Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1850-01-12

place where he was first taught to love the
then nauseating draught.
And now, concluding paragraph, and ]
! have done with my young friends who still
make merry at public balls. They will
| bear me witness thatmy writings ' nothing
extenuate, nor set down aught in malice,
and what has been said, is more of an of
fering rs food for reflection than censure.
| am not one who would curtail your rea-
sonahle enioyments. | would not have
YOU set down as demure as deal and
| dumb assembly, but make your pleasures
moderate, sensible and rational. Ask your
self, then, whether the enjoyment of a night
at such a gathering, with It's usual accom-
paniments of drinking, and too often riot
ing, with its demands on the mind, the body,
and purse, is worth the cost? Surely YOU
cannot persuade yourself that it is. Are
three, four, five, or six dollars so easily
earned that You can afford to throw away
that amount in one night when one-half,
considerably used, would procure more
than the same amount of rational enjoy
ment? Ask yourself, too, whether YOU are
not on that high road which will lead you
TO place but little value on money, procured
perhaps by hard labor, and that by pursu-
ing this course YOU may arrive at the stage
when every dollar in your pocket has an
itching restlessness that will urge you on to
spend ii. However incredulous YOU may
look, rely upon it, my friend, there are
such people IN the 1cOrid. and not few in
number. Habit engendered in youth and
grown with years, has created an ambitious
feeling in their bOsoms to have ii said that
Messrs. SO and SO were AT such ball, at
cost of five or ten dollars, though their
means may be far from sufficient to Justify
such extravaganza. Gradually they ac-
Quire that itching Of which | speak for
spending money, and the result is, they will
soon become as much the slave of it as is
the drunkard to the liquor first taken from
the same motive. Though apparently in
dustrious, when such persons enter into the
bonds of matrimoRy with one who has de-
rived her ideas of life in the public ball
room, a few years suffice TO roll them back
wards, and the result is an unhappy mar
riage, broken hearts, and a life of privation
Or in other words, love flies out of the
window while poverty enters in at the door.
Ii is often remarked by wclI-mcaning per-
sons, A1r. and Mrs. A. are hard-working
people, but somehow cannot get taiong right
lll-health and other causes at times contri-
butte to produce this result, but how often
is il brought about by the pocket-itch =
The husband earns money enough to live
comfortably and lay by something for a
rainy day, is punctualIy paid, but somehow
II gets out OF his pocket, and when rent
day comes round. he is astonIshed that he
has hardly the shadow Of cash whcrewith
to pay It He has forgotten that on one
evening he treated half a dozen of old
friends-another day he purchased more Of
some article than could well be used
another bought this, that or something else,
Of no earthly use to him, and with such
routine, week after week, is it wonderful
that he is not g" wcll-to-do?' The attender
of public balls, in my opinion, is on the
spendthrift's broad and inviting road, in the
same manner as IS the youth who INDUCES
in frequent potations on that of drunkenness,
or the penny card player on that of gam
bling-and hence, have called attention
to 1t, because it is better at all times to avoid
evil than to court temptation, and in the
hope that some who have thus far thought
lightly of the subject, may be brought TO
view their career in true colors.
S. w,