Connecticut western news., 1900-08-16
MISSION OF CITIES.
BIRTHPLACE OF CIVILIZATION, SAYS
 DR. TAtMAGE.

DR. TAtMAGE.
 Morally They Are No Worse Than the Country-vice Is More Appar- ent, but Not More Prevalent A Plea For Honest Living.
 WASHINGTON, Aug 12. - From St. Petersburg the Russian capital, where he was cordially received by the em- peror and empress and the empress downger. 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 allurements to the unsuspecting and the unguarded. The text Is Zech- ariah 1, IT, 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; 1t Is only on larger scale. The coun- tryman sometimes prevarfcates about the age of the horse that he sells, about the size of the bushei with which be 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 1t Is tough, and to as bad an extent as the citizen. the merchant, prevaricates about caficoes or silks or hardware. ~
 And as to villages, F think that in sonfe respects they are worse than the cities, because they copy the vices of the cities in the meanest shape; and as to gossip, it's heaven Is country Vtl- lage! Everybody knows everybody's business better than he knows 1t 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 hAlf dozen women who have their sum- bonnets hanging near, so that at the first item of derogatory news they can ny out and cackle it all over the town. Countrymen must not be too hard in their criticism of the citizen, nor must the blow run too sharply against the yardstick.
 Cain was the founder of the first city. and suppose 1t took after him to escape from the character of the founder. Where the founders of a city are criminal exiles, the filth, the vice, the prisons, are the shadow of those founders. It 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 auctioneers mallet as- cends the ascription, We worship thee, 0 thou almighty dollar!
 Not Necessarily Rad.
 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 plains, by Europeans, and so there should be a commingling and a fra ternity and a kindness md good will between the continents and between the cities. So there always ought to be. The strangest thing in my com prehension Is that there should be bickerings 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- Aberate step and calm manner-that Is Philadelphia; city with its pocket full of changAthat 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 Brook fyn. 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 affiuence, 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 a confraternity. I cannot under stand how there should go on picker ings and rivalries. I plead for a high CT style of brotherhood or sisterhood among the cities.
 Scenes of Toll.
 But while there are great differences in some respects, have to tell you that all cities Impress upon me, and ought to impress upon you, three or four very important lessons, all of them agreeing in the same thing. It does not make any difference in what part of the country we walk the streets of a great city, there is one lesson I think which ought to strike every In teilfsent Christian man, and that Is, that the world Is . scene of toll and struggle. Here and there you find c man In the street who has his arms folded and who seems to have no par ticular errand; but if you will stand at the corner of the street and watch the countenances of those who go by you will see in most instances there is