The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-07-01
TO BREADWINNERS.
Rev. Dr. Talmage Addresses the
Working Men Of the Land.
Proclamation of a Strike Against Strong
Drink. Which Should Bring Salvation
to the Working Classes and Eman-
cipation to the Nation.

| he following discourse ny kew :
Dewitt Talmage is addressed to tie
workingmcn of the land. 1t is based
on the text:
He that carncth wages earnetn wages to put
it in bag with holes Haggai l.. +
In'Persia. under the reign of Darius
UystaspeS, the people did not prosper.
They made money, but did not keep 1t.
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
out of the other. 1t made no difference
how much wages they got, for they
lost them. lie that earneth wages
earneth wages toput it into a 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 neces-
sites of life, or to provide comforts in
old age. What has become of other
billions? Wasted in foolish outlay.
Wasted at the gaming table. Wasted
in intoXicants. Put in bag with 4
hundred holes.
Gather up the money that the work
ing classes have spent for drink dur
ing the last 30 years, and ( will build
for every working man a house, and
lay out for him a garden, and clothe
his sons in broadcloth and his daughters
in silks. and place at his front door a
prancing span of sOrrelS or bays, and
secure him policy of life insurance,
50 that the present home may be veil
maintained after he is dead. The most
persistent, most Overpowering enemy
of the working classes is Intoxicating
liquor. 1t is the anarchist of the cen
turtles, and has boycotted, and is now
boycotting, the body and mind and
soul of American labor. 1t is to it a
worse foe than monopoly and worse
than associated capital.
1t 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 at the noon spell, and on
his way home at eventlde: on Saturday,
when the wages are paid, it snatches
large part of the money that might
come into the family, and sacrifices it
among the saloonkeepers. Stand the
saloons of this country side by side,
and it is carefully estimated that they
would reach from New York to Chi
cago. "Forward, march" says the
| drink power, "aud take possession of
| the American nation.
The drink business is pouring its
vitriolic and damnable liquids down
the thrOats Of hundreds of thousands of
laborers, and while the ordinary strikes
are ruinous both to employers and en-
| ployes, | proclaim a 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 wears,
If he will refuse all Intoxicating bcv-
erage and be saving, may not become a
capitalist on small scale. Our coun-
try in year spends ST., 800, $50, 900 for
drink. OF course, the working classes
do great deal of this expenditures
Careful statistics show that the wage
earning classes OF Great Britain ex-
pend in liquors 600, 900, 600, or $780,
O090O0 a year. Sit down and cal
culate, O workingman. 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 a worhingman's physical
energy you deplete his capital. The
stimulated workman gives out before
the unstimulated workman. My
father said: II became a temperance
man in early life, because | noticed in
the harvest field that though l was
physically weaker than other work
men, could hold out longer than they.
They took stimulants; | took none. "
a brickmaker in England gives his ex-
periencc in regard to this matter
among men in his employ. He says,
after investigations: The beer drink
er who made the fewest bricks made
go. 900; and the abstainer who made
the feweat bricks 746. 000. The differ
ence in behalf of the abstainer over
the indulger, $1,000
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 a man tc
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. Wher
the Russians go to war a corpora
passes along the line and smell!
the breath of every soldier.
there be in his breath taint of in
toxicating liquor the man is sent bacl
TO the barracks. Why? He can no
endure fatigue. All ollr young mer
know this, When they are preparing
:or a regatta, Or for 4 ball club. or fol
! 81 ath!etic wrestling, they abstain