The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-12-29

| stances, Dut now that the cdmelS are
gone and the sheep are gone, and the
property is gone, and the bOils have
come, she says: "Why don't you swear
Curse God and diep' Others all the year
round have not the frOth of profanity
wiped from their lips but try to expend
all the fury of a twelve-mOnth in one
red hot paragraph of five minutes. A
man apOlOgiZed for his occasional swear
ing by saying that once year in this
way he cleared himself out. There are
men who have no control of their bla~-
phemOus utterances who want us Ia
send them to Congress; others have bias
phemed in Senatorial places, pretending
attefWard that IL was a more rhetorical
| flourish.
Many fall into this habit through the
frequent use of what are called by-
words. | suppose that all have favorite
phrases of this kind in which there is
no harm; but a prOfusiOn Of this style
OF speech often ends in bald profanity.
1t is this: 81 declarew MY starsh'
Mercy on mep' Good graciOusv "Bv
JOye" by GeOrgen' by heavensr and
no harm is intended. But it is yerv
easy transition from this kind of talk
10 That which Is positively obnoxious
! The English language is magnificent,
and capable of expressing every shade
| OF feeling and every degree of energy
and zeal, and there is no need that we
take to ourselves unlawful words. If
| you are happy Noah WEBSTER offers to
| your tongue ten thousand epithets in
| winch you may express your eXhilara-
tlOn, and IL you are TighteOusly indig-
nant there are in his Dictionary whole
armOries of denunciatiOn and scOrn.
sarcasm and irony, caricature and
wrath. Utter yourself against some
meanness or hypocrisy in all the bias
| phemles that ever smOte up from per-
dltiOn, and L will go on to denOunce the
same meanness and hypocrisy with a
| hundred-fOld more stress'and yehempncy
III words across which no slime has
| ever tTalled, and through which no in
! fernal fires have shot their fOrkpd
tongues; words pure, innocent, aIl-im-
! presSiye, GOd-hOnOTed AnglO-SaXon. in
| which Milton sang and BunyOn dreamed
ana Shakespeare wrote. But whatever
| be the source of this habit, it is on the
| increase. At sixteen, BOYS swear with
as much facility as their grandfather
did at sixty. Our streets are cursed bv
IL from end to end. Our hotels from
morning till midnight resound with it,.
| Men curse on their way to the bar TO
| get their morning dram; ;curse the news
| boy who carries the paper; curse the
| breakfast for being cold; curse at the
! bank and curse at the store: curse ON
! the way to bed; curse at the stone against
! which they strike their foot and curse
at the splinter which gets under the
| nail. III you do not know that this is so.
| IL IS because your ear has been hardened
by the perpetual din of prOfanities that
are enough to bring down upOn any
city the hurricane of fire that consumed
! SOdum.
The. habit is creeping up into the high
er clrcles' Every woman despises fiat
| and unyarnlShed impTecatiOnS; but in
| the most elevated circles there are WO-
men who swear without knowing it.
| Ihey have read BulWer and Geo. Sand
and the exaggerated style of some of
our imported as well as our homemade
literature, until they do not actually
know what is decency of speech. With
fairy fan to their lips they utter their
oaths, and under chandeliers which dis
cover not the faintest blush, recklessly
speak the hOliest of names. This is
helped on by the second glass of wine
that Is perfectly harmless, and though
no one dare charge her, being so finely
dressed, with anything like intOxication
| yet there comes glassiness to the eye,
| and glow to the cheek, and a style of
! speech to the tongue, that were not
| known before she took the second glass,
| that was perfectly harmless. One wild,
| terrific wave of blasphemy is sweeping
| over the land. See the effects of this
widespread profanity in the increasing
| perjury. If men in common cOnyeTsa-
| tlOn so commonly use the name of God
Is 1t wonderful that i'll the jury-bOX, in
the Alderman's office, and in the Gus
| t0m-h0use so many swear falsely? No
tlce the way an oath is administered.
They toss the Bible at man, and in the
| most trivial way, say: $50 help you God
kiss the Book" IsuppOse enough lies
| are every day ,Old in the CustOm-hOuse
TO sink 1t. Smuggling, although it be
done against positive oath, is in some
circles considered grand Joke; and YOU
say some day to your friend: "HOw can
you sell these goods so cheaply?" and
your friend says, with an eye-twinkle:
The CustOm-hOuse tariff was not so
high on these things as it might have
been." Men more easily break their sol
emn Oaths than formerly. What strange
yerdicts juries do sometimes render!
What peculiar charges Judges do some
times makel WhatunaccOuntable slow
ness sheriffs and their deputies some
times exhibit in the execution of their
writ! What erTatic railroad enterprises
suddenly pass at our State Capitols!
What wonderful changes Congress
makes in the tariff on liquor! What is
an oath? Anything solemn? Anything
appealing to the Almighty? Anything
SbhpenuOuS IN mans history! No. 1t
is kissing the book" In land where
the name of God so often becomes the
football of what are called respectable
circles, how can we expect it can excite
any veneratiOn when in the presence of
the County Clerk, or clergyman, or Leg
islature, or Judge it is used in solemn
adjuratiOn? This habit lowers, DESTROYS
the entire moral nature. You might as
well expect to raise harvests and vine
yards on the side of beIching StrombOn
as to have any great excellence grow
upon your soul, when it so often over
flows with the scOri8 of this awful pro-
pensity. You will never swear Yourself
up. You will swear yourself down. The
MOhammedans, when they find slip of
paper they can not read, put it aside for
fear the name of God is on it. That you
say is one extreme. We go to the other.
You are willing to acknowledge this
miserable habit, and would like to have
some recipe for its cure.
Reflect much upon the useIessness of
the habit. Did a vOlley of Oaths ever
start a heavy load? Did curses ever
unravel tangled skein? Did they ever
eXtirpate the meanness of a customer?
did thnV over pOllnpt q had daht9 nid