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CQrI1£ Cambrian.

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CQrI1£ Cambrian. SWANSEA, SEPTEMBER 5, 18 73. THE DARK SIDE OF SWANS KA. Our columns of this day contain the distressing details of one of those brutual outrages which disgrace our civilisation and create feelings of sympathy and regret in the minds of all well- intentioned persons. A powerfully built man, with health and vigour in every organ, and in the prime of life, has been hurried into eternity by a blow suddenly given in the heat of passion by his own brother. The whole attendant circumstances of the case are of the most deplorable character and the reason we now prominently allude to the subject is in the hope that our officials who are charged with the peace of the town will endeavour to exert themselves to put an end to the disgrace- ful brawls, fights, and disturbances which occur in our midst almost daily, and which are a disgrace and a reproach to us as a community in this the nineteenth century of the Christian era. Drink demon drink—which is the origin of four-fifths of all the crimes which disgrace humanity-was the cause of this crime also. Both men were, to say the least, in a state of semi-intoxication. The animal passions had been inflamed and maddened by long hours of carousal. Angry words ensue, as is wont—blows follow almost as a natural con- sequence—when the accused, in a fit of ungovern- able fury, snatches up a heavy poker, and dealing a terrific blow upon the head, lays his victim a corpse at his feet. This is the whole of the ghastly story which has to be told and we sup- pose, so long as society is as it is, cases of a simi- lar description will occasionally occur in the centres of all large populations. Sad and lament- able as is the case, it is some relief to know that the coroner's jury have acquitted the prisoner of the more heinous crime, and returned a verdict of manslaughter, believing that there was no pre- meditation, or malice prepense, but that the fatal blow was given in the heat of passion, when the accused was scarely responsible for his actions. The wonder is, considering the excessive drinking indulged in, that Clses of similar heinousness do not far more frequently occur. But the question naturally arises—cannot some thing be done to raise these wretched and miser- able creatures from the slough of despond and despair into which they have sunk? Cannot their condition be somewhat ameliorated ? Are there no Christian philanthropic agencies which can be applied to rescue some, at least, from their degradation ? Or are the denizens of our Regent- court, of our Howells-court, and other notorious localities, so polluted and fallen as to be utterly beyond the pale of reclamation ?—and are they to be given up as ruined—body and soul-lost for ever ? Cannot our magistrates, our police, our ministers, our Christian ladies and gentlemen, our religious societies and agents, our angels of mercy," bring some combined efforts to bear upon the misery, sin, and crime, which surround us on every hand ? Swansea is rapidly increasing in wealth, spreading forth its arms of trade and com- merce in all directions. This material prosperity brings together a large aggregation of the working, the poorer, the ignorant classes, and we regret to add, the vicious and depraved. We are seriously afraid that prostitution and crime increase more proportionately than our population. Notwith- standing all the checks and counter-checks, vice of every description was never more rampant, and never was female profligacy more open and flaunt- ing. In spite of the well-meant efforts oi e Legislature in repressing drink, drunkenness stIll defiantly rears its head, and apparently laug is an scoffs at all the efforts of Teetotalers and Good Templars. Why is this ? We are seriously afraid it is because our magistrates, our police, our ministers of the gospel, our Christian men gene- rally, have lately neglected shamefully neglected —their duties, and grown lax m their efforts to repress the giant evil. We subscribe large sums year after year to send the blessings of civilisation and Christianity to the heathen abroad, but we almost totally neglect the heathen at home. We are anxious for the spread of the gospel of peace in foreign lands, but we ignore the claims of the wretched and depraved at our very doors. What, we would ask, has been done of late years in our town to suppress the gigantic evils of in- temperance and of prostitution. We support, or at least we believe we do, one town missionary to labour amongst the wretched, the depraved, and the outcast of a population now numbering some sixty souls. We have, it is true, a small house which is known as a refuge for the fallen of woman kind. We have various benevolent insti- tutions in our midst, but it must be manifest that these agencies are altogether inadequate to cope with the hydra-headed evils which exist all around us, unless they are backed up with individual and collective efforts on the part of all. We have churches and chapels in every part of the town, whose ministers proclaim the glad tidings of sal- vation to the very respectable congregations who assemble once a week to listen to their discourses but how many of the Christian ministers or laity follow out the lessons inculcated, and visit the wretched and the depraved in the back courts and alleys of the town. The moral—to say nothing of the spiritual—condition of our town is anything but creditable to us as a community. Our streets, especially after dark, and notoriously so on the Sunday evenings, are disgraceful; and we allow these things to exist almost without an effort at repression, and pursue the even tenor of our way" regardless of the claims which the wretched, the depraved, and the vicious have upon uafor help and assistance in raising them up from their pollution and thus they go on step by step until at last some foul. unlucky blow sends them unpre- pared into eternity, or they sink prematurely into the grave—the natural consequence of the vicious lives they have been leading, and the apathy of the so-called Christian public in endeavouring to reclaim them. We have no wish to exaggerate the evils which exist around us, or to draw upon the imagination for scenes of sin and profligacy which may be daily found in the purlieus of our town. The jury who investigated the circumstances attendant upon the death of the unfortunate William Thomas, killed this week in Regent-court, had presented to their view a scene which can scarcely fail to have left an indelible [impression upon their minds. full of the denizens of that and adjacent courts, 300 women and children gathered toSet,he^7 eaeer curiosity to hear the facts connected with the death of one of their unfortunate number, We almost blush to write it, but we were m- formed by one of the head of our police forcethat we might almost guarantee to say thatj there v not one of those females over 14 or 1 y age but was leading an abandoned life, whilst there is not a single house in the whole court that is not a brothel. We do. not mean to say that Swansea is worse than other large seaports, and we are quite aware that abandoned, vile women always have and always will be found but the duty is none the less plain on our part, nor are our responsibilities less to do what we can to s p- press the sins and crimes which are inseparao y connected with the abandoned lives which these poor and much-to-be-pitied creatures live. « especially urge the claims of the children thos young ones who have not yet fallen into the pi falls which surround them—to the sypathies an Christian help of the benevolent and philan- thropic in our midst. Cannot some at least of these be weeded out from these hotbeds of vice and immorality—transplanted into better soil where they will be surrounded by more genial, kindly, and Christian influences, and grow up better members of society ? We throw out the suggestion in the hope that some active, benevo- lent ladies and gentlemen will take the matter up, and carry out the details to a practical and success- ful issue. We are quite sure the fruit which will he seen in after life will amply repay the labour Kotowed and the money expended and let us all remember that the duty is most plainly incul- t d by Him whose whole life was spent in doing ca ed nd whose great and grand mission was to good, and and to lead them to paths of reclaim the sobriety andv £ or ua to attempt to gainsay It would titution and drunkenness will the fact that p eff0rts at suppression and exist in defiance o 0f the fact that moral we are also well aw case of many of the suasion is hopeless In rofligate. And here the most hardened and p should be brought to bear strong arm of the law in the repression of open scenes of immorality and vice. Our police and magistrates are too lax, far too lax, in this respect. 0 Our civil authorities have no right to allow the respectable inhabitants of our town to be shocked at the sights and lan- guage which greet the eye and the ear at almost every corner of the street. It is but false policy and mock mercy which deals too leniently with cases of drunkenness and depravity committed iu the public streets. These abandoned women must walk the streets, but let them do so with common decency and decorum, and not shock our ears with their disgusting, obscene language. We have no sympathy with those who would deal with so- called kindness towards hardened, obdurate, and abandoned sinners. Kindness to them is cruelty twards the virtuous and well-behaved. The gaol and bread and water is the best place and the best fare for those who, humanly speaking, are past redemption, and whose very presence pol- lutes the whole place. Whilst, then, we plead for the young and tender in years, and hope that efforts will be speedily put forward to rescue them from their present vile haunts of misery, sin, and shame, we advocate that our police and magis- trates should put in full force every means of re- pression which the law gives them to put down those scenes of open depravity and vice which abound in our streets, and which are so discredit- able and repulsive to us as a Christian community. It is the bounden duty of one and all to do what they can to improve the moral condition of our town. Some can do much by moral suasion, by kindly, Christian visits and advice, whilst the duty is no less imperative on our police and ma- gistrates to repress the scenes of open profligacy and sin which abound. If, then, the sad and truly lamentable occurrence which has taken place in our midst this week should lead to a general, united effort being made to rescue the fallen, and to improve our moral and spiritual condition as a town, then, deplorable as the event is, it will not have been altogether in vain.

THE LICENSING QUESTION.

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