Year: 1878




|


New York. Nov. 1O-In the Brooklyn Taberna.
Gle this morning Rev. T. Dewitt Talmsge deliver.
ed the fifth of his great cries OF sermons on The
Night Side OF City Life" as seen during his explo.
rations with high officials Of the city, Fully six
thousand people we're in the building and as
many more clustered in the streets adjoining The
audience paid the closest attention to the great
preacher, and as the terrible picture Of want, and
woe, and sin, and suffering were unfOlded before
them, many paid the silent tribute Of tears. The
following is the sermon in full


UNDER THE POLICE LANTERN"


Proverbs K, IS: THE destruction Of the poor is
their poverty"


On an island'ni miles long by Two and half
wide stands the largest city Of the United States,
mighuest for virtue and for sin. Before we get
through we shall See.its mid noon of magnificent
progress and philanthropy, as we'll as Its mid
night Of sin and crime and woe Twice every
twenty four hours our City Hall and old Trinity
strike twelve-Once while business and art are in
full blast, and the other while Iniquity is doing
It's utmost. Both stories must be told III pleas.
anter to put on plaster than to thrust in probe,
but 1t is absurd to propose remedies until we take
complete diagnosis of municipal disease. The
patient may cringe and squirm, and fight back,
and resist, but the surgeon must go on. Before l
get through this course Of sermons, will make
all the people smile with approval at the BEAUTIFUL
things shall say about the bene6cieuCe and
grandeur OF these cities clustering about the
mouth OF the Hudson and East Rivers, bus now
my work is excavation and exposure. can't put
on the balm till rip off the bandsge. 1t affords
me as much amusement as any man Of my pro
iessiOn can with propriety indulge In at any one
time, TO see many Of the clerical reformers Of our
day bravely mounting their war.chsrger. plung
ing in the spurs and dashing down with glitteriug
lance TO plunge into the niquities of the ancient
cities that have been dead three or four thousand
years. They get an old sinner Of eighteen centu
ries ago IN a corner, and scalp him and hang him
and cat him to pieces and cry out "See what
have done" With utmost prowess thep fling sui
phur at SodOm, and fire at GomOrrah and worms
at King HerOd, and pitch Jezabel off the wall, but
put on their best kid gloves aud wipe their gold
spectacles to read from sermon inclosed In mo
rocco cover any remarks about the sins Of our own
times considering the subject 80 delicate that 1t is
shame even to speak Of 1t. The hyppOcrites
The simple fact is they are afraid Of the ibertines
In their Board Of Trustees or their deacons, who
drink too much, or their sessions who grind the
face of the poor. say "clear out our churches Of
all audience from pulpit to storm-doOr with no
one left but the sexton, and he only waiting be.
cause 1t is his business to lock up, rather than
have our pulpis shivering before the pew" 1t is
the living Herods and Judases and Jezabels of this
day who need to be arraigned, That is one Iea'
son why like big church. II dozen men get
mad at the truth aud go out we don't find 1t out
until the year after they gone 1t isin the city
on the top of the ground that needs to be reform
ed, and not the HerCuaneums buried in volcanic
ashes or the Cities of the Plain sixty feet down
under the Dead Sea-


THE MIDNIGHT OF PAUPERIsM


This morning turn over a new leaf in my mid
night exploration. In company with city mission
aries and the police of Brooklyn and New York
have seen other things than those mentioned In
my previous dscourses on the Night Side Of City
Life. This night is darker than any have men.
toned There are no glittering chandeliers or
blazing mirrors or diamonds to adOrn It, 1t is the
long Deep bitter night Of city paupeIism We
will want no carriages for tonight" said my police
attendants, "a carriage would be hinderance
where we are going, A carriage rolling up 10 the
1 places of our exploration would excite wonder,
| and the people would hLck round asking what
/ was the matter" so at eight clock we started
on foot and walked through the lanes Of poverty
| and crime. Everything was revolving TO the eye
and ear and nOslril-unwashed, uncombed the
| population, unveDtilated the rooms, tn ee mid.
nights overlapping the darkness of each other
midnight in the natural world, midnight of crime
midnight Of pauperisml Stairs Oozng with filth
| inhabitants vermin.cOveTedl They had gone
| Dine.tenths of the way toward their final doom
They started In unhappy home Of the city or coun
try. They entered iniquIty far up town, IN the
| thambes Of death within ten minutes walk of the
Fifth Avenue Hotel and came gradually on down
to the Fourth Ward. When they move out from
here they will 20 to Bellevue Hospital, thence to
| BlackwelPs fland, thence to the Potter Field
and from thence to hell. Bellevue Hospital and
| BlackWelrs Island receive In one year $4,000 pa
tients. We don't know how many yearly go into
the PotterS' ED. AS we went on, the rain flash
ed and dropped about the dOorways, adding more
gloom to the night. Let the police go ahead and
flash his lantern upon the scene. Fourteen peO
pie asleep in the one room or trying to get asleep,
i some on few hAndfuls OF straw but more on the
bare floor, neither blanket or pillow. You say
this is exceptional. 1t Is not Thousands sleeD
night by night with no better comfort 10 600
families who live In the greater or lesser squaOr
of tenement houses of greater or less squalor.
There are a half million Of people In New York
dying bv inches In tenement houses. Our OF 26,
600 Of people who die in New York in year, IA





ever made can for great while endure such an
atmosphere, In the Fourth Ward there are II 900
people crowded within the space Of thirty acres,
Why does not New York like Liverpool clear out
these cellVrs2 Liverpool cleared out 10000 of such
people and saved not only the city from moral
Destilence but saved many Of those who would
have cen victims, No reformation of our cities
until this terrible tenemt mt house system is brOk
nun. The city authorities must buy farms where
these people can by force of law be placed and
made to work Bv strong arm and police lantern
united with Christian benetiCenCe, these horrors
must be exposed and then upTOOted. These men
dlcants must be made he means of city wealth
instead OF city putrefactlon. The places IN on
don historical for crowded tenement houses st.
Giles. WhteChapel and st James, West London,
aud HOlbOrn and the Strand have their matches
at least In the Fourth and Sixth and Eleventh
and Fourteenth aud Seventeenth Wards Of New
York No publication or reformation for the city
until something like the privacy and seclusion Of
the home circle be given to every family As
long as they herd together like beasts they win
be beasts.


ONE LIPR BOAT ON rHR SEA OF SIN.


Harkl What was thati A loud thud on the
pavement. A druukard has slipped and fallen
with his head against the STEP and the police are
trying 10 lift him. Ring for the city ambulance.
Oh, no; he Ia only an Outcast, only heap of rags
aud sOreH. But better look again. Perhaps Won
may find that he has in his face some trace of re
spectAbility and Intelligence. Perhaps he may
| nave peen nhue III tne lmhBe VI dOu, Pernap9 he
has soul that shall live after the dripping heav.
ems of this dismal night shall have been rolled to.
gether as a scroll, Perhaps he may have been
died for by XII g. Perhaps he might become a
conqueror charioted In the splendors of a heaven.
ly welcome. But we can't stop. On the opposite
side the rain beating traight in bis face is anOh-
er nan In entire Inconsistencies. Iwonder If
auy home is waiting for him l wonder If that
gashed and biOated cheek was ever kissed by ma.
ternal tendernesS7 wonder how he came to be
so battered aud bruised? Is he stranded for eter.
nity2 On we passed amid the basphemies that
| filed the air until suddenly we heard a loud
Christian song rolling Qut through the storm We
haslened to window and looked ina large room
| full OF all kinds Of people some of them Weening
some singing some standing, some kueeling some
shaking hands 10 give announcement some
wrihging their handStn grief, as though mourning
wasted life Nha: was 1t? Jerry McAuleys