The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1895-08-17
LABOR'S ENEMY.
DR.. TALMAGE TELLS WHAT 1T is.
He Gives Working People some Good
Advice.


Of his la.nented wife, Rev. Dr.. T. Dewitt
Talrnage Cancelled his engagement to prea n.
but in order that the vast congregation to
which he speaks through thG press may not
be disappointed. a famous and always-tlme-
" sermon delivered by him on previous
occasion is supplied fer this week.
TEXT: ':He that earneth wages. earneth
wages to put it into 4 bag with holes. -
Haggai j., 6.
In Persia, under the reign Of Darius Hy-
staspes. the people did not prosper. They
made money, but did not keep it. They
were like people who have a sack IN wn.eh men
they put money. not knowing that the sack
is torn. or eaten of moths, or in some way
made incapable of holding valuab!es. As
fast as the coin was put in one end OF the
sack il dropped out of the other. 1t made
no difference how much wages they got, Tor
thev lost them. "He that earneth wages,
earneth wages to put it into bag with
holes"
What has become of the billions and bill
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
billions? Wasted in foolish outlay. Wasted
at the gaming-table. Wasted in intoxlcants.
Put into a bag with hundred holes.
Gather up the money that the working
classes have spent for rum during the last
thirty wears. and will build for every work
incman a house, and lay out for him gar
den. and clothe his sons in hroadcloth and
his daughters in silks, and stand at his front
door prancins span Of sorrels or bays. ana
secure him policy OF life insurance, so that
the present home may be we'll maintained
after he is dead. The most persistent. most
overpowering enemy OF the working classes
is intoxicating liquor. It is the anarchist OF
the centuries, and has boycotted and is now
boycotting the body and mind and soul OF
American labor It is to it worse foe than
monopoly, and worse than associated capi-
tai.
It 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 Mt the
noon-spell, and on his way home at even
tide; on Saturday, when the wages are pald,
it snatches a large part OF the money that
might come to the family, and sacrifices it
among the saloon keepers. Within eight
hundred wards Of Sands Street Methodist
Church. Brooklyn. it has fiity-four saloons,
and is plotting now for another. Stand the
saloons Of this country side by side. aud it
Is carefully estimated they would reach from
New York to Chicago. Forward, march.
saws the rum power and take possession OF
the American Nationi The rum business is
pourinc its vitriolc and damnable liquids
down the throats OF hundreds Of thousands
of laborers. and while the ordinary strikes
are ruinous both to employers and
employees, I proclaim strike universal
against strong drink, which, II Kept
up. will be the relief of the working classes
and the salvation Of the Nation. will un-
dertake to say that there is not healthy
laborer in the United States who, within
the next ten years. if he will refuse all lntoX-
icating beverage and be saving, may not be-
come a capitalist on small scale. Our
country in year spends one billion five
hundred million and fifty thousand dollars
for rum. Of course the working classes do
a great deal of this expenditure. Careful
statistics show that the wage-earnlnS classes
bf Great Britain expend in liquors ono hun
dred million pounds. or five hundred mill
ion dollars a year. Sit down and think. o
workingman! how much you have expenG-
| ed in these directions. Add it all up. Add
up what your neiShbors have expended. and
realize that instead Of answerin., the beck
of other people you might have been your
own capitalist When you deplete work
ingman's physical energy you deplete Lis
capital.
The stimulated workman gives out before
| the unstimulated workman. My father satd:
| tsI became q temperance man in early lille,
because noticed in the harvest field that,
though was physically weaker than other
yorkmen, could hold out longer than they.
They took stimulants. I took none.
bricknaker 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 flfty-nine thousand;
the abstainer who made the teWesf prlcXs;
seven hundred and forty-siN thousand.
The difference in behalf Of the abstainer
over the indulger. eighty-seven thousand.
There came very exhausting time in the
British Parliament. The session was pro-
lonped 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 teetotaiers.
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 canteen.
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 90 to war corporal passes along
the line and smells the breath OF every SOL
dier. If there be in his breath q faint of in
toxicating liquor, the man is sent back to
the barracks Why? He cannot endure IA
tigue. All our young men knowt this. When
they are preparing for regatta, OF for a ball
club. or for an athletic wrestling, they alb
stain Our working people will be wiser az
ter while, and the money they fling away
on hurtful indulgences they will put into CO.
operative associations. and so become capt.
talists If the workingman put down his
wages and then take his expenses and spread
them out, 50 they will just equal, he is moi
wise. [ know workingmen who are in 1
perfect fidget until they get rid OF their last
dollar.
The following circumstances came under
our observation: 4 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 third story. Then the young man
took extra evening employment; almost ex'
hausted with the days work, yet took even
ing employment. It almost extinguished his
evesght. Why did he add evening employ
ment to the day employment? To get money
| Why did he want to get money? To lay up
something for rainy day? No. To get his
| life insured, so that in case of his death his
wife would not be beggar? No. He put
the extra evening work to the day work that
he might get hundred and fifty dollars tc
get his wife Il sealskin coat. The sister o,
| the bride heard Of this achievement. and wa:
not to be eclipsed. She was very poor. and
she sat mp working nearly all tho nights fo'
great while until she bought Il seaskir
coat. have not heard of the result on that
street. The street was full OF those who are
OH smau incomes, put suppose the con-
tagion spread, and that everybody had a
| .sealskin coat, aud that the people came out
and cried, practically, not literally: Though
the heavens fall, we must have sealskin
coatr'
7 was out West, and minister of the Cos
pei told me, in Iowa. that his church and the
neighborhood had been impoverished by the
fact that they put mortgages on their farms