Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1899-07-19
SERMON
Rev. DR.. CaIfflaet

Subject. A worldwide IEvIl-ResIderee In
Hotels Observation-Disclosures lesosne lnfiu.
enoes That Surround Life In . Private
Aome-Children Get in had Company.
Copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1897
W4sHINoroN. d. c. (speciaD.-Home life
seFs,(s hotel life Is the theme OF DIR. Tai.
mage's sermon for to-day, the disadvan.
pOrary stopping places being sharply con.
trasted with the blessings that are found
In the real home, however humble. The
text is Luke T., 81, IS: "And brought him
to an inn and took care Of him. And on
the morrow when he departed, he took out
said unto him. Take care OF him; and what.
soever thou spendest more. when l come
again will repay thee"
This IL the good Samaritan paying the
hotel bill of . man who had been robbed
and almost killed by bandits. The good
lonely. rocky road, where to this very day
depredations are sometimes committed
upon travellers, and had put the injured
Ian into the saddle. while this merciful
and well-to-do man had walked till they
got to the hotel. and the wounded man was
put to bed and cared for. It must have
been q very superior hotel in its accommO-
dattons, for, though in the country, the
landlord was paid at the rate of what in
our country would be a or Is a day, a
penny being then q days wages and 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 again he
would pay all the bills until the invalid got
we'll.
Hotels and boarding houses are necessi.
ties. In very ancient times they were un-
known, because the world had compare.
lively few Inhabitants, and those were not
much given to travel. and private hospital
ity met all the wants OF sojOurners, as
when Abraham rushed ont at Mnmre to in.
vite the tnree men to SIT down to n dinner
OF veal, as whom the people were 1ssitive.
ly commanded to be given to hospitality
as In many places In the east these ancient
customs are practiced to-day. But we have
now hotels presided over by good land.
lords and boarding houses presided oveI
by excellent host or hostess in all neighbor.
hoods, Villages and cities and It 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 as
those who business keeps them migratory,
such as those who ought not, for various
reasons Of health or peculiarly Of circum-
stancef. to take upon themselves the cares
OF housekeeping.
But one Of the great evils OF this day 1.
found In the fact that o large population
of our towns and cities are giving up and
have 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 residence they can call
their own. The lawful use of these hotel.
and boarding-hous6s Is for most people
Whine they afo m tFa1eltus- hnk k-as 4
terminus they are In many cases. de-
moralization. utter and complete. That Is
the point at which families innumerable
have begun to dtsintegrate. There never
has been a time 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 full 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 in
at night, and what they do for 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 reticent and
alone, they will begin to guess about him:
Who Is he? Where did he come from? How
boardf How much does he pay? Perhaps
he has committed some crime and does not
want to be known. There must he some
thing wrong about him or he would speak.
The whole house goes into the 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 we're
folded when he put them away. Who Is
her Is the question asked with intenser in.
terest, until the subject has become q
monomania. The simple fact is that he is
nobody In particular, but minds his own
business.
One Of the worst damages that come
from the herding Of so many people into
boarding,housesa and family hotels Is In
nicted 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
companicnship and their whereabouts, but
by twelve years Of age In these public re-
sorts they will have picked up all the bad
ent minds OF dozens Of people. They will
overhear blasphemies, and SEQ quarrels.
and get precocious in sin, and what the
bartender does not tell them the porter or
hostler or bellboy will.
Besides that the children will 60 out into
this world without the restraining, anchor
ing, steadying and all controlling memory
Of q 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.
It smites him with contrition In the very
nidst Of his dissiDatfons. As the fish, al
ioauy surrounded by the long wide net +,
swim ont to sea, thinking they can go as
far as they please, and with gay toss Of
silvery scale they defy the sportsman on
the beach, and after awhile the fishermen
begin to draw in the net, haEd over
hand, and hand over hand, and II
is long while before the captured
fms begin to feel the net, and then they
dart this way and that, hoping to get out,
but nnd 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
and wandering; and though they make
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 mother
| let your sons and daughters go out into
| tho world under the semiomnipotent mem.
| ory OF a good, pure home. About your two
| or three rooms in a boarding house, or q
family hotel, you can cast no such glorious
sanctity. They will think Of these public
caravansaries as an early stopping place
malodorous with old victuals, coffees per.
! petuaily scanning and meats In everlasr-
| ing stew o. broii, the air surcharged with
carboni acid, and corridors, along which
drunken boarders come staggering at
O'Clock In the morning, rapping at the
dOo' TIL tho affrighted wife lets them in
Do not be guilty OF the sacrilege or bias
phemy OF calling such place a homo.
| A home is four walls inclosing one
family with identity OF interest and {
| privacy from outside inspection SO com
plete tlnt 1t is a world in itself. NO one en-
;ering except by permissiOn-bOlted ant
ID In.