The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1889-04-12
THE SLAUGHTER.
DR.. TALMAoE's DISCOURSE IN ST.
LOUIS

"Neither a Borrower Nor Lender be.
Loss That Cannot BE Replrced-Th,
Equipment of u Man-Dangers to Young
Men In Great Cities.
ST. LOUIS, April 1.-THE Rev. T. DE-
Witt Talmage, D. D., of Brooklyn
preached here this evening to vast
audience. His subject was 1.-THE
Slaughter" and his text, Proverbs,
vii, 81: las an OK to the slaughter.
The eloquent preacher said:
There is nothing in the voice or
manner of the butcher to indicate to
the OK that there is death ahead. The
OK thinks he is going on to rich pas
ture field of clover where all day
long he will revel in the herbaceous
luxuriance; but after a while the men
and the boys close in upon him with
sticks and stones and shouting, and
drive him through bars and into a
doorway, where he is fastened, and
with well aimed stroke the AK fells
him; and so the anticipation of the
redolent pasture field is completely
disappointed So many a young man
has been driven Oh by temptation to
what he thought would be paradisiacal
enjoyment; but after a while infu-
ences with darker hue and swarthier
arm close in upon him, and he finds
that instead of making an excursion
into a garden he has been driven las
an OK to the slaughter"
l. We are apt to blame young men
for being destroyed when we ought to
blame the influences that destroy
them. Society slaughters a great
many young men by the behest, "You
must keep up appearances; whatever
be your salary, you must dress as well
as others, you must wine and brandy
as many friends, you must smoke as
costly cigars, you must give as expen-
sive entertainments, and you must
live in as fashionable a boarding
house. If you haven't the money,
borrow. If you can't borrow make a
false entry, or subtract here and there
. bill from bundle of bank bills; you
will only have to make the deception
little while; in a few months, or in
year or two, you can make all right
Nobody will be hurt by it; nobody
will be the wiser. You yourself will
not be damaged By that awful pro-
cess a hundred thousand men have
been slaughtered for time and slaugh-
tered for eternity.
THE }MISERIES OF GETTING IN DEBT.
Suppose you borrow. There is moth
ing wrong about borrowing money.
There is hardly man in the house but
has sometimes borrowed money. Vast
estates have been built on borrowed
dollar. But there are two kinds of
borrowed money Money borrowed
for the purpose of starting or keeping
up legitimate enterprise and expense,
and money borrowed to get that !
which you can do without. The first
is right, the other is wrong. If you
have money enough of your own to
buy a coat, however plain, and then
you borrow money fer q dandy's out
At f yoq 4 haXaeta he Art reyolu-
~ n xadA Ror-
row no. he Il Y \ VI W Sthat my be
well Borrow for the Injuries; that
tips your prospects over in the wrong
direction.
The Bible distinctly says the Dor
rover is servant of the lender. It is a
bad state of things when you have to
go down some other street to escape
meeting some one whom you owe. If
young men knew what is the despot-
ism of being in debt more of them
would keep out of it. What did debt
do for Lord Bacon, with a mind tow
ering above the centuries9 1t induced
him to take brides and convict himself
as criminal before all ages. What
did debt do for Walter Scott9 Broken
hearted at Abbotsford. Kept him writ
ing until his hand gave out in paraly-
sis to keep the sheriff away from his
pictures and statuary. Better for him
If he had minded the maxim which he
had chiseled over the fireplace at Alb
botsford, Waste not, want not"
The trouble is, my friends, the peo-
pie do not understand the ethics of
going in debt, and that if you pur-
Chase goods with no expectation Of
paying for them, or go into debts
which you cannot meet, you steal just
SO much money. If go into grocer's
store, and | buy sugars and coffees and
meats, with no capacity to pay for
them and no intention Of paying for
them, l am more dishonest than if I
90 into the store, and when the grocer's
face is turned the other way l fill my
pockets with the articles of merchan-
disc and carry off ham. In the one
case take the merchants time, and I
take the time of his messenger to
transfer the goods to my house, while
in the other case / take none of the
time of the merchant, and wait upon
and l transfer the goods with
out any trouble to him. In other
words, sneak thief is not so bad as
man who contracts for debts he never
expects to pay.
Yet in all our cities there are fam
lilies that move every May day to get
into proximity to other grocers and
meat shops and apothecaries. They (
owe everybody within half mile Of
where they now live, and next May
they will move into distant part Of
the city, finding new lot of victims.
Meanwhile you, the honest family in .
the new house, are bothered day by
day by the knocking at the door Of
bakers, and butchers, and {
dry goods dealers, and newspaper car