The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1875-04-14
BROOKLYN OR sODOM

1ROOklyn xoOermocAS-F1om 10AM
from the Pastoral Storm Of Epi'
shess-Brooklyn the Hedern So
dom-How % make . Fortune In
from the Brooklyn Argus.l
The Friday night meeting at the
Tabernacle vas attended by a very
large congregation. Long before the
time appointed for the opening, the
regular seating capacity of the chapel
was occupied, and for upwards of ff-
teen minutes prior to the service the
ushers we're kept busy in supplying
camp stools to the eager crowd, SO
that by the time DR.. Talmage rose to
commeace the service, the room was
literary packed. After the singing of
. hymn by the congregation and the
saying of q prayer by Brother Clark.
DR.. Talmage rose and said:
To your surprise the subject of
this, my Friday evening address, is
Brooklyn or Sodom? 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 provoke. Peo-
pie, referring to the famous law suit
now in progress, say Brooklyn is I'M
der q cloud. Nay, Brooklyn is in the
trough of the sea, leaving to the COM
petent jurors and able counsel on both
settlement of the miserable business.
needs to utter. Where is ancient So
dom? It became so polluted that an
ordinary washing would not do. In
~kao1 80 Ill
stead of soap, He took birthstone, and
the traveller to- day picks up piece of
sulphur or bitumep where once that
great city stood Brooklyn is rushing
on toward the same licentiousness and
to as terrific doom, unless a merci-
full God baulk the influences now at
work. Down at our Court House day
by day, there is uncovered Corpse
of an Abomination, vaster in its flight
than Sodom ever knew. It is not a
corpse Of two or three days lingering,
waiting for a Christian burial, but
eight months since last midsummer it
has been rotting in the face of the
sun, and thousand gibbetts are lift
ing it up on exhibition, and the print
ing presses are cutting up the loath-
some carcass, and making it into
mince meat for a savory repast, morn
ing, noon and night. And, as the
periodicals do not turn it out fast
enough to satisfy the public appetite,
they had to put it up in book form, so
that we can carry it about with US for
a lunch between the morning break
fast and the evening supper of putrid-
ity. Brooklyn to-day eats scandal,
drinks scandal, talks scandal, swears
scandal, lies scandal, sleeps scandal,
and from Fulton Ferry wharf to
Bushwick, and from Gowanus to
Hunters Point, the city is paved with
scandal. until one is tempted to go
over to the Five Points to get breath
of fresh air. (Sensation). There are
five thousand carrion crows, which
alight every morning on the top of the
Court House, and stay there until
four o'clock in the afternoon, and
then these carrion crows fly North,
South, East and West, with an exult-
ant Cav! cawi caw!" Oh, Eternal
God, when will this surging, groaning,
stupendous and overwhelming nasti-
ness come to an end? The city needs
q thorough fumigation. Will some
body burn a rag or carry about a
shovel and lighted charcoal? Three
daily papers came into my house to-
day, and In them, by actual count,
there were one hundred and twenty
three feet of this printed pollution.
I measured it. Give to the house of
shame in New York printing press,
and let the libertines and adultresses
of the city edit and print paper, and
they could not, after all their criminal
ingenuity had been taxed, sent forth
more filthy and killing stuff. than that
which is thrown into the lap of your
family morning and night. The father
reads it, the mother reads it, the sons
read it, the daughters read it, the SER
wants In the basement read it, and 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 considered an
outrage to common decency. now
causes not even q blush on the cheek
of the most sensitive.
Wait for the harvest, three or four
years from now, in discovered families,
in the quadrupled host of street walk
whose purity will be the exception
unless some mighty religious influence
sweep over the land, and We fight fire
will. fire-the confagration kindled
by the Holy Ghost. Has our dear
and beautiful city of Brooklyn come
to that? When now travelling by rail
among strangers, l am asked where l
live, answer by saying I was born in
New Jersey-never mind where | live
now. Have you a measuring rod long
enough to estimate the influence of
about three hundred thousand morn
ing and evening papers coming in con-
tact with the minds of our Brooklyn
people, bringing about five million
columns of RIGHTEOUSNESS into our
city every day. How Insignificant to
stem the tide seem all your Bibles
and 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 declare eternal
abstinence "a voice-Amen y from
this subject. But say the editors of
the papers; IF we don't print it. the
other papers would, and we would
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, prophecy eventual bank
ruptcy or domestic ruin or discomfort
in the world to come, or all three
God will be even with you in some
way. Money made by the publication
of the perpetual pestiferous indecen-
cies will in the end be not only death
TO those who read. but to those who
Money that you get by making society