Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-03-23
THE AGE OF sw1NDLE,
The Rev. DR. Talmage's Sermon at the
Tabernacle.


Correspond With His Profession, His
Religion is Humbug-When 1t Is Right
to Borrow.
BROOKLYN, March 11--As, last Sabbath,
the Rev. 7. De Witt Talmage, D. d, the
pastor. had baptized by sprinkling, he,
this morning, baptized by immersion those
who preferred this mode, baptistry hav-
ing been built under the pulpit. The sub
ject of his sermon was. ",The Age of Swim
die, and the text, Job viii, IA: "Whoso
trust shall be spiders Web" DR.. Tall
mage said:
The two most skillful architects in all
the world is the bee and the spider, The
one puts up sugar mandatory and the
other builds slaughter house for flies.
On 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 very day, VEN
lures on it, and is caught and dungeoned
and destroyed, The fly was informed that
it was free bridge, and would cost moth
ing, but at the other end of the bridge the
toll paid was its own life. The next day
there comes strong wind: and away goes
the web, and the marauding spider and the
victimized fly. So delicate are the silken
threads of the spiders web that many
thousands of them are put together before
they bvcome visible to the human eye, and
it takes 4, O00, 900 Of them to make thread
as large as 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
the voracious process of this one insect
with another, and saw spider and fly
swept down with the same broom, or scat
tered by the same wind. Alas, that the
world has so many designing spiders and
victimized flies.
There has not, been time when the
utter and black responsibility of many
men having the financial interests of others
in charge has been more evident than in
these last few years.
The unroofng of banks and disappear
ance of administrators with the funds of
large estates, and the disorder amid post
Office accounts and deficits amid United
States officials, have made pestilence
of crime that solemnizes every thoughtful
man and woman, and leads every philan-
thropist and Christian to ask: What shall
be done to stay the plague? There is q
monsoon abroad, typhon, a sirocco. 1
somestimes ask MYSELF if it would not be
better for men making wills to bequeath
the property directly to tho 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 of men sailing yachts and
driving fast horses, and members of ex-
pensive club houses, and controlling coun-
they return 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 monas-
tic 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 differ
ence between the second chapter Of PROS
perity and the first is that their pictures
are Murillos instead of Kensetts, and
their horses go mile in twenty seconds
less than their predecessors, and instead
of one country seat they have three. I
have watched and have noticed that nine
out of 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 q strategem to escape
the payment of honest debts and put the
world off the track while they practice a
large swindle. There is something woe
fully 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 institu-
tiens. 1t ought not to be possible for a
president or cashier or prominent officer of
q banking institution to swindle it year
after year without detection. will UNDER
take to say that if these frauds are carried
on for two or three years without detection,
either the directors are partners in the in
fanny and pockcted part of the theft, or
they are guilty of culpable neglect of
duty, for which God will hold them as re-
sponsible as He holds the acknowledged de-
frauders. What right have prominent BUSH
ness men to allow their names to be pub
lished as directors in a financial institution,
SO that unsophisticated people are thereby
induced to deposit their money in or buy
the scrip thereof, wien they, the published
directors, are doing nothing for the safety
of the institution 1t is case of deception
most reprehensible. Many people with
surplus of money, not needed for immedi-
ate use, although it may be little further
on indispensable. are without friends COM
petent to advise them, and they are guided
solely by the character of the men whose
names are associated with the institution.
When the crash care, and with the over
throw of the bank went the small earnings
and limited fortunes of widows and or
phans, and the helplessly aged, the direct.
ors stood with idiotic stare, and to the in
quiry of the frenzied depositors and stock
holders who had lost their all, and to the
arraignment of an indignant public haa
nothing to say except: 1--WE thong ht it was
all right. We did not know that 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 carefully observant. Calling
themselves 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 monied men to be directors in
great many institutions, and all they know
is whether or not they get their dividends
regularly, and their names are used as de-
coy ducks to bring others near enough to
be made game of. What, first of all, is
needed is that five thousand bank directors
and insurance company directors resign or
attend to their business rs directors. The
business world will be full of fraud just as
long as fraud is 80 easy. When you arrest
the nraaider,t mr. aacratarv of bank for