The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1900-08-17
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
HE TALKS OF THE GOOD DONE
BY CITIES.
They Are the birthplace OF Civilization
and Are Not Necessarily Evil -
The Farmer as Dishonest as the
Merchant.

Copyright, 1900. by Louis Klopsch.)
From st. Petersburg the Russian
capital, where he was cordially re-
ceived by the emperor and empress and
the empress dowager, DR.. Talmage
sends this DISCOURSE in which he shows
the mighty good that may be done by
the cities. and also the vast evil they
may do by their allurements to the I'M
suspecting and the unguarded. The
text is Zechariah i. II, 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
rural 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;
it is only on larger scale. The coun-
tryman sometimes prevaricates about
the 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
as large as those at the top, about the
quarter of beef as being tender when
it is tough, and to as bad an extent
as the citizen. the merchant, prevari-
Gates about calicoes OF silks or hard
ware.
And as to villages, l think that in
some respects they are worse than
the cities because they copy the vices
of the cities in the meanest shape, and
as to gossip its 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 by day and night is the
grand depot for masculine title tattle,
and there are always in the village
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 plow run too sharply
against the yardstick.
Cain was the founder of the first
city, and | suppose it took after him
in morals 1t takes city long while
prisons are the shadow of those foun-
der. Where the founders of city are
criminal eXiles. the filth, the vice, the
prisons are the shadow of their foun-
ders. 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 de-
clare dividends and smugglers swear
custom house lies, and above the roar
of the wheels and the crack of the auc-
tioneer's mallet ascends the ascrip-
ton, I'VE worship thee o thou al
mighty dollar" 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 gathered in 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 ii
is safe to live anywhere, people gather
in the cities for purposes of rapid
gain.
Highway of Prosperity.
Cities are not evil necessarily, as
some have argued. They have been