The Progress., 1893-04-22

kept. w nat ~ lTuS Oh ine DdptiSt hc'
nomination is true Of every other evan
gelical denomination i'll this city.
(3) The truth is, the city of today, the
modern city. whether in the east or in
the west. is Il seething hell, in which the
manhood of the nation is daily being
consumed. MatcrialiSm is rampant. The
god of the city is the god of mamroa.
the god of power. More and more have
the strong fallen into this fetch wor-
ship. Their motto Is. Money by all
means. by any means. fair or foul. The
hot breath of this scOurEe soon burns
out thc ideals, the faiths. the hopes and
the loye born into the heart of man I'M
der normal conditions. The sum total
of the forces that affect life in our cities
today Is overwhelmingly against the de-
vclopmont of Il righteous character The
pressure of work is insane. Men are IN
Il fever. They do not stop to think.
Things high and holy and noble are
brushed aside in the wild, mad scramble
of the hard. modern business world.
Men are driven 10 such an intense speed
that the moral point of view Is lost. The
reaction from this results in dissipation
rather than amusement.
I'm the reaction from this debauChery
oi body and soul sane amusement seems
almost IN impoSsiblity; hence the deg
radiation of our amusemcnts i'll the cities
today. Our thcatcrs wallOw in filth.
They pandcr to the gutter. They pander
to the Bowery. They pandcr to the VI
cious in high society and III low society.
and there is scarcely an exception. Gam
bling is rampant and opens its thousand
doors 10 allure the young and 10 abso-
!utely destroy. In this horrible pressur'
of lite the social evil isintcnsiiied. Won
anhood in degradation becomes mod
crn power for evil. Saloons have mul-
tiplied not only in numbers. but in their
power for evil, in their attractions. in
the free table which they set, until It Is
next 10 impossible for man with hon
est intentions in the lower walks of life
to live iii "A modern city and keep out of
these he'll holes.
VILE LITERATURE ~ OUR CITIES.
The reading matter which Is provided
for this population is of the most dcgrad-
ed character. II is thrust under the nose
of the passing crowd. 1t is nailed upon
the bulletins III glarinx colors. it is cir
Culated among the young and the foolish.
the ignorant and the thouShtless, to bear
its fruit of death from day to day.
The influence in the higher circles of
society is irrational. materialistic, and
tends to destroy reverence. faith and the
stability of home and home ideals. The
people i'll our cities live in tenemeats,
live i'll overcrowded novels in which
dogs and hogs could not breed, and ex-
ist through many generations. 1t is sim
ply physical imposSibility for rational
manhood and womanhOod to be born and
reared in such houses. i'll such streets,
and under such conditions as exist in
our modern cities. This fact is shown
in the deterioration of the working peo-
pie of the cities.
II was found recently in London by
an investigation that the submerged
tenth" of the population was not the ru-
raj population which had come into Lon
don, but it was the population born i'll
London under modern conditions. The
countrymen who come in to fill the lower
walks of life i'll our cities contain enough
vigorous blood to fight their way over
the bodies of the weaker men and women
of the city. Official corruption grows
apace in such life. In the midst of
this the church is corrupted by the power
81 .,,I L =
asleep with its traditions.
am not pessimist. do not believe
in the triumph of evil. Ihave not drawn
this dark picture because | am in de-
spair, but we must face the facts. The
city today is destroying the character
and the manhood of the nation. The
modern city as at present constituted
does not produce men and women cap
able of really fighting the battles of life
seriously and TO a successful issue The
modern city cannot exist but for the
blood that pours into it from our rural
districts, and this blood is consumed
from day to day in this fiery furnace Of
a corrupt and corrupting life. You can
not point out to me today in q single
great city of America "A solitary man
born under the conditions Of modern
city life whose influence counts for any
thing in this nations life today.
Phillips Brooks was born in Boston.
but he was born in Boston fifty years
ago, and Boston was "a struggling coun-
try village at that time as compared with
the Boston of today. The modern city.
as at present constituted, does not pro-
duee men. 1t cannot produce men. If
they are born within it. they cannot be
reared to vigorous manhood. The forces
that destroy character are reoverwhelming
as compared with the forces that build
character. The doors that open to de-
struction are hundred to one that open
FOR life. do not believe that there has
been enough manhood born and reared
in our modern cities within the past gen
eration to save a single one of them from
nell for "a hours, if that salvation de- .
pended upon the capacity of that man.
hood for organization, for direction, for
production.
DANGERS OF THE MODERN CITY.