Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1857-07-04
The Toll Gate of Life.

We are all on our journey. The world
through which we are passing is in some
respects like a turnpike-al along where
vice and folly have erected toll gates for
the accommodation of those who choose to
call as they go--and there are very few of
al the hosts Of travellers who do not occa.'
sionally stop little at some one or other
OF them--and consequently pay more or
less, to the toll. ll.gatherers. Pay more or
less, say, because there is great variety
as we'll in the amount as in the kind of toll
eNacted at these different stopping places
Pride and fashion take heavy tolls of the
purse--many man has become a beggar
by paying at their gates. The ordinary
rates they charge are heavy, and the road
llat way is none of the best
Pleasure offers very smooth, delightful
road in the outset. She tempts the tray.
eler with many fair promises, and wins
thousands but she takes without mercy;
like an artfUl robber, she allures until she
gets her victim in her power and turns him
off miserable object, into the worst and
most rugged road Of life
lntemPerance plays the part of sturdy
villain. He's the worry worst toll gathcrer
in the road, for he not only gets from his
customers their money and their health,
but he robs thom of their very brains. The
men you meet OH the road, ragged and
ruined in fame and fortune, arc his visiters.
And so ! might go on euumerating ma
my others who gather toll of the unwarv.
Accidents sometimes happen, it is true,
along the road but thcso who do not oct
through at least tolcrabIy well, you may be
sure have been stopping 10y the way at some
of the places. The plain, common sense
men, who travel straight forward, get
through the journey without much diff
Guilty.
This being the state of tlGngs, irbecomes
every one, in the outset, if he intontls 10
make a comfortable journey of it, TO take
care what kind of company he keeps in
with. We are all apt to do as companions
do-stop when they stop and pay toll when
they pay. Then the chances are one to
ten but our choice in this particular de-
cides oHr fate.
Having paid due respect TO choice of
companions, the next important thing is
closely TO observe how others manage: to
mark the good or evil that is pro- ced by
every course Of life. See how those do who
manage well by these means you learn.
BE careful of your habits these make
the man. And they require long and care.
tul culture, ere they grow up to a second
nature. Good habits / speak Of Bad
habits arc more easily acquired a.e
spontaneous weeds, that flourish rapidly
| and rankiy, without care or culture.
| -------lP &C.,
|, a BBAUrIFuL IDEA.-- Away among the
AHeghauies there is a spring. so small that
single OK, in summers day, could drain
it dry. It9teals its unobtrusiye way among
the hills, ill it spreads out in the beautiful
Ohio. Thence ii stretches away q thou
sand miles leaving on its banks more than
a hundred villages and cities and many a
cultivated farm, and bearing on its bosom
more than half a thousand steamboats,
Then Joining the Missssippi, it stretches
away and away some twelve hundred miles
more, till it falls into the great emblem of
eternity. Its one of the great tributaries
Of the ocean, which, obedicnt only to God,
shall roll and roar Gill the angel, with one
foot on the land shall lift up his hand to
heaven, and swear that time shalt be no
longer. So with moral1nfluence II is a
rll--a riyulet--a riyer-an ocean, bound.
less and fathomIess as eternity.
tSo1ttkerR &hinotSten,