St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-07-03
TALMAGES SERMON.
Fifth Discourse of the Series on
'Ths Labor Question"
Strong Drink the Worst Foe of the
Laborer-The Penalties Inseparable
From the Indulgence of the Habit
The Advantages of Abstinence.

subject of the fifth discourse of his series
on 1.-THE Labor Question" "Strong Drink
the Worst Foe of Labor" and illustrated it
from the following text
He that earneth wages earneth wages to
put it into a bag with holes.-fH ag gai l., 6.
DR.. Talmage said: In Persia, under the
reign of Darius Hystaspes. the people did
net prosper. They made money, but did
not keep it. They were like people who
have 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. 1t made no difference
how much wages they got, for they lost
them?
What has become of the billions and
billions of dollars in this country paid to
the working classess 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 billions? Wasted in fool
ish outlay. Wasted at the gaming table.
Wasted in intoxcants. Put into q 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
workingnan a house, and lay out for him
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 policy of
life insurance, so that the present home
H.
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. 1t is to it worse foe
than monopoly and worse than associa ted
capital. 1t annually swindles industry
out of large percentage of its earnings
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 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, land take possession of the Amer
lean Nation"
The rum business is pouring its vitrolic
} damnable liquids down the threats of hun
dreds and thousands of laborers, and while
ctriE hok1
employers and employees, | proclaim a
universal strike against strong drink,
which, If kept up, will be the relief of the
working classes and the salvation of the
Nation. will undertake to say that there
not a healthy laborer in the United
ties who, within the next ten years, if
e will refuse all Intoxicating beverage
and be saving, may not become capital
ist on a small scale. Our country in year
spends 81 800, 100000 for rum. Of course
the working classes do reat deal of this |
expenditure. Careful statistics show that
the wage-earning classes Of Great Britain |
expend in liquors $500, 100000 year. Sit |
down and calculate. 0, workingman, how |
much have you expended in the direc- |
lions? Add 1t all up. Add up what your |
neighbors have expended, and realize that |
instead of answering the beck of other |
people you might have been your own |
capitalist.
When you deplete workingman's phys
ical energy you deplete his capital. The |
stimulated workman gives out before the |
unstimulated workman.
My father said: ST became temperate
man in early life because I noticed in the
harvest that, though I was physically
weaker than other workmen, / could hold
out longer than they. They took stimu-
lants; took none"
A brickmaker in England gives his ex-
psrience in regard to this matter among
men in his employ. He says, after in
vestigation: "The beer drinker who made
the fewest bricks made $4,000; the abb
ssainer who made the fewest bricks, 746,-
900. The difference in behalf of the alb
stainer over the indulger, $780,"
There came very exhausting time In
the British Parliament. The session was
prolonged until nearly all the members got
sick or worn out Out of 652 members only
two went through unchanged; they were
teetotallers.
The following circumstance came under
our observation: young man worked
hard to earn his $500 or 500 yearly. Mar
riage day came. The bride had inherited
$500 from her grandfather. She spent
every dollar Of it on the wedding dress.
Then they rented two rooms in the third
story. Then the young man took extra
evening employment almost exhausted
with the days work, yet took evening en-
ployment. It almost extinguished his
eyeoight Why did he add even
ing employment to the day employ
ment? To get money. Why did he
want to get money. To lay up some
AIninnt fnr q r.ainr dau2 M tn uaf |