The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1894-06-04
|. PATRIOTIC SERMON
Continued from first pa0eJ

u p
groans Of bleeding and dying brothers
how could we avoid the natural penalties
that must follow
Then we must take account Of the in
dividual decentralization of camp life,
Who can picture the anguish of spirit
with which the discovery was made by
wives and mothers at the close OF the war,
that, in many instances, their sons and
husbands had become victims of a more
dreadful slavery than that from which
they had fought to deliver the blacks
that while upon the field of battle they
struck the manacles from the slaves Of
the South, they had forged fetters of base
appetites and vicious habits upon them.
selves How many men of character and
Of promise returned from the war but the
merest wreck of their former selves
eternity only can reveal. The government
canteen is responsible tor train
of evils most appalling to contemplate
The government grOg which was supplied
during the war has killed more men than
were ever killed by rebel bullets. The
| appettes there created and strengthened
has had much TO do in fastening the curse
! of rum upon us and in producing the
| train of evils that follow in its wake
do not charge that all soldiers were thus
| dehauched The honorable exceptions
were numerous. Our own Chaplain Nc
! Cabe can tell of n bright side to life even
| in Libby prison, and of the songs OF
over sin that rent the air of its har-
| rowing confines. But these were the
exception and not the rule.
But ] must touch upon still another
| thing in passing though it is dangerous
| thing to deal with in such a presence as
! this on account of the liability to misun-
| derstandng and misrepresentation that
! is the fraud and dishonesty that have
| been eugendered by our pension legisla-
lion.
| Every right-minded man among us who
! has any sense of appreciation of the sacri-
fees and perils of the soldier of the war,
and a spark of gratitude for the priceless
| heritage they bought with their blood,
must feel a proud sense of satisfaction
at the generous provision made for
them by the government. They
will not be scared by the cry of
Half a million dollars "A day for pen
sions' provided they can feel assured thai
the money really goes to the worthy and
needy heroes of the nations battles. or to
their legitimate dependents But the
trouble is a large proportion does not 20
to them. One who Is in position TO
know whereof he alfirms, writes in the
Forum, June, 1883, page 442, There are
now known to be thousands of imperson-
ators of brave men under whose names
they have skulked; perjurers who have
! magnited or forged bodily ailments, or
who have attributed to the service injuries
|
contracted elsewhere; relicts who never
knew the soldiers in whose name they ask
relief mistresses who never dared take
the name of their paramours until they
} were dead pension Jumpers of both sexes
! who are drawing two, three or more pen
? sions at once under different names, and
5 lastly, and in increasing numbers, widows
who were born after the war; Here we
find a man in the government service
drawing a salary of S25OO a year and a
pension of SS4 per month, while his neigh
8 Dor who is working on the railroad fol
F. ninety cents day and who sustained ap
parently as much injury in the war gets
pension of IS per month Honder is &
county Judge drawing a salary of S4OOl
, per year and n pension of $50 per month
and here is n mule driver on your dir
banks, as badly injured in the war, whC
= makes $50 per month and draws II pen
b sion of - a month. Here are the chic
friction points in our pension laws evil
b which are perhaps inevitablebu evil
against which ] deClaim, and which
mention chiefly heCGU-e amy IA IT state
ment of the moral cost uI the war mus
include frauds upon the government ant
: wrongs upon its patriots which are un
d surpassed in all the annals of covetou
crimes
D o war; thou cruel hideous, blighting
l blasting, damning monster, would Got
n that with pencil dipped in the bottomles
1
30 black and devilish, SO tiendish and s
: hateful that mortal man could dnevermor
T. see a single redeeming feature IN tn
. bloody cOunteuance
i But | should fail to discharge the dut,
Z of the present hour did not refer TO tn
}, perils which threaten us now, and thu
t point out the duties imposed upon. us b.
the glorious peace which was purchases
e by the awful strife and the blessed lii
e that came to us through savage death.
& "WI o ponders national events shall hId
An awful balancing OF less and ga,u;
70 JOY based on sorrow, goo with III comtinec,
4 And proud ueliverance issuiug out of pain
And direiul throes.'
Like children skipping on the crater o
d a slumbering volcano, nations are oite
a oblivious of their peril until it bursts Il
!. all its fury. Like the ostrich, they ofte
hide their head in the sand and suppos
there is no danger-but there it is,
Notwithstanding our boasted liberty W
. are to-day nation sycophants, are prost
II tuting the sacred name of patriotism I
their own selfish ends Patting the Unio
IS soldier with one hand and the rebt
o soldier with the other, and without car
I either for them or our institutions, the
cry first good Lord" and then goo
;, devil" Moral principle and publ
$ opinion are made the merest hobby horse
upon which to ride toa place at the publ
j. crib Political Nebuchadnezzars set W
not their golden, but their brazen images
and at the sound of the music the peopl
u not only fall down and worship, but got
the polls and elect them. The result
f we find most of our public offices file
with persons of alien sympathy if no
4 alien BIRTH and tide of immigration
Overcrowding our labor market and su
, perseding our wOrkingmen until they or
y for bread. Capital has been protecte
y and labor exposed Legislation has put
tariff on coal to keep up its price and the
T brought men from the ends Of the cart
T. to mine it in order to cut your wages an
= tie your hands. They have mort gage
y the intelligence of the future by crowdin
ignorant foreigners upon us without max
, ing adequate provision for heir education
,f New York and PennsYlvania-state tina
.r contain and receive larger proportion q
l. foreigners than any states in the Union
d increased their population during tn
,e past decade fourteen times as much a
their public school enrolment. ! have n
H. sympathy with indiscriminate deuuncil
~ ton of immigration, nor do / share tn
Va fears frequently expressed rs to the mora
4