Part 15 (1/2)
”Here, in one of the biggest cities in the world, an innocent child had died of hunger, and because its mother was too poor to pay for medical attendance
”A word or thispered in thestairs to the street The sun is shi+ning brightly A half-dozen ro children are on their way ho briskly It is Christood things to co their horses and swearing at others in their way An organ-grinder is playing 'Sweet violets' on a neighbouring corner Everyone in the streets is of s face and happy”
The picture is not mine, nor could I have drawn one ofthe almost daily experiences of a ”popular”
minister, as I was called It was estimated that my weekly sermons, in all parts of the world, reached 180,000,000 people every Mondayto a man who, in his student days, had been told that he would never be fit to preach the Gospel in any Areat opportunity of His blessings
[Illustration: DR TALMAGE AS CHAPLAIN OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT]
In the spring of 1888 I received the honour of being iment of the National Guard, with a commission as captain, to succeed my old friend and felloorker, Henry Ward Beecher, who had died Although I was a very busy man I accepted it, because I had always felt it my duty to be a part of any public-spirited enterprise On March 7th, 1888, before a vast assembly, the oath was administered by Colonel Austen, and I received ht of war, at Sharpsburg and Hagerstohere the hospitals were filled ounded soldiers, led faintly with the actual scene of peace and plenty around me at that moment We needed no epaulet then but the shoulder that isofficer but the steadiness of our own nerves The Thirteenth Regiht of its prosperity then; our band, under the leadershi+p of Fred Inness, was the best in the city I remembered it well because, in the parade on Decoration Day, I was on horseback riding a so, if not strictly true, to read in the newspaper the following day that ”Doctor Tale rides his horse with dash and skill”
The association of ideas in American life is a wonderful mixture of the appropriate and the inappropriate Because my church was crowded, because I lived in a comfortable house, because I could become, on occasions, a preacher on horseback, I was rated as ato read about, but difficult to live up to
There were many calculations in the newspapers as to ures were correct My salary was 12,000 as pastor of the Tabernacle, I have made over 20,000 a year from my lectures
From the publication of my sermons my income was equal to my salary I received 5,000 a year as editor of a popular monthly; I sole h as 250 There were some royalties on my books
We lived well, dressed comfortably; but there were many demands on me then, as on all public men, and I needed all I could earn I carried a life insurance of 75,000 All this was a long way froures and facts because they stimulate to me, as I hope they will to others, the possibilities of temporal welfare in a minister's life, provided he works hard and is faithful to the tre
A man's industry is the whole of that man, just as his laziness is the end of him I always believed heartily, profoundly, in the equality of a man's salvation with a man's self-respect in temporal affairs I am sure that whoever keeps the books in Heaven credits the account of a new arrival with the exact a a due allowance for the amounts earned and paid over to the causes of charity, kindliness, and ious method of the Salvation Army, because it was an effort to discipline salvation on a working basis When the Salvation Ars in Brooklyn its members were hooted and insulted in the streets to an extent that rendered their s almost impossible I was requested to present a petition to Mayor Whitney asking protection for the near the Salvation headquarters were in constant danger of annoyance froathered about them It was the fault of the Brooklyn ruffianism I des and march in processions unmolested No one was ever killed by a street hosannah, no one was ever hurt by hearing a hallelujah Thethe ood we can do each other in the climb to Paradise A minister's duty in his own community, and in all other coreat men of his time understand him and like hihts and shadows of human character in htening One met them, these men of many talents, at their best at dinners and banquets It was then they were in their splendour
Those dinners at the Press Club in 1888, what treat they were! In the days of John A cockerill, the handso ”Colonel,” as he was called, of Mayor Grant the suave, Chauncey M Depew the wit, of Charles Ee the Socialist, Moses P Handy the ”Major,” of Roswell P Flower, of Judge Henry Hilton, of General Felix Agnus--and of Heric wonder- spirits of an arht men who pushed the world upside down, or rolled it over and over, orwith these arbiters of our fate were all sorts and conditions ofInspector Byrnes, the Sherlock Hole, Steven Fiske, Sae Gedney, ”Pat” Gil, Frank B
Thurber, J Aheghan, Doc White, and Joseph Howard, jun They were the old guard of the land of Boheood to theious hypocrisy I remember a letter sent by President Harrison to one of these dinners, in which, after acknowledging the receipt of an invitation to attend, he regretted being unable to be present at ”so attractive an event”
A the men whom I firstrespect upon uest of General Stewart L Woodford, at a breakfast given in his honour in the spring of 1888 at the Ha others, to meet him We all came--Mr Benjamin A Stille CR Pratt, ex-Mayor Schroeder, Mr John Winslow, president of the New England Society, Mr George M
Olcott, Mr William Copeland Wallace, Colonel Albert P Lamb, Mr
Charles A Moore, Mr William B Williams, Mr Ethan Allen Doty, Mr
James S Case, Mr TL Woodruff It was a social innovation then to arrange a gathering of this sort at 11 ae was only in town on a visit for a few days, chiefly, I think, to attend the annual dinner of the ”Sunrise Sons,” as the land society were called As I read these na some of them look now, in the world's note-book of celebrities So to learn the pleasant taste of ambitious careers Most of theift of hard work There is more health in work than in anythat keeps people alive Whatever posteritya worker Perhaps for this reason I becaation before the people in 1888 It was the first time in my life that any notable attention had been taken of me in my own country, that was not a personal notoriety over soins to describe your home life with an air of analysis that is not libellous you are a the famous It took me a little while to understand this A man's private life is of such indifferent character to himself, unless he be an official representative of the people, that I never quite appreciated the iiven to mine, at this time, in Brooklyn Chiefly because I had made money as a writer, my fellow-citizens were curious to kno, in the clerical profession, it could be made Articles appeared constantly in the newspapers with headlines like these--”Dr Tale's Wealth,” ”Talan with the American view point uppermost, in this fashi+on:
”The American preacher lives in a luxurious home”
”His income, from all sources, exceeds that of the President of the United States”
”The ie is very rich”
I regretted this because there is a notion that a minister of the Gospel cannot accumulate money for himself, that he should not do so if he could, that his duty consists in collectingand everyone but his own temporal prosperity I had done this all ht the financial success which in soarded the money which I received for my work as pastor of the Tabernacle, or fro capacity that is due to every working man I was able to do more work than some, because the motives of my whole life have insisted that I work hard The ith was not abnormal, it was merely the daily require as I could
Restlessness was an eleth of time My mind had acquired the habit of ideas, and my hands were always full of unfinished labours
I re once to sit still at a concert of Gil one selection I found myself unable to listen any farther--I could not sit quiet for longer I rarely allowed , no matter whether the razor were sharp or blunt They used to tell me that I wore a black bow tie till it was not fit to wear On the trains I slept a great deal Sleep is the great storage battery of life Four days of the week I was on the train I rose every lance over the allery of the world the life of a new day First the cable news, then the editorials, then the news about ourselves I received the principal newspapers of al h If a man poked fun at me with true wit I was his friend They were clever fellows those newspaper hu a very i walk Often I used to go from the Grand Central Depot in New York to my home in Brooklyn There and back was e walk for a man past fifty every day I have ue I always dined in the y,” I always took a nap after dinner In my boyhood days this was a book that opposed the habit Coht it very injurious to sleep after dinner, but I saw the cow lie down after eating, and the horse, and it see bath is absolutely indispensable When I was in college there were no luxurious hot and cold bath rooet at the water
These were the habits of rew uponin the heart and brain and muscle My voice rarely, if ever, failed ht,could fail to enjoy In St Paul, Duluth, Minneapolis, the crowds in and about the churches where I preached were estimated to be over twenty thousand It was a joy to live realising the service one could be to others This year of 1888 was to be a climax to so many aspirations of my life that I am forced to record it as one of theyears No event of any consequence in the country, social or political, or disastrous, happened, that my name was not available to the ethical phase of its development Newspaper squibs of all sorts reflect this fact in so:
”ONLY TALMAGE!