The Penn's Grove record., 1899-07-14
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE eYThE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: A Worldwide Evil-ResideDce In
Hotels Observation-Disclosures Iniu-
ences Tina Surround Life I'm n Private
HoInc-Cbildren Get in Bad Company.

Subject: A Worldwide Evil-ResideDc In
Hotels Observation-Disclosures In6u-
ences That Surround Life I'm n Private
Hone-cbiidren Get in Bad Company.
Copyright, Louis Klorsch, 1891
WASHINGTON, d. G. SPECIFICATIONS life
versus hotel life is the theme OF DR.. Tai.
mnge's sermon for to-day, the disadvan-
tages OF o life spent Mt more or less tenn
porary stopping places being sharply. con-
trasted with the blessings that are found
In The real home, however humble. The
text Is Luke e., 81, IS: "And brought him
to an inn and took care OF him. And on
tho morrow when he departed, he took out
two pence and gave them to the host and
said unto him, Take care Of him; and what
soever thou spendest more, when l come
again l will repay thee"
This is the good Samaritan paying the
hotel bill OF q man who had been robbed
and almost killed by bandits. The good
Samaritan had found the unfortunate on a
lonely, rocky road, where to this very day
depredations are sometimes committed
upon travellers, and had put the injured
man into the saddle, while this merciful
and well-to-do man had walked till they
got to the hotel, andthe wounded man was
put to bed and cared for. 1t must have
been a very superior hotel in its aceommo-
dations, for, though In the country, the
landlord was raid at the rate OF what In
our country would be "a or 50 q day, u
penny being then a days wages ind the
two pennies paid In this case about two
days wages. Moreover, 1t was one of those
kind-hearted landlords who are wrapped
up In the happiness Of their guests, be-
cause the good Samaritan leaves the poor,
wounded fellow to his entire care, promis-
ing that when he came that way ngain he
would pay all the bills until the invalid got
well.
Hotels and boarding houses are necessi-
ties. In very ancient times they were I'M
known, because the world had compare
lively few inhabitants, and those were not
much given to travel, and private hospital
ity met nil the wants of soiourners, as
when Abraham rushed out at Mamre to in
vlte the three men to sit down to n dinner
Of veal, as when the people were positive
ly communicable be given TO hospitality,
as In many places In the cast these ancient
customs are practiced to-day. But we have
now hotels presided over by good land
lords and boarding houses presided over
by excellent host or hostess in all neighbor-
hoods, villages and cities and 1t Is our con-
graduation that those of our land surpass
all other lands. They rightly become the
permanent residences OF many people, such
as those who are without families, such us
those who business keeps them migratory,
such as those who ought not, for various
reasons of health or peculiarly OF circum-
stances, to n k upon themselves the cares
OF housekeeping.
But one Of the great evils OF this day is
found in the fact that n large population
OF our towns and cities are giving up and
ave given up their homes and taken
apartments, that they may have more free
dom from domestic duties and more time
for social life and because they like the
whirl Of publicity better than the quiet
and privacy of Il residence they can call
their own. The lawful use ofthese hotels
and clearinghouse is for most people
while they are in transitu; but rs a
terminus they are in many cases de-
morallzation. utter and complete. That Is
the point Mt which families innumcrable
have begun to disintegrate. There never
has been a tin when SO many families,
healthy and abundantly able to support
and direct homes OF their own, have struck
tent and taken permanent abode In these
public establishments.
In these public caravansaries, the demon
OF gossip is apt to get iull sway. All the
boarders run daily the gantlet of general
inspection-how they look when they come
down In the morning and when they get la
at night, and what they do for n living,
and who they receive as guests In their
rooms, and what they wear, and what they
do not wear, and how they eat, and what
they eat, and how much they eat, and how
little they eat. II q man proposes in such
q place TO be isolated and roticeht and
alone, they will begin to guess about him:
Who is he2 Where did he come fromP How
long is he going to stay2 Has he paid his
boardp How much does he payP Perhaps
he has committed some crime and does not
want to be known. There must be some
thing wrong about him or he would speak.
The whole house goes into tho detective
business. They must find out about him.
They must find out about him right AWAY.
II he leave his door unlocked by accident,
he will find that his rooms have been in
spected, his trunk explored, his letters
folded differently from the way they were
folded when he put them away Who is
her Is the question asked with intenser in
t%erest, until the subject has become n
monomania. The simple fact is that he is
nobody in particular, but minds his W
business.
One OF tho worst damages that come
from the herdlng of so many people into
boarding-houses and family hotels is in
ficted upon children. 1t is only another
way OF bringing them up on the commons.
While you have your own private house
you can, for the most part, control their
companlonship and their whereabouts, but
by twelve years OF age In these public re-
sorts they will have picked up all the bad
things that can be furnished by the pruri-
ent minds OF dozens of people. They will
u ' Wal L. 1RO IhhA tiEt
and get precoclous in sin, and what the
bartender does not tell them the porter or
hostler or bellboy will.
Besides that the children will 20 out into
this world without the restraining, anchor
ing, steadying and all controlling memory
OF u home. From that none OF us who have
been blessed of such memory have es-
capped. 1t grips a man for eighty years,
II he lives SO long. 1t pulls him back from
doors into which he otherwise would enter.
1t smites him with contrition in the very
midst of his designations. IS the fish, al
ready surrounded by the long wide net,
swim out to sea, thinking they can go as
far as they please, and with gay toss Of
silyery scale they defy the sportsman on
the beach, and after awhile the fishermen
begin to draw in the net, hard over
hand, and hand over hand, and 1t
is a long while before the captured
fms begin to feel the net, and then they
dart this way and that, hoping to get out,
but find themselves approaching the
shore, and are brought up to the very feet
of the captors, so the memory OF an early
home sometimes seems to relax and let
men out farther and farther from God, and
farther and farther from shore, five years,
ten years, twenty years, thirty years.. but
some day they find an irresistible mesh
drawing them back, and they are COM
PEELED to retreat from their prodigality
NV 49, tApbBa Az Ahuhb
desperate effort to escape the impression,
and try to dive deeper down in sin,
after awhile are brought clear back and
held upon the Rock OF Ages.
II 1t be possible, o father and motherl
let your sons and daughters go out into
the world under the semiopnipotent mem
DRY OF Il good, pure home. About your two
or three rooms In a boarding house, or n
family hotel. you can cast no such glorious
sanctity. They will think OF these public
earavansaries as an early stopping place,
~malodorous with old ylctuals, coffees per-
p~etuaily steaming and meats in everlnst-
ing stew or broil, the air surcharged with
carbonlc acid, and corridors, along which
drunken boarders como staggering at l
O'Clock in the morning, rapping at the
door till the Hfirighted wife lets them In.
Do not BIO guilty OF the sacrilege or bias
phemy OF calling such n place a home.
A home is four walls inclosing one
family with identity OF interest and a
privacy from outside inspection so com
plete that 1t is n world In itself, no one en-
terlpg except by permisslon-bolted and
barred aud chained against all outside in
quisitiveness. The phrase so often used
In the law books and legal circles Is might
lily suggestiyc-every mans house Is his
castle, as much so as though it had draw
bridge, porteullis, redouht, ba ton and