Connecticut western news., 1897-05-27
THE BAG WITH HOLES
DR. TALMAGE,S SERMON ON IMPROv,
 iDENCE AND ALCOHOLISM.

iDENCE AND ALCOHOLISM.
 The Greatest Enemy of the People Who
 Work-Drink the Anarchist os the Gen.
 turtes-A Plea For Christian Prudence.
 Christ ~; an Aid Against Temptation.
 WASHINGTON, May 28.-This sermon of Dr. Talmage is an arraignment of improvidenoe in all classes, and of al- ooholism as the greatest enemy of the working people. The text is Haggai i, 6, He that earneth wages earneth wages to put 1t into bag with holes. 1"
 In Persia, under the reign of Darius Hystaspes. the people did not prosper. They made money, but did not keep it. They were like people who have sack in which they put money, not knowing that the sack is torn or eaten of moths, or in some way made incapable of hold ing valuables. As fast as the coin was put in one end of the sack it dropped ont of the other. It made no difference how much wages they got, for they lost them. "He that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into bag with holes. "
 What has become of the billions and billions 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 ward robe, or family expenses, or the necessi- ties of life, or to provide comforts in old age. What has become of other bill lions? Wasted in foolish outlay. Wasted oA k< %oh tod j,,i iv,t0 ioants. Put into bag with 100 holes.
 Gather up the money that the work ing classes have spent for drink during the last 80 years, and will build for every workingman house and lay out for him garden, and clothe his sons in broadcloth and his daughters in silks, and place at his front door prancing span of sorrels or bays, and secure him policy of life insurance, so that the present home may be we'll main tained after he is dead. The most per sistent, 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 Amer joan labor. It is to it worse foe than monopoly and worse than associated capital.
 Strike Against Strong Drink.
 It annually swindles industry out of large percentage of it's earnings. It holds out its blasting solicitations to the mechanic or operative on his way to work, and at the noon spell, and on his way homo at eventide; on Satur- day, when the wages are paid, it matches large part of the money that might come into the family and sacri- fees it among the saloon keepers. Stand the saloons of this country side by side, and it is carefully estimated that they would roach from New York to Chica- 90. Forward, march," says the drink power, land take possession of the American nation"
 The drink business is pouring it's vit- riolic and damnable liquids down the threats of hundreds of thousands of la- borers, and while the ordinary strikes are ruinous both to employers and em- ployees I proclaim 8 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 a healthy laborer in 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 in 8 year spends $1, 500, 050, 900 for drink. Of course the working classes do great deal of this expenditure. Careful statis- tics show that the wage earning classes of Great Britain expend in liquors 4100, 900, 900, or $500, 900, 900 year. Sit down and calculate, oh, working man, how much you have expended in these directions. Add it all up. Add up 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- BY, you deplete his capital. The stim- ulated workman gives out before the unstimulated workman. My father said: "I became temperance man in early life, because I noticed in the har- vest field that though I was physically weaker than other workmen, l could hold out longer than they. They took stumulants, I took none" A brick maker ill England gives his experience in regard to this matter among men in his employ. He says, after investiga- tion: "The beer drinker who made the fewest bricks made 659, 900, and the ab- stainer who made the fewest bricks 746, ,0O0. The difference in behalf of the abetainer over the indulger, 87,000."
 Tho False Strength of Liquor.
 When an army goes out to the battle, the soldier who has water or coffee in his canteen marches easier and fights better than the soldier who has whisky in his canteen. Drink helps man te fight when he has only one contestant, and that at the street corner, but when he goes forth to maintain some great battle for God and his country. he wants no drink about him. When the Russians go to war, 8 corporal passes along the line and smells the breath o1 every soldier. If there be in his breath a taint of Intoxicating liquor, the mar is sent back to the barracks. Why? He cannot endure fatigue. All our young men know this When they are prepar ing for regatta or for ball club ol for an athletic wrestling. they abstain Our working people will be wiser after awhile, and the money they fling away on hurtful indulgenoes they will put into cooperative association, and so be come capitalists. If the workingma1 puts down his wages and then takes hi expenses and spreads them out so they will just equal, he is not wise. know ,workingmen who are in perfect fldge until they get rid of their last dollar.
 The following circumstances cam' under our observation: A young mar worked hard to earn his $500 or $70( yearly. Marriage day came. The brid' had inherited $500 from her grand %otbor 9ha apent avery dollar Of it oI