The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-05
CALLS FOR THE CURFEW BELL.
REV. DIR. sCHAEFFER WANTS II
RUNG IN SAVANNAH.

=
The Need For Reform school.
Rev. w. c. schaeffer preached the third
and last of his serial sermons on What
Shall We DO With Our Boys?" yesterday
morning at the Lutheran Church of the
Ascension.
The topic of the sermon was THE City
and Our Boys" and a large congrega-
ton had gathered to hear it.
While he was engaged in delivering this
series Of sermons DR.. Schaeffer was en-
couraged in his efforts for the salvation
of the boys by numerous letters from
anxious mothers and prominent business
men thanking him for his work.
DR.. Schaeffer took as his text Proverbs,
14:34 ghteousness exalteth a nation;
but sin is a reproach to any people" He
began by saying that the Importance of
his subject might not at first thought dis
tinctly impress his hearers. or it might
not have received any thought at all.
This, though" he said. docs not relieve
you of the responsibility that rests upon
you in the matter. If righteousness ex-
ats nation. it exalts d city, and sin Is
a reproach to any people, so your consld-
| Grafton of my subject becomes of vast i'm
| portance.
THE prosperity, reputation and per-
| petuity of a CITY," he said depend upon
its industry, sobriety culture, integrity,
and morality of its people. A city with
such people is exalted. Savannah is my
| adopted home. 1 am inseparably identi-
| fed with all her interests. My children
are growing up here. 1t is my peoples
home, and we are proud of Savannah's
| splendid history. Proud of her magnif-
cent avenues, her beautiful parks, her
lovely homes her large-hearted hospitali-
| ty, her healthful water supply, her gem
| ial climate, her efficient police and fire
! departments, her trade and commerce, her
| splendid schools, her distinguished profess
| sional men, her Industrious wage-earn-
| ers, her bankers and merchants, her
| preachers and churches her brave men
| and glorious women. This glowing vision
! is enrapturing, but I see a deep, dark mar
| gin throwing its ominOus shadow over the
| picture. From the streets and lanes and
haunts of sin cloud rises and mars the
loveliness of the picture, to disturb con-
| tentment, to awaken alarm.
| THE children are on our streets al night
| growing up neglected and vicious.
| The boys for whom fathers and moth
| 6IS nave no pity the ilOAl6ltSS DOyS the
| outcast boys, whose lives are debauched
by the street associations and the night,
| and it is they whom it becomes our duty
to reclaim from the life that is before
! them.
Has the city any responsibility in this
| matter? Our city government, in all its
| departments, is in the hands of our prom
| nent and successful business and pro-
| fessional men, men in whose capacity, in
| tegrity and devotion to the best interests
of the city. We may repose the utmost
| confidence. To economically and judi
ciously expend the city's funds, beautify
| her streets, secure proper drainage, regu-
late quarantine, sustain schools, enlarge
] her facilities for trade and commerce does
| not exhaust all obligations.
To foster patriotism and to protect our
| homes are transcendently higher duties,
and it should be their aim to purify the
city's moral atmosphere and to grow men.
"Of thorns man do not gather figs, nor
of a bramble bush gather they grapes; -
no more can we hope for men of clean
mouth, pure thought, high purpose, proud
MEN, broad, strong, manly men to grow
out of vicious, immoral, depraved boys"
| If the children of our day received
proper parental training. if BODYBUILDING
and the responsibility of fatherhood and
motherhood were more generally recOg-
nized and assumed our towns and cities
would not be called upon to legislate for
| the SdIeLy OF the DOy5. BUT now the IN
| creasing ViciouSness and criminality of
mere children in our centers of population
| presages disaster unless checked. The
streets of our towns and cities have be-
come nurseries of immortality and wicked
ness.
I'm any of our cities we are shocked to
see children Of both sexes at ages of or
5 years and upward running in the streets
until late hours of the night. There they
learn to curse. lie steal and gamble and
are trained to all immortality and every
form of viciousness. Mere boys are often
decoyed into haunts OF vice and insubord-
nation, ldwlassness, and crime must be
the fruit of such a life. l am constrained
to raise my voice in behalf of our neglected
boys.
THE city may not legislate the neglect
ed and Maynard boys into angels but 1t
can throw around them helpful and re-
straining influences. 1t can build mp
walls of protection and can establish a
moral quarantine"
DR.. Schaeffer spoke of the ability of the
mayor and city officials to do much by
personal recognition of the boys toward
their betterment. He said that taking a
hayward and vicious boy by the hand AMI
speaking kindly and hopeful word may
often save him. and make man.
The city owes protection to our BOYS
by the suppression of vice. Gambling is
: INDUCED on our streets and in our lanes
| III the very uSdIl VI the city Dy gay ana
night, not only by men and women, pue
by the merest boys We are daily Wit
nesses to this sad condition of affairs.
and the city owes IL to herself and to the
boys to suppress this ruinous practice The
late efforts of our courts to suppress gam
bling has received the thankful common
dation from the best of our people,"
A picture was then drawn Of the young
man with a wicked life, who had started
upon the pathway with the most bril-
liant prospects. but had been seized by
the fascination of this insidious vice.
THE necessity is upon the city," lie
said, ITO suppress and destroy as far as
| possible every form of vice"
DR.. Schaeffer spoke of the efforts that
are generally being made in the towns
and cities throughout the country to de-
wise some means by which the
boys may be saved from the
COMMUNICATING influences Of the streets
and the night. lie had sought informa-
ton OF the measures adopted in other cit
ies. and he was convinced that the curfew
best accomplishes the purpose. The GUS
81, 2 a..