The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-06-04
TALMAGE's SERMON.
Discourse Addressed to the Bread
winners Of the Land.
The Evils of Observation-Disclosures the
Great Enemy of the Working PeO-
ple-BillIOns Wasted In Sense
less Indulgence.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in the fol-
| lowing sermon, srraigns improvidence
in all classes, and puts alcohol down
| es the greatest enemy of the working
| people. 1t is based on the text;
He that earneth wages earneth wages to put
| l. in bag with hOles--Haggai l., G.
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 a 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. He that earneth wages,
earneth wages 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 homestcads, 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 q
hundred holes.
Gather up the money that the work
ing classes have spent for drink dur
ing the last 80 years, and l will build
| for every working man a house, and
| lay out for him 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 a policy of life insurance,
SO 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
worse foe than monopoly and worse
than associated capital.
1t annually swindles industry out of
a 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 eventide; 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, ''and 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, l 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 healthy laborer in the United
States who, within the next ten years,
if he will refuse all intoxicating bev-
erage and be saving, may not become
capitalist on a small scale. Our coun-
try in n year spends 81 500, O5O, 900 for
drink. OF course, the working classes
do a great deal of this expenditure.
Careful statistics show that the wage
earning classes of Great Britain ex-
pend in liquors e1OO, 900, 900, or $780,
100000 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 workingmau's physical
energy you deplets his capital. The
stimulated workman gives out before
the unstimulated workman. My
father said: Il became a temperance
man in early life, because l noticed in
the harvest field that, though L was
physically weaker than other work.
men, could hold out longer than they.
They took stimulants; l took none"
A briekmalNer in England gives his ex-
perience in regard to this matter
among men in his employ. He says,
after investigation: The beer drink
er who made the fewest bricks made
659, 900; and the abStainer who made
the fewest bricks 746, OOO The differ
ence in behalf of the abstainer over
the lndulger, 81, 1000"
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 to
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 a corporal
passes along the line and smells
the breath of every soldier. If
there be in his breath taint of in
toxicating liquor the man is sent back
TO the barracks. Why? He can not
endure fatigue. All our young men
know this When they are preparing
for regatta, or for ball club. or for
an athletic wrestling, they abstain.
Our working people will be wiser after
awhile, and the money they fling away
ON hurtful indulgences they will put
into cooperative associations, and so
become capitalists. If the working
man put down his wages and then
take his expenses and spread them out
so they will just equal, he is not wise.
know working men who are in a per
feet fdget until they get rid of their
last dollar.
The following circumstances came
under our observation: A yopng man
worked hard TO earn his 5000 or sToO
yearly. Marriage day came. The bride