Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-08-17
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Tragedy of Dress"

That we should all be clad is proved by
the opening of the first wardrobe in paradise
with its apparel of dark green That W,
should all, as far as our means allow US be
beautifully and gracefully apDareled is
proved by the fact that Go never made a
wave but He gilded it with golden sunjeams.
or tree but He garlanded it with blossoms
or n sky but He studded it with stars. or a.
lowed even the smoke of u furnace to ascend
but He colnpned nHi turreted and dOmed
and scroiled it into outlines OF tndescrihable
gracefulnesS. When | see the apple or.
chards Of the spring and the pageantry OF
the autumnal forests, | come to the cOncIu-
sion that, If nature does ever Join the church.
WhlIe she may be a Quaker in the silence OF
her worship, she never will be Quaker i'll
the style OF her dress. Why the rOtches Oi
fern leaf or the stamen Of a water lily!
Why, when the day departs, does it let the
ioldInG doors of heaven stay open 50 long
when II might 90 in quickly!
One summer morning saw an army OF 4
million spears, each one adorned with II
diamond of tho first water-I moan the
grass, with the dew on it. When tho
prodigal came home, his father not only
put coat on his back, but jewelry on his
hand. Christ wore a board. Paul, the
bachelor apostle, not afflicted with any
Sentimcntality, admired the arrangement of
womans hair when he said in his epistle,
eff woman have long hair, it is Il glory
unto her"
There will be a fashion in heaven as on
earth, but it will be different kind OF
fashion. 1t will decide tho color Ofthe dress,
and tho population of that country, by a
beautiful law. will wear white. l say these
things as a background to my sermon to
show you that 1 have no prim, precise,
prudish or cast iron theories on the subject
OF human apparel. But the goddess of
fashion has set up her throne in this world,
and at the sound of the timbrels we are all
I,afr, r.,l
Old and New Testament of her Bible arc
the fashion plates. Her altars smoke with
the sacrifice of the bodies, minds and souls
OF 10000 victims. In her temple four
people stand in the organ loft. and from
them there comes down q cold driZzle Of
music, freezing on the ears of her WOrShiperS.
This goddess of fashion has become rival
OF the Lord of heaven and earth, and it is
high time that we unlimbered our batteries
against this idolatry. When / come to
count the victims of fashion, find as many
masculine as feminine. Men make an easy
TRADE against woman, as though she were
the chief wOrshiper at this idOlatrous
shrine. and no doubt some men in the moro
conspicuous part Of the pew have already
cast glances at the more retired part of the
pew, their look prophecy of generous dis
trlbutlon. My sermon shall be as appropriate
1or one end of the pew as forthe other.
Men are as much the idolators of fashion
part of the altar, With men the fashion
goes to cigars and clubrooms and Yachting
parties and wine suppers. In the United
States the men chew up and smoke $780,
O0O0 900 worth of tobacco every year. That
is their fashion. In London not long ago n
man died who started in life with $3.50 600.
but he ate it all up in gluttonies, sending his
agents to all parts of the earth for some rare
delicacy for the palate. sometimes one plate
of food costing him $500 or S400. He ate
up his whole fortune and had only a guinea
left. With that he bought a Woodcock and
had it dressed in the very best style, ate it.
gave two hours for digestion, then walked
out OF Westminster bridgeand threw himself
into the Thames and died, doing on a large
scale what you and have often seen done
on small scale. But men do not abstain
from millinery and elaboration of skirt
through any superiority of humility. 1t is
only because such appendages would be a
blockade to business. What would sashes
and trains three and half yards long do in
a stock market2 And yet men are the dis
ciples of fashion just as much as women.
Some Ofthem wear boots 50 tight they can
hardly walk in the paths Of Righteousness.
And there are men who buy expensive suits
OF clothes and never pay tor them, and who
go through the streets in great stripes of
color like animated checkerbOards. l say
these things because l want to show you that
l am impartial in my discourse, and that
gates office. shall ''share and share alike"
As God may help me. shall show you what
are the destroying and deathful influences
of inOrdinate fashion.
The first baneful influence | notice is in
fraud, illimitable and CHASTITY. Do you know
that Arnold of the revolution proposed to
sell his country in order to get money to
support his wifes wardrobe? [ declare here
before God and this people that the effort to
keep up expensive establishments in this
country IS sending more business men to
temporal perdition than all other causes
combined. What was it that sent Gilman to
the penitentiary and Philadelphia Morton to
the watering of stock and the life insurance
presidents to periured statements about
their assets, and has completely upset our
American finances? What was it that over
threw the United States secretary at Wash
lngtol, the crash of whose fall shook the
continent? But why should l go to these fa-
nous defaultings to show what men will do
in order to keep up great home style and ex-
pensive wardrobe when you and [ know
scores OF men who are put to their wits end
and are lashed from January to December
in the attempt? Our politicians may theor-
ize until the expiration of their terms of Of
lice as to the best way of improving our
monetary condition in this country. 1t will
be OF 10 use, and things will be no better
until we can learn to put on our heads and
backs and feet and hands no moro than we
can pay for.
There are clerks in stores and banks on
limited salaries who, in the vain attempt to
keep the wardrobe of their family as shoWy
as other folks WardrObeS, are dying Of muffS
and diamonds and shawls and high hats, and
they have nothing left except what they give
to cigars and wine suppers, and they die be-
fore their time, and they will expect us min
listers to preach about them as though they
were the victims of early p;ety, and after
high class funeral, with silver handles at the
side OF the scOtfin of extraordinary bright
ness, 1t will be found out that the under
taker is cheated out of his legitimate eX-
penses. Do not send to ne to preach the
funeral sermon of man who dies like that.
l will blurt out the whole truth and tell that
he was strangled to death by his wife's rib
bOnS. Our countries are dressed to death.
You are not surprised to find that the put
ting up one public building in New York
cost millions OF dollars more than it ought
to have cost when you find that the man
who gave out the contracts paid more than
$4,000 for his daughters wedding dress.
Cashmeres of thousand dollars each are
not rare on Broadway. 1t is estimated that
tnere are 10000 women in these two cities
VINO have expended on their personal array
$4,000 year
what are men to do in order to keep up
such home wardrobes? Steal2 That is the
only respectable thing they can do! During
the last fifteen years there have been in
the wardrobe. The temptation comes in
this way A man thinks more of his family
than of all the world outside, and if they
spend the evening in describing to him the
superior wardrobe of the family across tho
street that they cannot bear the sight of the
man is thrown on his gallantry and on his
pride of family, and without tran stating his
feelings into plain language he goes into ex-
tortion and issuing false stock and skillful
penmanship in writing somebody elses
name at the foot Of a promissory note, and
they all go down together-the husband to
the prison, the wife to the sewing machine,
the children to be taken care Of by those who
We're called poor relations. Oh, for some new
Shakespeare to arise and write the tragedy
of human clothes!
Will you forgive me If say in tersest
shape possible that some of the men have to
forge and to periure and to swindle to pay
for their wives dresses. will say it whether
you forgive me or not