The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1907-09-09

DENUNCIATION
Of the Indifference of Society to
Social Purity.
The RaVishsr of Innocence Goes I'm
whipped Of Justice and Is Not Even
Ostraeised by What is Demon.
mated Society," :"

/ mated Society," :"
The Baptist, Episcopalian, Meth
.odist and Presbyterian congrega-
1tions listened together last night
to a most able discourse by the
Rev. w. c. C. Foster, Pastor of
the Presbyterian church, as an ex-
position of the well known scrip
tural passage: But whose shall
cause one of these little ones which
believe on me to stumble, it is pro-
E6table for him that a great mill
stone should be hanged about his
neck, and that he should be sunk
in the depth of the sea. - - The
speakers idea was to show the op-
posite and contradictory views of
values from a divine and human
stand point:
Man is outweighed by dollars,
people are outweighed by posses
sions. To protect property no stone
is left unturned, the ablest counsel
is secured. every point is guarded
and fought for with the utmost
care and earnestness; but who dares
to affirm that this is SO when it
comes to a question of protecting
persons?
Aman who should set FIRE to a
great factory where little boys and
girls were toiling like slaves, pale,
sickly, their little lives crushed
out of them, would be hunted from
one end of the country to the other,
and when captured would be pun
ished without mercy; but the en-
ployer of those children, who is
even more guilty in the sight of
God, is shielded by the law and by
the courts. The man who sins
against property is punished to the
very limit; : the man who sins
against human life and tramples
upon the sacredness of childhood
is exonerated and possibly sent to
Congress to make laws for the ma
ton. Who does not know that the
destroyers of life seem to be safer
under our laws than the destroyer
of things? Slayers of virtue, assas-
sins of character may fling out
their red lights and allure the
young and innocent to enter the
door which swings into hell. But
suppose any man or woman, or any
set of men and women should open
up places for the manufacture of
bombs and explosives and imple-
ments of destruction, with the de-
liberate purpose of using them to
blow up buildings, or depots, or
railroad tracks, or banks, or stores.
how long would they be tolerated?
Not for single day.
Thus in what we call our civiliz-
ed society persons may be outraged
and attacked and despoiled, and
flung as social wreckage upon the
shores of life with comparative
IMMUNITY; but woe to those who
dare to take any such liberties with
or make any such assaults upon
property. In the eyes of the law
it seems to be a greater crime to
steal dollars or something that dol.
lars will buy than to be a robber of
virtue or destroyer of purity.
The man who FORCES a check or
blows up a safe is given a short
shrift; no sentiment is wasted over
him; he is dragged off to jail and
to judgment. but the man who
makes it necessary to support Flor
ence Crittenden homes, the pillager
of purity, the ravisher of inno-
cence, goes unwhipped of justice,
and is not even punished by ostra-
cism from the ranks of what is de-
nominated society It all comes
from the over emphasis of property
and the under emphasis of life"
Notice.
Fort Brown, Brownsville, Tex,