him, knock him down, rob him; and if he make a noise, they cry "watch;" the girl and man charge him with violence to the lady, &c. Thus the thieves go clear, and the injured man is arrested. Sometimes they send their "kinchen," that is, a little boy six or eight years old, into a store to buy cigars-to make discoveries that the twenty may make a prize there if possible. They have "doves," that is, sets of keys, fifty-two in a set, chisels, saws, and pick-locks, which are secreted in the day-time.

At one or two o'clock in the morning they meet at the house of one of the party, whose "blown," that is, girl, usually accompanies them, sometimes in man's apparel, and play two or three games at cards, drink liquor, and disperse for the remainder of the night among houses of ill-fame, or retire to their several dwellings, which nightkeys enable them to enter. In the day-time they labor to conceal their true character.

Their booty they call "queer," is deposited at a fencinghouse, a house for the secreting of stolen goods, when twice a week the several "Lumbards of the cove in their flash" meet under their president, accompanied by their parties, to receive their regular portion of the booty which has been sold to pawnbrokers and others in the city and country by their president and captains.

The "forties "the petty thieves of the city, will knock a girl down to steal her comb and handkerchief, that they may pawn them for rum. Their "gooseberry lag" is a plundering excursion into the less guarded parts of the city, county, and country, to steal pots, kettles, pails, clothes bleaching. These have but little concert in action, and less honor than the higher thieves. They will rob each other, and fight about the plunder of a night.

The name "highbinders" is sometimes assigned them. There is a difference among the "forties," as some excel others in stratagem and power of execution. These are the ones vested as tyrants with power to command. Their

word is law. Mark the case of Gibbs, the pirate, as an example of sovereignty. Pirates travel the high seas and highway-men lurk in dens and forests, and prowl about stage-roads, and watch the movements of men from commercial places, when laden with money, that they may rob them. These are a terror to the voyager and traveler, and their fame is spread over the earth.

Remarks.

June 15th, 1831.-These alarming facts call forth the attention of the magistrate to trace out and suppress, as far as in him lies; but however vigilant he may be, he cannot heal the fountain; this is the work of the parent; and my humble opinion is, that the grand defect in family government is pulling down the vengeance of heaven upon our guilty land. And we need not go into the families of the poor and degraded to test the truth of this; the rich, and the noble, and the professed christian, too, are deeply involved in the difficulty. In most families where I visit, I see the worst principles of the child and the worst dispositions brought into action. The child does wrong, the father blames the mother, the mother in her turn throws it back upon the father, the child hears it, and perhaps sulks away into a corner, fostering the malignant passions within, while the domestic storm is still raging, and the father and mother end the dispute, because tired with the fruitless contest.

Thieving and prostitution are generally handmaidsand always in houses of ill-fame.

Now let us search the foundation.

I once was acquainted with the family of a minister, where a son became very vile, and the cause seemed hidden. He was lewd, his health became impaired, and his life in danger. He called upon the Lord, and was heard. He forsook the evil courses he had pursued, and was a good

man. Now, all who knew him would say, this youth was trained properly, and yet he was a bad boy, and therefore we must not receive the declaration, Train up a

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child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it," as a rule to which there are no exceptions. But it is evident that this son of a minister was not brought up in the way he should go, for his parents, as to the seventh commandment, let their son grow up as a "wild ass's colt," wholly uninstructed and ignorant of the nature and consequences of violating the law. Doubtless there is a great defect in the education of children in this respect, and that defect is often the cause of the future ruin of the man. If children were faithfully taught all the commands of God, and parental discipline properly kept up, I do believe God is a faithful God, and true to his word, and that we should not see houses of licentiousness multiplying around us, and our streets invaded with the midnight prowler.

Children, in these modern days, actually despise their parents, and manifest it by their actions, tones, and words. This root of bitterness in the family circle blights the fond hopes of mothers, and wrings with anguish the hearts of fathers-brothers and sisters share in the afflictionan affliction worse than death. Thus generation after generation is reared in crime, and the "curse of the Lord must, and does rest in the house of the wicked" for ever.

Idleness is another fruitful source of thieving and licen tiousness. When children are taught it is disreputable to gain their bread by the sweat of their brow, and to be respectable is to be first in the fashions of the world, what can be expected but, as soon as temptation offers, they will avail themselves of the opportunity to become possessors of whatever a depraved appetite may demand. "He that will not work shall not eat," said the inspired penman, and few, very few eat honestly, who do not obey this injunction. Our streets are thronged with idle boys, whose impudence

would put to the blush the children of the wandering Arab, and whose profanity would well nigh shock a pirate.

The daughters, too, of our cities, (and the country is fall ing into the snare,) what are they doing? Are "their hands taking hold of the distaff," or their fingers the needle? Sometimes, indeed, we see the young Miss working a purse or a collar, but she would not sully her fair hands about any domestic concern; and wonder not, ye mothers, when your sources of extravagance shall fail, though you find your daughter in a house of infamy, where she has the promise of fine clothes and a life of ease!

And where, O where shall we look for a remedy of these wide-spreading evils? "Like people like priest," they are all asleep, wondering at the perversity of their children, while the awful tide of iniquity is rolling on, and, like a mighty sweeping deluge, is flooding our land. I weep in secret places, but who regards it? Yea, they laugh when I tell them the destruction that is coming upon them; and to which of the saints shall I turn? If I reprove the child of the christian or the parent, I am told I am not a father, and cannot know the feelings of a parent. If I tell them what God has said in his holy word, I am triumphantly told they are not under the Jewish yoke, and shall not stone their children to death for a little disobedience. O the abominations of the land! Will they cease, till God comes out of his place, and in dreadful wrath punishes the land for her heaven-daring iniquities?

June 20th, 1831.-The seducer and procuresses seize on the female passion for dress, and present to that passion the object it seeks. If they find a poor girl with a pretty face, they tempt her thus,

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You have no need to labor-you can live as well without it as with it, and dress much better too, and be as fine a lady as any in the city. You can walk or you can ride, just as you please-visit the theatres, and other places of amusement, and have a servant to wait on you, and be your

own mistress."

This one bait has led to vice and to hell

thousands of poor girls.

T

CHAPTER XXI.

Story of a Merchant-Dress of Christian Females-License-Discouragements-Testimony of a Physician-Marriage-Magdalen Tracts-State of suspense-Meeting of Ministers-Discouragements-Manner of being found in a Garret-Removal from the place-Ordination.

A merchant in New-York succeeded in ruining from twenty to fifty poor girls in this way. He led an only child of a poor widow astray, by addressing all his artifices to the little girl's admiration and love of dress, first giving her a ribbon, a gown, an orange-patting her on the head, and giving her an occasional ride in his carriage. This course he pursued for several years. When she was about fifteen years old, he asked her to ride with him, as she usually had done. He called at a house of ill-fame, gave the girl thirty dollars to buy her a suit of clothes, and then accomplished his purpose.

He left her in about twenty days, turned her to another man, and she soon became a girl of the town. The mother, however, lived to see her daughter reclaimed, and then received her to her arms. Even in cases where dress is not the occasion of the evil here mentioned, other painful consequences follow.

We know th it is a prevailing passion in women to imitate those women whom they imagine to be wealthy and fashionable. Now the rich lady may sustain her expenses, and not suffer any inconvenience; but her extravagance has been the occasion of much sin and misery. O how much responsibility rests on the rich?