Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-03-21
TART ALLUSIONS TO FLAMIgG AID.
VERTISEMENTS IN RELIGIOUS
PAPERS OFFERING GILT
CERTIFICATES OF STOCK.
DIR. TALMAeE's SERMON, SUNDAY, MARCH
11tb.
BROOKLYN, March 1.-THE hymn sung
at the Tabernacle this morning begins:

BROOKLYN, March 1.-THE hymn sung
at the Tabernacle this morning begins:
"a cloud of witnesses around
Hold thee in full survey:
Forget the steps already trod,
And onward urge thy way"
As. last Sabbath, the Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage, DID,, the pastor, had baptized by
sprinkling, he this morning baptized by
immersion those who preferred this mode, a
baptistry having been built under the pulpit
The subject of his sermon was: "The Age
of Swindle," and the text, Job viii, IA:
"Whose trust shall be spiders web." DR..
Talmage said;
The two most skillful architects in all the
world are the bee and the spider. The one
puts up sugar mandatory and the other
builds a slaughter-house for flies. On a
bright summer morning, when the sun
comes out and shines upon the spiders
web bedecked with dew, the gossamer
structure seems bright enough for sus-
pension bridge for supernatural beings to
cross on. But alas for the poor fly, which,
in the latter part of that day, ventures on
it, and is caught and dungeoned and de-
stroyed, The fly was informed that it was
free bridge, and would cost nothing, but
at the other end of the bridge the toll paid
was its own life. The next day there comes
down strong wind, and away goes the
web, and the marauding spider and the
victimised fly. so delicate are the silken
threads of the SPIDERS web that many
thousands of them are put together before
thew become visible to the human
eve. and it takes four million of them to
make a thread as large as the human
hair. Most cruel as we'll as most ingenious
is the spider. A prisoner in the Bastile,
France, had one SO trained that at the
sound of violin it every day came for its
meal of flies. Job, the author of my text,
and the leading scientist of his day. had no
doubt watched tho voracious process of this
one insect with another, and saw spider
and fly swept down with the same broom,
or scattered by the same wind. Alas, that
the world has so many designing spiders
and victimised flies.
There has not been time when the ut
ter and black irresPonsibility Of many men
having the financial interests of others in
charge, has been more evident than in
these last few years.
The unrooing of banks and disappears
ance of administrators with the finds of
large estates and the disorder amidst post
office accounts and deficits amid United
States officials, have made pestilence of
crime that solemnises every thoughtful
man and woman, and leads every philan-
thropist and Christian to ask, What shall
be done to stay the plague? There is a
monsoon abroad, typhoon, sirocco. l
sometimes ask myself if it would not be
better for men making wills to bequeath
tho property directly to the executors and
officers of the court, and appoint the
widows and orphans committee to see
that the former got all that did not belong
to them. The simple fact is that there
are large number ofmen sailing yachts and
driving fast horses, and members of ex-
pensive club-houses and controlling country
seats who are not worth dollar if they re-
turn to others their just rights. Under
some sudden reverse they fail, and with
afflicted air seem to retire from the world,
and seem almost ready for monastic life,
when in two or three years they blossom
out again, having compromised with their
creditors that is, paid them nothing but
regrets, and the only difference between the
second chapter of prosperity and the first is
that their pictures are Morillos instead of
Kensetts, and their horses go mile in
twenty seconds less than their predecessors,
and instead of one country seat they have
three. have watched and have noticed
that nine out ten of those who fail in what
is called high life, have more means after
than before the failure, and in many of the
cases failure is only strategem to escape
the payment of honest debts and put the
world off the track while they practice a
large swindle. There is something woful-
ly wrong in the fact that these things are
possible.
First of all, charge the blame on care
less, Indifferent bank directors and boards
having in charge great financial institutions.
1t ought not to be possible for president
or cashier or prominent officer of banking
institution to swindle it year after year
without detection. will undertake to say
that if these frauds ore carried on for two
or three years without detection, either the
directors are partners in the infamy and
pocketed part of the theft, or they are
guilty of culpable neglect of duty, for
which God will hold them as responsible
as He holds the acknowledged defrauders.
What right have prominent business men
to allow their names to be published as
directors in financial institution. SO that
unsophisticated people are thereby induced
to deposit their money in or buy the script
thereof, when they, the published directors,
are doing nothing for the safety of the in
stitution? 1t is a case of deception most
reprehensible. Many people with sur
plus of money, not needed fer immediate
use, although it may be little further on
indispensable, are without friends competent
to advise them, and they are guided solely
by the character of the men whose names
are associated with the institution. When
the crash came, and with the overthrow of
the banks went the small earnings and limit
ed fortunes of widows and orphans, and the
helplessly aged, the directors stood with
idiotic stare, and to the inquiry of the
frenzied depositors and stockholders who
had lost their all. and to the arraignment of
an indignant public had nothing to say ex-
cept: "We thought it was all right We
did not know there was anything wrong
going on" 1t was their duty to know
They stood in position which deluded the
people with the idea that they were careful
ly observant. Calling thems elves directors,
they did not direct. They had opportunity
of auditing accounts and inspecting the
books. No time TO do so? Then they had
no business to accept the position. 1t seems
to be the pride of some moneyed men to be
Directors in great many intitstutions,
and all they know is whether or not they
get their dividends regularly, and their