The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1894-01-13
THE BREAD QUESTION.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on the
Moods of the Poor.
The Poverty OF the saviour OF Man
The Alcoholic Habit IA Cause OF
Misery and Want -Improvi-
dcncr Another.

In n late sermon at Brooklyn, Rev.
Il. Dewitt Talmage preached upon "a
timely subject. taking his text from
Matthew xiv. IL: ''Ne nave the poor
always with YOU" DR.. Talmagc said:
Who said that? The Christ. who
never owned anything during his
earthly stay. His cradle and His grave
were borrowed. Every fig lie ate was
from some one clse'S tree. Every drop
Of water He drank was from some one
else's well. To pay His personal tax,
which was very small, only Sl4 cents,
He had to perform n miracle and make
II fish pay it. All the heighths and
depths and lengths and breadths of
poverty Christ measured in His earthly
experience, and when he comes to
speak of restitution He always speaks
sympathetically, and what He said then
is as true now: "Ye have the poor al
ways with you"
For 5000 years the bread question
has been the active and absorbing
question. Witness the people crowd
ing up to Joseph's storehouse in Egypt.
Witness the famine in Samaria and
Jerusalem. Witness the 1000 hungry
people for whom Christ multiplied the
loaves. Witness the ~uncounted mil
lions of people now living, who, | be-
licve, have never yet had one full meal
of healthful and nutritious food in all
their lives. Think of 354 great famines
in England. Think of the %, 900, 600
people under the hoof of hunger year
before last in Russia. The failure of
the Nile to overflow for sever years in
the eleventh century left those regions
depopulated. Plague of insects in En-
gland. Plague of rats in Madras Pres
idency. Plague of mice in Essex.
Plague of locusts in China Plague of
grasshoppers in America. Devastation
wrought by drought, by deluge, by
frost, by war, by hurricane, by earth
quake, by comets flying too near the
earth, by change in the management
of national finances, by baleful causes
innumerable. l proceed to give you
three Dr. four reasons why my text is
markedly and graphically true in this
year 1894.
The first reason we have always the
poor with us is because of the per-
petual ~overhauling of the tariff ques-
ton. or, rs ] shall call it, the tarific
controversy. There is n need for such
"a word, and 30 ! take the responsibility
of manufacturing il. There are mil
lions of people who are expecting that
the present congress of the United
States will do something one way or
the other to end this discussion. But
1t will never end. When | was five
.z. .~ -. .. -.
father ard his neighbors in vehement
discussion of this very question. II
was high tariff or low tariff, or no
tariff at all. When your great-grand-
child dies at 80 years of age il will
probably be from over exertion in dis
cussing the tariff. On the day
the world is destroyed there will be
three men standing on the post
Office steps-one II high tariff
man, another a low tariff man, and the
other Il free trade man-each one red
in the face from excited argument on
this subject. Other questions may get
settled, the Mormon question, the sill
yer question, the pension question, the
civil service question. All questions of
annexation may come to peaceful set
Element by the annexation of islands
two weeks voyage away and the heat
of their volcanoes, conveyed through
| pipes under the sea, mad useful in
warming our continent, or annexation
of the moon, dethroning the queen of
night, who is said to be d~issolute, and
bringing the populations under the in
fiuence of our free institutions; yea, all
other questions, national and interna-
tional, may be settled, but this tarific
question never. 1t will not only never
be settled, but it can never be moder-
ately quiet for more than three years
at a time, each party getting into
power taking one of the four years to
fix it up. and then the next party will
fix it down.
Our finances cannot get well because
of too many doctors. 1t is with sick
nations as with sick individuals. Here
is u man terribly disordered rs to his
body. A doctor is called in and he ad-
ministers "a febrifugc, a spoonful every
hour. But recovery is postponed, and
the anxious friends call in another doc
tor, and he says: "Nhat this patient
needs is blood letting: now roll up
your sleeve!' and the lancet flashes.
But still recovery is postponed, and u
homeopathic doctor is called in, and he
administers some small pellets, and
says: "All the patient wants is rest"
Recovery still postponed, the family
says that small pellets cannot amount
to much anyhow. and an allo-
pathic doctor is called in, and he
says: What this patient wants is
. I'D oil. HN.l
postponed, a hydropathic doctor is
called in and he says: What this
patient wants is hot and cold baths,
and he must have them right away.
Turn on the faucet and get ready the
shower baths" Recovery still post
poned, an eclectic doctor is called in,
and he brings all the schools to bear
upon the poor sufferer, and the patient,
after a brave struggle for life, expires.
What killed him? Too many doctors.
And that is what is killing our national
finances. MY personal friends, Cleve.
land inc Harrison and Carlisle and Nc
Kinley and Sherman, as talented and
lovely and splendid men as walk the
earth, all good doctors, but their
treatment of our languishing finances
Ia ~ tiid tICat
ment has a full opportunity
and under the constant changes
it is simply wonderful that the nation
still lives. The tariff question will
never bs settled because of the fact
which have never heard any one rec
ognize, but, nevertheless, the fact, thai
high tariff Is best for some people ant
free trade is best for others Thi
tariffic controversy keeps business
struck through with uncertainty, an
that uncertainty results in poverty al
wretchedness for n vast multitude {
people. If the eternal CAB on this subjec
could have been fashioned into loave
of bread there would not be "a hungr
man or woman or child on all til
planet. To the end of time, the word
of the tex will be kept true by tn
tariffic controversy: "Ye have the poe
always with you"
Another cause of perpetual povert
as the cause alcoholic. The victim doe
not last long. He 500 crouchcs int
the d~rupkaFd's grave. But what abou
his wife and children? She take i
washing when she can get it, Oh goe
out working on small wages, bacaus
sorrow and privation have left her In
capacitated to do a strong woman
work. The children are ~thin-bloode6
and gaunt, and pale, and weak, stant
pennies on the street corners, an