The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-12-29
A Lay Discourse.

A Lay Discourse.
4 "A convict in the Indiana Penitentiary
hit the nail on the head when asked how
his downward course began. He said il
began in trying to beat two-forty with q
thr'ee-minute horse. How many people
in all branches of business are trying to
beat twd-forty witt three-minute bust
ness? The man who has small business
that is paving him. and goes into debt
and tries to spread himself over too many
eggs, is irving to beat two-forty with q
three-minute horse. The young man
who gets small salary. and spends more
money for ice cream and perfumery and
neck ties than he earns, is trying to beat
two-forty with q three-minute horse. The
girl who is calculated by nature to be
the wife of a mechanic, and gets above
her business and looks with scorn upon
man who earns his living by hard work
will look at an old maid in the glass q
few years from now, and realize that she
has been trying to beat two-forty with .
three-minute horse. The ordinary, ey-
cry day sort of a man, who is elected to
a small Office, by big majority. on &C.
count of men voting for him for charity,
and who thereupon aspires to big Of
fee for which he is untitled, will be
nominated for the big Office some day
and be beaten higher than kite. and
he will then feel Of his aching head. ex-
anime his empty pocketbook. look around
at the debts he has contracted and the
enemies he has made, and it will sud-
90 L.
been trying to beat two-forty with
three-minute horse. The man or
woman who leaves profession or en-
ployment to which they are fitted, and
in which they can be prosperous and
happy and have friends, and goes upon
the stage to compete with men and women
who have been brought up to 1t, and
who have made success by a lifetime of
hard work. will some day realize to their
sorrow that they have failed to beat two:
forty with three minute horse. The
young man who has been left fortune
by dead father, who has worked life
time to accumulate riches, and who
can't find places enough to spend money
without sitting up all night, and who
finds old sledge and peenuckle too tame
and adopts draw poker and faro, and
who forgets that his sisters are splendid |
will in few years be walking
On his uppers, and having fur collars
pinned on 80 linen ulsters for winter,
and he will wake up some morning with |
The almightiest headache on record and
come to the conclusion that trying to
beat two forty with a three-minute horse
s what ais him. The summer resort
lotel proprietor who fits up an old rock
Try and fills it with guests, who are seek
ng comfort, and charges them Fifth
Avenue prices for Bowery accomoda-
ions, will look at his empty house the
lext year and say the season is back
ward, and when the guests do not come
With the dog-days he will suddenly
cratch his head aud say he made fool
II himself last year in trying to beat
with three-minute horse. The
good fellow. everybody's
riend. gets to drinking too hard. and,
s he is healthy, he gets an idea
le can beat whisky, game that so
many have tried and failed. He keeps
up until his nose gets red, his eyes
cleared and his voice shaky, and he has
whisky cough, and his friends try to
eason with him and get him to let up,
nut he laughs at them with his good
atured laugh. and tells them he has got
constitution like a horse, and that
othing can hurt him, and he asks them
o take drink. Some day he gets the
im-jams, and all his friends say: 81
old you So" and they sit up nights with
i'm and drive away snakes, and just be-
ore he dies ii suddenly occurs to him
hat he has eentrying to beat two-forty
nth three minute horse. A man who
) poor and wants to live on the fat of the
and, marries pretty little rich woman.
nd begins to squander her money, and
Then she tries to persuade him to stop
!, he gets to treating her like dog.
cts worse and strikes her. and after a
Thile she gets enough of it and obtains
divorce. and marrieS man who loves
er and doesn't want. her money, and
ne is happy, and her former husband
ecomes a dead beat and drGnkard and
rould fain beg for the refuse that drops I
'om the table OF his former wife, and
hen he buttons his summer coat around
i'm on a winter night and walks around |
block for a wind padding, and looks |
Ito the windows and sees the light of
lie tiie from the CRATE of his former I
'ife's sitting groom, it occurs to him that 9
he had not attempted to beat two forty I
18th three-minute horse, he could have I
cen in there toasting his, slippers and $
'oking into pair Of eyes that would
ave always looked their love for him. b
he had been contented with three
linute gait. but which eyes will never a
ok upon him again except in pity. o, a
lere are thousands of people who make '
mistake in trying to beat two-forty =