The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1897-11-12


but do say that the safety and life Of
the community demand more potential
influences in behalf Of these offendc-a
/ stepped into one of the prisons OF
one Of our great cities and the air was
like that of the black hole Of Calcutta.
As the air swept through the wicket u
almost knocked me down, No sunlight
Young men who had committed their
first crime crowded in among old Of
Tenders saw there one woman, with
a child almost blind. who had been ar
rested for the crime Of poverty, who
was waiting until the slow law could
take her 10 the almsh1usc. where she
rightfully belonged; but she was
thrust. in there with her child. amid
the most abandoned wretches Of
the town. Many Of the offenders
in that prison sleeping on the floor
with nothing but a vermin-cosered
blanket over them, Thess people,
crowded and wan, and wasted, and
half-suffocated, and infuriated- said
TO the men: How do you stand it
here?r God knows said one man;
1--WE have to stand it. Oh, they will
pay YOU when they get ont. Where
they burned down one house they will
burn three. They will strike deeper
the assassin's knife, They are this
minute plotting worse burglaries.
Many of the jails are the best place |
know. OF to manufacture footpads. vag-
abonds and cut-throats. Yale college
is not so well calculated to make
scholars. nor Harvard 50 well calculat-
ed TO make scientists, nor Princeton
so well calculated TO make theo-
logians, as the American Jail is calcu-
lated TO make criminals. All that
these men do not know OF crime after
they have been in that style of dun
geon for some time satanic machinery
can not teach them. Every hour these
jails stand they challenge the Lord Al
mighty to smite the cities. lcall upon
the people 10 rise in their wrath and
demand a reformation. ! call upon
the Judges Of our courts 10 expose the
infamy. / demand in behalf those in
generated prisoners, fresh air and
clear sunlight, and in the name Of Him
who had not where to lay His head, a
coneh to rest on at night In the in
sufferable stencil and sicl1ening sur
roundings Of some of the prisons there
is nothing but disease for the body,
idocy for the mind and death for the
soul. Stifled air and darkness and
verinin never turned a thief into an
honest man. We want men like John
Howard and Sir William blackstone,
and women like Elizabeth Fry, TO dc
for the prisons of the United States
what those people did in other days fol-
the prisons of England. thank Goo
for what Isaac T. Hopper and DIR
Wines and Mr. Harris and scores o
others have done in the way of prison
reform: but we want something NOR
radical before upon our cities vii
come the blessing of Him who said
II was in prison and We came unit
Me-
In this class of uprooting and de
y0uring population are untrustworth,
officials. Woe unto thee, o land, whel
thy king is a child, and thy prince
drink in the morning. It's a grea
calamity to city when bad men ge
into public authority. Why was i
that in New York there was such un
parcllcled cEFme between 1866 and 1871
1t was because the judges of police il
that city. for the most part. were a
corrupt as the vagabonds that cam
before them for trial These were tn
days OF high carnival for election
frauds. assassination and forgery. "
had the whisky ring" and the Tam
many ring and the Erie ring.
There was one man in those year
that got s12s, OOOin one year for servinI
the public In a few years it was est
mated that there were S50.OOO,0OO Q
public treasure squandered. In thos
times the criminal had only to wink I
the Judge, or his lawyer would win
for him. and the question was decide
for the defendant OF the 5000 peopl
arrested in that city in one year, onl
5000 were punished. These little mat
tiers were fixed up, while the inter
ests Of society were fixed down. Yol
know as well as l that a criminal VIII
escapes only opens the door of othe
criminalities. II is no compliment I
public authority when we have in a
the cities of the country, walkin
abroad, men and women notorious 70
criminality, unwhipped of justice. The
are pointed out 10 you in the street da
by day. There you find what are Gale
the fences" the men who stand b,
tween the thief and honest men, she
tering the thief, and at great pric
handing over the goods TO the owner I
whom they belong. There You within
those who are called the 'skinners,
the men who hover around Wall stree
and State street and Third street, wit
great sleight OF hands in bonds an
stocks. There you find the funerI
thieves, the people who go and 81
down and mourn with families an
pick their pockets. And there you fin
the confidence men, who borro'
money Of you because they have n dea
child in the house and want to bury 4
when they never had house nor
family; or they want TO go to Englan
and get a large property there, an
they want you TO pay their wTy, an
they will send the money back by tn
very next mail. There are the ''harbc
thieves. the ''shoplifters,. the ''picl
pockets famous all over the cite
Hundreds ofthem with their faces in II
"Rogues' gallery, yet doing nothing fC
the last five or ten years but dcfrau
society and escape justice. Whe
these people go unarrestcd and unpui
islled. il is putting a high premium
upon vice, and saying to the youn
criminals of this country: What
safe thingit is TO be great criminal
Let the law swoop upon theml Let
be known in this country that erin
will have no quarter, that the d
teetives are after ii, that the poll,
club is being brandished, that the ire
door OF the prison is being opene,
ethat the Judge is ready to All the cas-
Too great lenieney to criminals is C
great severity to society.
Among the uprooting and devourir
classes in our midst are the idle.
, course. do not refer TO the people wi
are getting old, or the sick, or TO tho.
who can not get work; but tell "
to look out for those athletic men an
, women who will not work. When Il
French nObleman was asked why
kept busy when he had so large pro
erty he said, II keep on engraving