The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-04-18


race and knows just how many inhabitants
the world has. The statistics of the
worlds populatlon are carefully taken in
eix6ized lands, and every few years Of
ficers of government go through the land
and count how many people there are in
the United States or England, and great
accuracy Is reached. But when people
tell us how many inhabitants there are in
Asia or Africa, at best it must be a wild
guess. Yet God knows the exact number
of people on our planet, and he has made
enough apparel for each, and if there be
fifteen hundred million, fifteen thousand,
fifteen hundred and fifteen people, then
there is enough apparel for fifteen hum
bred million, fifteen thousand, fifteen
hundred and fifteen. Not slouchy APP
parel, not ragged apparel, not insufficient
apparel, but appropriate apparel. At
least two suits for every being on the
earth, a summer suit and winter suit. A
good pair of shoes for every living mortal.
A good coat, good hat, or good bonnet,
and good shawl. and a complete
masculine or feminine outfit of apparel.
A wardrobe for all nations adapted to all
chimes, and not a string, or q button, or a
pin, or a hook, or an eye wanting. But,
&Aebo N4OI oil SOOu CIOLnOo lOI
fourths of the human race? The other
one-fourth have appropriated them. The
fact is, there needs to be and will be re-
distribution. Not by anarchistic violence.
II outlawry had its way, it would rend
and tear and diminish until instead of
three-fourths of the world not properly
attired, four-fourths would be in rags.
/ let you know how the redistribution will
take place. By generosity on the part Of
those who have surplus and increased
industry on the part of those suffering
from deficit. Not all, but the large
majority of cases of poverty in this
country are a result of idleness or
drunkenness, either on the part of
the present sufferers or their ances-
tors. In most cases the rum jug is the
maelstrom that has swallowed down the
livelihood of those who are in rags. But
things will change, and by generosity on
the part Of the crowded wardrobes, and
industry and sobriety on the part of the
empty wardrobes, there will be enough
for all to wear. God has done His part
toward the dressing of the human race.
He grows surplus of wool on the sleeps
back, and focks roam the mountains and
valleys with burden of warmth intended
for transference to human comfort, when
the Shuttles of the factories reaching all
the way from the Chattahoochee to the
Merrimac shall have spun and woven it.
And here come forth the Rocky Mountain
goat and the cashmere and the beaver.
Here are the merino sheep, their origin
traced back to the flocks of Abrahamic
and Davidic times. In white letters of
snowy fleece God has been writing for
thousand years his wish that there
might be warmth for all nations. While
others are discussing the effect of high or
low tariff or no tariff at all on wool, you
and had better see if in our wardrobes
we have nothing that we can spare for the
shivering, or pick out some poor lad of
the street and take him down to cloth
ing store and fit him out for the winter.
| Don't think that God has forgotten to send
| ice and snow, because of this wonderful
mild January and February. We shall
| yet have deep SHOWS and so much frost on
| the window-pane that in the morning you
| can not see through it; and whole focks
| of billiards., for God long ago declared
| that winter as well as summer shall not
cease, and between this and the spring
crocus we may all have reason to cry out
with the psalmist: "Who can stand ont
| before His cold?"
! Again, let US look around and see how
we may serve our generation. What short
| sighted mortals we would be if we were
anxious to clothe and feed only the most
| insignificant part of a man. namely, his
body, while we put forth no effort to
clothe and feed and save his soul. Time
is little piece broken off a great eternity.
What are we doing for the souls of this
! present generation? Let me say it is a
! generation worth saving. Most magnifi-
cent men and women are in it. We make
great ado about the improvements in
navigation, and in locomotion, and in art
and machinery. We remark what Won
/ ders of telegraph, and telephone and
stethoscope. What improvement in cleo
! trio light over tallow candle! But
all these improvements are insignificant
compared with the improvement in the
human race. In olden times, once in q
while, great and good man or woman
would come up and the world has made a
| great fuss about it ever since, but now
they are so numerous we scarcely speak
about them. We put halo about the peo-
| pie of the past, but think if the times de-
manded them it would be found we have
now living in this year 1889 fifty Martin
Luthers, fifty George Washingtons, fifty
Lady Huntingtons, fifty Elizabeth Frys.
During our civil war more splendid war;
riors in North and South were developed
in four years than the whole world devel-
oped in the previous twenty years. ]
challengs the four thousand years before
the food and the eighteen centuries after
the flood to show me the equal of charity
on a large scale Of George Peabody. This
/ generation Of men and women is more
worth saving shan any of the one hundred
and eighty generations that have passed
/ off,
But where shall we begin: With our
selves. That is the pillar flom which we
must start. Prescott, the blind historian,
tells us how Pizarro saved his army for
| the right when they were about deserving
him. With his sword he made a long
mark on the ground. He said: ssMy men,
on the north side are desertion and death.
on the south side is victory; on the north
Panama and poverty, on the south side
Peru with all its riches. Choose for YOUR
selves; for my part I go to the south. y
| Stepping across the line one by one. his
! troops followed and finally his whole
army. The sword of Gods truth draws
the dividing line to-day. On one side OF
it are sin and ruin and death, on the other
side are pardon and usefulness and hap
I