Litchfield enquirer., 1875-03-18

falls? Why do those who know fail to tell him that he waste all the precious things Tn life. He wastes his money. He has saved little hero and there. He has just so many years in which to lay, stfong and sure, the foundations of the life that is to come. He has just so many years, few and brief, in which to gather together the substratum- of his mans life, and in- stead of putting this money away in sure foundations he wastes 1t. Every his way into such places, eating of such forbidden fruit, dallying away such hours of idleness he wastes times that might be given to thought, to study, to healthful companion ship. He gathers habits of idleness and indolence, he loses habits of self-control and self-masterhood in all forms of being.
 And he wastes of the very vital essence of life 1tself-the one power that moves the world. the something that paints pie lures, that carves statutes, that breaches sermons, that argues at the bar, that steadies the surgeons knife, that clears the eye of the discoverer, and intensifes the brain of the inventor, that manages, that conforms, that fashions, that triumphs in the would. All this soul of life, this vital spark of existence he wastes as though he were finging out cup of water that could be filled at the nearest wayside inn, or a match out of box that should be endless. The waste of that he can find no more, though he can seek it in all time to come diligently and with tears. He lays up for himself stores of hideous memories. If indeed there is something sweet and pure and wholesome in boys life 1t is still that he loves his mother He has gather ed such memories as make him when he goes into his mothers presence and looks into his mothers eye, shudder away from the glance when recollecting that she, his mother, is woman he has SO dishonored all of womanhood. He may think by and by that he is tired of staying in this stag nant harbor by these rotten blanks, and will sail away into some clean and clear water. He may think that he will, aye, he may long to. Never can he do it. Hay ing eaten the poisoned fruit, and drained the fiery draught-fruit of nature and cup of Spring are after all, tasteless and insip- i'd sooner or later. He would fain go back again to the draught which pro- duces deeper thirst as he drinks. He thinks he can forget the scenes of youth, and so believing, he has gone his way, five, ten, fifteen, twenty years. But be- hind him then, all these days and years, stride after stride marches Time, the avenger.
 THE TRUE TRIUMPH OF MANHOOD.
 Do stand here to accuse and to con. demn? l, aye, 1t IS the facts that accuse It is the truth that condemns. Do stand here to speak harsh words? No. Since fathers will not speak in behalf of theil sons, I, my fathers daughter, stand tc speak some word in behalf of the sons o1 fathers, who are my brothers. Applause. II Is to condemn no sins. Looking about me over this battle of life see how hard it is to fight, how easy to fall; pre- eminent ly if the young warrior has been despoil' ed of all weapons with which to fight the enemies of his soul ere he goes into the conflict. see fathers and mothers say ot their daughters, She has such slight temp tation in nature; she has no evil thought within And yet they hedge and guard her and strengthen her by the promise O. all the rewards of virtue and the threaten ings of all punishments of vice. I hea father and mother and society say of thu boy, of the young man; 70, he is not t, be judged as his sister, since he has sucl temptations and foes within, since his na ture for evil is so much stronger than hers! Granted. In just such measure as the man is stronger in the temptations within then, since God is just, he is given strong CT power, if the man will but use it to con trol himself, to save himself and to save the woman by whom he asserts he is meant to stand as protector. And yet, society fathers and mothers, asserting that the boys danger lies within h1m, allow hin to go his way unwarned, unarmed. Aye they even see him put out to sea with the rock dead ahead, on which they know hi! bark of young manhood will strike and gt down, and never lift finger, or call, o word of warning. Society goes on to say to this young warrior that to go dow1 in such conflict is manly. To triumph in such battle is to emasculate himself to make himself effeminate, feeling tha neither man or woman shall be called up on to speak of him as good, strong crea tion in the world.
 An, what stand here to say, then, i: not to condemn the rights of these boys but to ask something for them to say, since public opinion, since custom stand instead with multitudes of human beings of req son and conscience, that public opinion habit, and custom shall tend to building up the manly part of man in these young men, rather than the brute and the fend I ask that this boy be taught that so fal from conquering in such conflict making him emasculated, weakened, that this con fict is like all other conflicts, and that the soldier who is found in the hands of the enemy with unworn garments and unbat tered weapons, ought to be branded as g sneak and coward. That in this conflict as in all other conflicts, it IS that it shal be to him that overcometh there shall bt honor, distinction. To him that over cometh there is reserved crown of life Tell this boy that in putting under his feet the perlshing attributes of time, the wild beasts of the passions, there grow: within him the life immortal, life that has the deepening of thought, the enrich ing of character. The exaltation of theso becomes what indeed it was meant to bt when it's Maker sent 1t into the world, g likeness, an image of Himself. to carry drought time as through eternity, the constant scene of the triumph of the i'm mortal. Applause