Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1857-04-16
Beware of Drifting.

Few people form habits of wrong doing
deliberately and wilfally. They glide into
them Oy degrees, and almost unconscious ly,
and, before they are aware of danger. the
hsDi are confirmed, and require resolute
and persistent effort to effect change
"Resist beginnings" was a maxim of the
ancients, and should be preserved as land
mark in our day. The Baltimore Sun has a
good artic lie on the slight beginnings of
danger, which end N fatsl ruin:
sit was only the other day that man
fell asleep in his boat on the Niagara River.
During his slumber the boal broke loose
rom her mooriRgs, and he awoke to ind
himself shooting down the rapids directly
towards the cataract. In vain he .shrieked
for help; in vain he tr led to row against the
current. He drilted ON and on till his light
craft upset, when he was borne rapidly to
the brink of the abyss, and leaping up with
a wild cry, went over and disappeared for
ever.
"In the great battle of Gibra alter, when
the united fleets of France and Spain at
tackled the impregnable fortress, one of the
gigantic floating batteries broke from her
anchorage, and began to drift directly into
the hottest of the British fire. The thous-
and men who formed the crew of the un-
wieldy mass vainly stroye to arrest its pro-
gress or divert it from its path. Every
minute it drifted nearer to the English guns !;
every minute some new part took fire from
the red-hot shot; every minute another score
OF its hapless defenders were swept like
chaff from its decks. The most superhuman
efforts failed to prevent its drifting, with its
human freight, to inevitable death.
"a ship was wrecked at sea. Tue pas
sengers and crew took refuge on raft, the
boats having been stove in the attempt to
launch them. For days and weeks these
unfertunates drited about, without oar or
sail On the hot broken tropical ocean. At
last their provisions failed, and then their
water. Still they drifted about, vainly look
ing for sail, or hoping for a sight of land .
The time had now come when that fearful
alternative became inevitable-death from
starvation or feeding on human fssh-and
they were just beginning to cast lots for a
victim, when a vessel was seen on the dis
tant horizon. They abandoned their terri
BILE design; the stranger would APPROACH
The ship came towards them; she drew
nearer and nearer. They strove to attract
her attention by shouts, and by raising their
clothing; but the indolent lookout saw them
not. They shouted louder and louder; still
they were not seen. At last the vessel
tackled. With frantic terror they rose in
one body, shouting and waving THEN gar.
ments. 1t was in vaiL; the unconscious ship
stood steadily away. Night drew on, and
as the darkness fell, the raft drifted and
drtted in tie other direction, till the last
trace of the vessel was lost forever.
$50 1t is in life. The intemperate man
vino thinks he, at least, will never die a
drunkard, whatever his neighbor may do.
only wakes - find himself drifting down tae
cataract, and all hope gone. The sensualist
who lives merely Tor his own qualification.
drifts into an emascilated old age, to be
tortured with passions he canno, gratify,
and perish by merciless, agonizing diseases
The undiscipIined, who nev learned to
control themselves-who are spendthrifts.
or passionate, or indolcnt, or visionary, soon
make shipwreck of themselves, and drift
about the sea of life, the prey of every wind
and current, vainly shreking for help, till
at last they drift away into darkness and
death.