Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1886-04-09
AN EY-PREACHER AnHiIGhS SMALLS AND
JONES As TOBACCO DRUNKARDS.
Llorenca McCarthy has addressed


Florence Mccarthy has addressed
letter, of which the following is
an extract, to Rev. Sam Smalls:
"There was evidently n screw
loose somewhere, and yesterday |
thought | discovered what 1t was
when was informed that you were
a tobacco drunkard. That account
ed at once for everything had no.
ticed in your preaching. 1t was
particularly evident last evening,
when you had the effrontery to
preach on Christian purity, with
special reference to purity Of the
body, as the temple of the Holy
Ghost. Anypreacher who was him
self pure would make such a ser
mon the occasion Of "a lesson against
licentousness, whisky, tobacco,
opium, and gluttony and it was
very evident that it was not be.
cause you were deficient in homi.
letical skill that you spoke for only
a moment about licentiousness, and
then spent the evening in denounc.
ing the theatre, the dance, progress
sive euchre aud dealing in wheat
and pork without saying a word
about these other vices. The con-
gregation must have been a little
astonished at the irrelevency Of
your remarks to your text and your
topic, but l was not. With your
pocket full of cigars and your
breath smelling like a burning
dunghill, it would have been, of
course, unpleasant for you to de-
nounce the Iusts Of the flesh. Your
hardihood reached its climax when
at the close of your discourse, you
boldly invited any one who knew
Of anything in your life that was
inconsistent with your Christian
profession and your preaching to
informyou oft. Oh. how l feltlike
jumping to my feet, then and there,
and applying to you the elegant
and elastic language which, on
Tuesday evening, you ascribed to
Sam Jones, say to you in the hear
ing of the congregation "You red
mouthed hog. You have the cheek
to lecture and denounce other peo-
pie about physical purity, and all
the while you are a slave to one of
the flthiest and most demoralizing
of habits yourself"
There was Just ono thing that
saved you, Sam, was not certain
Of my ground. l was afraid that
some one had been lying on you,
and that you had never touched to-
bacco in your life. However, ]
made up my mind to know the ut
most about it, and, as you know,
no sooner was the benedictiOn pro.
nounced that | made my wav to
the platform and gave you, to your
face, the much-coveted information
about your inconsistency. YOu ad-
mitted to me that you used tobac-
co, but pleaded that you condemned
the excessive use of it as much as
anybody, and then hurried away
from me as the devil we're after
you.
But the devil was not after you ;
he has never lost his hold on you
yet.
Now, whether you use tobacco to
excess or not, | am in doubt. Your
own statement amounts to nothing
with me, until | learn what you
mean by excess in the use of tobac'
co. You have perhaps, heard OF
the man who was asked as an ex-
pert, Oh the witness stand, whether
beer was an intoxicating drink and
who replied: 81 can't say; l have
drank forty OF fifty glasses of 1t a
day without any unpleasant effects;
but if man should make a hog OF
himself, | can't tell what the effect
might be-" have been informed
that you indulge in that hlthiest
and most destructive kind of tobac-
|
co using, cigarette smoking, that
you can smoke four cigaretts at a
time, and that If there ever was a
man bound hand and foot by this
habit, you are the man. But grant
ing, for the sake of the argument
that you use tobacco in moderation,
your inconsistency is all the more
glaring for you pointed ont last
evening with especial gusto the
damnable wickedness OF small be-
ginnings, and of setting a bad ex'
ample to others. You would not
have a man dance at home because
that may lead him to dane abroad,