Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1871-12-06

Pits In the Path of the Young.

The world learns its lessons slowly. Much T.
Of the world does not learn its lessons at all |
The young are everywhere growing up amid .
the ruins Of other lives apparently without
inauiring or caring for the reasons Of the |
disasters to life, fortune and reputation that
are happening or have happened, everywhere |
around them. One man, with great trusts OF
money in his hands betrays the confidence Of
the public, becomes a hopeless defauter aud
blows his brains out Another, led on by |
power and place, is degraded at last to a poor
dcmagogue, without character or influence
Another, through a surrender of himself to
sensuality, becomes disgusting beast, with
heart aud brain more foul than the nests Of
unclean birds Another, by tasting, and tast-
ing the wine-cup, becomes drunkard at last,
aud dies in horrible deirium, or lives to be
curse to wife, children and friends. There is
an army Of these poor wretches in every land
dying daily, aud daily re.enforced. A young
girl, loving " not wisely, but too well" yields
herself to a scduccr, who ruins and forsakes
her to a life Of shame and death of despair.
Not one girl, but thousands Of girls yearly,
so that, though a great company of those
whose robes are soled beyond cleansing, hide
themselves in the grave during every twelve.
month, another great company of the pure
drop to their places, and keep filed to reple-
tion the ranks Of prostitution. Again and
again in instances beyond counting, are there
tragedies repeated in the full presence of the
rising generation, and yet it seems to grow no
wiser Nothing has been more fully demon
strated than that the first steps Of folly and
sin are fraught with peril. Nothing has been
better proved than that temperate drinking is
always dangerous, and that excessive drinking
is always ruinous. Nothing is better known
than that man cannot consort with lewd
women for an hour without receiving a taint
that whole life Of repentance cannot wholly
eradicate Since time began have women
been led astray by the same promises, the
same pledges, the same empty rewards If
| young men and women could possibly learn
wisdom it would seem as if they might win it
in single day, by simply using their eyes
and thinking upon what they see. Yet in
this great city of New York, and in all the
great cities Of the country, young men and
young women are all the time repeating the
mistakes of those around them who are wreck.
cd in character aud fortune. The young man
keeps his wine bottle, aud seeks resorts where
deceived and ruined women lie in wait for
prey, knowing perfectly well, if he knows
anything, or has ever used fairly the reason
with which Heaven has endowed him, that he
is in the broad road to perditon--that there
is before him life Of disgust aud death of
horror.
When the results of certain courses of
conduct and certain indulgences are so well
known as these to which we allude, it seems
strange that any one can enter upon them.
Every young man knows that if he never
tastes glass Of alcoholic drink he will never
become, or stand in danger of becoming
drunkard. Every young man knows that if
he preserves chaste youth, and shuns the
society Of the lowd, he can carry to the wo-
man whom he loves a sef.respect which is in.
valuable, past freely open to her question:
ing gaze, and the pure physical vitality which
shall be the wealth Of another generation
/ He knows that the rewards of chastity are
ten thousand times greater than those OF
criminal indulgence He knows that nothing
is lost and everything is gained by life oi
manly sobriety and self-denal. He knows
all this, if he has had his eyes open. and has
exercised his reason 10 even a small degree
and yet he joins the infatuated multitude
and goes straight to the devil We know
that we do not exaggerate when we say that
New York has thousands of young men, with
good mothers and pure sisters, who, if their
lives should be uncovered, could never look
those mothers and sisters in the face again
They are full of fears of exposure, and con
scious Of irreparabe loss Their lives are
masked in a thousand ways. They live a
daily lie They are the victims and slaves
Of vices which are Just as certain to cripple
or kill them, unless at once and forever for.
saken, as they live. There are thousands Of
others who, now pure and good, will follow
evil examples unwarned by what they see, and
within a year will be walking in the road
that leads eyermore downward
One tires of talking to fools, and falls back
in sorrow that hell and destruction are never
full-in sorrow that men cannot or will not
learn that there is but one path to an honor.
able, peaceful, prosperous and successful life,
and that all others lead more or less directly
to ruin.