The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1886-12-10
a PREACHER DRUNK.

Ihe secular papers that print Sunday
editions, take a special interest in the
preachers. In a leading daily last week
there was halt column of Geographic
special under this head. IN bold face, "a
Preacher Drunk The facts were as
follows: A young minister who had been
Incorporate before his conversion and call
| to the ministry was persuaded to take
glass of wine by one who pretended to be
his friend. The old appetite revived, and
he was led on step by step until he was
| found in a saloon dead drunk. The men
| who plotted his ruin summoned the report
ers to see him in his degradation. 1t was
big item, and the enterprising caterers
for those whe read the daily papers tele-
graphed it all over the cou ntry. A preacher
drunk Why, it was as COED as a cy-
clone. They worked it up i'll the best
style, and expected it to make sensation.
| And it did
| | have neighbor who gets his religion
from the Sunday newspapers, and, of
course, has buzZard'S appetite for car
rion. He came 10 me with that para
graph marked, and said, ''See here, Old
school, you believe in preachers and |
don't. Tell me what you think of thatr'
| read it, and replied: Il think the editor
and the reporter have paid the Christian
ministry high and deserved compliment
in that despatch
"Why SO? a compliment to the cloth
to report that one Of them WIS drunk last
night in a saloon? -
YES. and can make you STE it il you
will listen 10 me. Do you know how many
preachers there are in the United States?'
| No; but reckon there's lot Of them,
for it's an easy way of getting u living.
| Pm not SO sure OF that. People are
mighty particulars nowadays. a preach
er has got to be smart or they won't hear
him. a man who has brains enough to
get living by preaching in these times
could get rich in any other profession.
But as you can't answer my question, |
| shall have to answer it myself. Accord
| ing to the census OF 1880 there are over
| IS 900; and nov, mark you When one of
| these rs, 900 falls it is considered SO re-
| markable that it is telegraphed all over the
| land. The Bible says that ministers are
but men. 1t speaks Of them as 'eaithen
vessels And the great wonder is that
| among SO many SO few turn out badly.
So you see the publication of this case
three thousand miles from Nhefc il occur
red shows how rare and remarkable il is.
They don't have commonplace and every
day occurrences telegraphcd across the
continent. And now lei me ask you an
other question. Suppose, when you open
ed your daily paper Tomorrow, yen found
despatch at the head of a column from
Cranberry, n. j., or Dover, Del, with the
heading, "A Lawyer Drunk, and that in
the despatch all the details were given OF
A. b., promising young lawyer, who
had become intoxicated, and was found in
Il low groggery dead drunk-what would
you think in that case -
81 would think that the editor was
| fool
why SOP"
Because there are lots IF lawyers all
| over t.e country who get drunk every day.
The finding of a lawyer in whiskey shop
| is hardly an item Of local news, much less
an item to be wired across the continent.
"Well, how is it with doctors and mer
chants? Suppose the paper should have
a despatch of a quarter of a column when
ever any Of them got drunk anywhere in
the United States?''
why bless you, no paper would be
big enough to hold all The dispatches. We
could send half dozen from this one town
every day"
'Yes, and don't you see the result Cf
your own admissions The fall of
Christian minister is regarded by telegraph
operators as fifst-class item, like an earth
quake, a cyclone, or Mathematician con-
| fagration. 1t is thing so rare, SO unex-
pected, so out of the usual course Of things,
| that it must be sent flashing around the
| world. You don't believe in ministers,
| but you do believe i'll rumselers. on
don [ 90 To chufci 10 near our Pic"chti,
but you spend your Sundays in Tom
O'Flanigan's saloon. Iou think of course,
| that Tom is better man than Rev. DR..
Abel, or You wouldn't prefer his society.
Now, suppose you read in your daily paper
that jim McGrady, over in some town on
the Atlantic coast was fennd drunk this
morning behind his own bar; would you
come to me and say, Read that"
"Why, no. of course
"Well, why not"
because that's thing that happens
every day in hundreds of places. 1t
wouldn't be news. \ man who handles
edge tools will cut his own fingers once in
| a while. no matter how caref heis. And
| besides, it's no great matter il fellow
does get little too much now and then. >
mo, not great matter, as it seems, for
your chosen comprehensive model men
| whose society yuu cultivate; but very
great matter for one preacher ont of 10,
| 900. and he evidently tempted and led
astray by a rumscler. Some heartless
| saloonist, knowing that this young preach
| err had once been dissipated, and that the
annette for strong drink might be revived,