The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-09-16
 , DIR. TALMACE'S SERMON ]
  FRANK DE WITT TALMAog, D. D.
DE WITT TALMAGE, D. D.

| marry at all. Water cannot rise higher than It's source. A strong branch can not grow from a withered trunk Neither can a physically and mentally healthy | child descend from unhealthy parents. The first reformation of our social evils should be pathological. It should be a sweeping diagnosis and should start with sound physical marriage altar It should extend our immigration laws-namely, the l laws which allow little children to come Into the world among ourselves rather than the immigration laws which prevent | leprous children and their parents to come from other lands into ours. Prenatal causes may be just as far reaching in their social results as postnatal. child must be born well in order to live physi- cally well.
 Marital laws having made 1t possible for the coming generations to be born well. the next question is almost as important as the first. What are we going to do with the physical moral development of our children after they are born? I am alluding to all the boys and girls who are born in the slums and In the congested quarters of our large cities. The prob- lems that confront my nelghbors chl dren from the socialistc standpoint are just as important as those that confront my own.
 The Street Arab.
 Did you every try to put yourself in the place of the street arab who is running wild in one of our large cities? Hr. Spur geon in one of his books told this anec- dote: He was one day visiting his or phan home While there a little boy came up and sat down beside him and said: MT. Sturgeon suppose there was an orphanage and there was a lot of lit- tie boys there. And suppose all those little boys had lost their fathers. And suppose once a month their mothers came and their aunts and brought them pen nies and apples and oranges and nice things. And suppose there was a little boy that had no mother or aunt or any body to come and see him. Don't you think somebody ought to give him six pence? Cause, MT. Sturgeon, that's me.
 Do you wonder that the great Lon don preacher when he heard that little or phan child pleading his cause so elo- duently should have put his hand in his pocket and drawn out a sixpenee and given it to the lad who had no father, no mother no aunt, no uncle, no pennies, no. apples and no anything?
 Well. as that orphan child pleaded with Charles H. Sturgeon I want the average street arab to plead with you. In the first place. I want him to take you by the hand and lead you to his home. Where Is I and horror in one page, or twenty pages, or fifty pages. If you want a description of some of the homes of the poor, go and read the books of Jacob Riis entitled How the Other Half Lives" "rhe Battle With the Sums" t"rhe Peril and the Preservation of the Home." Read Gen. eral William Booths "fn Darkest Eng land and the Way Out" Read Robert Hunters poverty" Read Jack Londons "The People of the Abyss" The simple fact is truth is stranger than fiction" No tragedy ever written by playwright genius can half depict the horrors which have been described by the pens of Jacob Rlis and William Booth. These men are not imaginative writers. They simply deserle the filthy novels which they have visited and the malodors and repulsions amid which they saw children and men and women herded. "Supposlng your children were born amid such places of filth and darkness" says the street arab to Is as the little orphaned by spoke to Charles H. Sturgeon, would you not give him a better home if you could? Well that helpless child, born in filth and poverty, is me Yes, that child is me"
 Practical Questions.
 Now came the practical questions: Are we as intelligent Americans going to care for our neighbors' children, born in filth and dirt? Are we going to give them pub lie parks and public paygrounds and free bathing places and free docks where the poor can get a breath of the sea air in the hot summer months? Are we going to furnish them model tenement houses, properly ventilated and lighted and with healthy sanitary plumbing? These are vital questions which the American peo- pie must solve. These are not luxuries which the poor are demanding, but neces- stiles. And if the poor do not have these physical necessities then they will pay us back In our own coin. For filth and darkness and vitated air always breeds crime and drunkenness and licentiousness and brutality and sins of all sorts As the black plaques of Europe always started from the vile, stenchful quarters of the congested cities of the east, so the plaques of debauehery and ignorance and crime thrive best in the filthy quarters of the poor of our large cities where the sunshine cannot get into the homes and where the little children have no parks or playgrounds in which they may develop healthfully, as all children should develop.
 Furthermore I was struck with another fact when reading about the physical ne- cessities of the poor. The poor are not paupers, as we conceive paupers. The poor are willing and able to pay a just return for their necessities. But the trouble Is when man becomes poor then he becomes helpless. Then the capitalist robs him of the little he has, however small that all may be. Let me Illustrate what l mean: Here Is man sinking tn the middle of lake. "Helpl Helni'' he cries. q am drowning! Give me helpl" With that man rows up and says: Well, my friend, you are drowning. How much will you give me if I save you?" "Ten dollars" "Oh. no; that is not enough You must give me your all. You must work for me through life, and when you get through I will let you be buried in just the rags you have on your back" That Is the way the capitalist treats the poor of our large cities When he sells the poor man his coal, he sells it by the shovelful, and he sells it at ruinous price. He charges the poor man three times the price at which he sells 1t by the ton to the rich man. When he builds the poor man his miserable hovel the capi- talist usually gets. 90. 40 60 and even 100 per cent on his money invested. A dog or a wild beast would net live in some of the filthy dens in which the poor of New York used to be housed And yet for every one of those dark cellars and