Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-08-21
REI. DR.. 1aLQaGE.
The Brooklyn Divine's Sunday
Sermon
Subject: 1.-THE worst Foe of Labor.

Subject: "The W orst Foe of Labor
lowing to great grief mt the sudden deatt
II his lamented wife. Rev. DIR. 7. De Witt
Talmage cancelled his engagement to prea n,
but in order that the vast congregation to
which he speaks through the press may not
be disappointed, n famous and always-time-
ly sermon delivered by him on a previous
occasion is supplied for this week.
TEXT: HE that earneth wages. earneth
wages to put it into a bag with holes."-
Haggai l., 6.
In Persia. under the reign OF Darius Hy
staspes, the people did not prosper. They
made money, but did not pit. They
were like people who have a sack in which
they put money, not knowing that the sack
is torn. or eaten of moths, or in some way
made incapable of holding valuables. As
fast as the coin was put in one end of the
sack it dropped out Of the other. 1t made
no difference how much wages they got, for
they lost them. "He that earneth wages,
earneth wages to put it into q bag witt
holes"
lions of dollars in this country paid to the
working classes? Some OF these moneys
have gone for house rent, or the purchase OF
homesteads. or wardrobe or family expenses,
or the necessities OF life, or to provide COM
forts in old age. What has become of other
at the gaming-table. Wasted in intoxicants.
Put into a bag with hundred holes.
Gather up the money that the working
classes have spent for rum during the last
thirty years, and will build for every work
ingman n house, and lay out for him gar.
den. and clothe his sons in broadcloth AMI
his daughters in silks, and stand at his front
ioor a prancing span Of SorrelS or bays, aud
secure him policy OF life insurance. so that
the present home may be- well maintained
after he is deal. The most persistent. most
Overpowerng enemy OF the working classes
Is intoxicating liquor. 1t is the anarchist Of
the centuries, and has boycotted and is now
boycotting the body and mind and soul of
American labor. 1t is to 1t worse foe than
monopoly, and worse than associated capi-
tai.
1t annually swindles industry out of
large percentage of its earnings. 1t holds
out its blasting solicitations to the mechanic
or operative on his way to work. and at the
noon-spell, and on his way home at even
tide; on Saturday, when the wages are paid.
it snatcheS a large part of the money that
might come to the family, and sacrifices it
among the saloon keepers. Within eight
hundred yards of Sands Street Methodist
Church. Brooklyn. it has fifty-four saloons,
and is plotting now for another. Stand the
saloons of this country side by side, and it
is carefully estimated they would reach from
New York to Chicago. Forward, march.
says the rum power. and take possession OF
the American Nation! The rum business is
pouring its vitriolic and damnable liquids
down the throats of hundreds of thousands
of laborers. and while the ordinary strikes
are ruinous both 10 employers and
employees, I proclaim strike universa
against strong drink, which. if KEPT
up. will be the relief of the working classes
and the salvation of the Nation. will I'M
dertake to say that there is not a healthy
laborer in the United States who. within
the next ten years, il he will refuse all intox-
icating beverage and be saving, may not be-
come capitalist on small scale. Our
country in a year spends one billion five
hundred million and fifty thousand dollars
for rum. or course the working classes do
great deal of this expenditure. Careful
statistics show that the wage-earning classes
of Great Britain eXpen1 in liquors one hum
dred million pounds. or five hundred mill
ion dollars year. Sit down and think, o
workinGman! how much You have expend-
ed in these directions. Add it all up. Add
up what your neighbors have expended. anh
realize that instead OF answering the becS
of other people you might have been your
own capitalist. When you deplete a work.
ingman's physical energy you deplete LII
capital.
The stimulated workman gives out before
the unstimulated workman. My father said
81 became a temperance man in early life
because I noticed in the harvest field that,
though was physically weaker than other
workmen, 1 could hold out longer than they
They took stimulants. 1 took none" A
brickmaker in Englrnd gives his experience
in regard to this matter among men in his
employ. He says, after investigation: "The
beer-drinkers who made the fewest bricks
made six hundred and fifty-nine thousand;
the abstainer who made the fewest bricks.
seven hundred and fortv-six thousand"
The difference in behalf of the abstainer
10, til l,,l. NsSyI
There came a very exhaustinS time In the
British Parliament. The session was pro-
longed until nearly all the members got sick
or worn out. Out of six hundred and fifty.
two members only two went through un
damaged; they were teetotalers.
When an army goes out to the battle the
soldier who has water or coffee in his can
teen marches easier and fights better than
the soldier who has whisky in his cantesn.
Rum helps man to fight when he has only
one contestant, and that at the street cor
ner. But when he goes forth to maintain
some great battle for God and his country,
he wants no rum about him. When the
Russians go to war a corporal passes along
the line and smells the breath Of every sol.
dier. II there be in his breath a taint of in
toxicating liquor, the man Is sent back to
the barracks. Why? He cannot endure IA
tigue. All our young men know this. When
they are preparing for regatta, or for a ball
stain. Our working people will be wiser af-
ter a while, and the money they fling away
on hurtful indulgences they will put into CO.
operative associations, and so become capi-
talists. If the workingman put down his
wages and then take his expenses and spread
them out, so they will just equal, he is not
wise. [ know workingmen who are in a
perfect fidget until they get rid OF their last
dollar.
The following circumstances came under
our observation: A young man worked hard
to earn his six or seven hundred dollars
yearly. Marriage day came. The bride had
inherited five hundred dollars from her
grandfather. She spent every dollar Of it on
the wedding dress. Then they rented two
rooms in a third story. Then the young man
took extra evening employment; almost ex-
hausted with the days work, yet took even-
eyesight. Why did he add evening employ
ment to the day employment? To get money.
Why did he want to get money? To lay up
for a rainy day? No. To get his
life insured, SO that in case of his death his
wife would not be beggar2 No. He put
he might get a hundred and fifty dollars to
get his wife a sealskin coat. The sister Of
the bride heard of this achievement, and was
not to be eclipsed. She was very poor, and
she sat up working nearly all the nights for
a great while until she bought a seaskin
coat. L nave not ucdTu VI luc Ou tuhl
street. The street was full of those who are
on small incomes, but l suppose the con-
tagion spread, and that everybody had q
seaskin coat, and that the people came out
and cried, practically, not literally: Though
the heavens fall, we must have a sealskiD
coat"
1 was out West. and a minister of the Cos
pei told me, in Iowa. that his church and the
had been impoverished by the
fact that they put mortgages on their farms
in order to send their families to the PhiIa-
delphia Centennial. 1t was not respectable
not to go to the Centennial. Between such
evils and pauperism there is II very short step.
The vast majority of children in your aim
houses are there because their parents are
drunken, or lazy. or recklessly improvident.
I have no sympathy for skinfiint saving.
but l plead for Christian prudence. You say
n is Impossible now to Jay up anytime fors
RAINY dav. know II. but We are ut the day
break of National prosperity. Some psoph
think it il mean TO iura the gas low whei
they go out OF the p,rlor. They feel smbar
raised IL the door-5-ll rings before they have