The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1898-01-15

REV. TALMAeE' men who heweC
them down. The temple of trutl
would long ago have been completed
had it not been for the iconoclasts VIII
defaced the walls and battered dowI
the pillars. The whole earth would
have been an Eschol of ripened clus
ters had it not been that 1.-THE boar hal
wasted it and the wild beast of the
field devoured it."
propose to point out to you those
whom 1 consider to be the destructive
classes of society. First, the public
criminals. You ought not to be sur
prised that these people make up 6
large proportion of many commune
ties In 1890, of the 49, 900 persons who
were i-ncarcerated in the prisons of the
country, 80, 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 opportu'
nifty 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 I'M
fortunate loss of time, just as you look
upon am attack of influenza or rheu-
matism which fastens you in the
house for a 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 sure a gunshot fracture which other
surgeons have given up, or foresee a
turn in the market 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 a year
the thought of the immortality strikes
them. Added to these professional
criminals, American and foreign,
there is q large class of men who are
more or less Industrious in crime.
Drunkenness is responsible for much
of the theft, since it confuses q 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
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
Anatches 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 COM
munity. You might as well think to
stand in a closely confined room where
there are 30 people and yet not breathe
the vitiated air as to stand In a COM
munity where there are as many of the
depraved without somewhat being
contaminated What is the fire that
burns your store down compared with
the conhagration which consumes your
morals? What is the theft of the gold
and silver from your money-safe COM
pared with the theft of your children's
We are all ready to arraign
We shout ut 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 as
sist in the arrest. We come around
the bawling ruffian and hustle
of to justice, and when he gets in
what do we do for him? With
great gusto we put on the handouts
and the topples; but what preparation
are we making for the day when the
and hopples come Off Soci-
ETY. seems 10 say to these criminals:
william, go in there and rotE' when it
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
and Christian influences. Christ
died for you. Look and live" Vast
have been made by in
industry into prison; but
wan something more than ham
mers and shoe-lasts to reclaim these
Aye, we want more thar SER
on the Sabbath day. Society
must impress these men with the fact
that it does not enjoy their suffering,
and hat it Is attempting TO reform and
them. The majority of crimi
nails suppose that society has a grudge
them, and they in turn have
= grudge against society.
They are harder in heart and more
.nfnriate when they come ont of jail
han when they went in. Many of the
people who go to prison go again and
again and again. Some years ago, of
!, 500 prisoners who during the year
lad been in Sing Sing, 400 had been
before. In q house of correction
the country. where during a certain
each of time there had been 5000 peo-
Die, more than 5000 had been there be-
ore. So, In one case the prison, and
n the other case the house of correc,
lon, left them Just as bad as they were
efore. / suppose there are hundreds
+ persons this day lying in the prison
inks who would leap up at the pros
eet of reformation, if society would
My allow them a way into decency
respectability,
L stepped into one of the prisons Of
of our great cities, and the air was
Ike that of the Black Hole of Calcutta.
Is the air swept through the wicket 1t
lmost knocked me down. No sun
light. Young men who had commit
ed their first crime crowded in among
Id offenders, ] saw there one woman,
nth a child almost blind, who had
cen arrested for the crime Of poverty,
Who was waiting until the slow lay
ould take her to the almshouse, where
he Fightfully belonged; but she was
hrust in there with her child, amid
he most abandoned wretehes of the
own. Many of the offenders in that
sleeping On the floor, with moth
ng but a vermin-covered blanket over
hem. Those people, crowded and wan
wasted and half-suffocated and in
! said to the men, How do
stand it here?" God knows"
aid one man; ''we have TO stand it."
n, they will pay you when they get
ut! Where they burned down one
ouse, they will burn three. They
ill strike deeper the assassin's
nifs. They are at this minute
worse burglaries. Many of
jails are the best place l know
( to manufacture footpads, vaga-
onds and cut-throats. Every hour
hese jails stand they challenge the
ord Almighty to smite the cities. -