Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1888-01-24

gers upon steamships, who have bee,
suddenly ushered into eternity By ~,
drunkenness, on the criminal neglect, O
the officers of vessels. I would rather
trust myself in the hands of Gods angry
blizzard than in the hands OF q drunken
sea captain upon the ocean. 1t is bette,
to fail into the hands OF God, than to
fall into the hands of man.
Bat | have far from exhausted the
calamities due to man's careless cruelty.
when l have spoken OF these accidents
which have slaughtered SO many thou
sands of human beings, I need bat to
refer to the criminal neglect of sewerage
and drainage and proper plumbing in
every one of our cities to indicate to you
another cause of death more cruel than
the iron wheel on the car stove. Ty.
phoid fever and scarlet fever, small pox
and cholera, and q multitude OF other
diseases sweep away thousands upon
thousands of our fellow beings every
year. Helpless and innocent babies,
strong men and women are struck and
linger through painful weeks and die
IN agony, because some man or some
officer has neglected his duty. Their
diseases are preventibls. Filth and i'm.
proper sanitary conditions are their
cause. Man liz responsible for their
prevalence. If man observed the known
laws of health, il they kept their houses
and their cities clean, these diseases
would fee away. But the cruelty and
carelessness of men make more victims
by tenfola, than the tempest has made
these two decades. 1t is better to fall
into the hands OF God than into the
hands of man. Better the wlntry embrace
of a blizz ard than the foul ar OF a back
alley.
But men are more directly cruel than
than that. You and I remember that
over theee very prairies where onr
friends were overwhelmed in the storm,
man has gone, out to seek the blood of
his brother by bullet or by scalping
knife. What crimes have been commit
ted under the euphonious name OF In.
dian wars upon these very plains. The
last blizzard found Clusters cavalry
camping upon our Ysnkton soil, Now
Custer and his brave band, and many O
red man and helpless squaw beside have
slept for years, laid low not by q furious
storm OF snow but of molten lead, Will
any man undertake to say that massacre
was less cruel, was more needful than the
sacrifice of last weeks victims? II is
better to fell into the hands OF God than
into the hands of armed men, 1t was
only a few years ago that upon this big
card swept plain 200 Cinnamon wero
slain in the name of labor ct Rock
Syringe, Wyoming. 1t is better TO fall
into the hands OF God than into the
hands of angry laboring men.
But We may go still further, and I be
lieve the further We go the clearer will
it be seen that the calamities sent from
heaven arelight compared with the cruel
ty OF men. It lie known that upon these
treeless plains of the northwest, more i'm.
portant than food, more important than
pure water is the need vi fuel. Here we
are isolated from the sources of fuel sup
ply. This is known to all men. It is
known that we must have
the fuel or perish. Now, we are to-day
in the grip of q powerful coal ring in the
east. Our fuel is made 30 high that il ia
almost beyond the reach of the poor
man. Many men and women are to. day
shivsring aud dying slow death from
cold and catarrh and consumption at the
hands of greedy coal operators because
the price Is made 80 high that it is beyond
their reach. Everybody knows this yet
We complain in vain, and this man who
starves the miner at the rats of 80 cents
9 day, who closes up the coal mines that
God gave to man, to make q coal famine
that he may extort q few more dollars q
ton from the shivering farmers OF the
northwest, that man, doubtless, is to-dsy
in hypocrisy plying the victims of the
blizzard. / would rather fall into the
hands OF a merclful God, who has scanned
this land with coal veins, enough to sup
ply q Thousand generations with album
dant warmth, than into the hands of o
p~itiless, selfish coal menopolist.
But again, this terrific storm from
God that has gathered in so many hap
less victims il not neal so cruel, not
near 30 deadly ss an insid;ous enemy we
cherish in our very midst. The storm
has left fatherless children, and many
widows. It has silenced the infant
prattle in many q home. But there has
been and still exists In Dakota an enemy
that has left hundreds OF children worse
than fatherless, has made countless
widows, has placed beneath the sod
many innocent little children whom
Jesus loved. This storm came in one
day. 1t was soon over. The foe to which
l refer is ever and always operating and
destroying. The storm was unexpected,
unseen. This enemy is every where open
and known. The storm left no sting of
remorse. This enemy's arrows are barbed
SO they can never be drawn. You know
what l mean. 1t is the dram shop. l
venture to say that moro children have
been made fatherless, more homes have
been rendered desolate, more wives have
pinned away and died, more strong men