Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1894-04-26

around into the Bowery. / am going
TO study human life" Good. A walk
through Broadway at clock at night
Is interesting, educating. fascinating,
appalling, exhilarating to the last de
gree. Stop in front of that theater and
see who goes in. Stop at that saloon and
see who comes out See the great tides
OF life surging backward and forward,
and beating against the marble of the
curbstone, and eddying down into the
saloons. What is that mark on the
lace of that debauchee? 1t is the hec-
tic flush of eternal death. What is
that woman's laughter? 1t is the
shrek of a lost soul. Who is that
Christian man going along with the
wal OF anodyne to the dying pauper on
Elm street? Who is that belated man
on the way to prayer meeting? Who
Is that city missionary going to take a
box in which to bury a child? Who are
all these clusters of bright and beauti-
full faces? They are going to some in
teresting place of amusement. Who
IS that man going into the drug store?
That is the man who yesterday lost all
his fortune on Wall street He is going
in for dose of belladonna, and before
morning it viii make no difference to
him whether stocks are up or down.
tell you that Broadway. between Z
and ~ o clock at night. between the
Battery and Central Park, is an Auste--
iitz, a Gettysburg, a Waterloo, where
Kingdoms are lost or won, and three
worlds mingle in the strife.
I meet another coming down off the
hotel and / say: where are you
going?n You say: ~ am going with
merchant of New York who has
promised to show me the underground
life Of the city. | am his customer and
he is going to oblige me very much. "
Stop. A business house that tries to
get or keep your custom through such
a process is not worthy of you There
are business establishments in our
cities which have for years been send
ing TO destruction hundreds and thou
sands of merchants. They have a Sc
cret drawer in the counter where
money is kept and the clerk goes and
4
visitors to the city through the low
slums of the place. Shall ] mention
the names of some of these great com
mereial establishments? ! have them
on my lips. Shall /? Perhaps had bet
Ter leave it to the young men who. in
that process, have been destroyed them
selves while they have been destroying
= I. l.. III. 4
ing the name of a commercial estab-
lishment IL it proposes to get custom
ers or to keep them by such process
as that; drop their acquaintance They
will cheat you before you get through.
They will send you style of goods
different from that which you bought
by sample. They will give you under
weight. There will be in the package
half a dozen less pairs Of suspenders
than you paid for. They viii rob you
Q, you feel in your pockets and say;
is my money gomez They have
robbed you of something for which
dollars and cents can never give you
When one of these
western merchants has been dragged |
oy one Of these commercial agents |
through the slums of the city, he isnot |
it to 90 home. The mere memory of |
What he has seen will be moral pollu-
ion. / think you had better let the |
,ity missionary and the police attend |
@ the exploration of New York and |
life. You do not go TO
,mall-pox hospital for the purpose of
exploration. You do not go there be- |
.ause YOU are afraid of contagion. And |
ret. YOU 90 in the presence of a moral
eprosy that is as much more danger |
rus to YOU as the death of the soul is
worse than the death Of the body
win undertake to say that nine-tenths
# the men who have been ruined in /
,ur cities have been ruined by simply
roing to observe without any idea OF
The TACT is that under
round city life is filthy, Tuning,
eeking, pestiferous depth which blasts
he eve that looks at it. In the reign
f terror, in 1892, in Paris, people. es-
aping from the officer of the law, got
nto the sewers of the city, and crawled
nd walked through miles of that awful
abvrinth. stified with the atmosphere
nd almost dead, when they came out
0 the river Seine, where they washed
he mselves and again breathed the
resh air But have to tell you that
great many of the men who COON the
York of exploration through the I'M
erground cutters of New York life,
ever come out at any Seine river
here they can wash off the pollution
f the moral sewerage. Stranger if
ne of the representatives of a com
lercial establishment proposes to take
on and show you the sights of the
,wn and underground New York,
Nv to him: please, sir, what part do
GU propose to show me?''
About sixteen years ago as a minister
{ religion / felt | had divine com
iission to explore the iniquities of our
ties. / did not ask counsel OF my ses-
on, or my Presbytery, or of the news
apers, but asking the companionship
three prominent police officials and