Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1888-03-31

TIE AGE OF SNYINDLE.
THE REV. DR.. TALMAeE's SERMON
AT THE TABERNACLE.
When Mans Business Life Docs Not
Correspond With His Profession. His
Religion Is Humbug-whon 1t Is
Right to Borrow.

Right to Borrow.
Tho 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. Do Witt Tai
mage, DID,, the pastor, had baptized by
sprinkling, no, this morning, baptized by i'm
mersion those who preferred this mode,
baptistry having been built under tho pulpit.
The subject of his sermon was, "Thc Age Of
Swindlo,n and tho text, Job viii, Il: "Whose
trust shall DO a SPIDERS web" DR.. Talmage
said:
Tho two most sfillful architects in all tho
world arc tho bee and tho spider. The one
/ puts up a sugar mandatory and the other
builds a slaughter house for flies. On
bright summer morning, when the sun comes
out and shines upon the SPIDERS web, be-
decked with dow, the gossamer structure
seems bright enough for suspension bridge
for supernatural beings to cross on. But
alas fol, tho poor fly, Which, in tho latter
part of that very day, ventures on it, and is
caught and dlingeoned and destroyed. The
fly was informed that it was u free bridge,
and would cost nothing, but ut tho other end
of the bridge the toll paid was its own life.
The next day thcrc comes strong wind, and
away goes the web, and the marnuding
spider and the victimizcd fly. So delicate
are the silkcn threads of tho spiders web
that many thousands of them nro put to-
gethcr before they become visible to the
human eye, and it takes i 200, 900 of them to
mako thread as largo as the human hair.
Most cruel as well rs most ingenious is the
spider. A prisoner in the Bastilc, Franco,
had ono 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 10 doubt watched
tho voracious process of this one insect with
another, and saw spider and fly swept down
with the Same broom, OF scattered by the
Same wind Alas, that the world bas SO many
designing spiders and victimized flies.
There has not been time when the utter
and black responsibility of many men hav
| ing the financial interests Of others in charge
has been moro evident than in these last few
years.
The unroohng Of banks and disappearance
of administrators with the funds of largo
estates, and the disorder amid poStofice
accounts and deficits amid United States
officials, have made a pestience of crime
that solemnizes every thoughtful man and
woman, and leads every philanthropist and
Christian to ask: What shall be done to stay
the plagued There is n monsoon abroad,
] typhoon, q sirocco sometimes ask myself
if it would not be better for men making
wills to bequeath the property directly to
the executors and officers of tho court, and
appoint tho widows and orphans commit
too to see that the former got all that did not
belong to thcm. The simple fact is that
thore are o large number of men smiling
yachts and driving fast horses, and members
of expensive club houses and controlling
country seats who are not worth n dollar
| if they return to others their just
rights. Under somo sudden reverse they
fail and with afflicted Dir seem to re-
! tire from the world, and seem almost ready
they blossom out again, having cofhpfoiInsed
with their creditors, that is, paid them moth
ing but regrets, and the only difference be-
tween the second chapter of prosperity aud
tho first is that their pictures arc Murillos in
stead of Kcnsetts, and their horses go mile
in twenty seconds less than their prodeccs-
sors, and instead of ono country seat they
have three have watched and have no
tccd that nine out Of ten Of those who fail
in what is called high life, have moro means
after than before tho failure, and in many Of
the cases failure is only strategem to escape
tho payment of honest debts and put the
world Off the truck while they practice q
large swindlc There Is something woefully
wrong in the fact that these things are pos
siblc
First of all, I charge the blame on careless,
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 in
stitution to swindlc it year after year with
ont detection. will undertake to say that
if these frauds ere carried OH for two or
three years without detection, either the
directors arc partners in the infamy aud
pocketctl part OF the theft, or they arc guilty
of n culpablo neglect OF duty, for which God
will hold them as responsible as he holds the
acknowledged dcfraudcrs What right have
nrominen. business men to allow their names
to be published ns directors in a financial
institution, so that unsophisticatcd people
arc thereby induced to deposit their money
in or buy the scrip thereof, when they, the
published directors, arc doing nothing Tor
The safety Of tho institution. 1t is case of de-
ccption most repIchcnsiblc. Many people with
a surplus of money, not needed Tor immediate
use, although it may be little further on
/ Indispensable, are without friends competent
to advise them, and they arc 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
hanks went the small earnings and limited
fortunes of widows and orphans, and the
4 hclplessly aged, tho directors stood with
idiotic stare, and to the inquiry OF the
II frenzied dcpositors and stockholders who hnd
lost their all, and to the arraignment of an
indignant public had nothing to say3except:
1--WE thought it was all right. We did, not
know there was anything wrong go
ing ON It was their duty to know.
They stood i'll position which dc
luded the people with the idea I'll, that
they were carefully ohscrvant. Gazing
themselves directors, they did not dlrSSo
tThcy had opportunity OF aulltlns talGGGnts
Am ms ,tetfiy int r55Ts tlme to do 500
Then they had no business to accept the posi-
ton. II seems to be the pride of some monled
men to ba directors in great many instItu-
tons, and all they know is whether OF not
they get their dividends regularly, and their
names are used as dccoy ducks to bring others
near enough to be made game Of What, hrst
OF all. is needed is that five thousand bank d.
rectors and insurance company directors re-
sign or attend to their business as directors.
The business world will be full of fraud Just
as long as fraud is so easy. When you arrest
tho president and secretary of bank for an
embezzlement carried on for many years,
have plenty of sheriffs out the same day to
arrest all the directors. They ore guilty
either of neglect or completely.
"Oh," some one will say, "better preach