The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1894-04-18

ing 20 SCuuy human lie. QOOu a
walk through Broadway ats o'clock at
night is interesting, educating, fascinat-
ing, appalling, exhilarating to the last
degree. Stop in front Of that theater
and see who goesi IN: Stop at that saloon
and see who comes out. See the great
tides of life surging backward and for
ward and beating against the marble OF
the curbstone and eddying down into
the saloons. What is that mark on the
face Of that debauchee9 It is the hectic
flesh of eternal death. What is that
woman's laughter? It is the shrek Of a
lost soul.
Who is that Christian man going
along with a vial of anodyne to the dy-
ing pauper on Elm street? Who is that
belated man on the way to a prayer
meeting? Who is that city missionary
going to take q box in which to bury a
child? Who are all these clusters Of
bright and beautiful faces? They are go
ing to some interesting place Of amuse-
ment.
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 a dose of b~elladonna, and
before morning it will make no differ
ence to him whether stocks are up or
down I tell you that Broadway, be-
tween Z and 10 O'Clock at night, between
the Eattery and Central Park, is an Aus
terlitz, a Gettysburg, a Waterloo, where
kingdoms are lost or won and three
worlds mingle in the strife.
LIES DARK SIDE.
I meet another coming down off the
hotel steps, and / say, "Where are you
going?:" You say: 81 am going with a
merchant of New York who has prom
ised to show me the underground life Of
the city. I am his customer, and be is
going to oblige me very much" Stop!
A business house that tries to get or keep
your custom through such a process as
that is not worthy Of you. There are
business establishments in our cities
which have for years been sending to
destruction hundreds and thousands OF
merchants. They have a secret drawer
in the counter where money is kept. and
the clerk goes and gets it when he wants
to take these visitors to the city through
the low slums Of the place.
Shall I mention the names Of some OF
these great commercial establishments?
I have them on my lips. Shall l? Per
haps ! had better leave it to the young
men who in that process have been de-
stroyed themselves while they have been
destroying others I care not how high
sounding the name Of a commercial es-
tablishment If it proposes to get custom
ers OF to keep them by such a process as
that. Drop their acquaintance. They
will cheat you before you get through.
They will send you a style Of goods diff
ferent from that which yoa bought by
sample. They will give you under
weight. There will be in the package
half q dozenless pairs Of suspenders than
you paid for. They will rob you Oh,
you feel inyour pockets and say, us my
money gomez They have robbed you of
something for which dollars and cents
can never give you compensation.
When one of thesewestern merchants
has been dragged by one Of those com
mercial agents through the slums Of the
city, he is not fit to go home. The mere
memory of what he has seen will be
moral pollution. I think you had better
let the city missionary and the police at
tend to the exploration Of New York and
underground life. You do not go to a
smallpox hospital for the purpose Of ex-
ploration. You do not 90 there because
you are afraid Of contagion. And yet
you 60 into the presence Of a moral lep-
rosy that is as much more dangerous to
you as the death Of the soul is worse
than the death of the body. I will un-
dertake to say that nine-tenths of the
men who have been ruined in d cities
have been ruined by simply going to OBJ
serve without any idea Of participating.
The fact is that underground city life is
a filthy, Tuning, reeking, pestiserous
depth which blasts the eye that looks at
it. In the reign of terror in 1892 in
Paris people escaping from the officers
Of the law got into the sewers Of the
city and crawled and walked through
miles Of that awful labyrinth, shf1ed
with the atmosphere and almost dead,
some of them, when they came out to
the river Seine, where they washed
themselves and again breathed the fresh
air. But I have to tell you that a great
many Of the men who go on the work Of
exploration through the underground
cutters of New York life never come out
at any Seine river where they can wash
of the pollution Of the moral sewage.
Stranger, if one Of the representatives
Of a commercial establishment proposes
to take you and show you the s'sights'
Of the town and underground New York,
say to him, "Please, sir, what part do
you propose to show me?"
EXPLORING THE sLUMS.
About is years ago as a minister Of
religion I felt / had a divine commission
TO explore the iniquities Of our cities. /
did not ask counsel Of my session or my