Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-05-29
THE BAG WITH HOLES
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON ON lMPROv-
lDENCE AND ALCOHOLISM.

DR.. TAI-MAGE'S SERMON ON lMPROv-
lDENcE AND ALCOHOLISM.
Tho Grcntest Enemy of tho People Who
Work-Drln!S tho Anarchist of the Cen
turles-A Picn For Christian Prudence.
Christ IN IN Aid Against Temptation.
WASHINGTON, May 23.-This sermon
of Dr. Talmagc is an arruignment Of
improvidcnoo in all classes, and Of al
coholism as the greatest enemy Of tho
working people. The text is Haggai i,
6, "Ho that carnoth wages earneth
wages to put it into a bug with holes. F."
In Persia under the reign of Darius
Hystaspcs, the people did not prosper.
They made money, but did not keep it,
They were like people who have a sack
in which they put money, not knowing
that tho sack Is torn or eaten of moths,
or in some way made incapable of hold
ing valuables AS fast as tho coin was
put in ORC 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 carneth wages earncth
wages to put it into bag with holes. ="
What has become of the billions and
billions of dollars III this country paid
to the working classes? Some of these
moneys have gone for house rent, or
the purchase of homesteads, or ward
robe, or family expenses, OF the nccessi-
ties of life, or to provide comforts III
old age What has become Of other bill
lions? Wasted III foolish outlay. Wasted
ut the gaming table. Wasted in intox-
icants. Put into bag with 100 holes.
Gather up the money that tho work
ing classes have spent for drink during
the last 80 years, and will build for
every workingman house and lay out
for him a garden, and clothe his SOILS in
broadcloth and his daughters i'll silks,
and place at his front door 4 prancing
span of sorrels or bays, and secure
him policy of life insurance, so that
the present home may be well main-
tanned after he is dead. The most per-
sistent most ovcrpowcring enemy of the
working classes is Intoxicating liquor.
1t is the anarchist Of the centuries and
has boycottcd and is now toycottinG
the body and mind and soul of Amer
lean labor. 1t is to it worse foe than
monopoly and worse than associated
capital.
A Strike Against Strong Drink
1t annually swindles industry out of
largo percentage of its earnings. 1t
holds out. its blasting solicj, ations to
the mechanic or operative in his way
to work, and at the noon spell, and Oh
his way homo Mt eventide; OH Satur-
day, when the wages arc paid, 1t
snatches large part of the money that
might come into tho family and sacrl-
fees it among tho saloon keepers. Stand
the saloons Of this country side by side,
and it is carefully estimated that they
would reach from New York to Chica-
90. forward, march,, says the drink
power, tand tako possession of the
American nation.
The drink business is pouring its Wit
riolic and damnable liquids down the
throats of hundreds of thousands of Ia
borers, and while the ordinary strikes
are ruinous both to employers and en-
ployees 1 proclaim strike universal
against strong drink, which, if kept up,
will be the relief of the working classes
and the salvation Of the nation. will
undertake to say that there is not
healthy laborer i'll the United States
who within the next ten years, If he
will refuse all Intoxicating beverages
and be saving, may not become cap
italist on small scale. Our country Ill
a year spends 81, 900, O50, 900 for drink
Of course the working classes do great
deal of this expenditure. Careful Stats
tics show that the wage earning classes
of Great Britain expcnd Ill liquors
400, 900, 900, or $500, 900, GOO year.
Sit down and calculate, oh, working
man, how much you have expended IN
these directions Add it all up. Add
I'D what your neighbors have expended
and realize that instead of answering
the beck of other people you might have
been your own capitalist. When you
deplete workingman's physical ener-
gy, you dcpleto his capital. The slim
ulated workman gives out before the
unstimulatcd workman. My father
said: 81 became temperance man III
early life, because I noticed in the har-
vest field that though was physically
weaker than other workmen, l could
hold out longer than they. They took
stumulants, I took meme. +" a brick
maker i'll England gives his experience
in regard to this matter among men IN
his employ. He says, after investiga-
ton: 1.-THE beer drinker who made the
fewest bricks made $50, 900, and the alb
stainer who made the fewest bricks
TAG, 600. The difference in behalf Of tho
abstainer over the indulger, 81, 600. "
The False Strength of Liquor.
When an army goes out to the battle,
the soldier who has water or coilee Ill
his canteen marches easier and fights
better than the soldier who has whisky
in his canteen. Drink helps man to
| fight when he has only one contestant
and that at the street corner, but when
he goes forth to maintain some great
baltic for God and his country, he
wants no drink about him. When the
Russians go to war, a corporal passes
along the line and smells the breath OF
every soldier. If there be in his breath
q faint Of Intoxicating liquor, the man
is sent back to the barracks. Why! he
cannot endure fatigue. All our young
men know this. When they are prepar-
ing for regatta OF for ball club or
for an athletic wrestling, they abstain.
Our working people will be wiser after
awhile, and the money they hing away
on hurtful indulgences they Will put
into cooperative association, and SO be-
come capitalists If the workingman
puts down his wages and then takes his
expenses and spreads them out SO they
:ir - o,,,o1 ba ic NOT wise | know