The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1894-01-09
CAUSES OF POVERTY.
DIR. TALMAGE'S DISCOURSE At THE
TdBEENACLE LAST SUNDAY.
The Doctor Gives as tho Cause OF Hard
Times the Tariff Discussion, Alcohol,
Hurricanes and Insects.

1t seemed appropriate that DR.. Talmage
should preach this sermon after his per-
Scnal contribution of 1900 pounds OF meat
and 1000 loaves of bread to the poor who
gathered shiverng in the cold around the
bakery and meat store of Brooklyn, where
the food was distributed without tickets,
and no accommodation required except hun
ger. The text was: Matthew XVI IL: I'VE
have the poor always with you
Who said that? The Christ who never
owned anything during His earthly stay.
His Grade and His grave were borrowed.
Every fig He ate was from someone else'S
tree. Every drop of water He drank was
from someone elses well. To pay His per-
Sonal tax, which was very small, only 3lA
cents, He had to perform miracle ana
make fish pay it. All the helShts anu
depths and lengths and breadths or poverty
Christ measured in His earthly experience
and when He comes to speak OF restitution,
lie always speaks sympathetlcally, ana
what He said tnen is as true now: lie
have the poor always with you.
For 5000 years the bread question has
been the active and absorbing question.
Witness the people GROWING up 70 ooHepn
Storenouse III Egypt. w .tlleSo tne Idhilie
in Samarla ana JGrusalem WltheSS me
1900 hungry people Tor Wnom CHRIST mutt
81. ed thx. I0t.yea, Witness The amounted
millions of people now IVinS, WHO, uec
lieve, have never yet nad onc tuil meal Oh
heaUhtul ana nutritious 1ood III an tnelT
England. Think OF the zo,ooo,ooo people
unQer the ho0f of hunger year before last
in Russia. The failure OF the Me TO over
flow 1or seven years IN the cieVehtu cen
fury lett those regions uepopulated PlaSue
of inscctions in india. hague OIL fdls III
Madras presidency. PlaSue OF mice IN rs
SEX Plague of lOLuStS in emma. IidSue
OF graSSnOpperS in America. DeNdStttion
wrought ny drought, py ueiuSe, by lfoSt,
by Wdr, ~ hurrlcane, by talthqudAt, pA
comets flying too near the EARTH ny change
9 man
balelul causes lnnumeraple. L proceed TO
give you three or four reasons why my
text Is markedly ana grdpnlcdily true IN
this year 1874.
'rnc ilrst reason we have always the proof
VIA Us, is because OF the pcfpetuu over
ha.l ing OF the tariff question: or as shall
call it, the traffic controversy. There Is
need Tor such word and so take the re-
spoons Dility of manufacturing 1t. Ihele are
millions of people VINO are expecting that
the present congress OF tho United states
Will do something one way the other 10
END this discussion. But 1t VIII never end.
When L was five years or age l remember
hearing my father and his neghbors in
vehement discussion of this very question:
1t was high tariff or low tariff or no tarl11
at all When your great-granuchilu qleS at
ninety years of age it will probably be
from oVer-cXertion III discussing the tariff.
On the day the world is destroyed there
will be three men standing on the post
office steps-ore high tariff man, another
q low tariff man, and the other tree
trade man-each one red in the face from
excited argument on this subject. Other
questions may get quoted, the Mormon
question, the silver question, the pension
question, the civil service question. All
questions OF annexation may come to peace
tul settlement by : annexation of Islands
two weeks voyage away and the heat OF
their volcanoes conveyed through pipes
under the sea made useful IN warming our
continent, or annexation OF TN moon, de-
tGrOnins the queen of night VINO IS said to
be absolute, and bringing the lunar popula-
tons under the influence OF our free insti-
buttons; yea all other questions national
f,f.N, +if,r,a ln tlAl n iC
tarifc question, never. 1t viii not only
never be settled. but it can never be mode
rately quiet for more than three years at
a time, each party getting into power TAX
ing one of the four years to fix it up, and
then the next party win fix it down. Our
finances cannot get we'll because of too
pija sick individdisd H5re is a man ter
ribly dsordered to his body. A doC1Gr
is called in and he administers a febTifuSe
spoonful every hour. But recovery is
postponed, and the anxious friends call in
another doctor, and he says: What this
patient needs is blood-letting; now roll up
your sleeYe!' and the lancer flashes. But
still recovery is postponed, and home
opathic doctor is called in, and he admin
the patient wants is rest" Recovery still
postponed, the family say that such small
pellets cannot amount TO muca anyhow
and an ai!opathic doctor is called in, and he
says: what this patient wants is ca omel
and jalap.' Recovery still postponed, a ny
dropdthic doctor is called IN, and he says
'What this patent wants is bot and cold
baths, and he must have them right away
Turn ON the faucet and get ready the
shower baths" Recovery still postponed
an eclectic doctor is called in, and he brings
all the schools to bear upon the poor sui
ferer, and the patient, ate" brave struG-
gle for life, expires. What killed him?
Too many doctors. And that is what is
xii ing our national finances. My personal
friends, Cleveland ana Harrison and Car
Isle and Mckinley ana Sherman, as tai
ented and lovely and splendid men as walk
the earth, all good doctors. but their treat
ment OF our languishing finances is dit
ferent that neither treatment has full op-
pprtuntY, and under the constant changes
it is simply wonderful that the nation still.
lives. The tariff question will never be set
tied because of the fact, which / have never
heard any one recognize, but, nevertheless
the fact, that high tariff is best for some
This tarittic controversy keeps business
struck through with uncertainty and that
uncertainty results in poverty and wretch
eGnesS Tor Il vast multitude of people. II
the eternal sab on this subject could nave
been fashioned into loaves OF bread, there
would not be hungry man or woman or
child on all the p.anet. 70 The enu or
tne the words OF the tex; VIII be kept
true by the tIritfic controversy: "Ye have
the poor always with you"
the cause alcoholic. The victim does not
last long. He soon croucheS into the
drunkartl'S grave. But WnaL about his wife
and children? She takes in washing, When
she can get it, or goes our WorklnS on
small wages, because sorrow and prlVatlon
Wolnan's work The children thin
blooded and gaunt and pale and weak,
standing around in cold rooms or pitching
pennies on the street corner, and rlunchinS
a s ice Of unbuttered bread when they can
get it, sworn at by paSsers-by because they
do not get out of the way, kicked onward
toward manhood Womanhood, for which
they have no preparation, except de-
PRAYED appetite ana frau constitution, can
didateS Tor aImhouSe and penitentiary.
Whatever other causes of poverty may fail,
the saloon may be depended on to furnish
an ever-increasing throng of paupers. Oh,
We greg shops of Brooklyn and New York
and OF all the cities! Ye mouths of hell!
when will we cease TO craunch and deVour?
There is no danger Of this liquor business
failing All other styles of business at
times fail. Dry goods stores so under.
Hardware stores so under. Grocery stores
90 under Harness makers tail, druggists
fail bankers fai,, butchers fail bakers fail,
confec toner's fail, but the liquor dealers
never 1t is the only secure business l
nohoiic trade? Because, in the first place,
the men in that business If tight up for
money only have to put into large quant-
ties of water more StrYchnlne ana loSWoCd
and uuX vomica and vitriol and other con-
genial concomtants for adulteration. One
quart OF the real genuine pandemoniHc
elixir will do to mix up with several ga
Ions OF milder damnatiOn. Beside that.
these dealers can depend an increase of
demand on the part of their customers.
The more of that stuff they drink the
other businesses, only increase that busl-
ness, for men so there II drown their
troubles. They take the spirits down to
Laan their spirits M There is an inclined