Smyrna times., 1855-10-31

'0i' 'oo Idzy 10 toll, may expect to pay tht
penalty, If not by ultimate poverty, by an eter
nal languor and debility-a feeling of listless
ness and anxiety for something unknown;
feeling of utter worthessness and insignif
canoe.
And if, indeed, you are too good to labor
so much better than God made man at the first
when ne was every good IF your hands are
100 delicate to be soiled by honest industry-i
your wealth and station in society make the
useful toll of the husbandman and mechanic
not only unnecessary, but diScredita5le-still
'here Is no reason that you should be idle, and
much less that you should employ yourself in
killing time OF all discreditable employ.
ments, we think that "killing time" is GER
talnly the most dlscrcdtablc and pernicious.-
But there is abundant reason WHY ven sbopld
he employed. God has given you hands to use
IN some way or another. He has also given
you mind capable of reasoning and rejecting
OF comparing, considering and deducing facts
and prlnciples-of acquiring and mparting
knowledge; and He has not given YOU these
talents to be buried in the earth.
If you live without work, some one must toll
to support you. Bread does not grow spontane-
| onsly-some one must labor to raise the grain.
and some one must toll to convert it into pala-
table nutriment; and are others obliged TO do
al this for you, while you do nothing to bene-
nj them or any one else! Instruct them if YOU
De wise; better be doing this than doing moth
ing. Use the tongue and the pen, illuminated
dark world with the fire of your genius. But
perhaps, you say s, have no genius, no talent
Tor speaking our writing" Well, then, if this
is yout~ sad condtion-too good to tol-too
honorable, toe wealthy to abor-too learned to
seek wlsdom-too indOlent TO impart it to
others, and with mind too barren to produce
anything, even with careful culture-so that
there is no alternative, but to remain in idle
ness and inactivity, and when idleness becomes
wearlsome, to seek to kill time by attending
ays, drinking, playing cards or billiards, or,
II too conscientious for this, by amusing your
self with dOminoes, the innocent" social
snake, or something of this sort, our advice is
that you take rope and hang yourself fyou
can be OF no use in the world-no advantage
whatever, to any One-can do nothing, save
d" "devour the cattle, corn and fish," perform
one good action, by rddng the world of such
miserable wretch. We do not wish to counsel
suicide either; but, then, we think there can
be no greater sin in putting an end to an exist
ence that can be of no use, whatever, than in
living only to kill time. AS well cut it off nj
once as obterate it little by little as ii passes
into eternity.
And in what do you engage, for the laudablc
purpose of killing time! In any honorable
pursuit! In any respectable employment =
No. In the most sinful practices--in the mos;
wicked amusements. Perhaps, at first, feel
ing OF lamguOr and peculiar WEAKNESS of ones
sell, which results from having nothing to do.
leads you to seek amusement in the Company OF
loIters and other characters of lik. stamp, who
are further advanced in the art Of killing
time" than yourself. They are drinking, dis
putting, gaming, &C.; and, although you may at
first consclentlously avoid most OF their abom-
nabe pleasures, yet, you are led Oh by degrees
you learn from them that {" the world owes
you living" and you soon catch the watch,
word, killing time" 1t becomes your excuse
for indulging in such amusements as you once
abhorred, till at length you find you have CON-
menced career of crime, to pass from one de-
gree unto another, until you fll a drunkard's
grave, or end your days in States prison or
upon a scaffod, or, perhaps to lead long life
Of uselessness-a life which affords nothing to
memory but such things as you wish you could
forget, or, perhaps, wish had never occurred.
have seen young men indulge themselves
in playing domnoes, cards and other species of
gaming (not gambling, for they were at this
time far too conscientious to stake money OH
the game), until they acquired such habit Of
| it, that whenever they could find a spare mo-
ment, they were sure to be engaged in their
favorite amusement They could see no harm
in it, they said; it was an agreeable method of
passing away time. But such persons should
remember that they are forming a habit-that
habits are more easily formed than broken, and
that they are wasting time which they should
employ to some useful purpose. Many who
were blest with bright genius, and who pos
sessed relish for study, have had this relish
destroyed, and their genius confined and cramp-
ed, by forming habit of idle amusement.
There is another method of killing time,
which, though probably not so peruicious, is
quite universal--that is, by conversation
Now, conversation on proper subjects and on
proper occasions, is a great means of instruc-
tion and profit, as we'll as the most suitable
method of amusement. But there are many,
especially in towns, who join with each other
, in band, at almost all times when they are at
leisure from their regular business (and many
, of them seem to have no other business), and
f engage in light and frivolous conversation,