The Penn's Grove record., 1900-03-16
DR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE HYTHE NOTED
DIVINE

SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY The NOTED
DIVINE.
subjects The Needles Havoc-An Appeal
For Mercy For Oppressed Womanhood
L Her Have an Equal Chance with
Ma in the Struggle Or Life.
~toopsrieht isUei
WASHINGTON, D. C.-This discourse OF
DR.. Talmage is an appeal for mercy in be-
half Of oppressed womanhood and offers
announcement to those struggling for a
ilve1hQod; text. Ecclesiastes, w., l, BE
hold the tears Of such as wore oppressed;
and they had no comforter"
Very. long ago the needle was busy: It
was considefed honorable for women to
toll IN olden times. Alexander the Great
stood III his palace showing garments mad
by his own mother. The finest tapestries
at Eayeux was made Nv the queen OF WILL
lam the ~Cenqueror. Augustus, the en-
peror, would not wear any garments ex-
cept those that were fashioned by some
msmber Of his royal family. SO let the
toiler everywhere be respected.
The needle has slain 5more than the
sword When the sewfngI machine was In
vented, some thought thai Invention would
oAAOVl0h0 WOudu6 Toll Hu4l UuI du 6uu ~
the despotism OF the nfedle. But no.
While the sewing machine has been a great
blessing to well-to-do Families In many
cases 1t has added to the 4tab OF the needle
the crush of the wheel, and m%ultitudes OF
women, Notwithstanding the re-enforce-
mont Of the sewing machine, can only
make, work hard as they will, between %
and @3 a week.
The greatest blessing that could have
happened to our first parents was being
turned out OF Eden after they had done
wrong. Adam and Eve, In their perfect
state, might have got along without work
or only snch slight employment as a per-
feet garden with no weodE In 1t demanded.
But as soon as they had sinned the best
thing for them was to be turned out where
they would have to work. We know what
a whitening thing 1t is foF a man to have
nothing to do. or the thousand prosper
GUS and honorable men that you know 500
had to work vigorously 1T the beginning.
But | am now to tell yoq that industry is
just rs important for a woman's safety and
happiness. The most unhappy women in
our. communities to-day are those who have
no engagements to call them up in the
morning; who, once having risen and
breakfasted, lounge through the dull fore
noon In slippers down at the heel and with
disheveled hair, repdink the last novel,
ane SsS' %,or n = aged sssa t through ait., q
noon sleep and having passed al hour and
a hall ut their toilet, pick up their card
case and go out to make calls, and who
pass their evenings waiting for somebody
to come In and break UP the m%onoteny.
Arabella Stuart never vas imprisoned In
SO dark a dungeon as that.
There is no happiness In an idle woman.
1t may be with hand, 1t may be with brain,
It may be with foot. bu: work she must or
be wretched forever: The little girls Of
our families must be started with that
idoa. The curse of American society is
that our young women Ore taught that the
first. second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth,
seventh, tenth, fftieth, lthousandth thing
in their life is to get somebody to take care
Of them. Instead OF that the first lesson
should be how under God they may take
care OF themselves. The simple fact is
that a majority OF them do have to take
care OF themselves, and that, too, after hav-
ing through the false notions of their par
ents wasted the years ih which they ought
to have learned how successfully to main
tain themselves. We nJw and here declare
the inhumanity, cruelty and outrage of
that father and mother who pass their
daughters into womanhpod, having given
them no faculty for eafpipg their llveli-
Nine. de Stael said, at is not these
writings that I am proud of, but tho fact
that l have facility In (ten occupations, in
any one OF which I could make a liveli-
hood" You say you have a fortune to
leave them. Oh, mani and m have
you not learned that, Hike vultures, like
hawks, like eagles, richbs have wings and
fly away? Though youishould be success
full in leaving q competency behind you,
the trickery OF executofs may swamp it in
a night or some official In our churches
may get up n mining cdmpany and induce
your orphans to put their money into a
hole In Colorado and iflby the most skillful
machinery the sunkeh money cannot be
brought up again prove to them that it
was %eternally decrebd that tina was
the wa they we're tp lose it and that
1t went in the most orthodox and heav-
only style. oh, the damnable schemes that
professed Christians will engage In until
God puts His fingers into the collar OF the
hypocrite's robe and strips it clear down
to the bottoml You have no right, because
you arc well of, to conclude that your chill
dren are going to be we'll off. A man died
leaving a large fortune. His son fell dead
in a Philadelphia ~grogehop. His old COM
rades came in and said as they bent over
his corpse, ''What is the matter with you.
Boggsy?" The surgeon standing over him
said: "Hush vel He is'deadl'' "Oh, he is
deadl" they said. .'Cpme, boys; let US go
and take a drink il memory OF poor
0O86Sys law yOu uOLuluk poLLoT tu00
money to leave your children? II you have
not, but send yourt daughters into the
world with empty brain and unskilled
hand, you are guilty Of assassination,
homicide, infanticide.i
There are women toAling in our cities for
% or IS a week who We're the daughters Of
merchant princes. {These suffering ones
now would be glad to have the crumbs
that once fell from their fathers table.
Tint vuorn ont hrpkon ohAn that che $1,000
is the lineal descendant OF the $l2 gaiter In
which her mother walked and that torn
and faded calico had ancestery Of magniH-
cent brocade that swept Pennsylvania av-
enue and Broadway clean without any ex-
pense to the street commissioners. Though
you 1.-Two in an elegant residence and fare
s~umptuousiy every day, let your daughters
feel 1t is a disgrace for them not to know
how to work. / denounce the idea prev
alent In society that, though our young
women may embroider slippers and crochet
and make mats for lamps TO stand on with
out disgrace, the idea OF doing ANYTHING
for a livelihood is dishonorable. It Is a
shame for q young woman belonging to a
large family to be inefficient when her
father tolls his life away for her support.
1t is a shame for a daughter to be idle
while her mother tolls ct the washtub. 1t is
ms honorable to sweep house., make beds or
trim hats as 1t is to twist a watch chain.
So far as l can understand the line OF re-
spectability lies between that which is use
full and that which, is useless. II women
do that which is Of mo value, their work is
honorable. II they do practical work. it is
dishonorable. That our young women
may escape the censare Of doing dishonor-
able work 1 shall ~particularize. You NAV
knit a tidy for the back OF an armchair
but by no means make the money whore.
with to buy the chair. You may with a
delicate brush beahtify a mantel orna-
mont, but die rather than earn enough to
| buy q marble mantel. You NAV learn
artistic music until you can squall italian.
but never sing "0rtonville" or .sOld Hun.
dredth." Do nothing. practical If YOU
would In the eyes Of refined society pre-
serve your responsibility. I scout these
1nical notions. tell you a woman, no
more than a man LBS a right to occupy a
tor 1t.
In the course OF dlifetime you consume
whole hafvests and droves Of cattle and
every day you live breathe forty hogheads
of good. pure air. You must BY some Kind
OF usefulness pay for ali this. Our race
was the last thing created-the birds and
fishes on the fourth day the cattle and
lizards on the NTH flay and man on the
sixth day. IL ~geoJoRists are right. the
earth was q million Of years In the possess
sion OF the insects, beasts md birds before