Vicksburg weekly herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1868-1883, 1870-06-25
- NIsnT.
SERIOUS REFLECTIONS.

article upon 5pepathFiitsi pEvuibuisi
debauahsFs, those who were guilty
OF what are termed opeu.aanded
vices.
We perused the seemingly harsh
criticisms therein contained with
thoughtful care, and although diff
fering from their tenor in our own
opinion, Jet we were compelled
70 acknowledge there was much
truth in what was written. The
matter is so important that, at the
risk Of being uninteresting, perhaps
prosaic, We embody many Of the
remarks OF the author. Sometimes
a stern matter Of fact talk Of this
character will do much good in
awakening the pride, ambition and
self respect of a guilty one, and be
the means Of prompting him to
throw of his load of evil habits, and
prompt him to endeavor to attain
respectability and the respect Of
relatives and friends. With this
view we IRE actuated.
What, in truth, Is the prodigal,
when we come near enough to him
to inspect him frankly? He is one
who spends h~eedlessly the sub.
stance that the toll of others has
painfully gathered. He is ga fish
that loves the mud )" an "unbridled
squanderer = one who unprosper-
ously wastes and capriciously Law.
ishes the goods whereof he does not
know the value. He Is emphatically
a ~sroyeller a man of slow desires
and base designs a creature Of
debauched occupations and uAdigni-
fed uses. He is ordinarily Q haun.
ter of taverns and bAgnios q candI-
date for honors amid "the rabble
Of Comus;' a grOtesque mixture Of
man and beast, "wanton as a sa,yr,
and impotent as age" who, franti-
cally rioting, reels down the walks
Of what he calls 'life,7 "bloa,ed
with g%luttony,' foul OF tongue, and
reeking with obscenity and the nos
Of wine. Incapable, vacilating, 6n-
ready, he tinctures every cxtraya-
gance with baseness, and incrimi.
mates even his slightest foilies with
the infectious faint of a bFawling
insOlence. He runs a brief career
of imbecility and shame, aud then,
outcast and outdone, friendless and
unflattered, a useless clog, self-de-
spoiled OF money, health and hon
or, and shame, whom even the fool
will not turn aside 10 laugh with,
he rolls over Ike Christopher Sly
in his sleep, and awakes from his
brief dream of weltering folly to
find the hard tavern.benches of the
world bruising his ribs, aud the
rude tavern. wenches of the world
alternately hooking at him and
abusing for his unpaid scores!
1t was Themistocles who deem.
ing that his own excuses needed to
have an excuse provided for them,
pleaded that "the widest colts
make the best horses when they
come to be properly broke and
managed" But who ever bltted
that wild colt Themistocles ? Who
taught the prodigal Themistocles
what was the proper season to SOW
his wild oatsI 10 youth he ruined his
father, who disInherited him ; and
shamed his mother until she hung
herself, sooner than continue the
spectator Of his %dIsgraceful courses.
He lived in extremes always, *
tremes of the worst kind. Prc1a.
gate and lavish, he yet was mean
enough to haggle with hucksters
and defraud his creditors Of their
just dues. In middle life he exalt.
ed the State for his own pride's
sake and plundered It for his own
pockets sake; in his old age
he disgraced it, deserted ii,
betrayed It, and miserably bat
tered the incompatible glories
of salamis for a Persian pension
and the sneering, contemptuous
patronage of Ar:axerxes, Yet this
was the noblest prodigal Of whom
history tells us-far nobler than
this low traitor Absalom, for whom
David she'd so many and unavail.
ing tears.
With a selfish, blind folly hat
has no parallel in any other vice,
he drags down his neighbors and
his friends, with suretyships and
borrowings, into the ruin he pre-
pares for himself, and like adrown.
Ing man, unable TO swim the depths
into which he blindly plunges,
browns all who venture 10 lis
rescue. 1t Is the inevitable conse.
Quehce of such 4 career that each
aVcesa eausaa mora snrrow and