The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-12-14

The Rev. MADISON c. PETERS Of the
Bloomingdale Reformed Church, preached a
sermon last Sunday on the timely topic OF
athletics, with special reference to college
football. The reverend orator began his dis
course by thus explaining why the theme is
appropriate to the pulpit:
when every ninth man in America IL q drunkard.
every seventh person an opium nend, every NTH wo-
man n victim Of hysterls, every fourth man a slave Of
tobacco; when women are old At forty, and men gray
and worn at nifty, and when everybody Ia inhumanly
careless Of the laws Of life and health, II Is high time
to preach the gospel Of athletics"
This gospel of athletics " Is not the Cos
pei Of revelation, but merely an inspiration
of the preacher himself, and hence, fortu-
nately, the salvation Of the soul does not
depend on belief in his statistics. At any
rate, we don't believe in them, for they are
false. II they were true, the American race
would have lost its vigor and be rapidly
sinking into decadence and destruction.
In 1890 the humber of men in the United
States of twenty-one years and over was
about 17,OOO,00O, or in exact numbers, 49,
040,311, and the number of women was
about the same. At present there must he
something like 10000, 900 of each. Accord
ing to the " gospel of athletics" then, there
arc more than 1000, 900 men ~drunkards in
the Union, to which number must be added
the women drunkards; there are between
100000 and 6,oOO,O 900 opium fiends, ex-
elusive of those who have not yet reached
their majority, for that vice prevails at least
equally among men and women, and in
cludes even youths; 1000, 900 of our
women are victims Of hysteria,' and
100000 Of the men are slaves Of to-
bacco," the number Of youths and Of women
who are also such slaves not being included.
a much larger number of our men pro-
portionately than one-ninth are drinkers of
alcoholic beverages habitually; but this
preacher says that among them there are
more than 1000, 900 who have carried the
practice so far that it has become n vice and
a disease in them, for that is the meaning
of the term drunkard. Drinker and drunk
en- and drunkenness and drunkard are dis
tinctive terms widely separated in their sig
MITIGATION. A man may drink temporarily,
but even IL he drinks Unexpectedly to
the extent that he becomes drunken, he
Is not necessarily a drunkard. To be
a drunkard, drunkenness must be habitual
with him. lie must be given to the excess
sive Use of strong drink. Drunkenness may
be merely an accident arising from the incau-
tious use of an intoxicant, or a consequence
OF the rare indulgence Of a man habitually
temperate and sober.
For instance, we are told in Genesis that
after the flood NOAH began to be an hus-
bandman, and he planted a vineyard, ~ and
on one occasion he drank of the wine and
rr,n ~ n-I - -A
exposure was made of him,
to his indignation when he
sober. Inasmuch as he lived $50
years thereafter and was blessed of
GOD, 1t Is obvious that he did not repeat the
indulgence ~habitually. Would the Reformed
preacher call NOAH a drunkard because the
wicked daughters of LOT induced him to
wine to so great excess that he be-
came drunk on two successive nights ?
Would this preacher call LOT a drunkard
If there are more than 1000, 900 men in
this country, or one out Of nine, who are
there are that many who are
given to drunkenness as a habit, a vice, or a
disease. That is the declaration of the
gospel Of athletics as preached by the Rev.
PETERS and proclaimed on the author
Ity of the pulpit Of the Reformed Church;
but it is not a fact. 1t is not true.
Neither is it true that there are more than
10000 600 or 5000, 900 opium fiends in
his country, "every seventh person " being
to that destructive vice. Where
did the preacher get his statistics, or did he
speak from supernatural knowledge The
number of opium fends is not determinable,
vice is usually kept secret, or known
only confidentially to their medical advisers,
md, p%erchance, to apothecaries who sell
hem the drug and who have compiled
10 tables of their number for the informa-
ion Of the Rev. Mr.. PETERS. He has, then,
proclaimed as a fact, with all the solemnity
If the pulpit, what cannot be known to him
IS a fact, except through inspiration. Prob
IDLY the number of opium fiends in this
country is not a tenth part of the frightful
otal he announced. His declaration was
alse and baseless.
Nor is every American woman in five "a
'ictim of hysteria," or subject to that
nervous disease TO the extent that
he can be called a victim TO it. Everybody
,nows from observation that the charge
5 false. The general health Of this country,
S the vital statistics prove, is inn
among both men and women, and
onsequently the race is growing stronger
instead of feebler, as would he the ease il
ir. PETERS spoke the truth. 1t is not true
" women are old at forty, and men gray
worn at fifty" to an extent that makes
his country and this period remarkable.
he average length of life is shown by
he vital statistics TO be increasing,
women not worn by excessive toll or
Tasting disease, are not old at forty. Rather,
hey are then in the prime of their wo-
manhood, a large part of them at the period
I their most fascinating beauty. The fore
lost men of this country intellectually and
a enterprise arc over fifty. Some Of them
hay be gray and bald, but they are not
'orn out. They are at the summit Of their
ossible power, Never was there a time
hen men held their years 50 well AS
ow. The period of their youthful
ess has been extended. Col. STRONG was
BILE to make a very lively canvass, though