The Monitor-register., 1897-11-12
MENACING CLASSES.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE ON DANGERS
THAT THREATEN SOCIETY.
The Public Standardization
Idle Classes-The Oppressed Poor-Dis-
elimination In Charity Putting Gar
ments to Glorious Uses.

Idle Classes-The Oppressed Poor-Dis-
elimination In Charity Putting Gar
ments to Glorious Uses.
copyright. 1897, by American Press Asso-
ciation.l
WASHINGTON, Nov. I'm this SER
mon DR.. Talmage, in a startling way,
speaks of the dangers threatening our
great towns and cities and shows how
the slumbering fires may be put out.
His text is Psalm Xxx, ID, 1.-THE boar
out Of the wood doth waste it, and the
wild beast of the field doth devour it.
By this homely but expressive figure
David sets forth the bad influences
which in olden times broke in upon
Gods heritage, as with swine's foot
trampling, and as with swine's snout
%uprooting the vineyards of prosperity.
What was true her is true now. There
have been enough trees of righteousness
planted to overshadow the whole earth
had it not been for the who
hewed them down. The temple of truth
would long ago have been completed had
it not been for the iconoclasts who de-
faced the walls and battered down the
pillars. The whole earth would have
been an Eschol of ripened clusters had
it not been that 1.-THE boar has wasted
it and the wild beast of the field de-
voured it"
The Destructive Glasses.
l propose to point out to you those
whom l consider to be the destructive
classes of society. First, the public
criminals. You ought not to be surprised
that these people make up a large pro-
portion of many communities. In 1869
of the 40, 900 people who were incarcer-
ated in the prisons of the country 3d.
600 were of foreign birth. Many of
them were the very desperadoes Of So
ciety, 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 cutthroats.
There are in our cities people whose en-
tire 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 unfor-
tunate loss of time, just as you look up
OH an attack of influenza or rheumatism
which fastens you in the house for a
f~ewHdays. 1t is their lifetime business
to pick pockets and blow up safes and
shop lift and ply the panel game, and
they have as much pride of skill in their
business as you have in yours when
you upset the argument Of an opposing
counsel or cure a gun shot fracture
which other surgeons have given up or
foresee q TURF in the market so you buy
goods just before they go up 20 per e Il
1t is their business to commit crime,
and | do not suppose that once in a year
the thought of the immortality strikes
them. Added to these professional Grim
inals. American and foreign, there is a
large class of men who are more or less
Industrious in crime. Drunkenness is
responsible for much of the theft, since
it 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
criminal, from the sneak thief who
snatches a spool of cotton up to some
man who enacts a "Black Friday"
More than that, it touches your heart
in the moral depression of the commu-
nifty. You might as well think to stand
in a closely confined oom where there
are 30 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 confagration
which consumes your morals? What is
the theft of the gold and silver from
your money safe compared with the
theft of your ohildren's virtue? We are
all ready to arraign criminals We
shout at the top of our voice, 'Stop
theft" and when the police get on the
track we come out hatless and in our
slippers and assist in the arrest We
come around the bawling ruffian and
hustle him off to justice, and when he
gets in prison what do we do for him?
With great gusto we put OH the hand
cuffs and the hopples, but what prerara-
ton are we making for the day when
the handouts and hopples come off? So
ciety seems to say to these criminals,
WILLIAM, go in there and rot, when it
ought to say, You are an offender
against the law, but we mean to give
you an opportunity to repent; we mean
to help you. Here are Bibles and tracts
and Christian influences. Christ died
for you. Look and live" Vast improve
ments have been made by introducing
industry into the prison, but we want
something more than hammers and
shoe lasts to reclaim these people. Aye,
we want more than sermons on the Sab
bath day. Society must impress these
men with the fact that it does not enjoy
their suffering, and that it is attempt
ing to reform and elevate them. The
majority of criminals suppose that So
ciety has a grudge against them, and
they i'll turn have a grudge against So
ciety
life In Prison.
They are harder in heart and more in
furiate when they come 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 /, 500 pris-
oners who during the year had been in
Sing Sing 400 had been there before. In
a house of correction in the country
where during a certain reach of time
there had been 8, 900 people more than
5000 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 societies of New
York saw a lad is years of age who had
spent three years of his life in prison,
and he said to the lad, "What have
they done for you to make you better?"
"Well, " replied the lad, "the first time
Twas brought up before the judge he
said. You ought to be ashamed of your
self And then l committed a crime
again, and | was brought up before the
same judge, and he said, You ~rascal!'
And after awhile | committed some
other crime, and l 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 say. "these
people are incorrigible. l suppose
there are hundreds of persons this day
lying in the prison hunks who would
leap up at the prospect of reformation
if society would only allow them a way
into decency and responsibility. "Oh,"
you say, 81 have no patience with these
rogues." ask you in reply how much
better would you have been under the
same circumstances2 Sunnose vour moth