The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-10-29
THE THREE TAVERNS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Discourses Upon
Designations of the Day.
Modern Taverns ON the Road of Life and
Their VIctims-A Tribute to the Re-
formers Who Step in to Save
the Unfortunates.

tons of the day and. incidentally, a
eulogy of the great reformers, past and
present. The text is:
They came to meet US as far as April Forum
and the Three Taverns.-Acts xviii, ID
Seventeen miles south of Rome
Italy, there was village of unfortu-
nate name. A tavern is place of en-
tertainment, and, in our time, part Oh
the entertainment is a provision OF
intoxicants. One such place you would
think would have been enough for
that Italian village. No! There were
three of them, with doors open for en-
tertainment and obfuscation. The
world has never lacked stimulating
drinks. You remember the condition
of Noah on one occasion, and of Abb
CALLS 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 inhammatory liquid
in those hotels which gave the name
to the village where PauPs friends
came to meet him, namely the Three
| Taverns. In vain L search an
cient geography for some salts
| flying account of that village. Two
roads came from the seacoast to that
| place; the one from Actium, and the
other from Puteoli, the last road being
the one which Paul travelled. There
were. no doubt, in that village houses
of merchandise and mechanics shops,
and professional offices, but nothing is
known of them. All we know of that
village is that it had a profusion of
inns-the Three Taverns. Paul did
not choose any one of these tavernS as
the place to meet his friends. He GER
tainly was very absteminous, but they
made the selection. He had enlarged
about keeping the body under, though
once he prescribed for a young the
illogical student stimulating cordial
for a stomachic disorder; but he told
him to take only a snail dose--''a lit
tie 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 PuGeoh were soon
tempted by these three hotels, which
were only a little way up from the
beach. Those who are disOrdered OF
the sea (for it is a physical disorgan-
izer), instead of waiting for the gradual
return of physical equipose, are apt to
take artificial means to brace up. OF
the one million sailors now on the sea,
how few of them coming ashore will
escape the Three Taverns! After sur
viving hurricanes. cyclones, icebergs,
collisions, many of them are wrecked
in harbor. l warrant that if a calcu-
latiou were made of the comparative
number of sailors lost at sea and lost
ashore, those drowned by the crimson
wave of dissipation would far Outnum-
Der those drowned by the salt water.
Alasl that the large majority of
those who go down to the sea in ships
should have twice to pass the Three
Taverns, namely, before they go out,
and after they come in. That fact
was what aroused Father Tay lor, the
great sailors preacher, at the Sailors
Bethel, Boston, and at Il public meet
ing at Charlestown he said: ''All the
machinery of the drunkard- making,
soul-destroying 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 es-
Establishments 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 can't stop it, and up there
are Lexington and Concord" We
might answer Father Taylor'S remark
III. of hot
we can't stop it, but that we won't
stop it," We must have more
generations slain before the world will
fully wake up to the evil. That which
tempted the travellers of old who came
up from the seapOrts of Actium and
Puteoli is now the ruin of seafar-
ing men as they come up from the
coasts of all the countinents-name-
ly, the Three Taverns. In the au-
tumn, about this time, in the year
1887, the steamship Home went out
from New York for Charleston. There |
were about 100 passengers, some of
them widely known. Some of them |
had been summering at the northern |
watering places, and they were on |
their way south, all expectant of |
hearty greetings by their friends on |
the wharves of Charleston. But lit |
tie more than two days out the ship |
struck the rocks. A lifeboat was |
launched, but sunk with all its passen-
gers. A mother was seen standing on |
the deck of the steamer with her child |
in her arms. a wave wrenched the |
child from the mothers arms and |
rolled it into the sea, and the mother |
leaped after it. The sailors rushed to |
the bar of the boat and drank them |
selves drunk. Ninety-tive human be
ings went down, never to rise, or to be |
fioated upon the beach amid the frag- |
ments of the wrecJ-. What was the |
cause of the disaste' A drunken sea |
captain. But not until the Judgment |
day, when the sea shall give up it's |
dead, and the story of earthly disasters |
shall be fully told, will it be known |
how many yachts, steamers, brigan-
tines, men-Of-war and ocean grey
hounds have been lost through captain |
and crew made incompetent by aIeo-
holic dethronement. Admiral Farra-
gut had proper appreciation of what |
the fiery stimulus was to a man
in the navy. An officer of the
said to him: Admiral, won't /
you consent to give Jack a glass of
grog in the morning? Not enough to |
make him drunk, but enough to make |
him fight cheerfully.7 The admiral
answered: Il have been at sea consid-
erably, and have seen a battle or two,
but l never found that needed rum to
enable me to do my duty. will order
two cups of coffee to each man at two
o'clock in the morning, and at eight
will pipe all hands to breakfast in
Mobile baY.n The Three Taverns of