The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-08
DYNAMITE UNDER CITIES.
PEOPLE WHOSE ENTIRE BUSINESS
IT Is TO COMMIT CRIME.

ons-The People to be Seen There.
Eject of Prison Life Upon Morals
Washington. Nov I'm this sermon,
DR.. Talmase. in a startling way. speaks
of the dangers threatening our great
towns and cities, and shows how the SUM
bering fires may be put out. His text IS
Psalm SO1S: The boar out Of the wood
doth waste it, and the wild beast OF the
field doth devour il.
BY this homely but expressive figure,
David sets forth the bad influences which
in o.den times broke in upon Gods herlt-
age. as with swine's foot trampling, and
as with swine's snout uprooung the vine
wards of prosperity. What was true
then is true now. There have been enough
trees of Righteousness planted to over
shadow the whole earth. had it not been
for the axmen who hewed them down. The
temple of truth would long ago have been
completed. had it not been for the icono-
clasts who defaced the walls and battered
down the pillars. The whole earth would
have been an Eschol of ripened clusters,
had it not been that "the boar has wasted
81 and the wild beast of the field devour-
ed it"
1 propose to point out to you those
whom I consider to be the destructive
classes of society. First, the public crimi-
nails You ought not to be surprised that
these people make up large proportion
of many communities. In 1869, of the
forty-nine thousand people who were in
carcerated In the prisons of the country,
thirty-two thousand were of foreign birth.
Many of them were the very desperadoes
of society, oozing into the slums of our
cities, waiting for an opportunity to riot
and steal and debauch, joining the large
gang of American thugs and cut-throats.
There are in our cities people whose
entire business in life is to commit crime.
That is as much their business as juris-
prudence or medicine or merchandise is
your business. To it they bring all their
energies of body, mind and soul, and
they look upon the interregnums which
they spend in prison as so much unfortu-
nate loss of time, just as you look upon
an attack of influenza or rheumatism
which faStens you in the house for few
days. 1t is their lifetime business to pick
pockets, and blow up safes, and shoplift,
and ply the panel game, and they have as
much pride of skill in their business as
argument of an opposing counsel, or cure
q gun-shot fracture which other surgeons
have given up, or foresee a turn in the
market so you buy goods just before they
go up twenty per cent 1t is their business
. to commit crime. and I do not suppose
that once in a year the thought of the
immortality strikes them. Added to these
professional criminals, American and for
eign, there is a large class of men who
are more or less Industrious in crime.
Drunkenness is responsible for much of
the theft, since 1t confuses a mans ideas
of property, and he gets his hands on
things that do not belong to him. Rum
is responsible for much of the assault and
battery, inspiring men to sudden bravery,
which they must demonstrate, though it
be on the face of the next gentleman.
You help TO pay the board of every crimi-
nal, from the sneak-thief who snatches a
spool of cotton, up to some man who
enacts "Black Friday" More than that
it touches your heart in the moral de-
preston of the community You might
as well think TO stand in a closely confined
room where there are fifty people and yet
not breathe the vitiated air, as to stand in
a community where there are so many
of the depraved without somewhat being
contaminated. What is the fire that burns
your store down compared with the con-
fiagration which consumes your morals?
What is the theft of the gold and silver
from your money-safe compared with the
theft of your childrens virtue? We are
all ready to arraign criminals. We shout
at the top Of our voice stop thief!' and
when the police get on the track we come
out, hatless and in our slippers, and assist
in theaarrest. We come around the bawl-
ing ruffian and hustle him off to justice
and when he gets in prison, what do we
do for him? With great gusto we put on
the handouts and the hopples; but what
preparation are we making for the day
when the handouts and hopples come off?
Society seems to say to these criminals,
VILLAIN, go in there and rotl' when it
ought to say, You are an offender against
the law, but we mean to give you an op-
portunity to repent; we mean to help you.
Here are Bibles and tracts and Christian
influences. Christ died for you. Look and
live" Vast improvements have been made
by introducing industry into the prison;
but we want something more than ham
mers and shoe-lasts to reclaim these peo-
pie. Aye, we want more than sermons on
the Sabbath day. Society must impress
these men with the fact that 1t does not
enjoy their suffering, and that 1t is at
tempting to reform and elevate them The
majority of criminals suppose that So
ciety has a gTudge against them, and they
In turn have grudge against society.
They are harder in heart and more infu-
rate when they come out of jail than when
they went in. Many of the people who go
TO prison go again and again and again.
Some years ago, of fifteen hundred pris-
oners who during the year had been in
Sing Sing, four hundred had been there be-
fore. In a house of correction In the
country where during a certain reach of
time there had been five thousand people,
more than three thousand had been there
before. So, in one case the prison, and in
the other case the house of correction, left
them just as bad as they were before. The
secretary of one of the benevolent socie-
ties of New York saw a lad fifteen years
of age who had spent three years of his
life in prison, and he said
TO the lad, what have they
don for you to make you better?"
.'Well," replied the lad, 1.-THE first time
was brought up before the judge he said,
You ought to be ashamed of yourself,
And then I committed a crime again, and
was brought up before the same judge,
and he said You rascalr And after a
While l committed some other crime, and
! was brought before the same judge. and
he said, You ought to be hanged " That
is all they had done for him in the way of
reformation and salvation. oh" you
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