Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-04-08


fortunes, your farms and your coun-
try, and you wilt wander through
the land, like the lean and melan-
chOly ghosts that GLASSES along the
river Styx without the cash to pay
their ferriage, and your voices will
be heard like the voices of the He
brews by the rivers of Babylon,
bowling to every passing breeze,
"children, have you any meat pr
Awake, therefore, We slothful agTi-
culturists, awake and lend me
your ears, while / elucidate and
fruetify the everlasting truths that
cOrruscate along the everlasting
crests of my text.
L propose, then, to consider the
meaning of the words in this beau
tiful passage, i'm a two-fold light.
INDIVIDUAL.
/ would. remark that there are or
ly two words in the text which I
deem it necessary to indiViduaIiZe
and to catch the true ring Of, as the
miser catcheth the ring of his coin
before he drops it into his old sock
and hides it under the hearths, and
those two words are "children" and
"meat." i epine my beloved, that
the word children in the text has IL
much broader significatiOn than
that segment of the human family
which the old women of the coun-
try spank with impunity, and glory
in the blessed consciousness that
they can do il again if they want to.
| am persuaded that in the full am
plitude of its height and depth, its
length and breadth, it includes
every native born American cit
izen, white and black, blue, yellow
and gray, male and female, old and
young, together with all the rest of
man and woman kind on the face
of this time-bound earth, and l do
not think, therefore, my benighted
friends, that | would be stretching
my Imagination too far If / were to
venture the assertion that itincludes
even you.
The word "meatn meaneth not
alone the aggregated glObuleS which
forms the fieshy portions of the
corporeal tabernacles in which the
spiritual essences of the beast of
the field, the fowls of the air, and
the fish of the deep Give and move
and have their being" but to every
eatable thing under the sun which
the tongue of man hankereth after,
or which he hideth beneath the
broad bosom of his abdominal
ocean, for ii is said "his meat was
locust and wild honey" / say,
therefore, my brethren, that meat
here means "vittles," whether it be
"chicken tiXens" or "flour doins,"
ham bones or corn dodgers, picked
pork or billed cabbage, and 1 chal-
lenge the universal creation to refute
the correctness of my doctrine.
II-COLLECTIvELY.
Having eliminate the true doc
trine involved in the words children
and meat, it is easy to arrive at the
collective meaning of the whole
passage, and instead of saying chill
dreu, have you any meat, we may
express the same sentiment in the
more artistic paraphrase, so! father,
hast thou any VittleS pa
AYE, there's the rub" Hast
thou the wheiewithal-nOt to gorge
thy everlasting stomach at the next
meai-but to feed myself and thy
family, thine OK and thine ass, thy
hogs and thy cattle, even unto the
sheep that browse upon thy pas
lures, and the gObbler that struts in
thy barn-yaTd, until another crop
shall come in the fullness OF time.
o! my brethren, if could convert
myself into an angel and soar with
the speed of thought throughout the
length and breadth of this Southern
cline. and pausing at every door
step, cXClaim in Thoughts that
breathe and words that burn, -
Farmer hast thou any vittles ~
How many in this congregation
could rise up, and shaking the dew
drops fIom their shaggy names, an
swer proudly, yea, father l have.
Weeping, ! pause for IA reply
O my brethren, many are called,
but few are chosen, and your hang
dog looks proclaim with trumpet
tongues that most of you are in the
vOcative. Then wO unto you, fool
ish farmers, for verify you are laying
up for yourselves hunger aginst huL-
ger. Wo unto you and unto your
wives wo unto your fiOcks and un-
to yom children. Wo! wU! WO!
Alas! echo answers wO?
NanitieS of vanitieS, saith the
preacher, vanity Of vanities, all is
vanity. The son of David, king in
Jerusalem, must have invented that
idea on a full stomach whereby his
reason was clouded, for the doctrine
which he there prOpOunds is not al
together correct. \ myriad voices
spring spontaneously from the uni
Versal animated creation, and unit
ing in one grand choral strain, pro.
claim in tones of thunder that "Vit-
ties" is not vanity, and l feel sme,
my brethren, that you will take
stock with me in that beautiful and
pathetic sentiment,
Give me ''vittles'' or give me death.
1t has been beautifully said that
bread is the staff OF life. | can
vOGch for the truth of this remark
with painful fervOr, for verify / say
unto you that, in my meanderings
through these low grounds of sin
and sorrow, it hath often happened
that that portion of my earthly
tabernacle which is gracefully en-
circled with the waiStband OF my
FltAN4it~. HIS INV Otlttl ltl NittIt>.
and as the ass brayelh for his prov
Cndcr, even 50 have | been forced
10 cry unto the children of Mann
mon in the language Of my text
children, have ye any meat?"
If, therefore, We raise not any "vit-
ties" how can We have the staff,
and if We have not the staff how
can We support the life, aud il We
support not the life, what i'm the
thunder is to become Of the country
and all the preachers? | will tell
YOU, my agraTian brethren, what
will become you You will sit like
the prOdigal son among the swine,
and dolefully sing,
want hut ''vittles" here below,
And l want that "vittles quick,
or shall wipe my weeping eyes
And The bucket sOonly kick.
aNo we WON'T" some chuckle-
headed brother will say, "we will
arise and go unto our merchant and
buv the fatted calf on tick" But
-, n,-ahor,t Ghnnin saw .