The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-07-01
BENTON LOUISIANA. Thu RSDAY, JULY l. 1897.

Our working people will be wiser after
awhile, and the money they fling away
on hurtful indulgenceS they will put
into cooperative associations ana so
become capitalists. Ii the working
man put down his wages and then
take his expenses and spread them out
50 they will just equal. he is not wise.
| know working men who are in a per
feet tidgct until they get rid of their
last dollar.
The following circumstances came
under our observation: A young man
worked hard to earn his $500 or 500
yearly. Marriage day came. The bride
had inherited $500 from her grand
father. She spent every dollar of it on
her wedding dress. Then they rented
two rooms in a third story. Then the
young mau took extra evening employ
ment: almost exhausted with the days
work, yet took evening employment.
1t almost cxtinguished 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
d rainy day? No. TO get his
life insured, SO that in case of
nis death his wife would not be a beg
gar? No. He put the extra evening
work to the day work that he might
get $50 to get his wife a sealskin coat.
The sister of the bride heard of this
achievement, and was not to be
| arlirSal a Shn nd Sh
sat up working nearly all night for a
great while until she bought seal
skin coat. | have not heard of the re-
suit on that street. The street was
full of those who are on small incomes,
but | suppose the cCntagion spread,
and that everybody had Scalskin
coat, and that the people came out and
cried, practically, not literally.
''Though the heavens fall, we must
have sealskin coat"
| was out west and a minister of the
Gospel told me, in Iowa, that his church
and the neigh borhood had been impov
erished by the fact that they put mort
cages on their farms in order to send
their families to the Philadelphia cen
tennial. 1t was not respectable not to
go to the centennial. Between such
evils and pauperism there is a very
short step. The vast ma jority of chill
dren in your aims houses are there be
cause their parents are drunken, lazy
or recllessly improvident.
| have no sympathy for skinflint say
ing. but plead for Christian prudence,
You say it is impossible now to lay up
anything for a rainy day. l know it,
but we are at the daybreal 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 door bell rings before
they have the gas 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 miSerly board.
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 bein"
| Mortified beyond all endurance, be
cause it is to be the disruption and
| annihilatiOn 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 we'll off. but they
smoked or chewcd up their earnings,
or they lived beyond their means,
| while others on the same wages and on
| the same salaries went on to cOmpc-
tency. | know a man who is all the
time complaining 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 Micaw Der
said to David Coppertcld: ''Copperfeld,
nv boy, one pound income, expenses
20 shillings and six pence; result, mis-
cry. But Copperfeld, my boy, one
pound income, expenses 10 shillings
and sixpence, result, happiness But
Oh, working man, take your morning
dram, and your noon dram, and youl
evening dram, and spend everything
you have, and you insure poverty for
yourself and your children forever.
If by some generous fiat of the capi
lists of this country or by a new law O1
the government of the United States
25 per cent. or so per cent. or 100 pei
cent. were added to the wages of the
working classes of America, it would
be no advantage to hundreds of then
unless they stopped strong drink. Aye
until they quit that evil habit the more
money the more ruin, the more wage!
the more holes in the bag.
My plea is to those working people
who are in discipleship to the whislt,
bottle. the beer jug and the wine flask
And what | say to them will not b'
more appropriate to the working
classes than to the business classes
and the literary classes, and all classes
and not with the people of one ag
more than of all ages. Take one gooC
square look at the suffering of the mai
whom strong drink has enthralled, am
remember that toward that goal multi
tudes are running. The disciple o
alcoholism suffers the loss of self
respect. Just as soon as a ma
) wakes up and finds that he
the captive of strong drinl
he feels demeaned. | do not care hoy
recklessly he acts. He may say, -