Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-12-29

shoe store and rip off the fictitious
soles of many fine-looking pair Of
shoes, and show that it is pasteboard
sandwiched between the sound leather
And this practical religion will go right
into a grocery store and it will pull out
the plug of all the adulterated syrups,
and it will dump into the ash barrel
in front of the store the cassia bark
that is sold for cinnamon and the brick
dust that is sold for cayenne pepper:
and it will shake out the Prussian blue
from the tea leaves, and it will sift
from the -four plaster Of paris and
bone dust and soapstone, and it will by
chemical analysis separate the one
quart of water from the few honest
drops of cows milk, and it will throw
out the live animalcules from the
brown sugar
There has been so much adulteration
CT articles of food that it is an amaze
ment to me that there Is a healthy man
or woman in America. Heaven only
knows what they put into the spices
and into the sugars and into the butter
and into the apothecary drug. But
chemical analysis and the microscopic
have made wonderful revelations. The
board of health in Massachusetts ana
lyZed a great amount OF what was
called pure coffee and found in it not
one particle of coffee. In England
there is a law that forbids the putting
of alum in bread. The public author
tiles examined fifty one packages or
bread and found them all guilty. The
honest physician, writing a prescrip-
ton, does not know but that it may
bring death instead of health to his
patient, because there may be one OF
the drugs weakened by cheaper ar
ticle, and another drug may be In fuii
force, and so the prescription may have
just the opposite effect intended. Oil
of NORWOOD warranted pure from
Boston was found to have Al per cent
of resin and alcohol and chloroform.
Scammony Is one of the most valuable
medical drugs. 1t is very rare, very
precious. 1t is the sap or gum or
tree or a bush in Syria. The root OF
the tree Is exposed, an incision Is made
into the root and then shells are placed
at this incision to catch the sap or
the gum as it exudes. 1t is very pre-
cious, this scammony. But the peas
ant mixes it with cheaper material;
then it is taken to Aleppo, and the
merchant there mixes it with IA cheaper
material; then it comes on to the
wholesale druggist in London or New
York. and he mixes it with a cheaper
material; then it comes to the retail
druggist and he mikes it with a cheaper
material, and by the time the poor sick
man gets it into his bottle it is ashes
and chalk ard sand, and some of what
has been called pure scammony after
analysis has been found to be no scam
mony at ALL
Now, practical religion will yet rec
tify all this. 1t will go to those hypo-
critical professors of religion who got
corner" in corn and wheat in Chi
cago and New York, sending prices up
and up until they were beyond the
reach of the poor, keeping these bread
stuffs in their own hands, or control
ling them until the prices going up and
up and up. they were, after awhile,
ready to SELL and they sold out, max
ing themselves millionaires in one or
two years-trying to fix the matter up
with the Lord by building church or
a university or hospital-deluding
themselves with the idea that the Lord
would be sc pleased with the gift he
would forget the swindle. Now, as
such man may not have any liturgy
in which to say his prayers, / will
compose for him one which he prac-
tically is making: "Oh, Lord, We. by
getting corner in breadstuffs, swim
died the people of the United States
out Of ten million dollars, and made
suffering all up and down the land,
and we would like to compromise this
matter with thee. Thou knowest it
was scaly job, but then it was smart.
Now, here we compromise it. Take
/ per cent of the profits and with that
l per cent you can build an asylum for
these poor, miserable ragmufiins of the
street, and / will take a yacht and go
to Europe, forever and ever. Amen"
All, my lIlchuS, Ill man main SOltcu
his estate wrongfully and he build
line of hospitals and universities from
here to Alaska, he cannot atone for it.
After awhile, this man who has been
getting corner" in wheat, dies, and
then Satan gets a corner" in him. He
goes into a great, long Black Friday.
There is break" in the market. Ac-
cording to Wall street parlance, he
wiped others out, and now he Is him
self wiped out. No collaterals on
which to make a spiritual loan. Eter-
nal defalcation.
But this practical religion will not
only rectify all merchandise; it will
also rectify all mechanism, and all
toll. A time will come when a man
will work as faithfully by the job as
he does by the day. You say when a
thing is slightingly done, ooh, that was
done by the job" You can tell by the
swiftness or slowness with which a
hackman drives whether he is hired by
the hour or by the excursion. If he ia
hired by the hour he drives very
slowly, so as to make as many hours
as possible. If he is hired by the ex-
cursion. he whips up the horses so as
to get around and get another Gus