The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-11-20
Talks With T'alnnaQ8.
Washingtons Most Popular Preacher and His Work--A
High-pressure Human Dynamo.

, he first breaches his sermons to his
| stcnographer Although he dictates and
| delivers his sermons in courses he never
| announces when one course begins or
! ends.
Once he tried talking his work into II
| machine, but he and the machine had
| such n fuss that he has never departed
| from his live male StenOgrapher since.
| Even if there was Il machine made which
would receive the immense volume of
matter he dictates ut once, he could not
use it because he dictates while on the
go all about the room. He could not
carry ii around the room with him be-
cause he is perfectly unconscious when
he gesticulates, and he would drop the
machine on the floor and break ii all
to pieces. 1t would be manfestly ridi-
culous for him, to tie it around his neck.
SO it is difficult to see how DR.. Talmage
and the talking machine can ever come
together, no matter what the capacity
/ of the latter may come to be in time.
/ When talking to his stenographer. his
! family. to friends in his home. or his au-
/ dience in his church, Dr. Talmage is
/ always the same--So intensely impressed
with what he is saying that his pastures
and gestures are unknown to him. As
he grows older these gestures seem to
become stronger and more graceful.
Even in the house. in his drawing-room
or at the table with his family he acts
constantly and unconsciously. In his
work which is all done in his house. he
employs no one but his stenographers.
Several times he has employed secreta-
ries, but never knew what to do with
them but to discharge them, and now he
CT ,baf,
not do for him.
HIS PERSONAL HABITS.
He always dimes with his family when
he can get out Of dining in public, and
there is nothing in the calendar he does
not eat and relish except Goldfish, and
this he loves-ten miles away. Next to
his family he seems to care more for his
collection of relics than anything else.
AT the back of his main hall is a small
room which he calls his Oriental ROOM
and it is filled with an extremely rare
collection of relics presented to him
while travelling in the Orients. His
drawing rooms are filled with rare
paintings, furniture, and bric-a-brac,
mostly presented to him by the rulers
of countries he has visited and written
about. His study is truly "'holy
show" especially after he gets through
debating a series of sermons. He mutt
lates books terribly and throws them
all over his work room. This, he says,
is one of his only real bad habits. For
years his family has preserved in albums
all the pictures sent to him of babies
with 'Talmage" somewhere in their
names. They have finally tired of
keeping them and have closed the en-
tries, but there are several albums chock
full of the most motley aggregation of
children one ever saw. Every year he
receives hundreds of books, some good.
others perfectly useless, with autographs
| of the authors.
| He is something of crank on the pro-
| fuse use of wafer. and goes il ror
| aquatics as enthusiastically as he does
| for gymnastics. In his house IS Il worry
large and 1aost thoroughly equipped
| bathroom, M, from his copi0us use OF
water everS morning before breaAfa It
| one might easily tci.cNe him n natural
| Baptist
He is robbed of thousands Of dollars
by imp0st. rs ...:a' csl publishers nh'.
the inadequacy of our international
copyright law. He has published but
fifteen books, yet there are fifty-four
masduerading around the country under
various titles as his works According
to the copyright laws of this country he
cannot copyright his sermons after they
are delivered. Any one can publish
them entirely or in part. Although he
will lose fortune during his life by
not being able to control his sermons
exclusively after they are delivered, ne
persistently refuses to join any assocla-
ton for the protection of authors or TO
fight any publishers. He says he is
making enough money to- be content in
| this world. and that if there is any mis-
| sion in what he writes the more it is
spread about the world. either by him
| self Of some one else, the more good it
will do mankind.
| ADVICE TO YOUNG MINISTER'S.
DIR. Talmages advice to young minis
| tiers is for them to find out just how
every other minister breaches and to
| then preach entirely different from any
| of them. His theory is that if the Lord
| has made fifteen hundred million differ
| ent faces. he expects to have things
| done in fifteen hundred million different
ways. 81 always" he said, ''try and get
| as many points in my sermon as pos
| sible. Some years ago n reporter in
| Brooklyn once said to me- We'll, Doc
tor. are you going to give us some points
| to-dayT and / have always tried since
| then to preach three-quarters Of an hour
! with as many points as possible"
| Even if he had time, he says he could
| not read modern novels for amusement.
| He has recently tried to force himself on
| railway trains. where he could get moth
| ing else to read, to go through Il number
! Of popular novels of the day, and after
| reading few chapters he would give up
| in disgust and look out of the car win
| dows and study the works of God as the
| train sped on throughthe green fields
| and mountains and over ravines and
| winding streams. Facts and good things
seem to stick to him as he goes through
| life like cookies stick to a boy as he
wanders through a green field. He has
| always been a close student of the daily
lives of public men. His great American
ideal is Abraham Lincoln.
4 ------------------
l BRAVE MEN FALL
| Victims to stomach. liver and kidney
troubles as well as women. and all feel
The results in loss of appetite, poisons in
\ tho blood hna natvnucpocc hand