The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1901-07-19

Act the third-Enter the queenly
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-
tempt of society. Enter ruin and
death. Now drop the curtain. The
play is ended, and the lights are out.
1 call it tragedy. That is a mis-
homer. 1t is farce.
Extravaganza counts for much Of
the paupersm Who are 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 a man is n 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 well! Some of you make a
great swash in life, and after awhile
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. | will tel 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 civilization 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 the desecration goes on, even
to the funeral day. You know very
well there are men who die solvent,
but the expenses are so great before
they get underground they are insol-
vent. There are families that go into
penury i'm wicked response to the de-
mands of this day. They put in cas-
ket and tombstone that which they
ought to put in bread. They wanted
bread; you gave them tombstone.
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
a year for religious purposes! But
what are the twenty-five millions eX-
pended for religion compared with
the hundred millions expended on
sand millions of dollars spent for
rum? So a man who had fortune
of $750,000, or what amounted to that,
in London spent il all in ipdulgences,
chiefly in gluttonies, and sent hither
and yon for all the delicacies, and
often had a meal that would cost 500
or 5000 for himself. Then he was re-
duced to guinea, with which he
bought a 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 do
ing on a 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 month S
wages or salary into a trinket, just
one trinket. Keep your credit good
by seldom asking for any. Pay! Do
not starve a whole year to afford one
Belshazzar's carnival. Do not buy n
coat of many colors and then in six
months be out at the elbows. Flour
ish not, as some people | have
known, who took apartments at a
fashionable hotel and had elegant
drawing-rooms attached and then
vanished in the night, not even leav-
ing their compliments for the land
lord. | tell you, my friends, in the
day of Gods judgment we viii 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