The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1871-08-03
NUMBER 26.
The Hen Scratches Where She
Expects DO Find a Rug

feliow sisters, brethren men, women
and children, generally and bartiruIeTly
speaking. You needn't hustle any pages
for the text, for it amt there Its n
special dispensation to your appointed
pastor and be hurls it at you for what
1t is worth. Where the hen scratches
there she expects TO find bug. Did you
come from the race track of the world to
parade your 'trotting harness" before the
meek and lowly. Have you dropped the
dazzling rattles of business and pleasure.
10 While an IDLE hour away listening TO the
mournful melody that is wruDg by angel
hands from the sacred barps that bana
forgotten upon the Dropping willows of
mortalityf Or are you tussling with the
arch enemy for the almighty dollar YER
ny say unto you, where the hen scratch
eS mere she expects TO find bug
My drowsy hearers, we are a lot OF
damaged goods, trying to palm ourselves
OH upon each other for more than our
market value and the old firm of Time,
Death d Co., is doing a heavy commits
sion business upon our stock in trade
hear the mallet of Death, with its me-
chancal tap, tap, and stolid monotone of
''going, going," and the next minute down
1t will come upon some of our unconscious
heads, and we shall be folded M like
tents OF the Arabs ssand be as silently borne
away 10 The other side of Jordan where
the dry goods man refrains from troubling,
and the grocer has nothing to say, and
the weary hen ceases from SCRATCHING. and
the precious bug is found. In the midst
OF life we are IN debt, says noble pro-
! phet who was near kin TO your beloved
pastor. 1t any OF you are tempted to
tarry IN the tavern of life, and fail to sets
lie your account with the landlord, may
the text rise up before you like fabulous
Arabian hero, only to rest from the rough
and tumble giant, and deter you from that
slnk OF utter depravity where bummers
lead trustful hens TO scratch up the bugs
they devour.
Your undivided attention is further
more solicited to the signifcation of the
text, metaphorically and collectively, in
small packages to suit the capacity, from
the boy shuckiGg peanuts peacefully in
the corner, to the hardened sinner who
talks so proudly in your pastors presence.
And woe unto you, young women, sea-
saving up the broad aisle with your new
bonnet and streamers a fyin', for your
fancy neck-cloths. go on until you slip
up over bale of cotton and are left TO
drift away over the broad birthstone sea
of national disgrace a byword and Jest
that you love not wisely but too WE'LL
No, beloved, ! warn you now, if you
manifest symptoms of such cowardice as
has been handed down to you from high
places, the biggest pair of stogy boots in
this congregation will raise up in iudg-
ment against you and kick you out into
the broad road that leads to everlasting
ruin.
And finally, when you cut the crust
from your brown bread loaf, and scrape
the hard beans from the top CT your noon
tide pot, If you cut little below the
crisp for the beggar's and outcast's por-
tion, your conscience and digestion will
trouble you less; and as you steal out, as
some OF you will tonight, where the sil-
yer moon OF memory hangs over the
haunted hills of the past, and bow at some
finger post that points the way beloved
one went over your broken hear; to heav-
en-, may the eternal Yerdure of the ever
green hope spring up in the barren spots
trud hard by the busy feet of the absorb
ing nOrc, and bring you to the sweetness
of that peace and the tenderness of that
love that overfiows continually in deeds
and words, for the elevation of the rags
a mullins who march in the rear ranks Of
the grea, army of humanity foE the bar
barians are not all IN ragged file, bu.
"many gem of purest ray serene wants
but lifting from the filth TO shine. So
mote it be. Brother Slowfast, circulate
the platter for the root of evil, until it is
all rooted out of this place. For verify
say unto you, the Hen that scratches here
expects to find a bug. Shell out.