The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-06-06
AN APPEAL FOR AID.
Hon. Geo. R. Weddings Strong Appeal for the
YIN. C. A., in His Lecture at Richmond.


cred his grand lecture. us Death the End1' to a
very appreciative audience at the Grand Opera
house. At the close he made the following most
eloquent appeal to our citizens in behalf of the
Young Mems Christian Association:
Now, gentlemen-merchants, manufacturers
lawyers, railroad managers business men of
every vocation-let me ask you grave question.
You are very generous in your charities history
does not name nation whose business men are
or ever have been so generous, so warm hearted,
SO lavish in their gifts to all deserving charities
as our American business men; thousands OF hos
pitfalls, asylumss libraries: churches and Innum-
cradle good works every hand attest Your
benevolence, but what you doing for your
young mena mean what are you doing for
them Society," as thousana d'a'' influences
are at work to save your daughters.
Every impulse Of chivaric manhood guards
your daughters; a brothers pride, fathers
watchful eye. mothers hourly care, and oil
the influences of respectable society stand
like wall around her day and night
If she is gone she is gone forever, and the
consciousness on your part that puohc
opinion is inexhorable in its condemnation makes
you doubly vigilant in guarding the good name.
Hence, associations to prevent the ruin of young
women are not necessary. But look for mo-
ment at the attitude Of society toward young
men as class and see the destructive forces at
work against them.
features of American young men is homeless
Ours is vast country. Railway trains
run in every direction. Business enterprises
stretch their eager hands wide
fields. The telegraph and telephone have
business houses take in not merely towns
and countries, but dozens of States, and each
State an empire Not merely battalions and
regiments, but whole armies of young men are
going up and down the land as employees Our
hat MI nf1F
crowded with them. Artisans, clerks, book
keepers, statesmen, mechanics, workingmen IN
every department, young men by the tens OF
thousands are crowding every avenue OF life,
of them are carried away from their homes.
Their lives are homeless lives The only homes
they have, greater portion OF every year, are
places of public resort. This homeless life is
the inevitable result of our modern business
methods, and as it cannot be changed, ought we
not to make strong efforts to alleviate its evils?
But look further. Let me take two typical
American towns, jamestown, New York and
Richmond. Ind. The former has 1000 young
men between sixteen and thrty-fve years of
age the latter has 1000. In jamestown there
are thirty-six houses where liquor is sold. run
ming day and night. and in Richmond thirty
seven saloons and three gambling houses You
know this, you are daily witnesses. and doubt
less you wish it were not so. But what are you
doing to counterfeit it among your young men?
In America we have 10000 saloons We spend
annually 800 600 900 for liquor or 81 600 600 per
day, or $4,000 every hour Saloons by
by the ten thousand, low theatricals by
the hundred, gamblinghouses by the score, and
in the presence of all these pernicious influences
what are you doing for your young menu
But look again and realize the interests in
volved Enough young men come of age every
four years to control our presidential elections
Behold in their ranks, then, not only your future
business men and the husbands of your daugh-
ters but also the element that holds in it's hands
our destiny as a nation. Glance, too, at the
darkest side of the question. Five-sixth of the
convicts in our jails and penitentiarieS are men,
and their average age is twenty six.
Do you ask now what should be done for our
young men? Let me then speak to you mo-
ment about the power of associations in shaping
character. Take for example, intemperance. and
let me say that / have never heard temper
ance orator who, in my judgment struck at the
root of the matter, and have heard many, from
the humbest to the highest. The refrain of all
their noble affairs is, Beware the first cup-be-
ware the fatal appetite!' Now speak from
wide observation, and an intimate acquaintance
with all classes of young men, and say that
not one young man in thousand becomes
drunkard through craving taste for liquor Gre
ated by his first drinks as so many eloquent men
have toId US. No! But they are going down,
down, dragged downward and ever downward
by associations which will degrade and
ruin a man, whether he drink amidst
them or practices total abstinence amidst
them. 1t is the communicating and debasing in
fuences which cluster around the vice that
oftenest ruin young man, and not his love for
strong drink. stood not long ago on the bank
of the Missouri. and saw that seething, rest
less. mighty volume of impurity, impelled as it
were by the mysterious power of an unseen,
eternal fate rush heedlesly along with irresisti-
BILE power and matchless grandeur Onward it
rolled, bearing on its heaving bosom a turbulent
mass of irredeemable decay, which rapidly
passed me by and was quickly succeeded by the
new wreck and new ruin. Omnous birds of
prey few hither and thither in the murky at
mosphere With ravenous croakings they
woke dismal echoes on either side,
and circling they sailed, watching with
eager eyes the riven surface to snatch their food
from out the waves. whilst the wavelets FLASHED
with the dull, mOnotonous measure of never
ending requiem at my feet Screams of triumph
rang out on the air, telling of death and destruc-
ton to the victims OF those dark fowls restless
vigilance, while the river rolled ON to empty it
self at last into old oceans infinite bosom. /
saw then and see now, as in vision, another
and mighter stream pouring through the
streets of our American towns aud cities-a
stream of human life turbulent with passion;
aud this stream is impelled, too-it must be-by
relentless fate, else the prayers of fathers and
the walls OF sorrowing mothers, wives and
sisters could surely stay its arm On
ward and still onward it rolls bearing
with it, and carrying on its raging bosom the
wrecks of fortunes and homes, broken hearts
and wounded names, and rapidly they pass us
by, to be quickly succeeded by new wreck and
new ruin, while the waves plash at our feet with
the mournful music of unending sorrow.
Fitting here and there come those birds of prey
the gambler and the courtesan-watching
with practiced eye the appearance of each new
victim. Afrighted mothers grope in the dark
ness Of despair and like the spirit in Jean Paul
Richters dream, cry out: us there no Godf'
But still the river rolls on with its vestiges of
wreck and relics of ruin, and still on, to be
swallowed up at last in the ocean of eternity.
Believe me. the chief danger of our young men
at first is not appetite. but the fatal fascination
which makes them row their boats in the cur
rent of such stream. And as with intemper-
ance, so with other vices-the links are forged
by association. Fletcher of Saltoun said: "Let
me write nations songs, and ! care not who
writes its laws And / say, Let me prescribe
the associates Of our young men, and / will
mold the nations destiny.
Fathers Church members! Citizens! allure