The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-02-11


! glee God bless the younRl They will have TO
wait many day If they want to hear me say
one word to dampen their ardor or chp tnslr
| wings. Poor way TO prepare young people lo5
the tug of life, by telling them II Is hard ana
dark and terrible No such thing You Will
meet with many trial, but, speaking iroin i5i ny
| own experience, ! tell you that YOU Will be
| treated a great deal better than you deserve.
Let us not grudge the young their joy; as we
| go further on In lite let us go lnto tne eAPe- S
! rience of that we had in our gleetnl days.
! When old age frosts our locks and sutens our
! limbs, let us not block up the way to the young,
but say-'We had our good times; now let
others have theirs.D As our children go on, let
| us cheerfuly give them our places. Right glad
| will be to lei them have everything-my books
my pulpit, my place in society,", my name, my
| heritage. By the time we get old we will have
! had it our way long enough. Then let the
] children come on, and for while have their
way. After the thirty, or forty, or fifty years
| we have been drinking from the cup of life, we
ought to pass the cup along and let Others drink
But while God bids us INTO the enjoYments OF
| life, l never will countenance sinful indulgence
l come tonight to set forth group OF what
might be called the "dissipations of the ball
room" They swing an awful scythe of death;
and are our ministers of Christ to stand idly by,
TO let the work 90 on, lest in the attempt they
tread upon the trail OF some popular vanity
The whirlpool of the ballroom draws down to-
day half the life, and beauty, and moral worth
OF this city. In this whirwnd of imported
silks goes out the life OF many OF our first tami
lies. Bodies and souls innumerable are an
nually consumed in this counagration of rib
bons. They are the abettors OF pride, the
instigators of jealousy, the sacrifcial altars
of lust, ana the curse of the tongue
The tread OF this Wild ndiscrmlnate, heated,
midnight dance is dangerous to all the family
hearthstones and moral advancement of the
city. The physical ruin is indirect. What is
TO become of those who work all day anti dance
all night? Afew years will turn them out cough
ing, cadaverOus, exhausted imbeclles. In the
Book of God, those who have given up mid
night to spicCd wines and hot spirits, aud ride
home through the winter cold, unwrapped from
the ements, will be recorded as suicides.
There is but short step from the ballroom to
the graveyard. There are consumptons and
fierce neuralgias close on its track. Amid that
glittering mass of ballroom spendor disease
stands right and left in balance and chain,
scpulChral breath floats up amid the perfume, and
the troth OF Deaths Zip bubbles in the cham
payne.
Many Of our brightest homes are being sacrl-
feed There are families that have actually
quit keeping house and gone to boarding, that
they might devote themselves more exclusively
to the higher duties of the ballroom mothers
and daughters, fathers and sous, finding their
chief enjoyment IN the dance. Fare we'll to
books 10 quiet culture, to all the amenities of
home. The father will, after awhile, 90 down
into lower dissipation; the son be tossed about
in society nonentty; the daughter elopes
with French dancing master, andsthe mother
stil trying to keep in the glittering circle by
every art, CoaXing color to her cheek and
wrinkles of from her brow, attem pting, with
out success, all the arts OF the 'Dele;" an old
frt, poor miserable butterfly without wings
The first time you find these faithful disciples
OF the ballroom suddenly engaged, ana happy
IN the duties of the home circle, send me word
| For would 90 a great way to see such a phe-
| nomenOn. They have nothome. Their children
unwashed, the furniture undusted, the china
| closets disordered, the house a scene of contu-
| sion, mistule, cheerlessness, and dirt. Yea, we
| think you might discover even, amid the wiIche-
| ries or TIE ballroom, the sIckening odors OF
| unswept, unventilated, and unclean domestic
| apartments.
These designations unseat all life for useful
| ness. How could you expect one to be interested
| in the alienation of the worlds miseries while
there is a question to be decided about the shade
| Of a glove, or the Crinkle in a shoe? How many
of all these mere trequenters OF the ballroom
| teach in Sunday Schools, or visit the poor, OF
| help dress the wounds OF a returned soldier in
the hospital? When did the world ever see
perpetual dancer distributing tracts? Such per
sons are turned in upon themselves, and 1t il
poor pasture. This gilded sphere is utterly be
dwarhng the intellect and SOUL This constant
study of little things-this harrassed anxiety
about dress-this talk of fashionable in6ntessI
mails, this shoe-pinChed, haIr-fooled, strange
speCtred group-this smpering and looking
askance at their mirrors, ano wondering, will
an lnhn1ty OF interest, how that one geraDum
leafdoes lCok-this shrivelling up of mans mora
dignity, until it is no more observable with the
naked eye; this taking OF some ones heart tha
God meanttO be filled with all amenities and
prasiGg it until il is heartless heart, forever
gone; this wrapping OF all the mind and heart
IN the griefs OF a spotted cravat this trampino
down of soul that God meant for great uplift
inge, under the loot of the ballroom dance.
That female form that just now sWayed sc
gracefully by in the dances bends over the plate
without shudder. She goats over the blood
and, just as maid OF your household car
ries out on tray the empted glasses of an
evenings entertainment, SO she carried out Oh
a.platter the head of that good man, while al
the banquet eIs shouted, and thought it a gooC
Joke, that in such brief and unconscious WAY
an end could have been made to such plaiI
spoken, troublesome minister.
But, after awhile, Salome's head was put on
platter. Not like that on which she carried
Johns, but on a platter of ice. History sayl
that as she was passing over a stream she broke
through, and the ice caught her at the neck
and actually ground of her head.
Iprophesy the spiritual ruin Of all contnuou
| participants in these dissipatiOns. For tnt
while, polished, Plistening birds have been OF
the road to heaven, but who, at the fash of tn
chandelier, have been kindled torch for eter
nlty. From the table spread, at the close 0
that exhausted and Desweated scene, who wen
home to say his prayers?
| A young woman once began to be thoughtful
about the things OF eternity. Her mother, oh
serving that serious meditation, said, 81 vii
give you a dress that shall cost $500, and yol
may wear it to the ball. There you will get rit
of your serious impressions" She went, AM
wore the dress and thought no more OF religion
A few months passed, and the daughter came t.
die. When Der time was drawing near, sh
said:-"Mother, bring me that dress which cos
$500" The mother brought II. Hang it OF
the foot of my bed" This was done. Then sal,
the chlld:-"K Mother! that dress as the prize q
n}g soul" SSs21
How multitudes waste and lose their sous
Alas 10 many this life is a masquerade ball, a
at such entertainments gentlemen and ladie
appear in dress OF kings and queens, and clown