Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-04-17

culture of the wife aud daughters of
your paradisacal home. We're you
ever wearied by a long journey on horse
back in distant country? If so, you
can imagine when night began to APP
proach with what solicitude you looked
out for that beautiful rural residence,
displaying the marks of both taste and
industry, for you knew if such you
could reach, the night would be spent
with comfort and pleasure, with what
reluctance and misgiying for man and
| horse you dismounted at house that
presented mona of these evidences.
ITO prosper is to be diligens; with
little labor. little are our gains; our
fortune will be according to our pains"
Temperance, as habit for success in
business. must accompany all of our
labors. Wherever departed from. all
of the evils that were contained in
Pandora's box gather around us to
precipitate fortune, happiness, honor,
virtue and family endearments into
one heap of ruin. All, no doubt, have
seen the banefal effects Of intemper-
ance on some dear friend or relative,
therefore all should zealously incul-
cate the Importance of sobriety in an
order. Dram-drinking, the most mod
crate, often proves the first step to deg
radiation and ruin. The appetite,
whetted by repetition, becomes NOR
bidly acute, firmness then abandons
man to his fate; down the dark cur
rent of misery he is whirled, with all
of his virtues poisoned, his intellect
ruined, his memory spoiled, his reputa-
ton blasted, his credit gone, his family
love and felicity withered and dead,
his veneration for his creator trans
formed into blasphemy, his wrath and
lust and all of his vicious propensities
burning with lurid fame. consuming
the better parts, woeful poverty and
disgrace adding shades to his down
ward, melancholy course. At lucid
intervals remorse, self-condemnation
and anxious cares, distressing mala-
dies, cerebral and intestinal pains and
palsied, pining atrophy frenzy the brain
and painfully quicken the already con-
Stunning thirst for another oblivious
potion, that he quaffs with the rapaci-
ty of a carniyora, then with sardonic
laughter exults in the ruin he has
wrought. To check this terrible evil
as much as possible is a moral duty in
cumbent on our order. Precept and
example, moral suasion and fraternal
admonition are our principal remedies.
To remove temptation from our midst
as an order and as individuals, be-
comes our duty, and our first effort
should be to frown down those petty
country saloons as snares and pitfalls
into which our thoughtless youths are
decoyed, their minds, their morals, their
tender hopes, yea, their whole natures
are spoiled, the morbid thirst is ac-
quired. 1t is the opinion of thinking
men, based on the experience of all
the world that when the thirst for ar
dent spirits is once acquired it can
never be extinguished, 1t may be con-
teolled, yet the individual is weakened
and in no wise proof against tempta-
ton ana the vicissitudes oflife. Coun-
try drinking houses are drawback to
agricultural pursuits, mechanics and
the daily laborers on your farms,
spreading around within their reach
whitening, blighting influence upon
the moral, religious and industrial pro-
clivities of the country. and should
be so regarded by our order.
Complacency, cheerfulness and
charity are virtues that will greatly
contribute to the happiness, embellish-
mentand beauty of the order. Addison
says, ''complacency will render a su-
perior amiable, an equal agreeable and
an inferior acceptable"
The cultivation of these virtues will
smooth distinctions, sweeten our de-
alterations and make every one in our
grange pleased with himself and his
neighbor. They will produce good
nature and mutual benevolence, they
will encourage the timorous and sooth
the more hostile and turbulent. These
are virtues that will blend all orders
of men together in friendly inter-
course of words and actions. If all
were to examine themselves carefully
when arrangements are felt, they
would find that most of the secret an
guish and Affections they suffer arise
from little imaginary wrongs, such as
frowns, checks and apparent express
ions of contempt than from real Of
fences. The constant practice of these
virtues will insure relief from such
painful imaginations and give harmony
to our action and interest to our meet
ings.
After this very brief allusion to those
cherished principles of our order, be-
fore concluding, let me again urge upon
you the Importance of making our
meetings more interesting. Subjects
for discussion should be suggested at
previous meeting and all should take
part by reading papers or speaking.
You should have festive days every
two or three months, to be spent in
social intercourse. The grange should
become a subscriber to two or three
agricultural papers, the important ar
ticles of which should be read at our
meetings by our Worthy Lecturer.
Many important features Of interest
would be brought before the grange by
agricultural papers.
By such course we would always |
have full attendance, and our grange
would prosper.
Now, accept my thanks for the con-
fidence you have manifested in select
ing me for your Master, and be assured
I will discharge the duty to the best of