Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-08-13

emit nut Not More PrevnIent-A
Plea For Honest Living.
WASHINGTON, Aug. u. From st.
Petersburg, the Russian capital, where
he was cordially received by the en-
peror and empress and the empress
dowager, DR.. Talmage sends this dis
course, in which he shows the mighty
good that may be done by the cities
and also the vast evil they may do by
their aIlurements to the unsuspecting
and the unguarded. The text is Zech-
ariah i, II, MY cities through pros
perity 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
people 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 ten
der when it is tough, and to as bad an
extent as the citizen, the merchant,
prevaricates about calicoes or silks or
hardware.
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 vii
1age! 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 little tattle,
and there are always in the village a
half dozen women who have their sun
bonnets 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 long while
to escape from the character of the
founder. Where the founders Of a
city are criminal eXfles, 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 dis
count, and brokers bargain, and COM
panies declare dividends. and SNUG
glers swear custom house lies, and
above the roar of the wheels and the
crack of the auctioneer's mailet as
cends the Inscription, I'VE worship thee,
o thou almighty dollar
Not Necessarily Bad.
Cities are not evil necessarily. as
some have argued. They have been
the birthplace of civilization. In them
popular liberty has lifted its voice.
Witness Genoa and Pisa and Venice.
After the death of Alexander the
Great among his papers were found
extensive plans of cities. some to be
built in Europe. some to be built in
Asia. The cities in Europe were to be
occupied by Asiatics; the cities in Asia
Were to be occupied, according to his
plans, by Europeans, and so there
should be q commingling and a fra
ternity and q kindness and a good will
between the continents and between
the cities. So there always ought to
be. The stTangest thing in my com
DrehenSiOn is that there should be
chickering's and rivalries among our
American cities. New York must stop
caricaturing Philadelphia, and Phila-
delphia must stop picking at New
York. and certainly the continent is
large enough for st. Paul and Minneap-
oils. What is good for one city is good
for all the cities. Here is the great
highway of our national prosperity.
On that highway of national prosperity
walk the cities.
A city with large forehead and great
brain-that is Boston; a city with de-
liberate step and calm manner-that
is Philadelphia; a city with its pocket
full of change-that is New York: two
cities going with a rush that astounds
the cOntinent-they are st. Louis and
Chicago; u city that takes its wife and
children along with it-that is Brook
Ign. Cincinnati. Louisville, Pittsburg,
all the cities of the north, and all the
cities of the SOUTH some distinguished
for one thing, some for another. one
for professional ability, another for
affluence another for fashion, but not
one to be spared. What advantages
one advantages all. What damages
Boston Common damages Washington
square. Laurel Hill, Mount Auburn.
greenwood, weep over the same grief.
The statue Of Benjamin Franklin in
New York greeting the bronze statue
OF Edward Everett in Boston. All the
cities confraternity. l cannot under
.Sz4,z,l I.c,zx- +l,or.o sl,oI,ld hinl.nr-