The Forrest City times., 1891-03-06
INTERFERENCE.
DIR. TALMAGE CALLS TT THE SEC
 OND PLAGUE OF NEW YORK


 litical Parties and the Churches
 Scored for their Indifference.
 NEW YORK, March 1, 1S91.-Dr Tal- mage continued today the series of scr mons he commenced last Sunday on the ''Ten Plaques of New York and Adjacent Cities" The plague which he places second on the list is Intemperance, and on that subject he discoursed this morning Tn the Academy of Music, Brooklyn, and this evening in New York. At the close of the service in the New York Academy of Music, Dr. Talmage went over to the Union Square Theatre, where his son, MT Frank Dewitt Talmage was holding an overflow meeting, and briefly addressed the crowded house. The text of the Doc tors sermon was taken from Genesis 9. 20-21: Noah planted vineyard; and he drank of the wine and was drunken"
 This Noah did the best and the worst thing for the world. He built an ark against the deluge of water. but introduced deluge against which the human race has ever since been trying to build an ark the deluge of drunkenness. In my text we hear his staggering steps. Shem and Japhet tried to cover up the disgrace, but there he is, drunk on wine at time in the history of the world when. to say the least, there was no lack of water. Inebriation, having entered the world. has not re- treated. Abigail. the fair and heroic wife, who saved the fioeks of Nabal, her hus- band, from confiscation by invaders, goes holne at night and finds him so intoxicated she cannot tell him the story of his nar- row escape. Uriah came to see David and David got him drunk, and paved the way for the despoliation of a household. Even the church bishops needed to be charged to 0e sober and not given to too much wine, and so familiar were people of Bible times with the staggering and falling motion of the inebriate, that Isaiah, when he comes to describe the final dislocatioa of worlds says; The earth shall reel to and fro like druukard."
 Drunkenness is the greatest evil of this nation, and it takes no logical process to prove to this audience that drunken nation cannot long be a free nation. l call your attention to the fact that drunkenness is not subsidiug, certainly that 1t is not at Il staudstiG, but that 1t is on an onward march, and it is double quick. There is more rum swallowed in this country. and of d worse kind, than was ever swallowed since the first disti8ery began it's work of death. Where there was one drunken home there are ten drunken homes. Where there was one drunkard's grave there are twenty drunkards' graves. 1t is on the increase. Talk about crooked whiskey-by which men mean the whiskey that does not pay the tax to governmental tell you all strong drink is crooked. Crooked Otard, crookei Cognac, crooked schnapps, crooked beer, crooked wine, crooked whiskcy-bceause it makes q mans path crooked, and his life crooked, and his death crooked, and his eternity crooked.
 call attention to the fact that there are thousands of people born with thirst for strong drink-a fact too often ignored. Along some ancestral lines there runs the river of temptation. There arc children whose swaddling-clothes are torn of the shroud Of death. Many father has made q will of this sort: ',ln the name of God, amen bequcath to my children my houses and lands and estates; share and share shall they alike. Hereto affix my hand and seal in The presence of witnesses And yet perhaps that very man has made another will that the people have never read. aud that has not been proved in the courts. That will put In writing would read something like this: "ln the name of disease and appetite and death. amen. l bequeath to my children my evil habits, my tankards shall be thelrs, my winccup shall be theirs, my destroyed reputation shall be theirs. Share and share alike shall they in the iufamy Hereto aflix my hand and seal in the presence Of all the applauding harpies of hell"
 It seems to mo it is about 4me for the 1000, 0o0 professors of religion in Amer ica to take sides. IL is gong to be an out and-out battle with drunkenness and sobricty. between heaven and hell, be- tween God and tho devil. Take sides be- fore there IS any further national de- cadence. take sides before your sons are sacrificed the new home of your daughter gees down under the alcoholism of an embrutcd husband. Take sides while your voice, your pen. yoar prayer, your vote may have any influence in ar resting the despoliation of this nation. If the l1 900, o00 professors of religion should 
 very long before the destiny of this nation would be decided in the right direction.
 Is drunkenness a state or national evil? Does it belong to the north or does it be- long to the souths Does it belong to the east or does it belong to the west? An, there is not an American rlvcr into which it's tears have not fallen. and into which it's suicides have not plunged. What ruined hnt hop t,lu n al lpn n-- fal1 fortune. tho proprieior and his family oucs the most aa. supporters of summer watering places. What threw that New England farn into decay and turned the roseate cheeks that bloomcd at the foot 0 1 the Green Mountains into the pallor of despairr What has smlttcn every street of every village, town and c,ty of this con tincnt With a moral pcstilence? Strong drink
 To prove that this is national evil call up two states in opposite dlrections- Maine and Georgia Let them testify in regard to this. Stato Of Maine says: .'It is so great un evil up here we have mathematical 1t as state" State of Georgia says: 'lt IS so great an evil down hero that ninety counties of this state have made the sale of intoxicating drink a crimnality." So the word comes up from all parts of tho land. E.ltuer drunkenness will be destroyed in this country or the American government will be destroyed. Drunkenness and free institutions arc coming irto Il death srapplc.
 Gather up the money that the working classes have spent for rum during the last thirty years, and I wilt build for every workingman house. and lay out for him