The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1901-06-14
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE 5Y The NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject; The Curse OF speeulation-In-
tegrity and yillsiny in WILL street
Lessons Drawn From Gambling CraEes
Which Have Swept over the World.

Which Have Swept over the World.
lcopyri.ht 1901
WASHINGTON, d. C.-In this discourse
DR.. Ialmage arraigus the spirit OF wild
speculation and gives some account OF
the financial ruin OF other days; Proverbs
xxlIi 5, Riches certainly make them
selves wings; they ay away as an eagle
toward heaven"
Money Is a gold breasted bird with
silver beak. II alights on the office
desk or IN the counting room or on the
parlor centre table Men and women
stand and admire IL. They do not notice
that II has wings larger than a ravens,
larger than a famlngo's, larger than an
eagles. One wave OF the hand of mis-
fortune, and II spreads It, beautiful
p!unase and i gone. as an eagle toward
heaven my textbook says, though some
times / think II goes IN the other dlrec-
tion.
What a veriication we have had OF
the flying capacity Of riches IN Wall
Street! And Wall Street Is one of the
longest streets in all the world. IL does
not begin at the foot OF Trinity Church,
New York, and end at the East River, "a
many suppose. IL reaches through all
our American cities and across the seas.
Encouraged by the revival Of trade and
by the fact that Wall Street disasters OF
other years were so lar back as 20 be
from point 20 point until innocent people
on the outside suppose that the stocks
would always contlnSS 70 ascend. They
gather IN from all parts OF the country.
Large sums OF money are taken into
Wall Street and small sums OF money.
The crash comes, thank God, IN time TO
warn of a great many who were on
their way thither for the sadness OF the
thing Is 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 $1,000
or $1,000 or $4,000 90 into Wall Street
and lose all. And If there was q time for
the pulpit to speak out IN regard 20 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 printing press and
the pulpit give emphatic utterance. My
counsel Is TO countrymen, so far as they
may hear of this discourse, If they have
surplus, 10 invest II in first mortgages
ard in moneyed institutions which though
paying comparatively small interest, are
sound and safe beyond dispute, and 10
stand clear of the Wall Street vortex,
where so many have been swamped and
swallowed. What a compliment 1t Is 20
the healthy condition of our country that
depressed trade! | thank God that Wall
Streets capacity to blast this country
has gone forever.
Across the island Of New York in
1855 a wall maze of stone and earth
and cannon mounted was built TO keep of
the savages. Along by that wall a street
was laid out, and as the street followed
the line of the wall it was appropriately
called Wall Street. 1t Is narrow, IL Is
unarchitectural and yet its history is
unique. Excepting Lombard street, Lon
dol, 1t Is the mightiest street on this
planet There the Government of the
United States was born. There Washing.
and Mrs Caldwell and Mrs. Knox and
other brilliant women OF the Revolution
displayed their charms. There Withcr-
son ard Jonathan Edwards and George
White ield sometimes preached. There
DR. Mason chided Alexander Hamilton
for writing the Constitution OF the Uni-
ted States without any God IN II. There
negroes were sold in the slave mart.
There criminals were harnessed to wheel
barrows and, like beasts OF burden, COM
PEELED TO draw or were lashed through
the streets behind carts to which they
were fastened. There fortunes have come
to coronation or burial since the day
when reckless SPECTATORS in powdered
hair and silver shoe buckles lodged Du-
gan, the Governor-Goneral of His Maj
esty, clear down 20 yesterday at o'clock.
The history OF Wall Street Is ID GER
tain extent the financial, commercial
agricultural, mining, literary, artistic,
moral and religious history of this cOun-
try. There are the best men in this
country, and there are the worst Every
thing from answering integrity 20 tip
top uldrelsn-everythlng from heav-
en- bora charity u blood.ess Shylock.
ism. want to put the, piow IN at the
curbstone of Trinity and d-ivc II clear
through 10 VIII Street ferry, and 81 1t
shall go if the horses are strong enough
TO draw the plow.
First of all, Wall Street stands as a
type in this country for tried integrity
and the most outrageous villainy. Farm
ers who have only a few hundred dol
lars worth of produce 10 put On the mar
Eet have but little to test their charac-
ter, but put man into tie seven times
hea.ed furnace of Wall Street excite
mont and he either comes out Shadrach,
with hair unsinged, or he l. burned into
q black moral cInder No ha w-y worl;
about it. Ii | wanted to find integrity
bombproof, / would 60 among the bank
Crs and merchants of Wall Street, yet be-
cause there have been such viilailies enact
cd there at different times some rlen
have supposed that It is a great financial
debluChery, and they hardly dare 90
rear the street or walk up and down It
unless they have buttonod up their last
pocket and had their lives insured or re-
hgiousiy crossed Themselves. Yet If you
start at either end Of the street and
read the business signs you Will and the
names OF more men OF integrity and
Christian bCucvo,clcc than YOU can find
in the s1Te space IN any street of any
of our ci les. When thc Christian COM
mission and the sanitary commission
SGn.-l money 20 send medicine and band
fp an H.
were wanted for famishin- Ireland, when
colleges were 90 be endowed and churches
were 81 De supported and missionary &C.
cieties were 10 be eqMppd Tor Their worl.
OF sending the gospel all around the
world, the first street 20 respond has
been Wall Street, and the largest re-
sponses in all the land hav- come from
Wall Street.
But, while that street is a type Of tried
integrity on ono hand, it Is also a type of
unbounded swlndle on the other. There
are the spiders that wait for innocent
flies. there are the crocodiles that crawl
up through the slime 70 cTalch the calf
there are the anacondas, with lifted loop
ready to crush che unwary; there are IL
nancial wreckers who stand on the
beach praying for a Caribbean whlrlwinf
10 sweep over our commercial interests
Let me say IL is no place for a man 20
g into business unless his moral psincl
pie Is thoroughly settled. That Is nc
place for a man TO go into business who
does not know when he IL overpaid s. BY
mist-ke whether he had better take II
back OF not; that is no place for a man
20 60 who has large funds IN trust and
who IA all the time tempted 20 speculate
with them; that - no place for a man %
20 who does not quite kaow whether the
laws of the State forbid usury or patron
ize 1t. On, how many men have risked
i.