Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1901-07-25

can there be any permanent prosperity?
business men, cool headed business men,
is such thing a possibility? These ex-
travagances also account, as l have al
ready limited, for the positive crimes. the
forgeries, the abscondings of the officers
of the banks. The store on the business
street swamped by the residence on the
fashionable avenue. The fathers, the hus-
bands craft capsized by carrying too
much domestic sail. That is what springs
the leak in the merchants money till.
That is what cracks the pistols of the sui
cldes. That is what tears down the banks
That Is what stops insurance companies.
That Is what halts this-n nation again and
again IN its triumphal march of prosper
Ity. In the presence of the American peo-
pie, so far as | can get their attention. [
want to arralgn this monster curse OF ex-
travagaHce, and | want YOU to pelt it with
Your scorn and hurl at it vorrr anatherna.
I know it cuts close. I did not know
but some of you in high dudgeon would
get up and go out. You stand it well.
Some of YOU make a great swash in life,
and after awhile you will die, and minis
ters will be sent for to come and stand by
your coffin and lie about your excellences,
but they will not come. II you send for
me, I will tell you what my text will be:
HE that provideth not for his own. and
especially for those in his own household,
is worse than an !nfdel."
What an apportionment! Twenty thou
sand dollars for ourselves and one cent
for God! An, my friends, this extrava-
gance accounts for a great deal OF what
the cause of God suffers!
And the desecration goes on even to the
funeral day. You know very well that
there are men who die solvent, but the
expenses are so great before they get I'M
der ground they are insolvent.
There are families that go into perury
in wicked response to the demands Of
lis day. They put in casket and tomb
bread. They wanted bread; you gave
them a tombstone.
One would think that the last two OBJ
legations people would be particular about
would be the physician and the under
taEer. Because they are the two last OBJ
legations, those two professions arc almost
always cheated. They send for the doctor
in great haste and he must come day and
night. They send for the undertaken
amid the great solemnities, and often
these two men are the very last to be met
with compensation. Merchants sell goods,
back the goods, | am told. But there is
no relief in this case. The man spent all
he had in luxury and extravaganza while
he lived, and then he goes out of the
world, and has left nothing for his family,
nothing for the obsequies, and as he goes
pills and the undertaler's slippers. | was
reading in a New York paper an account
of the Ob5equies in a family of very mOder
ate estate, and the aggregate was $1,000
4 man in New York Of moderate estate
dies. He has lived in extreme luxury
He departs this life. The family. desirons
Of keeping up the magnifcence, orders the
following things. They were produced and
never paid for to this day:
Caslet, covered with Lyons velvet,
silver moldlngs ;;................. sou
Heavy plated handles. ............... 60
Solid silver plate, engraved in Roman
letters ........ Observation-Disclosures. -
Ten linen scarfs Observation-Disclosures. $50
| Floral decorations. DISQUALIFICATION. 225
Music and quartet choir at the house 40
Twenty carriages ................... 40
Then fifteen other important expen-
dltures amounting to.............. 1856
Making aggregate $lS7G
And all that to get one poor mortal to
his last home and never paid for. Swim
died his family. SWinded the world. He
| is sWindling it now. 1t is one of the great
curses of this day, the extravaganza, the
wicked eixtra1yaga4ce, OF the country,
impoverished. Men give 50 much some
times for their indulgences they have
| nothing for the cause of God and religion.
Twenty-Five million dollars expended in
| this country year for religious purposes;
| but what are the twenty-five millions cx-
pended for religion compared with the
| hundred millions expended on cigars aud
| tobacco and then two thousand millions
| OF dollars spent for rum! So a man who
| had fortune of $4,000 or what amount
| ed to that in London spent it all in in
| dulgences, chiefly in giuttonies, and sent
| hit6er and yon for ali the deiicacics and
| often had a meal that would cost 500 or
| $500 for himself. Then he was reduced to
one 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 a large scale what men
| are doing OH a small scale.
Oh, my friends, let Us take our stand
against the extravasances of society. DO
mot 1en pay Won for thnsS which ba roGy
| not put one months wages or salary into
| q trinket, Just one trnket. Keep yOur
| credit good by seldom asking for any.
DO not starve a whole year to afford one
! BelshazZar's carnival. DO not bay a coat
| of many colors, and then in SIX months be
ont at the elbows. Flourish not. Us some
| people L have known, who took apart
| ments at fashionable hotel and had eic-
| CANT drawing rooms attached and then
vanished in the night. not even leaving
| their compliments for the landlord
| | tell you, my friends, III the day Of
| Gods Judgment we shall 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 sur
round 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 SOON" Better in that hour have one
treasure of heaven than the bridal trous
seau of a Marie Antoinette, or to have
been seated with Caligula at banquet
| which cost its thousands of dollars or tc
have been carried to our last resting
| place with Senators and princes as pail
| bearers. They that consecrate THEN
wealth, their time, their all, to God shall
be held in everlasting remembrance
while | have the authority of this book
for announcing that the name of the
wicked shall rot.