Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/447

 APPENDIX. 423 gone, insane and lost, we anxiously recall, and kindly invite back, to participate in our company and confidence ; assuring them, if they will forsake the husks, whereon, with the swine, they fain would feed, and do but feed ; — if they will abandon bad company, and forsake their more hardened, dissolute com- panions, and return to better deeds, and better things, and better conduct, we are ready to meet them, with open arms, and to welcome their restoration to reputation and to good standing among the good. But, we have another set of men, let loose upon us, incom- parably worse than the foregoing : a thousand times more incorrigible ; possessed, as it were, with seven evil spirits ; a set, who appear to make a business of mischief; who idle, drink, curse, swear, carouse, and carry on, at a high rate ; who beset, molest, often take in, abuse, wrong, and deeply injure, their neighbors ; who strike a dread and terror upon the good, and make even the bad blush, at their impieties and baseness ; who keep the neighborhood in a blaze, scattering as it were " firebrands, arrows, and death,'' wherever they go ! As to these, we have but little hopes of them ; and we can only admonish them, that we mean to keep a strict watch over them ! And, if they shall still dare to outrage decency, trample on the laws of Grod and man, and set civil authority at defiance, we are determined to unite, as one man, and make common cause, in bringing them to justice ; in causing them to be arraigned, convicted, and punished ! And, although they may rail at justice, religion, and the laws of the land ; and at those who unite in putting them into execution, we can only ask, " What rogue e'er felt the halter draw, With good opinion of the law ?" We can only do our duty, and leave them, if they will, to avoid the consequences, by avoiding to expose themselves;