The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-11-10
DIR, TALMAGES SERMON.
SABBATH DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

DIVINE.
Story of the Three Taverns-The Ruin
Wrought by Liquor-Crimson Wave OF
Dissipation Has Destroyed More Sail
ors Than the Ocean.-Mankind's Curse.
TEXT: "They came to meet us as far as
Lppii Forum and the Three Taverns. -
Acts xviii, Is.
Seventeen miles south Of Rome, Italy,
there was g village of unfortunate name
and bibulous suggestion. A tavern ts a
place of entertainment, and, in our time,
part Of the entertainment Is provision
of intoxicants. One such place you would
think would have been enough for that
italian village. MOI There were three OF
them, with doors open for entertainment
lacked stimulating drinks. You remember
the condition Of Noah on one occasion,
and Of Abigail's husband, Nabal, and the
story Of Belshazzar's feast, and Benhadad,
and the new wine in old bottles, and whole
paragraphs on prohibition enactment
thousands Of years before Neal Dow was
born; and no doubt there were whole
shelves Of inaammatory liquid in these ho-
.els which gave the name to the village
where Paul's friends came to meet him;
namely, the Three Taverns. In vain
search ancient geography for some salts
lying account Of that village. Two roads
,ame from the sea coast to that place; the
Dne from Actium and the other from Pute-
oil, the last road being the one which Paul
travelled. There were, no doubt, In that
village houses Of merchandise and me-
,hanics' shops and professional offices, but
nothing is known Of them. All We know Of
that village Is that 1t had profusion OF
lnns-the Three -Tsverns. Paul did not
choose any one Of these taverns as the
place to meet his friends. he certainly
was very abstemious. but they made the
selection. He had enlarged about keeping
Tor young theological student stimu-
lating cordial for stomachic di sorder;
but he told him to take only small dose
"a little wine for thy stomach's sake"
One Of the worst things about these
Three Taverns was that they had especial
temptation for those who had just come
ashore. People who had just landed at
Actium or Puteoli were soon tempted by
these three hotels, which were only little
way up from the beach. Those who are
iisordered of the sea (for 1t Is physical
iisorganizer), instead Of waiting for the
gradual return of physical equipoise, are
apt to take artificial means to brace up.
or the one million sailors now on the sea,
the Three Taverns! After surviving hurri.
:anes, cyclones, icebergs, collisions, many
Of them are wrecked In harbor. I warrant
that II calculation were made Of the COM
parative number Of sailors lost at sea and
lost ashore, those drowned by the crimson
wave Of dissipation would far outnumber
those drowned by the salt water.
Alas! that the large majority Of those who
60 down to the sea in ships should have
twice to pass the Three Taverns, namely:
Before they 60 out and after they come In,
That fact was what aroused Father Taylor
the great sailors preacher, at the Saiiors
Bethel. Boston, and at public meeting al
Charlestown he said, "All the machinery o1
the drunkard-making, soul-destroyine
business Is In perfect running order, from
the low grog holes on the DOCKS kept open
to ruin my poor sailor boys, to the great
establishm ents in Still House Square, and
when we ask men what is to be done about
It, they say you can't help it, and yet
there Is Bunker Hill, and you say you CAM
stop 1t; and up there are Lexington and
Concord" We might answer Father Tay'
lors remark by saying, "The trouble Is moi
that we can't stop 1t, but that we won''
| stop it." We must have more generations
slain before the world will fully wake up te
the evil. That which tempted the travel.
ers Of old who came up from the seaports
Of Actium and Puteoli Is now the ruin oi
| seafaring men as they come up from the
coasts Of all the continents, namely, the
Three Taverns.
There are streets In some of our cities
where there are three or four taverns OF
every block; aye, where every other house
Is tavern. You can take the Arabic mum.
eral OF my text, the three, and put on the
right hand side Of 1t one cipher, and two
eiphers, and four ciphers, and that rein
forcement Of numerals will not express the
statistics Of American rummeries. Even II
Ii ware a good, healthy business, supplying
| 1t Is business nightly overdone, and
there are three ta7erns where there ought
to be only one.
The fact Is, there are, In another sense
Three Taverns now; the gorgeous tavern
for the afluent, the medium tavern for the
working classes, and the tavern Of the
slums, and they stand In line, and many
people, beginning with the first, come
down, through the second, and come out
at the third. At the first Of the three tav.
erns, the wines are OF celebrated vintage
and the wh1skies are said to be pure, and
they are quaffed from cut glass, at marble
side-tsbles, under pictures approaching
masterpieces. The patrons pull on theil
Kid gloves, and hand their silk hats to the
waiter, and push back their hair with 9
hand on one finger of which Is cameo.
But those patrons are apt to stop visiting
that place. It is not the money that man
pays for drinks, for what are few hundred
or a few thousand dollars to man Of large
income; but their brain gets touched, and
that unbalances their judgment, and they
can see fortunes In enterprises surcharged
with disaster. In longer or shorter time
they change tayerns, and they come down
to tavern the second, where the pictures are
not quite so scrupulous OF suggestion and
the small table Is rougher and the castor
standing on 1t is Of German silver and the
air has been kept over from the night be-
fore and that which they sip from the
pewter mug has q larger percentage OF ben
zine, ambergris, creosote, henbane, strych
nine, prussic acid, coculds indicus, plaster
Of paris, copperas, and nightshade. The
patron may be seen almost every day
and perhaps many times the same day
at this tavern the second, but he Is pre-
| pairing to graduate. Brain, liver, heart
nerves, are rapidly giving way. Thai
tavern the second has its dismal echo in hil
business destroyed and family scattered
and woes that choke ones vocabulary
Time passes on, and he enters tavern thu
third; red light outside, hiccoughing
and besotted group inside. He will bt
dragged out Of doors about 2 o'clock IN the
morning and left on the sidewalk, because
the bartender wants to shut up. The pool
victim has taken the regular course in the
college of degradation. He has his diploms
written on his swollen, bruised, and blotchet
physiognomy. He Is regular graduate o.
the Three Taverns. As the police take hin
up and put him in the ambulance the wheel!
seem to rumble with two rolls OF thunder
one Of which says, "Look not upon tht
wine when 1t is red, when 1t moveth itsel