The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-21

anathema. How many fortunes every year wrecked on the wardrobe. Things have got to such pass that when we cry | over our sins in church we wipe the tears away with a $l5o pocket hand I kerchief! I show you domestic | tragedy In five acts:
 Act the frst-.A home, plain and beautiful. Enter newly married pair. Enter contentment. Enter as much | happiness as ever gets in one home. | Act the second-Enter discontent. | Enter desire for larger expenditure. 1 Enter envy. Enter jealousy.
 Act the third-Enter the Queenly | dressmakers. Enter the French mill | 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 a large and magnificent scale. | Enter contempt for other people. | Act the fifth and last-Enter the as- signee. Enter the sheriff. Enter the | creditors. Enter humiliation. Enter the wrath of God. Enter the contempt Of society. Enter ruin and death. Now drop the curtain. The play Is ended. | and the lights are out.
 I call 1t a tragedy. That is mis- | homer. It is farce.
 l Extravagance counts for much of the pauperism. Who are these people 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 l in poverty. Some of those who call l on you now for aid had an ancestry that supped on burgundy and wood- l cock could name a score of men who have every luxury. They smoke l the best cigars, and they drink the | finest wines. and they have the grand | est surroundings. and when they die 1 their families will go on the cold char I ity of the world. Now. the death of such a man is a grand larceny. He | swindles the world as he goes into his | coffin, and he deserves to have his
 bones sold to the medical museum for l anatomical specimens. the proceeds to furnish bread for his children.
 | Providing for Ones Own. I know 1t cuts close. did not know I but some of you in high dudgeon would l get up and go out. You stand 1t well! l 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. l If you send fos me, will tell you what 1 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 sometimes talk eloQuently about | the Christian church and about civili- l zation, expending everything on them- | selves and nothing on the cause of God, and they crack the back of their Palais | Royal glove in trying to hide the one l cent they put in the Lords treasury. | What an apportionment. Twenty thou l sand dollars for ourselves and one cent for God. An. my friends. this extrava- | gance accounts for great deal of what the cause of God suffers
 And the dissertation goes on, even to the funeral day. You know very we'll
 that 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 in wicked response to the de-
 mands of this day. They put in casket and tombstone that which they ought
 to put in bread. They wanted bread;
 you gave them a tombstone.
 One would think that the last two obligations people would be particular about would be to the physician and
 the undertaken. Because they are the
 two last obligations those two profess
 sions are 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 com
 pensation. Merchants sell goods. and
 the goods are not paid for. They take
 back the goods, I am told. But there
 is no relief in this case. The man spent
 all he had in luxuries 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 out of the world he
 steals the doctors pills and the un-
 dertaker's slippers. I was reading in
 a New York paper an account of the
 obsequies in family of very moderate
 estate, and the aggregate was $S,000. A
 man in New York of moderate estate
 digs. He has lived in extreme luxury.
 Hs departs this life. The family. de-
 sirous of keeping up the magnifcence,
 orders the following things: they were
 produced and never paid for to this
 day:
 Casket, covered with Lyons vel
 vet. silver moldings .......$ $50
 Heavy plaited handles ............ 60
 Solid silver plate, engraved In
 Roman letters. .......... 70 II Ten linen scarfs ................... 1oO
 Floral decorations. .....,.rr 22o
 Music and quartet choir at the
 l house,. .y...... ..'.'''' ''''-' ny
 Twenty carriages ...... .......... l4u
 Then 15 other important expen-
 ditures amount to .............. Sot
 Making an aggregate O. ......rA.S76
 And all that to get one poor mortal to his last home and never paid for!
 Swindled his family! Swindled the
 world He is swindling it now. It is
 one of the great curses of this day, the
 extravaganza. the wicked extravaganza
 of the country
 Gods Cause Impoverished.
 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-two million dollars
 expended in this country year iol l l2IIt what are the