Sharp County record., 1888-03-29
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Pointed Discourse on "The Age
OF SWindle." )"
The Careless Direction Of Banks ard
Other Fiscal Institutions RESPONSE
Bile for the Many Defalcations
Lessons to be Learned.

Rev. T, Dewitt Talmage preached the
following sermon at Brooklyn Taberna.
Gle, taking for his subject "The Age OF
Swindle." His text was:
Whose trust shall be a spiders web.-Joo
viii, A. -,
DIR. Talmage said: The two most skill
ful architects in all the world are the pee
and the spider. The one puts up sugar
mandatory and the other builds a
sjaughter.house for flies. On bright
summer morning, when the sun comes out
and shines upon the spiders web, bedeck-
ed with dew, the gossamer structure
seems bright enough for suspension
bridge for supernatural beings to cross
on. But alas for the poor fly which, in
the latter part of that very day, ventures
on it, and is caught and dungeoned and
DESTROYED. The fly was informed that 1t
was a free bridge and would cost moth
ing. but at the other end of the bridge
the toll paid was its own life. The next
there comes down a strong wind, and
awav goes the web and the maraudlng
spider and the victimized fly. So delicate
are the siken threads of the spiders
wed that many thousands of them
are put together before they
become visible to the human eye, and it
takes 1000 900 of them to make thread as
large as the human hair. Most cruel as well
asmost 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 it's meal of flies. Job, the author
of nv text and the leading scientist of
his dav, had no doubt watched the vorac-
ious process of this one insect with an
other, 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 victimized
flies.
There has not been a 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 admins traitors with the funds OF
large estates, and the disorder amid post
office accounts and deficits amid United
States officials, have made peStil ence OF
crime that solemnzes 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'
Isometimes ask myself if it would not be
better for men making wills to bequeath
the 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 be-
long to them. The simple fact is that
there are large number of men sailing
yachts and driving fast horses, and mem
bers of xpensive club houses and con-
troll ing country seats who are not worth a
dollar if they return to others their just
rights. i
First of all, charge the blame on care5
less, indifferent bank directors and boards
having in charge great financial institu-
tions. 1t ought not to be possible for a
president, or cashier, or prominent Of
flcer of banking institution to swindle
it year after year without detection l
will undertake to say that if these frauds
are carried on for two or three years with
out detection, either the directors are
partners in the infamy and pocketed part
of the theft, or they are guilty OF cul'
pable 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 unso-
phisticated people are thereby induced
to deposit their money in or buy the
scrip thereof, when they, the pub
lished directors, are doing nothing
for the safety of the institution? 1t
is a case of deception most repre- hensible.
Many people with surplus OF money,
not needed for immediate use, although it
NAV 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 overt hrow
of the banks went the small earnings and
limited fortunes of widows and orphans,
and the heplessly aged, the directors
stood with idiotic stare, aud to the in
ouiry of the frenzed depostors and
stockholders who had lost their all, and
to the arraignment of an indignant pub
lie had nothing to say except:
"We thought it was all right. We did
not know there was any thing wrong 60
ing on"
1t was their duty to know. They stood
in a position which deluded the people
with the idea that they were carefully
observant. Calling themselves directors,
they did not direct. They had opportuni-
ty 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 moned
men to be directors in great many in
stitutions, and all they know is whether
or not they get their dividends regularly,
and their names are used as decoy-ducks
to bring others near enough to be made
game of. What first of all is needed is
that five thousand bank directors and in
surance company directors resign or at
tend to their business as directors. The
business world will be full of fraud just
as long as fraud is easy. When you ar
rest the pres ident and secretary of a bank
for an embezzlement carried on for many
years, have plenty of sheriffs out the same
day to arrest all the directors. They are
guilty either of neglect or completely.
"Oh~ some one will say, "better preach
the Gosrel and let business matters
alone" reply: If your Gospel does not
inspire common honesty in the dealings