The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1900-08-18
CITY AND COUNTRY.
Dr.. Talmage Talks Of the Good
Done by the Former.
He Says 1t Is the birthplace of Civili-
satiOn and Not Necessarily
EviI-Some Advice to
the Young.
Copyright. 1900. by Louis Klopsch.l
Washington.

Washington,
From st. Petersburg, the Russian
capital, where he was cordially re
ceived by the emperor and empires.
and the empress ~dowager, DR.. Tai
mage sends this discourse, in which hi
shows the mighty good that may b.
done by the cities, and also the vast
evil they may do by their a~llurementa
to the unsuspecting and the unguard.
ed. The text is Zechariah 1:17: my
cities through prosperity shall yet be
spread abroad"
The city is NO worse than the coun-
try. The vices Of the metropolis are
more evident than the vices of the ru
raj districts because there are more
to be bad if they wish to be. The
merchant is as good as the farmer.
There is no more cheating in town
than out of town-no worse cheating;
1t is only on a larger scale. The coun-
tryman sometimes prevaricates about
age of the horse that he sells,
about the size of the bushel with
which he measures the grain, about
the peaches at the bottom of the
basket as being rs large as those at
the top. about a quarter of beef as
being tender when it is tough, and to
as bad an extent as the citizen, the
merchant pr~evaricates about c%alicoes
or silks or hardware.
And as to villages, / think that in
some respects they are worse than
h cities, because they copy the vices
OF the cities in the meanest shape, and
as to gossip it's heaven is a country
village. Everybody knows everybody's
business better than he knows it him
self. The grocery store or the black
smith shop in day and night is the
grand depot for masculine title tat
tie, and there are always in the viii
lage a half dozen women who have
their sunbonnets hanging near, SO
that at the first item of derogatory
news they can fly out and cackle it all
over the town. Countrymen must not
be too hard in their criticism of the
citizen, nor must the pillow run too
sharply against the yardstick.
Cain was the founder of the first
city, and I suppose it took after him
in morals. 1t takes a city a long
time to escape from the character of a
founder. Where the founders Of a
city are criminal exiles, the filth, the
vice, the prisons, are the shadow of
those founders. 1t will take centuries
for New York to get over the good
influence of the pious founders of that
city-the founders whose prayers
went up in the streets where now
banks discount and brokers bargain
and companies declare dividends and
smugglers swear custom house lies,
and above the roar of the wheels and
the crack of the a~uctioneer's mallet
ascends the ascription: "We worship
thee, o almighty dollari" The old
church that used to stand on Wall
street is to this day throwing it's
blessing on the scene of traffic and on
all the ships folding their white wings
in the harbor. In other days people
gatheredin cities for defense-none but
the poor, who had nothing to be
stolen, lived in the country, but in
these times, when through civilization
and Christianity it is safe to live any
where, people gather in the cities for
purposes of rapid gain.
Cities are not evil necessarily, as
some have argued. They have been
the birthplace of civilization. In them
popular liberty has lifted it's voice.
Witness Genoa and Pisa and Venice.
After the death of Alexander the
Great among his papers were found ex-
tensive plans of cities. some to be
built in Europe, some to be built in
Asia. The cities in Europe we're to be
occupied by Asiatics; the cites in Asia
were to be occupied, according to his
plans, by Europeans, and so there
should be a commingling and a fra
ternity and a kindness and a good
will between the continents and be-
tween the cities. So there always
ought to be. The ~strangest thing in
my comprehension il that there
should be chickering's and rivalries
among our American cities. New York
must stop caricaturing Philadelphia,
and Philadelphia must stSp picking at
New York, and certainly the CONT
nent is large enough for St. Paul and
Minneapolis. What is good for one
city is good for all the cities. Here
10 the great highway of our national
prosperity. On that highway of ma
titnal prosperity walk the cities.
n city with large forehead and
great brain-that is Boston,; a CITY
with deliberate step and calm manner
that is Philadelphia; a city with its
pocket full of c~hange-that is New
York; two cities going with a rush
that astounds the continent-they are
st. Louis and Chicago; a city that
takes its wife and children along with
it-that is Brooklyn. Cincinnati.
Louisville, Pittsburgh, all the cities
of the north and all the cities of the
south, some distinguished for one
thing, some for another, one for pro
fessional ability, another for afluence.
another for fashion, but none to be
spared. What advantages one advap-
tages all. What damages Boston COM
mon damages WASHINGTON scpar.