The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-05-28

the wedding dress. Then they rented
= two rooms in a third story. Then the
young man took extra evening employ
ment-almost exhausted with the day s
work, yet took evening employment.
1t almost extinguished his eyesight.
Why did he add evening employment to
: the day employment? To get money.
Why did he want to get money? To lay
up something for rainy day? No. To
, ret his life insured, so that in case of
his death his wife would not be a beg
gar? No. He put the extra evening
work to the day work that he might get
$3.50 to get his wife a sealskin coat
The sister of the bride heard of this
achievement, and was not to be eclipsed.
She was very poor, and she sat up work
ing nearly all the night for great while
until she bought a sealskin coat | have
not heard of the result on that street.
The street was full of those who are on
small incomes, but l suppose the con-
tagion spread and that everybody had a
sealskin coat and that the people came
out and cried, practically, not literally,
"Though the heavens fall, we must have
q sealskin coat.
The RecklessIy ImprOvident.
| was out west, and a minister of
the gospel told me in Iowa that his
church and the neighborhood had been
impoverished by the fact that they put
mortgages on their farms in order to
send their families to the Philadelphia
centennial 1t was not respectable not
to go to the centennial. Between such
evils and pauperism there is very
short step. The vast majority of chill
dren in your almshOuses are there be-
cause their parents are drunken, lazy or
recklessly improvident
l have no sympathy for skinfint saw
ing, but I plead for Christian pru-
dence. You say it is impossible now to
lay up anything for a rainy day. I
know it, but we are at the daybreak Of
national prosperity. Some people think
it is mean to turn the gas low when
they go out of the parlor. They feel en-
barrassed if the doorbell rings before
they have the hall lighted. They apollo
gize for the plain meal, if you surprise
them at the table Well, it is mean if
it is only TO pile up a misery hoard.
But if it be to educate your children, if
it be to give more help to your wife
when she does not feel strong, if it be
to keep your funeral day from being
horrible beyond all endurance, because
it is to be the disruption and annihila-
ton of the domestic circle-if it be for
that. then it is magnificent.
There are those who are kept in pow
erty because of their own fault. They
might have been well off, but they
smoked or chewed up their earnings, |
or they lived beyond their means, while |
others on the same wages and on the |
same salaries went On to competency. I |
know a man who is all the time com
planning of his poverty and crying out .
against rich men while he himself |
keeps two dogs and chews and smokes
and is full to the chin with whisky and |
beer. Wilkins Micawber said to David |
Copperfeld: "Copperfeld my boy, 81
income, expenses 20s. Cd; result, mis- |
cry. But, Coppertield, my boy, 81 in
come; expenses, los. Cd; result, hap
piness. But, O workingman, take
your morning dram, and your noon
dram, and your evening dram, and
spend everything you have over for to-
bacco and excursions, and you insure
poverty for yourself and your children
forever!
More Holes In the Bag.
If by some generous fiat Of the CAPT
talists of this country or by a new law
of the government of the United States
25 per cent or 80 per cent or 100 per
cent were added to the wages of the
working classes of America, it would
sands of them unless they stopped strong
drink. Aye, until they quit that evil
habit the more money the more ruin,
the more wages the more holes in the
bag
My plea is to those working people
who are in discipleship to the whisky
bottle, the beer jug and the wine flask
And what l say to them will not be
more appropriate to the working classes
than to the business classes and the lit
erary classes and the professional classes
and all classes, and not with the people
of one age more than of all ages Take
one good square look at the suffering of
the man whom strong drink has en-
thralled and remember that toward that
goal multitudes are running. The dis
ciple of alcoholism suffers the loss of
self respect. Just as soon as a man
wakes up and finds that he is the cap
tive of strong drink, he feels demeaned.
l do not care how recklessly he acts. He
may say, Il don't care;" he does care.
He cannot look a pure man in the eve
unless it is with positive force of reso-
luton. Three-fourths of his nature is
destroyed; his self respect is gone; he
says things he would not otherwise say;
be does things he would not otherwise
do. When man is nine-tenths gone
with strong drink, the first thing he
wants to do is to persuade you that he
can stop any time he wants to. He can
not. The Philistines have bound him
hand and foot, and shorn his locks, and
put out his eyes, and are making him
grind in the mill of great horror. He
cannot stop. will prove it. He knows
that his course is bringing ruin upon ,
himself. He loves himself. If he could
stop, he would. He knows his course is
ruin upon his family. He loves