Democratic messenger., 1894-04-14

night is interesting. educating. fascinat
ing appalling, exhilarating to the last
degree Stop in front of that theater
and see who goes in. Stopat 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 debauchee? 1t is the hectic
flesh of eternal death. What is that
woman's laughter! II 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 10 take a box in which To bury q
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 dose of belladonna, and
before morning it will make 10 differ
ence to him whether stocks are up or
down. | tell you that Broadway, be-
tween and l2 O'Clock at night, between
the Battery 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.
meet another coming down off the
hotel steps, and say, Where are you
going:" You say: II am going with a
merchant Of New York who has prom
ised 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 rs
that is not worthy of You. There are
business establishments i'll our cities
which have for years been sending to
destruction hundreds and thousands of
merchants. They have secret drawer
in the counter where money is kept. and
the clerk goes and gets it when he wants
to take these visitors 10 the city through
the low sluns of the place
| vi SOtltt va
these great commercial establishments?
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 b,en
destroying others care not how high
sounding the name of Il commercial es-
tablishmcnt if il proposes To get custom
ers or 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 You bought by
sample. They will give you under
weight. There will be in the package
half dozen less pairs of suspenders than
you paid for. They will rob you. Oh,
you feel i'll your pockets and say, rs my
money gomez" They have robbed you of
something for which dollars and cents
can never give you compensation.
| When one Of these western 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 think you had better
let the city missionary and the police at
| tend to tho exploration of New York and
underground life. You do not 20 to "a
smallpox hospital for the purpose of ex-
| ploration. You do not go there because
| you are afraid of contagion. And yet
| you go 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. will un-
dertake to say that nine -tenths of the
men who have been ruined in our cities
have been ruined by simply going to OBJ
serve without any idea of participating
The fact is that underground city life is
u filthy, fuming, reeking pestiferous
depth which blasts the eye that looks at
it. In the reign of terror i'll 1889 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. stified
| 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 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
ut any Seine river where they can wash
off the pollution of the moral sewage
Stranger. if one of the representatives
of commercial establishment proposes
to take you and show you the sights
of the town and underground New York,
Isnx 70. hi str hot .,f ii.
you propose to show me-"
EXPLORING THE sLUMS.
About 10 years ago rs minister Of
religion felt had "A divine commission
to explore the iniquities of our cities.
did not ask counsel of INV session or my
prcsbytery or of the newspapers, but
asking the companionship Of three
prominent police officials and two of the
elders of my church ! unrolled my com
mission. and it said: ''Son of man. dig
into the wall. And when had digged
into the wall behold door. and he said
20 i'll and see the wicked denominations
that are done here And ! went in and
saw and beholdn' Brought up in the
country and surrounded by muci: pa
rental care, ] had not until that time seen
the haunts of iniquity. By the grace of
God defended, had never sowed my
wild oats. -
had somehow been able to tell from
various sources something about the in
iquities of the great cities and To preach
against them. but saw in the dcstruc
tion of a great multitude of the people
that there must be an infatuation and
temptation that had never been spoken
about. and ! said. Il will explore. "
saw thousands of men going down. and
if there had been spiritual percussion
answering to the physical percussion
the whole air would have been full Of
the rumble and roar and crack and thun-
What Will DO II?