Connecticut western news., 1897-07-29
LIFE'S BRIGHT SIDE.
THREE PRESCRIPTIONS FOR THE CURE
 OF BUSINESS DEPRESSION.

Rev. Dr. Ta1mage Breaches 2 Sermon of
 Business Cheer = Christian Investment.
 Spiritual AwakeninR-A Warning-Life's
 shipwrecks-worth of the Soul.
 WASHINGTON, July 25.-This dis course of Dr. Talmage shows how all may help h the restoration of good times. and is most appropriate. Text, Lamentations iii, 39, Wherefore doth living man eomplain?''
 A cheerful interrogatory in the most melancholy book of the Biblel Jere- miah wrote so many sad things that we have word named after him, and when anything is surcharged with grief and complaint we call it jeremiad But in my text Jeremiah, as by sud den jolt, wakens us to thankful spirit Our blessings are so much more nu- merous than our deserts that he is sur prised that anybody should ever find fault. Having life and with it thou sand blessings it ought to hush into perpetual silence everything like criti- cism of the dealings of God. Where fore doth living man complaint"
 While verything in our national finances is frightening, for the last few years the land has been set to the tune there cheerful soloist, but the grand chorus has been one of lamentation, ao- oompanicd by dirges over prostrated commerce, silent manufactories, unem- ployed mechanism, and all those disor- ders described by the two short words, "hard times. '' The fact is that we have been paying for the bloody luxury of war more than 80 years ago. There were great national differences, and we had not enough Christian character to settle them by arbitration and treaty, and so we went into battle, expending life and treasure and we'll nigh swamp ing the national finances, and north and south, east and west, have ever since been paying for those four years in- dulgence in barbarian.
 But the time has come when this de- pression ought to end-yea, when it will end if the people are willing to do two or three things by way of finan- cial medicament, for the people as we'll recuperation. The best political econo- mists tell us that there is no good reason for continued prostration. Plenty of money awaiting investment. The na- tional health with never so strong an arm or SO clear brain. Yet we go on grooming, grooming, grooming, as though God had put this nation upon gruel and allowed us but one decent breakfast in six months. The fact is the habit of complaining has become chronic in this country, and after all these years of .whimper and wailing and objurgation we are under such momentum of sniv- el that we cannot stop.
 A Plea For Cheerfulness.
 There are three prescriptions by which l believe that our individual and na- tional finances may be cured of their present depression. The first is cheerful conversation and behavior. have mo- ticed that the people who are most vo- ciferous against the day in which we live are those who are in comfortable circumstances. have made inquiry of those persons who are violent in their jeremiads against these times, and have asked them, "Now, after all, are you not making Hving?" After some hestitation and coughing and clearing their throat three or four times they say stammeringly, Yes" So that with great multitude of people it is not a question of getting livelihood, h.rf fhovv kicGn Gnl %hox cannot make as much money as they would like to make. They have only $2,00O in the bank, where they would like to have $4, 1000. They can clear in ayear only $5, ,O0O, when they would like to clear $10, ,O0o, or things come out just even. Or in their trade they get $8 a day when they wish they could make $4 or $5. "Oh," says some one, are you not aware of the fact that there is a great population out of employment, and there are hundreds of the good fam flies of this country who are at their wits end, not knowing which. way to turn?" Yes, know it better than any man in private life can know that sad fact. for it comes constantly to my eye and ear, but who is responsible for this state of thingsf
 Much of that responsibility I put upon men in comfortable circumstances who by an everlasting growing keep public confidence depressed and new en- terprises from starting out and new houses from being built. You know very we'll that one Respondent man can talk 60 men into despondency, while one cheerful physician can wake up into ex- hilaration whole asylum of hypoohon- driacs. It is no kindness to the poor or the unemployed for you to join in this deploration. If you have not the wit and the common sense to think of some thing cheerful to say, then keep silent. There is no man that can be independ- ent of depressed conversation. The medical journals are ever illustrating it. was reading of five men who re- solved that they would make an ex- 1, pertinent and see what they could do in the way of depressing a stout, healthy man, and they resolved to meet him at different points in his journey, and as he stepped out from his house in the morning in robust health one of the five men met him and said: "Why, you lock very sick today. What is the matter?" He said: II am in excellent health. There is nothing the matter. ]" But, passing down the street, he began to examine his symptoms, and the seo- ond of the five men met him and said, "Why, how bad you do lookr' We'll, 1" he replied, "I don't feel very we'll. , After awhile the third man met him, and the fourth man met him, and the fifth man came up and said: "Why, you look as if you had had the typhoid fever for six weeks. What is the mat ter with you?" And the man againat whom the stratagem had been laid went home and died. And if you meet man with perpetual talk about hard timea and hankruntcu and draadfnl