The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-08-15


dressmakers. Enter the French mil
liners. Enter all costly plate and all
great extravagances.
Act the fourth-Tiptop of society.
Princes and princesses Of upper ten
dom floating in and out. Everything
on large and magnificent scale. En-
ter contempt for other people.
Act the fifth and last-Enter the
assignee. Enter the sheriff. Enter
the creditors. Enter humiliation. En-
ter wrath of God. Enter the con-
death. Now drop the curtain. The
play is ended, and this lights are out.
l call it a tragedy. That is a mis-
nomer. 1t is a farce.
Extravaganza counts for much of
the pauperism. Who ara these peo-
pie whom you have to help? Many
of them are the children of parents
who had plenty, lived in luxury, had
more than they needed, spent all they
had, spent more, too; then died and
left their families in poverty. Some
of those who call on you now for aid
had an ancestry that supped on bur-
gundy and woodcock. | could name a
score of men who have every luxury.
They smoke the best cigars, and they
drink the finest wines, and they have
the grandest surroundings, and when
they die their families will go on the
cold charity of the world. Now, the
death of such man is a grand lar
ceny. He swindles the world as he
goes into his coffin, and he deserves
to have his bones sold to the medical
museum for anatomical specimens,
the proceeds to furnish bread for his
children.
I know it cuts close. I did not
know but some of you in high dud-
geon would get up and go out. You
stand it we'll! Some of you make
you will die, and ministers will be
sent for to come and stand by your
coffin and lie about your excellences.
But they will not come. If you send
for me, I will teal you what my text
will be: HE that provideth not for :
his own, and especially for those Of
his own household, is worse than an
infidel." And yet we find Christian
men, men of large means, who some
times talk eloquently about the Chris
tian church and about civilizati ton, ex-
pending everything on themselves and
nothing on the cause of God, and
they crack the back of their Palais
Royal glove in trying to hide the
one cent they put in the Lords treas
ury. What an apportionment Twen-
ty thousand dollars for ourselves and
one cent for God. All, my friends,
this extravaganza accounts for a
great deal of what the cause of God
suffers. ......
And then look how the cause of
God is impoverished. Men give SO
much sometimes for their indulgences
they have nothing for the cause Of
God and religion. Twenty-Five mil
lion dollars expended in this country
year for religious purposes! But
what are the twenty-five millions ex-
pended for religion compared with
the hundred millions expended on
cigars and tobacco and then two thou
sand millions of dollars spent for
rum? So a man who had a fortune
of $3.50, 900, or what amounted to that,
in London spent it all in indulgences,
chiefly in gluttonies, and sent hither
and yon for all the delicacies, and
often had meal that would cost $100
or 5000 for himself. Then he was re-
duced to a guinea, with which he
bought rare bird, had it cooked in
best style, ate it, took two hours for
digestion, walked out on Westminster
bridge and jumped into the Thames
on large scale what men are do
ing on small scale.
Oh, my friends, let us take our
stand against the extravagances Of
society. Do not pay for things which
are frivolous when you may lack the
necessities. Do not put one months
wages or salary into trinket, just
one trinket. Keep your credit good
by seldom asking for any. Pay! Do
not starve whole year to afford one
BelshaZzar's carnival. Do not buy a
coat of many colors and then in six
months be out at the elbows. Flour
ish not, as some people L have
known, who took apartments at
fashionable hotel and had elegant
drawing-rooms attached and then
vanished in the night, not even leay-
ing their compliments for the land
lord. 1 tell you, my friends, in the
day of Gods judgment we will not
only have to give an account for the
way we made our money, but for the
way we spent it. We have got to
leave all the things that surround US
now.
Alas, if any of you in the dying
hour felt like the dying actress who
asked that the casket of jewels be
brought to her and then turned them
over with her pale hand and said:
"Alas, that | have to leave you SO
eoon!" Better in that hour have one
treasure of Heaven than the bridal
trousseau of Marie Antoinette or to
have been seated with Caligula at
banquet which cost its thousands of
dollars or to have been carried to our
last resting place with sepators and