The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-09


! ness establishments in our cities which
! have for years been sending to destruc-
Z ton hundreds and thousands of mcr-
chants. 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 mention the names of
| some of these great commercial estab-
/ hshments, ] have them Oh my lips.
/ Shall l. Perhaps ! had better leave it to
/ the young men who, in that process,
/ have been destroyed themselves while
| they have been destroying others. l
| care not how high-sounding the name of
a commercial establishment If it pro
! poses to get customers or to keep them
! by such a process as that; drop their
| acquaintance. They will cheat you be
! fore you get through. They will send
you style of goods different from that
! you bought by sample. They will give
you under-weight. There win be in the
package half-a-Gozen less pairs of sus-
penders than you paid for. They will
rob you. Oh, you feel in
your pockets and say: is my
money gomez They have robbed
you of something for which dollars and
cents can ever give YOU compensa-
| tion. When one of these western mer-
chants has been dragged by one of those
NuluLutLCld1 dEGuLS LuEOuBn Lu6 SluAlS
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
attend to the exploration of New York
and underground lie. You do not 20 10 a
smallpox hospital for the purpose of ex-
ploratiOn. You do not go there because
you are afraid of contagion. And yet, you
60 into the presence of a moral leprOsy
THAT ic a g Tpnph HanCnpo1Ic n a <
the death of the soul is worse than the
death of the body. l VIII undertake to
say that nine-tenths of the men who have
been ruined in our cities, have been ruined
by simply going to observe without any
idea of participating. The fact is,
that underground city life is a filthy,
tuning, reeking, pestiferous depth
which blasts the eye that looks at It, In
the reign of terror, in 1892, in Paris peo-
pie, 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 atmos-
phere 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 20
on the work of exploration through the
underground cutters of New York life
never come out at any Seine river where
they can wash off the pollution of the
moral sewage. Stranger, if one of the
representatives of commercial establish
ment proposes to take you and show you
the sights" of the town and underground
New York, say to him: "Please, sir, what
part do you propose TO show me?"
About sixteen years ago, as minister
of religion, l felt had divine commits
sion TO explore the iniquities of our cities.
l did not ask counsel of my session, or my
presbytery, or of the newspapers, but
asking the companionship of three prom
inent police officials and two of the elders
of my church, / unrolled my commission
and it said; "Son of man, dig into the
wall; and when | had digged into the
wall, behold a door; and he said go in
and see the wicked denominations that are
done here; and went in, and saw, and
behold" Brought up in the country, and
surrounded by much parental care, ! had
not until that time seen the haunts of
iniquity BY the grace of God defended,
l had never sowed my wild oats" !
had somehow been able TO tell from vari-
Gus sources something about the iniqui-
ties of the great cities, and to preach
against them; but | saw, in the destruc-
ton OF great multitude of the people,
that there must be an infatuation and
temptation that had never been spoken
about and | said Il win explore
saw thousands of men going down, and
if there had been a spiritual percussion
answering to the physical percussion, the
whole air would have been full of the
rumble. land roar, and crack, and thunder
of the demolition, and this moment, if we
should 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 almost
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, II will explore"
l went as physician goes into fever
lazaretto, to see what practical and use
full information l might get That would
be foolish doctor who would stand out
side the door of an invalid writing a
Latin prescription. When the lecturer
in medical college is done with his lee
ture, he takes his students into the dis
secting room, and he shows them the re-
| ality. / went and saw, and came forth to
my pulpit to report plague, and to tell
how sin dlSsects the body, and dissects
| the mind, and dissects the soul. "Oh, "
say you, ARE you not afraid that in con-
| sequence of such exploration of the in
| EQUITIES of the city other persons might
make exploration, and do themselves
damage" l reply: If in company
with the commissioner of police. and
| INC Captain Oh police, anu Jle IN
! spector of police, and the company of two
| Christian gentlemen, and not with the
! spirit of curiosity but that you may see
| sin in order the better to combat il, then,
in the name of the eternal God, go2 But,
| if not, then stay away Wellington,
| standing in the battle of Waterloo when
the bullets were buzzing around his head,
saw a civilian on the field. He said to
him, Sir, what are you doing here2 BE
! offn' why" replied the civilian, there
is no more danger here for me than there
is for YOU Then Wellington flushed up
and said, God and my country demand
that | be here, but you have no errand
! here" Now |, as an officer in the army
Of Jesus Christ, went on that exploration
and on to that battlefield If you bear a
like commission, go; if not, stay away
But you say Don't you think that some
how the description of those places in
| duces people to go and see for them
selvest" | answer, yes, just as much as
| the description of yellow fever in some
| scourged city would induce people to go
down there and get the pestilence But |
may be addressing some stranger already
destroyed. Where is he that may point
eddy yet kindly address him. Come back
and wash in the deep fountain of savior's
/ mercy. | do not give yop a cup, or a
chalice, or pitcher with limited supply
| to effect your additions ] point YOU to
the five oceans of Gods mercy. O, that
the Atlantic and Pacific surges of divine
Fs,rsr 5s.-t,4