The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1871-12-22
THE YOUNG IN GREAT CITIES.

Very seldom have we seen the solemn
truths connected with the shame and
folly of dissipated lives, especially in
cities, put into more earnest, and forci.
BILE and truthful language than in the
following article from the. pen of DIR
j. G.. Holland, editor Of Scri6ner'.
Monthly. 1t is worthy the thoughtful
perusal of every young person who IL
tempted to poison both present and fu.
ture life by feeding upon the apples Of
Sodom:
The world learns its lessons slowly
Much of the world does not learn its
lessons at all. The young are every.
where growing up amid the ruins OF
ing or caring for the reasons of the dis
asters 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 hopeless defaulter, and blows
his brains out. Another, led on by love
OF power and place, is degraded at last
to poor demagogue, without character
or influence. Another, through q sur
render of himself to sensualitY, becomes
q disgusting beast with heart and brain
more foul than the nests ofunclean birds.
Another, by tasting, and tasting, and
tasting of the wine cup, becomes a
druukard at last, and dies in horrible
delirium, or lives to be n curse to wife,
children and friends. There is an army
of these poor wretches in every large
city in the land dying daily, and daily
reinforced. A young girl, loving "not
wisely, but too WELL" yields herself to
q seducer who ruins and then forsakes
her to q life of shame and a death of
despair. Not one girl, but thousands
of girls yearly, so that, though q great
company OF those whose robes are soil
ed beyond cleansing, hide themselves in
the grave every year, another great
company of the pure drop to their places
and keep filled to repletion the ranks of
prostitution. Again and again in in
stances beyond counting, are these
tragedies repeated In the full presence
of the rising generation, and yet it
seems to grow no wiser. Nothing has
been more fully demonstrated 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 a man cannot
consort with lewd women an hour with
out receiving a faint that whole life
time of repentance cannot wholly eradi-
cate. Since time began have women
been led astray by the same promises,
the same pledges, the same empty re-
wards. If young men and women
could learn wisdom it would seem as If
they might win it in a single day, by
simply using their eyes and thinking
w m
city of New York, and in all the great
cities of the country, young men and
young women are all the time repeating
the mistake Of those around them who
are wrecked in character and fortune
The young man keeps his wine bottle
and seeks sports where deceived an6
ruined women lie in wait for prey
knowing perfectly well, if he knows
anything, or has ever used fairly the
reason with which Hheaven has endow
ed him, that he is in the broad road tt
perdition-that there is before him ,
life of disgust and death of horror.
When the result of certain courses o
conduct and certain indulgences are 81
! well known as these to which we al
Jude, it seems strange that any can en-
| knows that if he never tastes a glass o
| o'SOhOlAO AAO VIII AONOA OCSOIuO "
stand in danger of becoming a drunk
ard. Every young man knows that i
he preserves a chaste youth, shuns tn
society of the lewd, he can carry to tn
woman whom he loves q self-respec
which is invaluable, past freely opel
to her questioning gaze, and the pur
physical vitality which shall be tn,
wealth OF another generation. H
knows that the rewards of chastity ar
ten thousand times greater than thos
OF criminal indulgence. He know
that nothing is lost and everything
gained by a life of manly sobrietY an
self-denial. He knows all this, If
has had his eyes open, and has exercil
and yet he joins the infatuated multi
tude and goes straight to the devi
We know that we do not exaggerat
when we say that New York has thou
sands of young men, with good moth
J ers and pure sisters, who, if their live
should be uncovered, could never loo
those mothers and sisters in the fac
again. They are full of fears of expos
ure and conscious of irreparable los
Their lives are masked in q thousan
ways. They live daily lie. They ar
the victims and slaves of vices whic
are just as certain to cripple or ki
them, unless at once and forever forsaI
en-, as they live. There are thousand
of others who, now pure and gooC
will follow evil example unwarned b
what they see, and within a year wi
: be walking in that road that leads eve
more downward.
r One tires of talking to fools, an
falls back in sorrow that hell and de-
truction are never full-in sorrow tn;
= men cannot or will not learn that thel
is but one path TO an honorable, pro
: porous life, and all others lead more {
i less directly to ruin.-Scri6ner's #
december