The Globe-republican., 1894-04-13

Broadway, and so turn around into the
Bowery. am going to study human
life Good A walk through Broad
way at s o'clock at night is interesting,
educating, fascinating, appalling. ex-
hilarating to the last degree. Stop in
front of that theater and see who
goes in. Stop at that saloon and
see who come out See the great
tides of life surging backward and
forward, and beating against the mar
BILE of the curbstone, and eddying
down into the saloons What is that
mark on the face of that debauchee?
1t is the hectic 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 that
vial 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
beautiful faces. They are going to
some interesting place of amusement
tell you that Broadway between
and II o'clock at night between the
Battery and Central park, is an Auster-
litz, a Gettysburg, a Waterloo. where
kingdoms are lost or won, and three
worlds mingle in the strife.
meet another coming down off the
hotel steps. and say: ''Where are you
going?" You say: Il am going with
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
Il 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
secret drawer in the counter
where money is kept. and the clerk
goes aud gets il when he wants to take
these visitors 20 the city through the
low slums of the place. Shall men.
tion the names of some Of these great
commercial establishments? have
them on my lips? Shall I: Perhaps !
had better leave it to the young men
who. in that process have been dc.
stroyed themselves while they have
been destroying others. l care not
how high-sounding the name of a COM
mercial esta blishment if it proposes to
get customers or to keep them by such
process as that; drop their acquaint-
ance. They will cheat you before you
get through.
About sixteen years ago, as a min
lister of religion. felt / had divine
commission to explore the iniquities of
our cities. ] did not ask counsel of my
session. or my presbytery, or of the
newspapers. but asking the companion
ship of three prominent police officials
and two of the elders of my church, l
unrolled my commission, and it said:
'Son of man. dig into the wall: and
when l had digged into the wall, be-
hold door: and he said. go in and see
the wicked aboninations that are
done here: and | went in. and
saw. and beholdr' Brought up in
the country. and surrounded by
much parental care, ! had not
until that time seen the haunts of in
iquity. BY the grace of God defended,
had never sowed my wild oats" l
have somehow been able to tell from
various sources something about the
iniquities of the great cities. and to
preach against them: but / saw. in the
destruction of Il great multitude of the
people, that there must be an infatua.
ton and temptation that had never
been spoken about, and said: II will
explore" l saw thousands of men go
ing down, and if there had been a
spiritual percussion answering to the
physical percussion. the whole air
would have been full OF the rum bic, and
roar. and crack and thunder of the DEM
clifton. and this moment, if wo would
pause in our service, we should hear
the crash. crash. Just as in the sickly
season YOU sometimes hear the bell at
the gate of the cemetery ringing al
most necessarily, so l found that the
bell at the gate of the cemetery where
ruined souls are buried was tOlling by
day and tolling by night said: Il
will explore" l went as Il physician
goes into fever lazaretto. to see what
practical and useful information
might get. That would be foolish
doctor who would stand outside the
door of an invalid writing a Latin pre-
scription. When the lecturer in a med
zeal college is done with his lecture, he,
takes the students into the dis
secting room, and he shows them
the reality. went and saw,
and came forth to my pulpit to
report plague. and to tell how
sin dissects the body, and dissects the
mind and dissects the soul OH"
say you, ARE you not afraid that in
consequence of such eXplora ton of the
iniquities of the city other persons
might make exploration. and do them
selves DAMAGE" l reply: IF in COM
pany with the commissioner of police,
and the captain of police, and the in
spector of police, and the company of
two Christian gentlemen. and not with
the spirit of curiosity but that you may