The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-05-28
EPIDEMICs.

ly all the otlenses known to the calendar are
common, from red handed murder, carrying
mourning into the households Of the slayer
AID the slain, down to the pettiest thevng,
that brings with it only disgrace and social
ostracism. And then We have what may be
termed epdemcs Of immortality. 1t is Of
this latter epidemic that We would treat brief
~ and on its enormties, SORROWS and woes,
that we would philosophse somewhat. From
the birth of the little infant, Heavens sweet
donation, to make glad with its coming the
hearts Of father and mother, be it boy or
girl, all during its helplessness as it
lies in its little cradle, and through its totter-
ing childhood, and on into its sturder growth
of youth, and thence to manhood or
womanhood, radiance of paterna and
maternal love surrounds its being Its hap
pness is the happiness Of father and mother ;
its joys are their joys; its pleasure is their
pleasure; its hopes and ambitions, as they
mature from the artless, prattling innocence
OF babyhood TO maturity, are their hopes
ard ambitions. And when that child crosses
the threshold of maturity and launches its
own bark upon the sea of life, helm and sail
in its own hand fearful eyes of those who
love it best watch its course, and earnest
prayers from hearts that boat truest for it
follow it onward and upward on
mounting waves, or downward into dark
abysms as the case may be. The tompta-
tons of this world, of this earth, earthly,
arc multitudinous, are ubiquitous. They
come to the old and the young, to the exalted
and to the humble to the rich and the
poor. They rear their affairs everywhere, in
homes and public places, and they sing the
songs of sirens; they sigh with the sweet
breath of soft, south winds ; they daily with
the fragrance about them of moss banks and
flower beds they murmer in the silver mel.
| ody Of FLASHING waters they enchant with
the harmony of birds in outrageous groves;
yet their songs charm to destroy, their signs
lead only to misery and woe their murmurs
ill the soul alone with regret and sorrow,
| their entertainments are but as desolaton and
death. Men full and women fall and the
epidemic pursues its direful course, leaving
widowed hearts, widowed as never death
could make them sorrowiug souls, sorrow
ing MS never pestilonce with its remorseless
| touch could make them sorrow; anguished
memories, anguished MS never memories
could otherwise be unguished, il its black
and destructive trail. The stings that are
left by death, when its monster form comes
to clSim some loved one, are assuaged by
( tender, loving recollecsions, but tho sting
that is left behind when temptation has come
TO win some idol Of the household from its
| pedestal of truth and honor and virtue, are
those that have no ending, that the
sweet waters of Lothe never lessen.
The sacredncss of home is
what this epidemic destroys; the temple
where family affairs are erected, around which
father and mother, husband and wife and in
nocent children worship is the one this evil
deliles. The father and husband is perhaps
led astray, or worse, thousand times worse,
the wife. The serpent enters the Eden, the
Eden, let us suppose,to which bride,the child
of the parental roof md the pride of the 500
cial circle, has just been led, to gladden. with
her smiles, to tighten up with the brightness
OF her eyes, to Hume with the purity of her
soul. A young husbands bosom is ailame
with joy; the hearts Of parents, who have
given their blessing, beat happily, But temp.
tation comes, whispers willy tales Of love
and bliss and of tho glorious clys-
ium awaiting in other Places and
in an hour of weakness that once
happy bride falls and tho horrors
Of hell fill many hearts. Better TO have
seen her in the cerements of the grave with
eyes closed, hands gently crossed on the
pulseless breast, whose many virtues the
monumental marble may record than tt
have known that she is in her living tomb
But worse STILL suppose temptation enters 'tc
u hearthstone where little children have al
ready come ms the pledges of that love and
the plighted VOWS of fidelity of earlier years
Were it not better that the angel of deatf
had lowered with brooding wings over tina
entire household, and pressed down tree
eyelids to dreamless sleep, than for such ,
desostion to haze befallen it? Who can
sathom the depths of that husband ant
fathers woe and misery? Tho little chill.
dyen that he has loved as hi.
own and fondled and kissed, kissed
on lip, and brow and cheek at their birth ant
in their growth, making it the ohrism of hi!
love, for them as bone of his bone, and flesh
of his flesh, rise up as spectres of doubt be-
fore him. How can he know that they arc
OF his blood and being What agony car
be greater than such n doubt? We are
merely morslizing, and we trust we may
reach cords in the hearts of all that will vi
brate to the music of that higher and better
nature with which everyone 10 endowed. The
sacredness of the home should be as tho 50,
credness of the sanctuary Of worship
and even something mure. The affairs
of the one" should be az exemp,