The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-10
ANTHONY'S MESSAGE.


cause % or 80 stores and residences
have been robbed of late. Your sons
may be debauched and public virtue
prostituted, but that counts for naught
so long as your dollars are undis-
turbed. An enemy may root out man
hood and morals and no protest be
made, but let no man lay hands on the
almighty dollar, for'it is the one sacred
thing in all our midst.
Let no words of complaint be ut
tered against the city detectives who
fail to catch the thieves. They can
catch them; know they can't. To say
otherwise is to either charge your
Mayor with joking when he gave the
detectives orders to suppress the policy
shops, or else you must charge your
detectives with unwillingness to obey
his orders. Either of these alternatives
is too bad and must be rejected, hence
We conclude the thieves cannot be
caught. Any detective who can't find
the policy wheels in this city, TO say
nothing of the policy shops, is incapa-
BILE of catching a thief even if he an
nounced in the papers of the day be-
fore the time and place of his in
tended theft, and beat a bass drum
as he stole.
Catching Disease.
"And I am not greatly concerned if
they can't catch them. A people loving
only money are unworthy of it. Your
officers have despised law and laughed
at statutes till thieves have caught
the contagion and despise the officials.
And why not? If gambling is a joke;
if prostituting boyhood and manhood
for reverence is right; if the sanctity
of the Sabbath is to be abrogated for
gain: if law is to be debauched for
factional ends, then why in the name
of this whole direful brood should not
the thieves have equal eXemption-far
more. For they take only things.
while these destroy morals. AS mam-
mon is less than manhood, as chattels
are less than character. by so much
are the thieves the lesser evil. have
suffered at their hands to the amount
of S100, but my loss can be replaced.
But who will give back to widows their
dead husbands and to moth
ers their sons in innocency.
Your quest being for dollars you can
not raise men. Your sand-blind policy
of seeking prosperity to the neglect of
those moral qualities which make pros
perity will land you and yours into the
hands of your father the devil, unless
indeed his sense of disguest at your
stupidity overcones his feelings of pa
ternity.
"You abrogate Gods law and frame
unto yourselves a new decalogue L the
Almighty Dollar am the Lord, thy God
Beside me thou shalt have no other
God except lust of animal delights
Thou shalt make unto thyself craven
images of heroes and patriots and set
them in thy streets, but thou shalt in no
wise initiate their virtues.
Thou shalt commit adulty when
ever and wherever thy lust enticeth
thee. Even the innocent girls that be-
come handmaids among thee shall be
paid half price for their labor that
want may drive them to harlotry
Thou shalt keep all days sacred to
me. In them thou shalt barter and sell
and drink and dissipate to the devii's
delight.
The stranger that is within thy
gates thou shalt fleece and rob if he
have possessions, but if he come from
beyond the waters then shalt thou elect
him to Office that he may teach thee all
the vices of all the nations under the
face of heaven.
"Ruskin's words about England are
applicable to us. IF the public were
informed that engineers were now con-
fident, after their practice in the Cents
and the st. Gothard tunnels. that they
could make a railway to hell-the pub
lie would instantly invest in the con-
Germ to any amount: and stop church.
building all over the country. for fear
of diminishing the dividends"
The sermon was heard by a large
congregation. despite the cold weather.