The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-07-26
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BYTHE NOTED
DIVINE.

Subject: A Worldwide Evil-Residen ce In
Hotels Observation-Disclosures Influ.
ences That Surround Life in q Private
Home-Children Get in Dad Company.
copyright, Louis Klorsch. 1891
WASHINGTON. D. C. (SpeciaD D.-Home life
versus hotel life Is the theme OF DR.. Tai.
IMAGES sermon for to-day, the disadvan-
tages Of q life spent ut 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 T., 81, IS: "And brought him
to m inn and took care of'him. And on
the morrow when he departed, hetook out
two pence and gave them to the host and
said unto him, Take care Of him; and what
soever thou spendest more, when come
again I will repay thee"
Thisds the good Samaritan paying the
hotel bill OF q man who bad been robbed
and almost killed by bandits. The good
Samaritan had found the unfortunate on
lonely, rocky road, where to this very day
depredatiops 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, and the wounded man was
put to bed and cared for. 1t must have
been very superior hotel In its accommo-
dations, for, though In the country, the
landlord was paid at the rate OF what in
our country would be "a or S. day, Il
penny being then a days wages and the
two pennies paid in this CAGE 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 TINT way again be
would pay all the bills until the invalid got
well.
Hotels and boarding houses are necessi-
ties. In very ancient times they were un-
known, because the world had compara-
lively few Inhabitants, and those were not
much given to travel, and private hospital
ity met all the wants OF sojourDers, as
when Abraham rushed out at Mamre to in
vlte the three men to sit down to dinner
OF veal, as when the people were positive
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 over
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 lunds. They rightly become the
permanent residences of many people, such
US those who are without families, such as
those who business kesps them migratory,
such rs those who ought not, for various
reasons Of health or peculiarly Of clrcum-
stances, to take upon themselves the cares
OF housekeeping.
But one Of the great evils OF this day is
found in the fact that q 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 aud more time
for social life and because they like the
whirl OF publicity better than the quiet
and privacy OF O residence they can call
their own. The lawful use ofthese hotels
and boarding-houses is for most people
while they are in transltu; but as
terminus they are In many cases de-
moralization, utter and complete. That Is
the point at which families innumerable
have begun to disintegrate. There never
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 caravansarles, the demon
OF gossip Is apt to get tull sway. All the
boarders run daily the gantlet Of general
they look when they come
down in the morning and when they get in
Mt 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 a man proposes in such
q place 10 be Isolated and reticent and
alone, they will begin to guess about him:
Who is he? Where did be come from2 How
long is he going to stay? Has he paid his
board? How much does he pay2 Perhaps
he has committed some crime and does not
want to be known. There must he some
thing wrong about him or he woulIl 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, II 8 trunk explored, his letters
folded differently from the way they were
folded when he put them away. Who Is
ne? is the question asked with intenser in
terest, until the subject has become q
moDomania. The simple fact is that be is
nobody in particular, but minds his, own
business.
One OF the worst damages that come
from the herding OF so many people into
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 rart, control their
com panionship 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-
cnt minds Of dozens OF people. They will
overhear blasphemies, and see 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, steadyipg and all controlling memory
Of home. From that none OF US who have
been blessed OF such memory have es-
capped. 1t grips man for eighty year,,
II he lives SO long. 1t pulls him back from
doors into which he otherwise would enter.
1t smites him with contrition iu the very
ready surrounded by the long wide net,
swim out to seq, 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 10 draw in the net. baEd over
hand, and hand over hand, and 1t
is long while before the captured
fins 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 ieet
OF the captors, 50 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 On irresistible mesh
drawing them back, and they are COM
PEELED to retreat from their prodignlity
and wandering; and though they make
desperate effort to escape the impression,
md try to dive deeper down In sin,
after awhile are brought ciear back and |
held upon the Rock OF Agns.
II it be possible, o '.ther and motherl
let your sons and daughters 60 out into |
the world under the seiniomnipotent. men,
49,. al II naod nh nza Nannu Iaaut ronr trrn |