The Tendency of the Times.
By Editor
Adventists claim that we are living in the last days, and that one distinguishing characteristic of these days is that “iniquity [lawlessness] shall abound.” This feature of our times is very prominent, and Adventist papers are not the only ones that notice and comment on the prevalent lawlessness and general tendency to immorality and iniquity of all kinds. We subjoin two extracts from recent issues of influential journals, as types of many with which we do not wish to load the columns of the REVIEW. The first, from Harper’s Weekly of March 18, is as follows:— “Glimpses of a lamentable phase of life in New York City have been afforded by the trial which has just ended in the sentencing of young McGloin to the gallows. He is nineteen years old. With companions of nearly the same age, he went in the night to plunder the wine-shop of the old Frenchman, Hanier. They found no money, and went away. In a spirit of daring they went back after some cigars. The proprietor of the store heard them, and started to descend from the floor above; McGloin drew a revolver and shot him dead. Afterward, speaking of that night’s work, the nineteen-year-old murderer said to a companion, ‘You ain’t tough now, you know, till you’ve laid your man,’ meaning that the youth who would be greatly admired by those of his class must commit murder. Later, when a policeman entered a bar-room and posted near McGloin’s head a placard offering a reward for the arrest of Hanier’s murderer—a detective meanwhile watching the youth’s face for any sign of uneasiness—the young murderer was apparently unconcerned, and after the policeman had gone he enjoyed the complimentary remarks of his admiring companions concerning his ‘nerve.’ On the day of his conviction, when he was taken back from the court-room to the city prison, it was shown that there were young women of his class who had made him their hero; and as he passed them on his way to the cell, he rewarded their admiring interest in him by taking two gaudy handkerchiefs from his pockets, and giving them to two favored ones as mementoes. These incidents afford the barest glimpses into the life led by one class of the population of New York, yet they are significant enough to give importance to the question whether this class is not growing rapidly—whether, indeed, it has not already reached alarming proportions. There is a homicide in New York almost every day, and in the great majority of cases the slayer is a young man of McGloin’s class, though few who come to trial betray characteristics so typical of that class.” And now read what a correspondent of the daily Inter Ocean says of the haunts of iniquity in Chicago:— “Think of it! only 300 churches in our city, and 5,242 liquor saloons; only four hundred clergymen, and over 5,000 bar-tenders; only 1,000 school teachers, and over 6,000 prostitutes; only half a dozen art galleries, and 250 variety theaters. About a score of missions, and 126 dago shops and over 1,000 houses of ill-fame. What an army of destruction is to be found in these 12,870 instrumentalities of sin and crime, all tending to blast the life of every young man and woman in our city! Placing these places side by side, and allowing each one only ten feet front, you will have twelve miles of these infernal dens dealing out death and destruction. . . . “What are the results arising from these places? Look once more at a few additional statistics. Last year there were, according to the report of the Superintendent of Police, 31,713 arrests in Chicago. Of this number 11,173 were discharged, and 14,125 were fined by the Police Justices. So we have over 6,000 to be accounted for. These were either bound over to a higher court or else sentenced to the Bridewell or jail. With 3,233 more arrests in 1881 than in 1880 we have over 1,000 more so bound over or sentenced in 1881 than in 1880. The value of property reported stolen in 1880 was $142,599.41 and the value of property recovered $123,509.35, while the value of property reported as stolen in 1881 is estimated at $147,144.36, and the value of property of all kinds recovered was $118,508.56. From these statistics we may infer that crime in the city of Chicago keeps pace with its growth.”