop thiefl" and when
ed police get ON the track we come
rth hatless and in our slippers, and as
IN the arrest. We come around
bawling ruffian and hustle him of
justice, and when he gets in pr
what do we do for hiDl2 With g
ate gusto we put on the handouts and
non hopples; but what preparation are
making for the day when the handc
the and the hopples come OFF, Soc
tier seems to say to these criminals, :
un lain, go in there and rot, !" whei
Pc ought to say, You are an ofIeI
against the law, but we mean to