The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-04-23

knows what they put into the spices
and into the sugars and into the butter
and into the apothecary drug. But
chemical analysis and the microscope
have made wonderful revelations. The
| Board of Health of Massachusetts an
| alyzed a great amount of what was
called pure coffee. In England, there
is law that forbids the putting of
alum in bread. The public authorities
examined fifty-one packages of bread,
and found them all guilty. The honest
physician, writing a prescription, does
not know but that it may bring death
/ instead of health to his patient, because
there may be one of the drugs weak
ened by cheaper article, and another
| drug may be in full force, and so the
prescription may have just the opposite
effect intended. Oil of wormwood war
ranted pure, from Boston, was found to
have forty-one per cent. of resin and
alcohol and chloroform
| Scammony is one of the most valua-
BILE medical drugs. 1t is very rare, very
precious. 1t is the sap or the gum of
tree or a bush in Syria. The root of
the tree is exposed, an incision is made
into the root, and then shells are placed
at this incision to catch the sap or the
gum as it exudes. 1t is very precious,
this scammony. But the peasant mixes
it with cheaper material; then it is
taken to Aleppo, and the merchant
there mixes it with a cheaper material;
then it comes on to the wholesale drug
gist in London or New York, and he
mixes it with a cheaper material; then
it comes to the retail druggist, and he
mixes it with cheaper material, and
by the time the poor sick man gets it
into his bottle, it is ashes and chalk and
sand, and some of what has been called
pure scammony after analysis has been
found to be no scammony at all.
Now, practical religion will yet recti-
fly all this. It will go to those hypo-
critical professors of religion who got a
corner in corn and wheat in Chicago
and New York, sending prices up and
up until they are beyond the reach of
the poor, keeping these breadstuffs in
their own hands, or controlling them
until the prices going up and up, they
were, after awhile, ready to sell. and
they sold out, making themselves mill
ionaires in one or two years-trying to
fix the matter up with the Lord by
building church or a university or a
hospital-deluding themselves with the
idea that the Lord would be SO pleased
with the gift He would forget the swim
die. Now, as such man may not have any
liturgy in which to say his prayers,
will compose for him one which he
practically is making: 80, Lord, we, by
getting corner in breadstuffs, swim
died the people of the United States
out of ten million dollars, and made
suffering all up and down the land,
and we would like to compromise this
matter with Thee. Thou l1nowest it was
a scaly Job, but then it was smart.
Now, here we compromise it. Take one
per cent. of the profits, and with that
one per cent. you can build an asylum
for these poor, miserable ragamuffins
of the street, and / will take a yacht
and go to Europe, forever and ever
Amen!''
All! my friends, if man hath gotten
his estate wrongfully and he build a
line of hospitals and universities from
here to Alaska, he can not atone for it.
After awhile this man, who has been
getting corner in wheat, dies and
then Satan gets a corner on him. He
goes into a great, long Black Friday,
There is ''breal1'' in the market. Ac-
cording to Wall street parlanee he
wiped others out, and now he is himself
wiped out. No collaterals on which to
make spiritual loan. Eternal defal-
cation!
But this practical religion will not
only rectify all merchandise; it will also
rectify all mechanism, and all toll. A
time will come when a man will work
as faithfully by the job as he does by
the day. You say when thing is slight
ingly done: "Oh, that was done by the
job" You're tell by the swiftness or
slowness with which a hacl1man drives
whether he is hired by the hour or by
the excursion. If he is hired by the
excursion he whips up the horses so
as to get around and get another
customer. All styles of work have
to be inspected. Ships inspected,
horses inspected, machinery inspected.
Boss to watch the journeymen. Capt.
talist coming down unexpectedly to
watch the boss. Conductor of city car
sounding the bell punch to prove his
honesty as passenger hands to him a
clipped nickel All things must be
watched and inspected. Imperfection
in the wood covered with putty. Gar
ments warranted to last until You put
them on the third time. Shoddy in all
kinds of clothing. Chromos Pinch
beck. Diamonds for a dollar and a
half. Bookbindery that holds on
until you read the third chapter.
Spawned horses, by skillful dose
of jockeys, for several days made to
look spry. Wagon tires poorly put on.
Horses poorly shod. Plastering that
cracks without any provocation and
falls off. Plumbing that needs to be
plumbed. Imperfect car wheel that
halts the whole train with a hot box.
So little practical religion in the
mechanism of the world | tell You.
my friends, the law of man will never