National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1886-05-15
THE EVENTS OF THE WEEK,
THE GHAsTLINESS OF DIET-THE RE-
CENT STORMS AND FLOODS.
widespread Crime Against the Life of
the American Peoplo-Tho Trnnsat-
Iantic and Cisntlantlo Tornndocs-
water spouts and Freshcts.

NNNlleEALlOO Oh lOOu anu lut Itttub blOIulb
and floods. Mr.. Talmage said:
The recent poisoning Of families in differ.
eut parts of the land by canned fruits, and
the increased degradation Of almost all
styles Of food, ought to reanimate the pul.
pit and the printing press and the platform
In the war against aiulteration and danger
Gus CUmestibles. Although much has been
written aud said on this subject, and Of
Tending grocers and butchers and drug.
gists have been arrested, confined, and
condemned, and In some parts OF the land
there has been alleyiation,agaiust thisswlde-
spread crime against the life OF the Ameri-
can people, many places there has been an
augmentation of the evil. In
the vast majority Of the families OF the
land pure coffee aud sugar and teas and
spices are unknown from year to year; they
pay for one thing and get another. The
microscopical and chemical analyses have
made revelation enough to make the worlds
stomach recoil In disgust Many OF us who
thought we had respectable diet have been
eating aud drinking things that may not
he mentioned. Honest old.fashiOned but
ter has melted aud run out Of the world,
and instead thereof we have triChinnsis In
all styles served up morning, noon, aud
night. All the ailments Of the brute crca-
tiOn are set before us In raw shape or done
up H. puddlngs and pies and gravics, and
the wonders and mysteries aud iucOmprG'
hcusibilities of hotel bash cclipscd by
Uluumurgufluc Ia all stages. Even the cau-
dies that wchring home to our children are
found to he Crystalized disease, lOGcnges
of red and sweetcncd death. The health
iul Leverage Of tue family table
has become so dCpravCd that We
feel like saying with Charles Lamb,
when an uusccmly mixture was placed
lcfore him, III this be coffee give me tea,
and If this he tea give me coflee.n Even
f1ta. fstaIitipt Ia, Nyl,fab u,ppn1 In limo N
dire distress through apothecaries' admiX-
turc, fails only to Kill When they ought to
cure. The alum in the bread aud the chalk
in the milk and the powdered glass In the
sugar and the venetian red In the cocoa,
and no one knows what IN the srup. II a
man not al higoted, but very liberal on the
subject Of temperance aud OF the high
license persuasion, wants to imbiDe some
inspiration to help him fight down the
fanatcism of prohibition, and he goes IN
to the Couuteruud pays for an honest drink,
he swallows and smacks his lips over cor
Culus indicus and potash, and cOchineal
and blue vitrio and other delectables.
Some of these things put In to make the
beverage hot and some 10 make IL red, and
some to make 1t red and some to make II
mix, and some 10 cOuntelact the fatality OF
the others. In 1851 Mr.. Wukely, in Lon
don, undertook the publication OF the peo-
Pies food and drink, and though the effort
threw the city into a fit of protest and
indignation, the evil for some time
Terccptihly abated. Officers of health in
cur own country have done
good work, but their chief work
Is vet to he accomplished The
yhast'lness Of diet, to which millions Of the
American people are subjected, may ac-
count for much OF the sudden death
gud otherwise Unaccountahlc and incrcas.
inc suicide II IS amazing that there Is any
good, sound health left for this systema-
'iGcd and almost universal poisoning
process. Let US ugitate the subject In pull
pit ard printing press ana by legal vigilance
in SO much as We care for our health and
the welfare of the people
But come to q more staccato passage in
the history OF passing events.
What week this has been in America
Tornadoes, water spOuts, freshets, whole
villages UurOOfcd, families obliterated from
Kansas on to OHIO aud from Ohio to Penn
sylyauia great horror has swept, while in
Madrid and other parts Of spain there have
Teen corresponding dcYastations. The
priuCc Of the power Of the air that Is Satan,
has held carnival OF demons IN some
places. What tie winds spared the Hoods
drowned. How mUrciless are these natural
forces with which the world is again and
again visited Some men say ma
ture IS enough, and Christianity is
superlu!ty. The sunshine and the
IElINshllk NlbNtI hull lNc utilbliul
of garden and field are all they want for q
religion. They learned from the natural
world that God is love. The volume Of
nature Is all they need for Divine reyela-
tiun But what have they 10 say about
the natural forces at work this week in
Spain aud Kansas and OHIO? These force
OF nature whelmed hundreds OF human
lives with no more cOmmiseratlon than
they feel when they float the dust Of a saw
mil. They have no more pity for a
drowned man or woman or a child than
a musk rat. The hurricanes and water
spouts and frGshets Of this week. trans.
atlantic and cis.altlautic, looked at the
bereavement Of households with no more
emotion than they would seeingtwo planks
part POLITICALLY. We speak Of the rain as
the weeping of the clouds, and the wind
among the tree branches us a sigh of sym
pathy, and the heavens as veled In mour-
ing, rs some great disaster, but II Is only O
Ioetcal figure, the clouds thunder and
strike, but they never weep. The winds
howl, but they never give sympathetic
sighs, The sun shone as brightly to-day
over the wrecked homesteads and the
new-laid graves OF this weeks catastrophe
as though there had been no
heart-breaE along the swollen rivers.
Nature can smite as with lightning, and can
rend apart as by earthquake can eat up as
hy locusts can PROSTATE as by malaral
sickness; can blind the eyes as by explosion;
can cripple the limb as by falling rock; can
dethrOne the reason as by q blow on the
brain, but it cannot pity. 1t can blast, II
can cut, II can scourge, 1t can grind, II can
lacerate, II can consume, 1t can drown, but
1t cannot pity. IL on Tuesday and Wednes-
day nights in Kansas or in Spain the suffer
ers had knelt In the mud and under the
flashing cloud aud prayed; "Oh ye winds
stop your dreadful sweep Oh ye clouds,
stop your destroying floods Stand back
from my homestead spare my hard-earnel
home; save my drowning wife and child, y
the only answer would have been louder
clap Of thunder, wilder gurgle OF the
waters, louder crash OF falling farm
houses, more piteous bleat OF perishin9
nocEs. Oh the world wants more than
religion Of flowers, a religion Of
sunshine, religion OF art, for suct
religions fail when the floods of disas
ter lift up their voice. know o.
only one religion that comes in ant
offers better riches than the floods captured
better life than tue cyclones destroyed anc
future explanation, grand, glorious
and satisfactory Of things, we cannot under
stand now. This old reiglon-Old, but no
superaunuated; old, but not emeritus
works to-day as well along the banks o
the Kansas and the Ohio az q. ever wOrke
along the Jordan aud the E4parsIes. IL I
revealed religion that cones 10 y M th
awful gap In natural religion. Saturi
religion is a good foundation On which L
Lulld revealed religion, but II Is only bar
foundation. When the hurricanes and tn
frcshcts come, what poor shelter is a mer
foundation. You want, then, home suc
as God builds IN the Gospel, It's cOruerstOn
the Rock Of Ages; Its chief pillar made on
of the CalvarCan cross; its altarof one grca
sacrinCe its dome catching and pOurin
down illumination celestial. Let thes
mcrclleEs forces OF nature believing
through this week drive you from depend
enCe on natural religion to that religlo
which has its mightiest triumphs when you
earthly prospects are stricken down AM
inundated. II did most for David when hi
son was IN rebellion, most for Mrs. .Sigour
ucy when be bone was dcsol0ted, mos
for JOhn Runyan yVhan tha fIgnn Jonr