The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-02-24
JERSEY LIGHTNING. T"
REV. TALMAGE HAS A FEW WORDS
TO SAY
To the New Jersey Legislature, and He
Says Them-The Statesmen First
Given Terrific Scoring, and
Then Defied.

TRENTON, N. J., Feb "A. The Rev. 7. De
Witt Talmage has addressed letter to the
legislature of New Jersey, in which, after
giving the set-to of March 26, 1884. in the
house between Mr. HaIrisan, Mr. Fish, and
the speaker, in which the latter is reported
as using the most profans and abusive Ian
guage toward the members, Mr.. Talmage
says investigation has satisfied him that the
scene actually occurred, and continues;
Last Thursday, nearly a year after this
report, you fly into a rage at something
am alleged to have said in regard to the be-
havlor Of some Of your mem 0ers on that oc-
casion. Let me fist ex cept the honorble
members of your legislature, the gentle
men who are worthy of their important
position, and who will once for ell I'M
derstand that | do not mean them.
Next, let me express my utter con-
tempt for the members wh) on the first oc
caslon IN March, 1854, and who on the sec
ond occasion, last Tuesday, made such an as
mime exhibition Of themselves. To what q
depth has the New Jersey legislature fallen!
Shades of Samuel L. Southland and William
l.. Dayton, and Theodore Freling-
huysen, the three mighties' of the
past, rebuke theml The language used
by some of your members in March, 1884
wouli disgrace u mule-driver on the tow
path of your Raritan canal You have no
right by your vulgar behavior to depreciate
a state which many OF US are proud TO call
the place Of our nativity and in whose legiS-
iatures have been many whom we have loved
and honorei, among them my own father
AS to your char e that / seek notoriety
in attacking you, that is absurd. No one,
for such purpose, would asSail such inSigniti-
cant men as those who went into that legis-
lative wrangle and INDUCED in such sour
rility. | never saw their names before and
probably will never see them again, unless |
find them some morning in the calendar Of
the police court. Surely, if l wanted a
reputation for skilllul hunting | would not
go to shooting muskrats
"The only mercitul explanation of the be-
havior of March, 1881, is that the members
may have been overStiuul led by crooked
whisky, commonly called New Jersey
lightning, and they knew net what they
were doing. Or has our tOiE odegeneTated
that profanity is no more ro'ire(; that your
moral olfact0rias have HesA 20 tuughened
that you do not observe the malodor Of
March, 1854; or have those MEM
Der banded together to faisiiy about that
which is a monumental shame for my be-
loved New Jersey. The fact that they next
day expunged by I'm anmous vote the whole
affair from their records did not expunge it
from the memory OF the people.
"As these, my acrimonious antagonists,
threaten me with lawsuit and arraign-
ment before the bar of their house, will
say that am at home, l South Oxford
street. Brooklyn every evening, when not
in the city, at clock, and will be ready to
receive any document they wish to serve on
me; or, if they want ne to appear be-
fore the bar of their hou e. although
am not under their jurisdiction,
and would not answer 10 formal sum,
mons on a polite invitation tR S. Y. Pl,
would come in pure mis- ,ionary spirit and
teach them lesson in common deceucy
which they are wofulIy III need of learning.
Mathematical problem: If the report of
an old sermon, the contents Of which l have
forgotten, throws the New Jersey legislature
into such CONSERVATION and paroxysm. how
many thousand feet into the air would they
he blown by new sermon on legislative
outrages! T. DEWITT TALMAGE.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, Feb, -, 1885"