Connecticut western news., 1897-10-21
THE DRINK QUESTION
REV. pR. TALMAGE BREACHES ON
 THE THREE TAvERNS.

O REV. pR. TALMAGE BREACHES ON
 THE THREE TAvERNS.
 and Eulogizes the Great Reformers of
 tho Past and Present-Tribute to Neal Dow.
 Copyright, 1897, by American Am Press Asso-
 WASHINGTON, Oct. 17.-In a unique way Dr. Talmage here discusses the dis sipations of the day and eulogizes the great reformers of the past and present. His text is Acts xviii, 15, .'They came to meet us as far as Appii forum and the three taverns
 Seventeen miles south of Rome there was village of unfortunate name. A tavern is 8 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. Noi There were three of them, with doors open for entertainment and obfuscation. The world has never lacked stimulating drinks. You remember the condition of Noah on one occasion, and of Abigail's husband, Nabal, and the story of Bel shazzar's feast, and Benhaded 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 infiammatory liquid in those hotels which gave the name to the village where Paul's friends came to meet him-namely, the Three Tav- erns. In vain 1 search ancient geogra- phy for some satisfying account of that village Two roads came from the sea- coast 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 noth- ing is known of them. All we know of that village is that it had profusion of inns-the three taverns. Paul did not choose any one of these taverns as the place to meet his friends. He cer- tainly was very abstemious, but they made the selection. He had enlarged about keeping the body under, though once he prescribed for a young theologic- al student stimulating cordial for stomachic disorder, but he told him to take only small dose-"a little wine for thy. stomach's sake.
 The Three Taverns.
 One of the worst things about these three taverns was that they had espe- sial temptation for those who had just some ashore. People who had just land cd at Actium or Puteoli were soon tempted by these three hotels which were only little way up from the beach. Those who are disordered of the sea (for 1t is 8 physical disorganizer), instead of waiting for the gradual return of phys ical equipoise, are apt to take artificial means to brace up. Of the 100000 sailors now on the sea, how few of them coming ashore will escape the three tav- ernst After surviving hurricanes, cy- clones, icebergs, collisions, many of them are wrecked in harbor. warrant that if . calculation were made of the comparative number of sailors lost at eeA 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 go down to the sea in ships should have twice to pass tho three taverns- namely, before they go out and after they come ini That fact was what aroased Father Taylor, the great sailors preacher, at the Sailors Bethel, Bos- ton, and at public meeting at Charles town, he said, "All the machinery of the drunkard making, soul destroying business Is fn perfect running order, from the low grog holes on the docks kept open to ruin my poor sailor boys to the great establishments in Still House square, and whom wo ask men what is to bs done about it they say, sYou can't help it, and yet there is Bunker Hill, and you say you can't stop 1t, and up there are Lexington and Concord. We might answer Father Tsylor's remark by saying, "The trou- ble is not that we can't stop it, but that we won't stop it.' We must have moro generations slain before the world will fully wake Hp to the evil. That which tempted the travellers of old who cams up from the seaports of Actium and Puteoi Is now tho ruin of sesfaring men as they como up from the coasts of all the Ontinsnts-namsly, the three taverns. In the antumn, about this time, in the year 1887, the steamship Home went out from New York for Charleston. There were about 100 pas sengers, some of them widely known. Some of them had been summering at the northern watering places, and they wms on their way south, all expectant ef hearty greeting by their friends on the wharfs of Charleston. But little more than two days out the ship struck the rocks. A lfeboat was launched, but sank with all its passengers. A mother was seen standing on the deck of the steamer with her child in her arms. A wave wrenohed the child from the mothers arms and rolled it into the sea, and the mother leaped after it.
 The sailors rushed to tho bar of the boat and drank themselves drunk. Ninety five human beings went down never to rise or to be foated upon the beach amid the fragments of the wreck. What was the eauso of the disaster? A drunken ses 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, brigantines, men of- war and ocean grey hounds have been lost through captain and crew made incompetent by alcoholic dethronement. Admiral Farrngut had proper appreciation of what the fiery stimulus was to man in the navy. An officer of tha warship said to him: "Ad- mfrai, won : you consent to give Jack glass of grog in the morning? Not enough to make him drunk, but enough to make him fight eheerfully." The ad- miral answered: 1T have been to sea considerably and have seen battle or A- A r