The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1901-06-14
THE GAMBLING EVIL.
DR.. Talmage Arraigns the Spirit of
Wild Speculation.
He Gives some Account OF The Ffnan-
eial Ruin of Other Days-gO1ey
q Golden Breasted
Bird.
copyright. 1901. by Louis Klopsst. n. VI

In this discourse DIR. Talmage ar
raigns the spirit of wild speculation
and gives some account of the finan-
cial ruin of other days; Proverbs 1916;
Riches certainly make themselves
wings. they fly away as an eagle
toward heaven"
Money is a golden-breasted bird
with silver beak. IL aligbts on the
Office desk or on the parlor center
table. Men and women stand and
admire it. They do not notice that
it has wings larger than ravens.
larger than a fiamingo's, larger than
an eagles. One wave OF the hand
of misfortune and it spreads its
beautiful plumage and is gone--"as
an eagle toward heaven" my text
says, though sometimes think it
goes in the other direction.
What a verification we have had
of the flying capacity of riches in
Wall street. And Wall street is one
of the longest streets in the world.
1t does not begin at the foot OF
Trinity church, New York, and end
at the East river. as many suppose.
1t reaches through all our Ancri-
can cities and across the sea. En-
couraged by the revival of trade and
by the fact that Wall street disas-
tiers of other years were so far back
as to be forgotten, spectators run
up the stocks from point 10 point
until innocent people on the outside
suppose that the stocks would al
ways continue to ascend. They
gather in from all parts OF the coun-
try. Large sums of money are
taken into Wall street and small
sums OF money. The crash comes.
thank God. in time to warn off a
great many who were on their way
thither. for the sadness of the thing
10 that a great many OF the young
men of our cities who save a little
money for the purpose of starting
themselves in business. and who
have $500 or 200 or s.. 900 or SlO.-
600 go into Wall street and lose all.
And if there ever was time for the
pulpit TO speak out in regard to GER
tain kinds of nefarious enterprises
now is the time.
Stocks rose and fell. and now they
begin to rise again. and they will
fall again until thousands of young
men will be ruined unless the print
ing press and the pulpit give en-
phatic utterance. My counsel is 10
countrymen, so far as they may
hear of this discourse, if they have
surplus TO invest il in first mort
cages and in moneyed institutions
which. though paying comparative
~ small interest, are sound and safe
beyond dispute, and TO stand clear
of the Wall street vortex. where so
many have been swamped and swal-
lowed. What compliment it is to
the healthy condition of our country
that these recent disasters have in
nowise depressed tradel | thank
God that Wall streets capacity to
blast this country has gone forever.
First of all. Wall street stands as a
type in this country for tried integrity
and the most outrageous villainy.
Farmers who have only few hundred
dollars worth of produce to put on the
market have but little 10 test their
character. but put man into the
seven times heated furnace Of Wall
street excitement and he either comes
out a Shadrach. with hair unsinged. or
he is burned into a black moral cinder.
No halfway work about il. If | want
ed TO find integrity bombproof. /
would 90 among the bankers and mer-
chants of Wall street; yet because
there have been such villainies enacted
there at different times some men
have supposed that il is great finan-
cial debauchery, and they hardly dare
go near the street or walk up or down
it unless they have buttoned up their
last pocket and had their lives insured
or religiously crossed the mselves. Yet
IL you start at either end of the street
and read the business signs you will
find the names of more men of in
tegrity and Christian benevole nee than
you can find in the same space in any
street of any of our cities. When the
Christian commission and the sanitary
commission wanted money TO send
medicine and bandages to the wound
furnishing ireland. when colleges were
to be endowed aud churches were 10 be
supported and missionary societies
were 10 he equipped for their work of
sending the Gospel ell around the
world. the first street to respond has
been Wall street. and the largest re-
sponses in all the land have come from
Wall street.
But while that street is a type OF
tried integrity on one hand il is also a
type of unbounded swindie on the
other. There are the spiders that wal;
for innocent flies. There are the crocO-
dies shat crawl up through the slime
10 craneh the calf. There are the
anacondas. ~:sh lifted loop. ready TO
crush the unwary. There are financial
wreckers. who stand on the beach
praying for Caribbean whiriwind To
sweep over our commercial interests.
Let me say it is no place for a man
TO go into business unless his moral
principle is thoroughly settled. That
is no pace for man 10 go into bust
ness who does not know when he is
overpaid five dollars by mistake wheth-