The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-06-25
TALMAGE'S SERMON.

SAAADAAA~ANO
Fifth Discourse Of the Series on
Tho Labor Question"
gtrose Drink the Worst Foe q he
Laborer-rhe Penalties Inseperabls
From the Indulgence OF the Habit
The Advsntages Of Abstinence.
Rev. T. DEWITT Talmags took for the
subject Of the fifth discourse Of his series
on 1.-THE Labor Question: "Strong' Drink
the Worst Foe of Labor" and illustrated il
from the following text:
He that earnesh wages. earneth wages 70
put is into bag with holes.-lHags gal, T., 8.
DR.. Talmage said: In Persia, under the
reign of Darius Hystaspes, the people did
not prosper. They made money, but did
not keep it. They were like people who
have a sack in which they put money, not
knowing that the sack is torn or eaten of
moths or in some way made incapable Of
holding valuables. As fast as the coin
was put in one end Of the sack it dropped
out of the other. Il made no difference
how much wages they got, for they lost
themi
What has become Of the billions and
billions of dollars in this country paid to
the working classes? Some of these moneys
have gone for house rent, or the purchase
of homesteads or wardrobe, or family ex-
penses or the necessities Of private life, or
to provide comforts in old age. What has
become of other billionsi Wasted in fool
ish outlay. Wasted at the gaming table.
Wasted in intoxicants. Put into . bag
with hundred holes.
Gather up the money that the working
classes have spent for rum during the last
thirty years and I will buy for every
workingman q house. and lay out for him
a garden. and clothe his sons in broad
cloth and his daughters in silks, and stand
at his front door a prancing span of sor-
rels or bays, and secure him a policy Of
life insurance. so that the present home
may be we'll maintained after he is dea d.
The most persistent, most overpowering
enemy Of the working classes is intoxi-
eating liquor. 1t is the Anarchist of the
centuries, and has boycotted and is now
boycotting the body and mind and soul of
American labor. II is TO it a worse foe
than monopoly and worse than associa ted
capital. 1t annually swindles industry
out of large percentage Of its earn ings.
1t holds out its blasting solicitations to the
mechanic or operative on his way to work.
and at the noon-spell. and on his way
home at even-tide: on Saturday, when the
wages are paid, it snatches a large part Of
the money that might come to the family
and sacrifices it among the saloon-keepers.
Within eight hundred yards of Sand Street
Methodist Church. Brooklyn, it has fifty.
four saloons and is plotting now for an
other. Stand the saloons of this country
side by side, and it is carefully estimated
that they would reach from New York to
Chicago. "Forward march" SAYS the rum
power, "and take possession of the Amer
lean Nation"
The rum business is pouring its vitriolic
damnable liquids down the threats Of hun.
dreds and thousands of laborers, and while
the ordinary strikes are ruinous both to
employers and employees, proclaim a
universal strike against strong drink,
which, II kept up, will be the relief Of the
working classes and the salvation of the
Nation. wilrundertake TO saw that there
is not q healthy laborer in the United
States who. within the next ten wears, if
he will refuse all Intoxicating beverage
and be saving. may not become a capital
ist on q small scale. Our country in a year
spends $l.5Oo. $500 for rum. or course
the working classes do reat deal of this
nj cSa $isfi,, sbor
the wage-earning classes of Great Britain
expend in liquors $500 5000 year. Sit
down and calculate. Q, workingman, how
much have you expended in the direc.
tions: Add It all up. Add up what your
neighbors have expended, and realize that
instead Of answering the heck of other
people you might have been your own
capitalist.
When you deplete a workingman's phys
ical energy you deplete his capital. The
stimulated workman gives out before the
unstimulated workman.
My father said: 81 became a temperate
man in early life because l noticed in the
harvest that, though I was physically
weaker than other workmen, could hold
out longer than they. They took stimu-
lants; I took none."
A brick,naksr in England gives his ex.
perience in regard to this matter among
men in his employ. He says. after in
vestigation: ''The beer drinker Who made
the fewest bricks made 5000; the alb
stainer who made the fewest bricks. 49,.
900. The difference in behalf of the alb.
stainer over the indulger. 81 800"
There came a very exhaus ting time In
the British Parliament. The session was
prolonged until nearly all the members got
sick or worn out. Out of 49, members only
two went through undan,aged; they were
teetotallers.
When an army goes out to the battle the
older who has water or coffee in his
canteen marches easier and fights better
than the soldier who has whisky i'm his
canteen. Rum helps a man to fight when
he has only one contestant, and that at the
street corner. But when he goes forth TO
maintain some great battle for God and his
country, he wants no rum about him. When
the Russians go to war a corporal passes
along the line ard smells the breath Of
every soldier. II there be in his breath a
faint Of intoxicating liquor the man is
sent back TO the barracks, Why: He can
not endure fatigue. All our young men
know this. When they are preparing for
regatta or bail club or for an athletic
wrestling, they abstain. Our working
people will be wiser after awhile, and the
money they fling away on hurtful in
diligence they will put into cooperative
association. and SO become capitalists If
the workingneu puts down his wages and
then takes his expenses and spreads them
out so they Will just equal. he is not wise.