Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-11-13

thing it is to be great criminal. Let
the law swoop upon them. Let it be
known in this country that crime will
have no quarter; that the detectives are
after it; that the police club is being
brandished; that the iron door Of the
prison is being opened; that the judge
is ready to call tho case. Too great le-
niency to criminals is too great severity
to society.
Tho Idle Class.
Among the uprooting and devouring
classes in our midst are the idle Of
course l do not refer to tho people who
are getting old or to the sick or to those
who cannot get work. but | tell you to
look out for those athletic men and wo-
men who will not work. When the
French nobleman was asked why he
kept busy when he had so large prop
erty. he said, II keep on engraving so l
may not hang myself " | do not care
who the man is he cannot afford to be
idle. It is from the idle classes that the
criminal classes are made up Charac-
ter, like water gets putrid if it stands
still too long Who can wonder that IN
this world, where there is so much to
do, and all the hosts OF earth and heay.
en- and hell are plunging into the con-
fict, and angels are flying, and God is
at work. and tho universe is a quake
with the marching and countermarch-
ing, that God lets his Indignation fall
upon man who chooses idleness: l
have watched these do nothings who
spend their time stroking their beard,
and retouching their toilet, and criti-
cising industrious people, and pass their
days and nights in barrooms and club
houses, lounging and smoking and
chewing and card playing They are
not only useless, but they are danger
Gus. How hard it is for them to while
away the hoursl
Alas, for them! If they do not know
how to while away an hour, what will
they do when they have all eternity on
their hands? These men for awhile
smoke the best cigars and wear the best
broadcloth and move in the highest
spheres. but | have noticed that very
soon they come down to the prison, the
almshouse or stop at the gallows
The police stations of two of our cities
furnish annually 200, 900 lodgings For
the most part these 200, 900 lodgings
are furnished to ablebodied men and
women, people as able to work as you
and | are When they are received no
longer at che police station because
they are "repeaters. they go to some
other station, and SO they keep moving
around. They get their food at house
doors, stealing what they can lay their
hands on in the front basement while
the servant is spreading the bread in the
back basement They will not work.
Time and again in the country districts
they have wanted hundreds and thou
sands of laborers These men will not
go They do not want to work have
tried them have set them to saving
wood in my cellar to sec whether they
wanted to work offered to pay them
well for it. | have heard the saw going
for about three minutes, and then l
went down, and, 10, the wood. but no
saw They are the pest of society, and
they stand in the way of the Lords
poor, who ought to be helped and will
be helped While there are thousands
of industrious men who cannot get any
work. these men who do not want any
work come in and make that plea. Sleep
ing at night at public expense in the
station house. During the day getting
their food at your doorstep Imprison-
ment does not scare them. They would
like it. Blackwell s island or Moyamen
sing prison would be comfortable
home for them. They would have no OBJ
lection to the almshouse, for they like
thin soup if they cannot get mock tur-
tie
1 like for that class of people the scant
bill of fare that Paul wrote out for the
Thessalouiau loafers, If any work not,
neither should he eat BY what law of
God or man is it right that you and l
should toll day iii and day out until
our hands are blistered and our arms
ache and our brain gets numb and then
be called upon to support what in the
United States are about 2, 600, 600 loaf
ersy They are very dangerous class.
Let the public authorities keep their
eyes on them
The Oppressed Poor.
Among the uprooting classes l place
the oppressed poor Poverty to GER
tain extent is Christening but after that,
when it drives man to the wall and
he hears his children cry in vain for
bread, it sometimes makes him desper-
ate think that there are thousands of
honest men lacerated into vagabondism.
There are men crushed under burdens
for which they are not half paid While
there is no excuse for criminality even
in oppression, state 1t as a simple fact
that much of the scoundrelism of the
community is consequent upon Ill treat
ment There are many men and women
battered and bruised and stung until
the hour of despair has come. and they
stf.nd with the ferocity OF wild beast
which, pursued until it can run no lon
11r. turns round, foaming and bleeding,
10 fight the hounds.
There is vast underground city life
that is appalling and shameful 1t val
lows and steams with putrefaction. You
20 down the stairs. which are wet and
decayed with filth, and at the bottom
you lind the poor victims on the floor,
cold, sick, three-fourths dead, sinking
into o still darker corner under the
CLEAN of the lantern Of the police.
There has not been q breath of fresh air
in that room for five years literally
There they are, men, women, children,
blacks, whites Mary Masdalene with
out her repentance and Lazarus without
his God These are the dive" into
which the picllpockets and the thieves
go, as well as a great many who would
like a different life, but cannot get it.
These places are the sores of the city