The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-04-11

! 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. 1 aan his customer. and he is
/ going 10 obhge me very much Stop.
| \ business house that tries To get or
| keep your custom through such a pro-
| cess 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 and gets il when he wants
| to take these visitors to the city through
| the low slums of the place.
Shall l mention the names of some Of
| these great commercial establishments?
| l have them on my lips. Shall 1? Per-
| haps / had better leave it to the young
| men who, iR that process, have been
| destroyed themselves while they have
| been destroying others. 1 care not how
| high-sOunding the name Of a commercial
| establishment If ii proposes 10 get GUS
| toners or To keep them by such a pro-
| cess as that. Drop their acquaintance.
| They will cheat YOU before you get
| through. They will send you a style of
| goods different from that which you
| bought by sample, They will give you
underweight There will be i'm the pack
age half a dozen less pairs of suspenders
than you paid for. They will rob you
Oh, YOU feel in your pockets and saw
rs my money gone?' 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. L think you had better
let the city missionary and the police
attend Il the exploration of New York
and underground life You do not go
10 a smallpox hospital for the purpose
Of exploration. You do not go there be-
cause you are afraid of contagiOn.
And yet you so into the presence of a
moral leprosy that is as much more
dangerous to YOU as the death of the
soul is worse than the death of the body
! will undertake TO say that nine-tenths
of the men who have been ruined in our
cities have been ruined by simply going
10 observe without any idea Of partici-
patins.
Exploring n City's IniquitieS.
The fact is that underground city life
is filthy. Tuning reeking. pestiferous
depth which blasts the eve that looks
At IT, In the reign of terror in 1892 in
Paris people escaping from the officers
o. the law got into the sewers of the
city and crawled and walked through
miles Of that awful labyrinth stined
with the atmosphere and almost dead,
some of them. when they came out to
the river Seine, where they washed them
selves and again breathed the fresh air.
But ] have TO tell YOU that a great many
of the men who go on the work of ex-
ploratiOn through the underground gut
tiers of New York life never come out
a. any Seine river where they can wash
off the pollution of the moral sewage.
Stranger, if any one of the representa-
uNes of a commercial establishment pro-
poses ID take you and show you the
sights Of the town and underground
New York. say to him. please. sir. what
part do you propose 20 show me2'
About sixteen years ago as a minister
Of religion I felt l had a divine commits
sion TO explore the iniQuities of our cities.
/ did not ask counsel of my session. or
my prssoytery. or of the newspapers.
but asking the cOmpaniOnship of three
prominent police officials and two of the
elders % my church / unrolled my com
mission. and il said: "SJn of man. dig
into the wall. and when I had digged
into the wall behold a door and he said
Go in ana see the wicked abominations
that are done here, and 1 went in and
saw. and beholdr' Brought up in the
country and surrounded by much pa
rental care. ] had nos 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 iniquities OF the
great cities and to preach against them
but I saw. In The destruction of a great
multitude of the people. that there must
be an infetuati0n and a temptation that
had never been spoken about. md 1
said. Il Will explore" / saw thousands
Il IA
been spiritual percussion answering 10
the physical percussion the whole air
would have been full of the rumble and
roar and crack and thunder of the de-
molition. and this moment if we should
pause in our service. we should hear the
crash, crash,
Where Ruined SOuIs Are Buried.
Just as i'm the sicIly season YOU some
times hear the bell at the gate OF the
cemetery ringing almost necessarily. so
/ found that the bell at the gate of the
cemetery where ruined souls are buried
was tolling by day and tolling by night
I said: Il will explore" 1 went as a
physician goes into fever lazaretto TO
see what practical and useful ihform1-
tiun I might get. That would b. a fool
ish doctor who would stand outside the
dC1r Of an invalid writing Latin pre-
ic2l college is done with his lecture. ne
takes the students into the dissecting
room, and he shows them the reality L
went and saw. and came forth TO my
pulpit to report a plague. and to tell how
sin dissects the body. and dissects the
mind and dissects the soul
On say YOU. ARE YOU not afraid
that in consequence of such exploration
Of the iniquities OF the city other per-
sons might make exploration and do
themselves DAMAGE I reply. 'If in
company 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
see sin In order the better 10 combat it.
then in the name Of the eternal God. go.
But, if not, then stay away" Wellington.
g anding in the battle of Waterloo when
the bullets We're buZZing around his
mead, saw civilian on the field. He
said 10 him, Sir, what are you doing
here? Be off, 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 j. as an officer in the army of
Jesus Christ. went on that exploration
and onto that battlefield. If you bear
a like commission. go; if not. stay away.
But you say. Don't you think that
somehow the description Of those places
induces people To go and see for them
selves?' | answer. yes. just as much as
the description Of yellow fever in some
ScOurged city would induce peODlp to 90