The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-06-06
THE WOES OF THE WORKERS
Ehc Third Sermon of DR.. Dewitt Tai
mage'sSeries on The LAHORE Question.
Mardships of Women Who Are Robbed, NAL
treated and Ill-Paid-Toil. Deprivations
and Trials That Fall to Workingmen.

On Sunday, May 30, Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage
ID. d., preached in the Brooklyn Tabernacle the
third Of his series of sermons on 1.-THE Labor
Question. entitled 1.-THE Genuine Hardshps Of
ithe Working Glasses"
Dr. Talmages text is found in Isaiah xii, q,
$50 the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and
he that smootheth with the hammer him that
smote the anvil He said:
Men see ia their own work hardships and
trials while they recognize no hardships or trials
fn anybody elses occupation. Every mans bur-
den is the heaviest, and every woman's task is
<he hardest We find people wanting to get into
other occupations and professions. l hear men
in all kinds of toll wishing they were enabled to
do something else. saying to me, ~ have mis-
took my path in life; / ought to have been a me-
chanic. and am merchant or, II ought to
have been a merchant. and am a mechanic
ought to have been a lawyer and am an artist;
# had undertaken some other path in life I
would have had easier time, and I would
have had grander success / suppose when the
merchant comes home at night, his brain hot
with the anxieties of commercial toll disappointed
and yexed, agitated about the excitements in the
money markets. he says: 20, wish were a
mechanic. When his days work is done the
5nechanic lies down. he is healthy in body,
healthy in mind and healthy in SOUL but can't
Sleep WHILE at that very moment, the mechanic
Us wishing he were a banker merchant He
says Then l could always have on beautiful
apparel; then / could move in the choicest cir.
cles; then could bring up my children in very
different sphere from that in which / am COM
PEELED to bring them up
You do a great wrong to the iaboring classes
tf yOu hold them responsible for the work of the
Bcoundrelly Anarchists. You cannot hate their
deeds more thoroughly than do all the industrial
classes. At the head of the chief organ of the
Knights Of Labor. in big letters, / find the fol-
lewing vigorous disclaimer:
LET it be understood by all the world that the
Knights OF Labor have no utilization, associa-
tion, sympathy or respect for the band of cow
9rdy murderers, cutthroats and robbers known
rs Anarchists, who sneak through the country
like midnight assassins, stirring up the passions
Of ignorant foreigners, unfurling the red flag of
anarchy and causing riot and bloodshed. Par
sons, Spies Fielding, Most, and all their follow
ers, sympathlzers, aiders and abettors should be
summarily dealt with. They are entitled to no
more consideration than wild beasts. The
leaders are towards and their followers are
fools"
You may do your duty toward your employees
hat many do not and the biggest business firm
81 America to-day is Grip, Gouge. Grind & Co.
Look, for instance, at the woes of the womanly
toiiers, who have not made any strike, and who
are dying by the thousands and dying by inches
read few lines frem the last Labor Report,
gust out, as specimen of what female en-
PlOyes endure Poisoned hands, and can
not work; had to sue the man for fifty
cents" Another; about four months OF the
year can, by bard work, earn a little more than
&3 per week. Another: ssShe now makes
wrappers at 81 per dozen; can make eight wrap
psrs per day." Another: 1--WE girls, in our es-
adjustment, have the following fines imposed:
For washing your hands, 25 cents; eating piece
Oi bread at your loom, 81; also, for sitting on q
stool. taking drink OF water, and many other
trding things, too numerous to mention" Some
of the worst villains of our cities are the en-
ployers of these women. They beat them down
10 the last penny, and try to cheat them out of
AA~A =
before she gets the garments to work or. When
The work is done it is sharply inspected
she most INSIGNIFICANT flaw is picked out
and the wages refused, and sometimes
the dollar deposited not given back. The
Women's Protective Union reports case
where one OF the poor souls. finding a place
where she could get more wages, resolved to
rbange employers and went to get her pay for
work done. The employer says: II hear you are
going to leave me?n YES" she said, land
have come to get what you owe me- He made
p0 answer She said: 'sAre you not going to pay
meT eyes," he said. 81 will pay you," and he
kicked her down stairs
never swore a word in all my life, but l con-
Jess that when read that felt stirring within
me that was not at all devotional
Ispeak more fifty of woman's wrongs because
khe has not been heard in the present agitation
You know more of what men have suffered.
paid to coiored man who, in Missouri last
Diarch, came into my room to build my fire:
Sam. how much wages do you people get
nround hereY7 He replied: 'Ten dollars a
month, sir" / asked: Have you a familyT
"Yes," said he wife and children" Think of it,
hundred and twenty dollars year to support
y family on. My friends, there is something in
this world awfully a-twist When 1 think of
these things l am not bothered, as some of my
brethren, with the abstract questions as to why
God let sin come into this world The only
wonder with me is that God doesn't smash this
world up, and start another in place of it.
One great tt ial that the working classes feel is
physical exhaustion. There are athletes who go
out to their work at or o'clock in the morn
sng, and come back at night as fresh as when
they started. They turn their back upon the
shuttle or the forge. or the rising wall, and they
come away elastic and whistling That is the
exception. l notice that when the factory bell
saps for o'clock the Woodworking man YEARLY
and starts for home. He sits down
Ia the family circle, resolved to make
himself agreeable, to be the means Of culture
and education to his children; but in Ave minutes
ne 10 sound asleep. He is tagged out-strength
OF body, mind and soul utterly exhausted. He
rises IN the morning only half rested from his
toll Indeed, he will never have any perfect
rest in this world until he gets into one narrow
spot; which is the only perfect rest for the hu-
man body IN this world. / think they call it a
gravel Has toll frosted the color of your cheeks?
Has 1t taken all spontaneity from your laugh
teri Has it subtracted the spring from your
etep and the luster from your eye. until it has
teis you only naiI the man you were when you
first put your hand on the hammer and your
foot on the wheel Tomorrow in your place of
toll. listen, and you will hear a voice above the
hiss of the furnace, and the groan of the foundry.
and the chatter of the shuttle-a voice not
pf machinery nor of the taskmaster
bat the voice of an allsympa-
shstic God, as he says: ''Come unto
me all you who labor and are heavy laden. aud
win give you rest" Let all men and women of
toll remember that this work will soon be over.
Have they not heard that there is great holt
day comingi 0 that home, and no long walk to
get to it o that bread, and no sweating toll
necessary to earn it. o these deep wells of
Dternal RAPTURE. and no heavy buckets to draw
up. wish they would put their head on this
pillow stuffed with the down from the wing of all
Gods promises. There remains rest for the
people Of God
l wonder how many tired people there are in
the house today. A thousandf More than that
Two thousand people who are tired-tired out