Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-01-16
TEMPERANCE COLUMN.
,NTEMPERANCE is, INDEED, a
COSTLY HABIT.
Touching Incident Told by DIR. Talmnge
the Census Shows the Wine Making
Industry to BE Increa ing Church
Members in Africa Use and Sell In
Observation-Disclosures Temperance Notes.
Gibb,tcd In a Living lteath

Rev. DIR. Talmage. in recent SER
mon, recounting his journeying in
Palestine. described the scene of the
tragedy wherein seven youths were put
to death and their bodies gibbeted or
hung in chains. and burial was denied
them from May until November. He
told the pathetic story of Rizpah, the
mother of two of these dead boys. who
from her tent on the rock close by the
gibbets, kept up continuous, tireless
watch, by day and by night during all
these months, to guard the seven corpscs
| from the vultures, wolves and lions. He
| then said:
| Right here, in these three cities by
the Am ,rican seaas asst, there are a thou
sand Cases This moment worse than that.
Mothers watching boys that the rum
saloon, that ain X OF hell, has GLIB ted
in a living death. Boys hung in chains
of habit they oannot break. The father
may go to sleep after waiting until
twelve O'clock at night for the ruined
boy to come home, and siveit up; he may
say: mother. come to bed: taeres no
use sitting up any longer" Bat mother
will not go to bel 1t is one O'clock in
the morning. 1t is halfpast one. 1t is
two O'Clock. 1t is half-past two when he
you say that young man is yet alive.
No: he is dead. Dead to his fathers en-
treaties. Dead to his mothers PRAYERS.
Dead to the family altar where G wa,
reared. Dead to all the noble ambitious
that once inspired him. Twice deaf
Only a corpse of what he once was
Gibbcted before God and man and angels
and devils. Chained in Il death that will
not loosen its cold grasp. His father is
asleep, his brothers are asleep, his sisters
are asleep, but his mother is watching
him, watching him in the night. After
he has gone to bed and fallen into Il
drunken sleep. his mother will go up to
his room and see that he is properly COW
cred, and before she turns out tho light |
will put kiss upon his bloatcd lips
"Mother, why don't you go to lcd?"
"Ah." she says, 81 cannot go to bed. /
am Rizpah watching the slain!"
And what are the political parties of |
this country doing for such cases? They
are taking care not to hurt the feelings
of the jackas and buzzards that roost on
the shelves of the grogslops and hoot
above the dead. | am often asked to
what political party belong, and now
declare my opinion of the political
parties of to-day. Each one is worse
than the other and the only consolation
in regard to them is, that they have
putrcticd until they have no more power
to rot. Oh, that comparatively tame
scene upon which Rizpah looked! She
looked upon only seven of the. slain.
American motherhood and American
this moment are looking upon
seventy of the slain. thousands of the
slain. Woe! Woe! Woe! My only con-
ISOLATION on this subject is that foreign
capitalists are buying up the American
breweries. The present owners see that
the doom of that business is coming as
surely as that God is not dead They
are unloading upon foreign capitalists,
and when we can get these breweries
into the hands of people living on. the
other side of the sea, our political paNtics
will cease to be afraid of the liquor
traffic, and at their conventions, nomi-
mating presidential candidates, will put
in their platform a plank as big as the
biggest plank of the biggest ocean
steamer, saying: Resolved. unanimous
ly. that we always have been. and al
ways will be, opposed to alcoholism"