The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-11
CHAM RECTORS PREACH STRONG
 SERMONS ON LAWLESSNESS HEREABOUTS
DIR. STEELE DELIVERS A
 MOST FORCEFUL SERMON

The Rev I. D. Steele, pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. preach ed a most forceful sermon yesterday on the .eWickedness of Birmingham" His text was taken from Ezekiel vii, 23. "The land is full of bloody crime and the city full of violence
 He said the pulpit should not go into party politics, but that the pulpit was responsible for the moral standing of it's community. The duty we owe to the government was fully brought out, and he showed that law and order are from God.
 The lawlessness so prevalent in Bir- mingham was then discussed. He said that there were open gambling houses and dives in this city; that they were so low s-e-&<%~%<-e-~~-es-s %~%-e-~%%% and the innocent child-forced down into mire of degradation and shamelessness deeper and blacker, far, than any in which he was discovered by the at once all-seeing and all-blind officers of the law; who believes that one of them would be where he is-society apparently de- termined to fit his soul for hell rather than for heaven nl-would be where he is, if he had been able to draw on a bank account of as much as half a thousand , dollars; or to convince his executioners that his moral manhood-his mere human ness-was worth saving for his own and society's good, because his skin was white, and the skin white of influential friends who would be pained to see him in shackles?
 For what have they done, these men, thncn 1as,, ot the living God as surely as any one of us is made in His image; what have they done that they must have shackles riveted to their limbs, and be set to cleaning the muck out of our gutters in the public gaze-the gaze of men and wo- men, and baby-boys and baby girls?
 That one wonder, with the muck-broom did he run cushion-chaired, electric lighted up-to-date equipped gambling den. where big stakes were lost and won, and human eyes grew glittering with delight and glassy with despair? Nay, he was shooting craps on a dry goods box, by the light of a smoky lamp, an had scooped the price of a base ball ticket. when he became a candidate for the chain-gang. That other one wonder with the muck-shovel, did he get very, very drunk did he reach for the ever-present pistol on his hip and kill somebody, hang
 
 darkening that home with the black cof- fin of dead husband and a dead father, and making its darkness vocal with the moans of widowed motherhood and the sobs of little children? No, no; that IS not what he did-the shacked wild beast with the muck-shovel! He did get very, very drunk; he did do his part well towards helping some barkeeper pay his license and adding to the revenue of the county; he got so very, very drunk that he staggered along the street and used some improper language; and then-he had no recollection of it at all when the poison in his brain had spent itself-tnen he re- sisted an officer, and his head, perhapt, still bears the scar of the officers club! I quote again the prominent lawyer, to whose article in the newspaper l have already referred. when I say that the human beings we see in shackles on our streets are guilty, for the most part, of 'the smallest misdemeanorsr'
 It would seem that we have other gut ters to clean than those or our streets visible to the eye; gutters of injustice, rank and foul, that from day to day are mingling their soul-destructive filth with the wholesome and yitalizing elements or our ciyizationl
 Cheapness of Human Life.
 A few weeks ago, as 1 walked couple of blocks on Twentieth street with a re- liable and respected citizen of Birming- ham, our conversation turned upon the cheapness of human life in this com munity; the oft-repeated failures to con vict of homicide, whatever the evidence, in cases where the accused could rely upon influence social or political, and em- ploy the most "knowing' lawyers in his defense. AS 1 walked those two blocks, an dengaged in a conversation lasting, perhaps ten minutes, my companion pointed out at the corner of one block man-slayer, who had slain not because he had to, but because he chose to, and been acquitted; and, before we reached the corner of the next block, we were passed by another man-slayer, who, was told, had slain two of his fellowmen from choice rather than necessity, and been pronounced guiltless by jury of his peers. It goes without saying that both these Cain-browed gentlemen were de- scribed as having the necessary "in- fiuence," and as having been able to work it to their satisfaction.
 So, it is not at all likely that we are being Tolstoi-ized in a city where un- punished man-slayers parade the streets and there are as many as ten thousand arrests in single year, and chains clank on the ankles of petty offenders!
 As to the Remedy.
 What is the remedy for this state Of things? Shall we answer that there is no remedy at all, public sentiment being what it is? Shall we answer that public sentiment is in favor of turning loose the atrocious criminal if he be white and have influence; of meting out severe pun ishment to the petty offender, white or black, if he lack ''infleunce;' and that this state of things must continue so long as public sentiment is as it is? Nay, such an answer were unfair to the good citizenry of Birmingham; unfair to ma jority of it's people.
 I deny most emphatically that what we have right to call fairly and unreser- vedly the public sentiment of this city and county is in favor of foul and rank injustice! Let a vote be taken here on any proposition declaring societys obli- gation to enforce its criminal statutes, without regard to the business or social or political standing of the individuals haled before it's criminal tribunals, and believe that proposition would carry by as large a vote here as anywhere else. The public sentiment of Birmingham is not in favor of putting chains on the small and friendless culprit and turning over the "gentlemanly homicide to the congratulations of his friends. Busv PeopIe.