National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-04-13
BROOKLYN Or sOD0M.
DR.. Talmage's Lecture Room Tall

lReported FOR the Chicago Advance
The time has come for some one to speak, and
take the responsibility, being as able as any man
to endure the assault which such step may pro-
woke. People, referring to the famous law suit
now in progress, say Brooklyn is under cloud.
No, Brooklyn II in a trough Of the sea. Leaving
to the twelve competent jurors, and able counsel
on both sides, and an impartial Judge, the legal
settlement Of this miserable business, there is a
word which the pulpit needs to utter. Where is
ancient SOdom? 1t became so polluted that ordI-
nary WIIhing would not do, and so, instead OF
water God took fire, and instead Of soap he TOOK
birthstone, and the traveller to-day picks up pieces
Of sulphur and bItumen where once that great
city stood. Brooklyn is rushing on toward the
same RIGHTEOUSNESS and to IS terrific doom, un-
less nerciiul GOO balk the influences at work.
Down at our courthouse, day after day, there IL
uncovered the corpse Of an sbomInation vaster in
ifs blight than Sodon ever knew. 1t Is not
corpse two or three days lingering, waiting for
Christian burial, but for eight months, and since
last midsummer It has been rotting in the face
Of the sun, and thousand Ribbets are lifting It
on exhibition and the printing presses are cutting
up the loSthsOme carcass, and making II into
mincemeat for saTory repast morning, noon and
night snd as the periodicals do not turn It out fast
Sn ~ n 70 bS So Grm me pq b appetite we have
with rs for lunch between the morning break
fast and the evening supper OF putrldity.
Brooklyn to-day eats scandal, drinks scandal,
talks scandal, sWears scandal, lies scandal sleeps
scandal, and from Fulton Ferry wharf to Bush.
wick, and from GoWanus to Hunters Point, the
city is paved with scandal, and reeks with scan
dal until one is tempted to go over TO Five Points
to get breath Of pure air. There are I've thou
sand carrion crows which alight every morning at
there till O'Clock In the afternoon, and then d
north, south, east and west, with exultant 'Caw!
cav! caWr Eternal God! when will this surg
ipg, grosnipg, stupendous, overwhelming nasti-
ness come to an end7 The CITY needs thorough
fumigatioD. VIII somebody burn rag, or carry
about shovel Of lighted charcoal! Three daily
papers came into my honse to-day, and In them
one hundred and tWenty-three feet Of printed pol
luton. Give TO the houses OF shame in New York
printing press and let the lIbertines and adul-
teresses Of the city edit and print a paper, and
they could not, after their criminal ingenuity had
and killing stuff than that which is thrown into
the lap Of your family morning and night. The
father reads 1t. The mother reads It. The sons
reads it. The daughters read 1t The servants in
the basement read II. The coachman at the barn
reads it. So much has the moral tone Of this city.
gone down that subjects, the mention Of which In
your parlor three years ago would have been con-
sidered an outrage to common decency, now cause
not even q blush on the cheek Of the most sensi-
from now in discovered families, in quadrupled
host Of streetWalkers, in q generation Of young
men where purity will be the exception, unless
some mighty religious influence sweep over the
land, and we fight fire with FIRE, the confagratlon
OF sin overcome by conhagration kindled OF the
Holy Ghost Has our dear and beautiful city OF
ing BY rail among strangers, an asked where
live, answer BY saying, II was born In New Ter
sey. never mlnd where i live now J"
Have you measuring rod long enough to esti-
mate the influence Of about 800, 900 morning and
evening papers, coming in contact with the minds
Of our Brooklyn people, bringing about i've mil
Hon columns of ncentiousness into our city every
oay7 How tnSignihcant to stem the tide seem all
your Bibles, and all your tracts, and all your
family affairs, and all your churches!
. For GODS sake, and the sake Of the purity Of
the rising generation, respectfully implore the
secular papers OF New York and Brooklyn to de-
clare eternal abstinence from this subject. But,
say the editors and publishers If we did not print
1t the other papers would, and we should lose our
patronage. reply, that money got in that way
won't stick. For the stockholders Of newspapers
which build themselves up on such hell. broth I
prophecy eventual bankruptcy or domestic ruin
or discontinue in the world to come God Will
be even with you in some way.
Money made by the publication OF these Ter.
petual and pestifercus indecencies will in the end
be not only death to those who read, but death TO
those who print them. 1t will not pay at the
last. Money that you get BY making society
worse you cannot keep. God will get It away
II be has to chase you into hell for It. Can you
imagine the hurricane Of Divine Indignation that
must Whelm forever those who for the sake Of
moDey-making have poisoned the minds diseased
the bodies and damned the immortal souls Of =
metropolis?
But there is q large fortune to be made by some
newspaper. l charge nothing for the hint, but
that morning Wide-a-wake paper that takes the
leading position as family paper in the United
States for the next half century which will cover
up the walls with placards, and advertise 10 all
the columns Of other papers, that henceiorth It