The Blackpool Herald. — 1878-11-15 (Blackpool, Lancashire, England)

WICKED NEW YORK AND PIOUS BROOKLYN.  ' Under the heading of " Talmage's Experiences," , the New York 17711,PR reports a discourse delivered I two Sundays ago by the •celebrated Rev. Dr. ; DeWitt Talmage at his tabernacle in Brooklyn. It had been announced that Mr. Talmage was to discourse on his travels by night through the evil t places of New York, and in anticipation of something interesting the tabernacle was packed, the women being numerically as well represented as men. At the outset Mr. Talmage called attention to the fact that there were a good many policemen present in civilian attire, and requested that they should be comfortably seated. He took as his text Isaiah xxi. 11, "Policeman, what of the night ;" the rendering from the original being his own. A few weeks ago the speaker determined to ask the "Policeman, what of the night ? " In addition to his powerful police escortage, he took two of his elders, not that they were better than the others, but because they were more muscular (laughter). The speaker noticed that the haunts of sin are chiefly supported by men of wealth, who go to them from the fashionable avenues of New York and Brooklyn, or from the prominent business centres of Boston, Chicago, and Cincinnati. "I could call names," shouted Mr. Talmage, "and I may before I get through. though it wreck the fabric of society" !great applause). Judges of courts, officers of churches, political orators, stockbrokers, large importers, wholesale grocers, and merchants of . -every character were among them. The speaker preferred that heathenism that wallows in filth and disgusts the beholder to that which covers its putridity under a camel's-hair shawl and point lace. For eight or ten years there stood in sight of the most fashionable New York drive a brown-stone hell-on-earth, which neither the judges nor the police dared to touch. The priestess who presided over its orgies retreated through suicide into perdition. One officer said to the speaker : "Look at them now : in three years they will be heaps of rags, in the station-house." Another said : "She is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families." Another fact that the speaker noticed was that the haunts of sin are chiefly supported by heads of families—husbands and fathers. Such men should he hurled out of society equally with the women they herd with, in the speaker's opinion the eternal perdition of all other sinners will be heaven compared with the punishment of him who turns his back on her he swore to defend, and goes t forth to seek affectional alliances elsewhere. There I has got to be a reform in this matter or society I will go to pieces. Nine-tenths of the iniquity is perpetrated under the head of incompatibility of temper. That is no excuse. 'I wish," said the speaker, " that there might be a police Iraid lasting souls time, and that all the prominent citizens found in the haunts of vice might be gathered in and marched through the streets, followed by about twenty reporters, who would take their names and put them in the next day's papers in capital letters (great laughter). ra like to go t along (renewed laughter). In six months there ; would be a decrease of SO per cent, in public crime. It is not so Much our boys that need to be looked after as their fathers and mothers." The speaker went on to lavish extravagant praise upon the Brooklyn officials. He asserted that owing to their firmness and incorruptibility there is not a gambling hell, a policy shop, or a "house of death" in the city limits. Noticing the general smile of incredulity with which this was received, he shouted, "If you know of a single exception report it to me, and I'll warrant that within two hours the police will come down upon it like an Alpine avalanche (uproarious applause). If you don't it is because you are a coward, or are in sin yourself. You shall bear the responsibility, and not throw it upon our hard-*orking police. "Where, then," he asked, "do the people of Brooklyn go? To New York (laughter), I am told that some places there are almost entirely supported by Brooklyn men and women." The blame for not extirpating the evil rested on three parties. First, on the police of New York. They have great discouragement. to contend with. When they make arrests the witnesses fail to appear for fear of criminating themselves, and many suits have been brought against them for defamation of character but after long research the speaker had come to the conclusion that the New York captains of police are guilty of complicity with the criminals, There were men getting 10,000 dollars a year for winking at the existence or vile resorts. Some captains received a percentage on ; every bottle of wine sold, and are given a regular share of the other profits of the shambles. In the Twenty-ninth Precinct there are 121 "dens of death" untouched. In West Twenty-sixth, Twenty-seventh, and Thirty-first streets there are whole blocks that are a perfect pandemonium. In the whole of New York city, where there are 2.500 police, there are between 500 and 600 dens of darkness. Not long: ago a masquerade ball was gotten up by the denizens of these places, and the police danced at it, and distributed the prizes. The grandest opportunity ever offered to any American lay within the grasp of that high official who would break the evil up at the risk of his private property. his political ambition, and his life. That man would be the Mayor of New York, and would be fit to be President of the United States. The second part of the blame rested on the New York Listrict Attorney. He was an honourable man, but he had not time to follow the cases of this character brought to his notice. He should be given all the assistanoe needed. The third and heaviest share fell upon the moral and Christian people of the two cities, who are guilty of a most culpable indifference. Indignation meetings were wanted to compel the public authorities to send out police with clubs and lanterns and revolvers ' to clean out these places, and arrest their inmates , and march them to the Tombs with a five and drum in advance playing the rogue's march (laughter). In conclusion, Mr. Talmage delivered himself of a I special appeal to divorced couples to reunite, and announced that on next Sunday he would I discourse on the specific sins he saw. In giving out the concluding hymn he shouted to the audience to "Sing like h—eaven." Everybody thought for an instant that something else was coming.