The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-11-19
DESTRUCTIVE CLASSES.
Rev. DR.. Talmege Disco sss on
Those Who Prey Upon Society.
Professional Criminals. UntruStworthy On-
eiaIs, tho Idle and Oppressed Poor
Remedy Suggested for the
Great Evils.

II Tue AOAAOMAuB ScEAuOu 1scNs DTs
Talmage speaks of the dangers men
acing the people of our great cities,
and points to the remedy. The text is:
The boar out Of the wood doth waste it, and
the wild beast Of the field doth devour it
Psalm Xxx, l3
by this homely but expressive figure
David sets forth the bad influences
which in olden time 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 then is true now. There
have been enough trees of righteous
ness planted to overshadow the whole
earth, had it not been for the ax-men
who hewed them down. The temple of
truth would long ago have been com
pleted had it not been for the icono-
clasts who defaced the walls and bat
tered down the pillars. The whole
earth would have been an Eschol of
ripened clust ters had it not been that
the boar has wasted it and the wild
beast of the field devoured it."
l propose to point out to you those
whom consider to be the destructive
classes of society. First, the public
criminals You ought not to be sur
prised that these people make up a
large proportion of many communities.
In 1869, of the 40, 600 persons who were
incarcerated in the prisons of the coun-
try, 81, 900 were of foreign birth.
Many of them were the very despera-
does of society, oozing into the slums
of our cities, waiting for an oppor-
tunity 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 jurisprudence
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
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 you have in yours
when you upset the argument of an
opposing counsel, or cure a gunshOt
fracture which other surgeons have
given up, or fOresee a turn in the mar
ket SO you buy goods just before they
go up 20 per cent 1t is their business
to commit crime, and L do not suppose
that once in year the thought of the
immortality strikes them. Added to
these professional criminals, 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 aclosely-confined room where there
are 80 people and yet not breathe the
vitiated air as to stand in a community
where there are SO many of the de-
praved without somewhat being con-
What is the fire that burns
your store down compared with the
which consumed your
morals? What is the theft of the gold
and silver from your money-safe COM
pared with the theft of your children's
virtueP We are all ready to arraign
criminals. We shout at the top of our
voice, stop thiefr and when the po-
lice get on the track we come out, hat
less and in our slippers, and assist
In the arrest We come around
the bawling ruflian 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 hand
cuffs and the hopples; but what prep
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
rotr when it ought to say: You are
an offender against the law, but we
y
pent; we mean to help you Here are
Bibles and tracts and Christian in
1uences. Christ died for you. Look
and live" Vast improvements have
been made by introducing industry
nto the prison; but we want some
hing more than hammers and shoe
asts 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 en-
Joy their suffering, and that it is
attempting to reform md elevate |
hem The majority of criminals sup
pose that society has grudge against !
hem, and they in turn have a grudge |
against society.
They are harder in heart and more |
nfuriate when they come out of Jail |
han when they went in. Many of the |
people who go to prison go again and |
again. Some years ago, of 1,500 pris- |
0ners who during the year had been IN /
Sing Sing, 400 had been there before. |
IN a house of correction in the coun- |
.ry, where during a certain reach of
lime there had been 5000 people, more |
han 5000 had been there before. So. |
n one case the prison. and in the other
.ase the house of correction. left them
ust as bad as they were before. The
secretary of one of the benevolent So
.ieties of New York saw lad of Is
Tears of age who had spent three years
II his life in prison, and he said to the
ad: What have they done for you to
ror1 I