St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1897-06-26
TALMAGE'S SERMON.

IALMAGES SERMON.
Discourse Addressed to the Bread
winners OF the Land.
The Evils OF Alcohol the
Great Enemy OF the Working Peo-
Ple-Rtllions Wasted In sense
LEES Indolsence.
Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage, in the fol-
lowing sermon, arraigns improvidence
io all classes, and puts alcohol down
rs the greatest enemy Of the working
people. 1t is based on the text:
ne that earneth wages earneth wages to put
Il In bag with holes-Haggai t.
In Persia. under the reign of Darius
hystespes, 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 rs the coin was
put in one end of the sack it dropped
out OF the other. Itmade no difference
how much wages they got, for they
lost them. He that earneth wages,
earneth wages to 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 homesteads. or ward
robe, or family expenses, or the neces-
stiles 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 q bag with .
hundred holes.
Gather up the money that the work.
ing classes have spent for drink dur
ing the last 80 years, and will build
for every working man = house, and
lay ont for him garden, and clothe
his sons in broadcloth and his daughters
in silks, and place at his front door :
prancing span of sorrels or bays, and
secure him : policy of life insurance,
so that the present home may be veil
maintained after he is dead. The most
persistent most overpowering enemy
of4he working classes is Intoxicating
liquor. 1t is the anarchist of the CEN
turies. 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.
It annually swindles industry out Of
= large percentage of its earnings. 1t
holds ont its blasting solicitations to
the mechanic or operative on his way
to work, and at the noon spell, and On
hls 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, land 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, proclaim . strike universal
against strong drink, which. if kept
up, will be the relief of the working
classes and the salvation of the nation.
I will undertake to say that there is
mot = healthy laborer in the United
States who within the next ten years,
IL he will refuse all intoxicating bev-
erage and be saving, may not become q
capitalist on small scale. Our coun-
tryin y year spends 81, 500, 050, 900 for
drink OF course, the working classes
do . great deal of this expenditure.
Careful statistics show that the wage
earning classes of Great Britain ex-
pend in liquors fl0O, 600, 600. or $780,
OO9, 900 = year. Sit down and cal
culate. @ 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 wor<ingman's physical
energy you depicts his capital. The
stimulated wos kman gives out before
the unstimulated workman. My
father said: Il became 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 brickmaker 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
G5o, 600; and the abstainer who made
the fewest bricks 10000. The differ
ence in behalf of the abstainer over
the indulger. s7,oO0.'
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 ut 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 60 to war a corporal
passes along the line and smells
the breath Of every soldier. II
there be in his breath taint of in
toxicating liquor the man is sent back
10 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