National Republican., 1888-01-21
A NEW PLAN OF WARFARG.
HOW MR.. TALMAGE WOULD ADJUST IN.
TERNATl0NAL DIFFICULTIES.
Instead of Raising Groat Armies and
Staying Thousands He Suggests That
Champion sluggers Defend Their Re-
spective Countries.

BROOKLYN, Jan. 20.-The Friday night
talk Of the Rev. I. De witt Talmage, ID. d.,
at the tabernacle this evening, was on
"Pugilsm and Tea PARTIES" DR.. Talmsge
said:
The newspapers have, recently had whole
columns of telegraphic information In regard
to a fist fight on the other side of the sea. Tue
ocean cable fairly writhed with exciting INTEL
ligence on this subject. Much has been writ
ten and said against such muscular collisions.
On our side, of the sea there have been widely.
reported pugilisms. But all this foreign and
domestic war OF knuekles does not 80 much
excite my disgust as the fact that many of tho
European nations are this moment standing
with cenched fists ready on a large scale for
pngilistic encounter
Il is a bad thing TO have one Jaw broken and
distressing than 10 break thousand Jaws aud
cover miles Of territory with the signs of car.
sse ns Mod ms wby s tfsissr ahe
Zulu war. in which thousands of Englishmen
and Zulus were put to death, have compelled
Drae gs y, a,teT he nsa ,nsttn'ed the Tar 70
two battered and bruised men instead of 10000?
Instead OF France and Germany turn
Europe with bereavement have champion
Frenchman and champion German some day
go out and decide the contest2 That would be
great economy OF bones, and great econ
omy of blood, and great economy
of tears, and a great economy of heartaches,
and great economy Of sepulchres Besides
that, encounters like those of recent date
develop moro courage than conflict in which
the usual weapOnry of international strife is
employed. A man may be successful general
without much personal courage, for he can
stand in tower two miles from the fight and
give orders, or may sit In a stone house incog-
nito, smoking cigar and receiving MESSAGES
where hundreds of private soldiers
are being sacrificed. There is not
so much exposure in a contest in which
great guns and howitzers and swamp angels
ana ali weapons OF long range are engaged, as
when two men with nothing but their own
fists come close up and pound each others
which God made them. Beside that, In the
last style Of combat there are no bereave-
ments. AZ any rate, there can be only two
Sedan, or Gettysburg, leaving twenty or forty
thousand homes in wdowhood and Orphan
age? Mind you, do not advocate pugilism
like that recently reported; but i abhor 1t far
less than war, whose epics never cease to sing
and whose drums never cease to roll by as
ing than 10000 sackedup corpses. The time
will come-may the good Lord hasten it-when
all individual quarrels will be settled by arbi.
tration, and ali international differences will
favor of compelling those who get up wars to
do their own fighting. If in this country
southern man shall, by angry agitation, bring
on a war between the two sections, let those
two men be compelled to be the champions,
and meet on the banks of the Potomac and
have 1t out in eight or ten rounds OF patriotic
pugilism; and II they should both expire
under the bruisng the loss would not be
iering would have have been SI saved il Napoleon % aud
Wellington in o-English war, ana
Moltke and MacMahon In Framed. Ger;
You say that in some cases the ply steal dis
parity might be. too great. Then let the ma
tions of the earth choose two champions sum:
ntn at lat mot aud
upon physical stature. A small man in the
right is stronger than large man In tho
wrong, You remember, David and Goliath.
peace, i doubt whether 1t has made
any advance beyond the old style Of
ethamPtionship PtioSnnhip in war. tn The trouble Is.
stay at home and make money out OF govern
ment contracts, while the farmers and me.
chanics, who, had nothing to do in creating
the trouble, have to leave their plows and
their work benches aud go forth to suffer. In
the encounter of recent day two men were
the sufferers In the strife between NATIONS ion
music written In stats and clefs OF light above
Bethlehem on the first Christmas night needs
war with fists and war with
CAM on and sabcr and explosion of powder
The more wicked, The only war to be cher
ished is the war OF argument, the war Of facts,
the war of mind against mind-that uplifts,
tion and Christianity That kind of conflict
meets the approval of the God who says in the
Bible. Come, let us reason together"
But there came across the sea recently an
account in sharp contrast with that OF the
ba,tering and bruising art; 1t was report OF
unique charity which ] would might be
persons. of London at a tea party; What a
novel time they must have had. 1t was the
eighteenth annual meeting. OF that kind: But
in reading 1t we thought oil the fact that
in this country we olten have what might
he called blind tea parties. So it is
Sysnng SRfn pfSSSs SSSaf ana 81 p SSyn the
amid rich indigestibles. Late suppers are get
ting more and more common. The nearer
they are pushed to the 6mdhnies a9ur the
and connections, the rare game, the fruits, the
eandied temptations, disappear as by magic
The banqIeters , DO not see see me irritations OF
haustions,, that must come afterGard. They
aIe, blind to the baleful effects upon
y hSF fRsy PRs1es' are obToas 10 sSc
inffaction Of inexorable laws. They have
no more eye 70 the consequence of their iHdul'
t he bars in the night an % deyour % SO much corr
that II is necessary to send for the farrer. Iu
fact they are at a blind tea party. Sometimes
with the disspated: They think it grand
thing 70 have sat in the, company of gay
Sfavatea young S, men ' As they draw the nap
they feel they have made a social achieve
ment. Instead of that they have given per-
mission TO men Of base appetitcs to pat them
on the back and take them by the beard
They have forged for themselves a chain OF
unwise surroundings, which they will not be
able to break without struggle. II only takes
one unsafe companion to swamp q pure young
man. But at that feast you have formed five OF
six undesirable acquaintanCeships. Through
your napkin, ring you ought to have been able
70 see into disasters to your moral well-being.
II you had stirred your cup deep enough you
would have reused up a fery-tOngued adder
You might have tasted poison In the pulp of the
grapes. You ought to have seen ruin on the
halfshell. But you were plind toall the efiec
sitting and standing at a blind tea party. IL Il
at the table that many decide their destiny
The kindest, and purest, and best of social tie
are there formed. Many people are disagree
ably taciturn until they open their mouth tC
cat something, and then they cannot Re
the facial vacuum closed again. You may
have noticed that the stiff, cold, formal occa.
sions are those when there was nothing TO eat
A sociable without refreshments Is disaster
But the table Is also the descending road io
tureens and butter Dishes the jingling cutler!
beating their march to ruin. There may bl
nothing but healthy and desirable viands ant
beverages on the table; but If those whC
sit with you arc not of moral tone
and you knew it when you accepted
mistake. EVIL communications corrupt g0oC
manners" You did not realize that you wert
in dangerous proximity. You may thinl
that You saw Just were you were, but you die
You were at blind tea party. Alexander thu
Great entertained 400 captains in silver chairs
but those who know how to control their an.
petites, and rightly select their fraternities, ST
in chairs whose rungs and arms and backs anC
feet are FURNISHED gold