Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-11-09


e swines snout up
roofing the vine
yards of prosperity. What was
! true then is true now. There
have been enough trees of righte-
/ BUSINESS planted to overshadow
the whole earth, had it not been for
the axe. men who hewed them down.
The temple of truth would long ago
have been completed, had it not been
for the iconoclasts who defaced the
! walls and battered down the pillars.
The whole earth would have been all
Eschol OF ripened clusters. had it not
been that ''the boar has wasted 1t and
the wild beast of the field devoured it. !"
/ 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 sur
pr:sed that these people make up a
large proportion Of many communities.
IN 1869, OF the forty-Iine thousand
people who were incarcerated in the
prisons OF the country, thirty-two
thousand were q foreign birth. Many
of them We're the very desperadoes of
society. oozing into the slums Of our
cities. waiting for an opportunity to
riot and steal and debauch, joining the
la"se gang Of American thugs and cut
Threats. There are in our cities, people
whose entire business in life is to COM
nit crime. That is as much their
business as jurisprudence or medicine
or merchandise is your business. To
II they bring all their energies of body.
mind and soul, and they look upon the
interregnums which they spend in
pris or as so much unfortunate loss Of
time, just as yor look upon an attack
OF influenza or rheumatism which fas-
tens you in the house for few days.
1t is their lifetime business to pick
pockets, and blow up safes, and shop
lit, 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 oppos-
Ing counsel, or cure gun-shot frac-
ture which other surgeons have given
up. or foresee turn in the market so
you buy goods just before they go up
twenty per cent 1t is their business
to commit crime, and do not suppose
that once in year the thought of the
immortality strikes them. Added to
these professional criminals, American
and foreign, there is large class of
men who are more or less Industrious
in crime. Drunkenness is responsible
for much of the theft, since it con-
fuses mans ideas of property, and
he gets his hands on things that do
not belong to him. Rum is response
bic for much of the assault and bat
terry, inspiring men to sudden bravery,
which they must demonstrate, though
1t be on the face of the next gentle
man.
they are harder in heart and more
lnfuriate 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 prisoners who, during
the year had been in Sing Sing, four
hundred had been there before. 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 pris-
on. and in the other case the house of
correction, left them just as bad as
they were before. The secretary of
one o. the Benevolent societies OF New
York saw lad fifteen years of age
who had spent three years of his lite
in prison, and he said to the lad.
What have they done for you to make
you better?" We'll" replied the lad
"the first time was brought up before
the judge he said, 'Ygu ought to be
ashamed of yourself And then I
committed crime again, and / was
brought up before the same Judge. and
he said, You rascal' And after a
while / 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 peo-
pie are incorrigible." / suppose there
are hundreds of persons this day lying
in the prison hunks who would leap
up at the prospect of reformation. IL
society would only allow them a way
into decency and responsibility. "Oh,"
you say, II have no patience with these
rogues." ! ask you in reply, how much
better would you have been under the
same circumstances? Suppose your
mother had been blasphemer and
your father a sot, and you had started
life with a body stuffed with evil pro-
clivities, and you had spent much Of
your time in a cellar amid obscenities
and cursing, and IL at ten years of age
| yoI had been compelled TO go out and
steal, battered and banged at night IL
! you came in without any spoils and
suppose your early manhood and
womanhood had been covered with
rags and filth, and decent society had
turned its back upon you and left you
! TO consort with vagabonds and wharf
rats-how much better would you have
been? l have no sympathy with that
| executive clemency which would let
crime run loose, or which would sit in
the gallery OF a courtroom weeping
| because some hard-hearted wretch is
brought to justice; but ! do say that
| the safety and life of the community
| demand more potential influences in