The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-12-16
hn professor OF anatomy in g. university.

Kissed off the stage.
Others fail in the drama of life through
demonstrated sel6shness. They make al! the
rivers empty into their sea-, all the roads OF
emolument end at their door and they gather
all the plumes OF honor for their brow. They
help no ono, encourage no one, rescue no one:
elbow big q pile OF money can | get" and
chow much Of the world can l abSorb?" are
the chief questions. They feel about
the common people as tho Turks felt
toward the Asapi, or common soldiers,
considering them Of no use except to fill
up the bitches with their dead bodies
while the other troops walked over to them
to take the fort. After a while this prince
of worldly success is sick. The only interest
society las in his illness is the OBJECT that his
possible disease may have on the money mar
kets. After a while he dies. Great newspa-
per capitals stated how he started with moth.
ing and ended with everything. Although
for sake of appearance some people put hand
kerchiefs to the eye, there is not one genuine
tear shed between Central Park and the Bat
terry or between Brooklyn Heights and Brook
lyn Hill. The heirs sit up all night while he
lies in state, discussing what the ola felio"
has probably done with his money. 1t takes
all the livery stables within W miles
to furnish funeral equipages and all the
mourning stores are kept busy in selling
weeds of grief. The st~one-cutterS send III pro-
posals for a monument. The minister at the
obsequies reads OF the resurrection, which
makes the hearers fear that il the unscrupu-
lous inancier does come up in the general
rising, he will try to get q corner on tomb
stones and graveyard fences. All COCOA men
are glad that the moral nuisance has been re-
moved. The Wall street SPECTATORS are
clad because there is more room for them
Selves. The heirs are glad because they got
possession of the long-delayed Inherit
ance. Dropping every feather :of all his
plumes. every certificate of all his stock,
every bond Of all his investments, every dol
lar Of all his fortune, he departs, and all the
rolling of dead march in Saul and all the
pageantry of his interment, and all tue ex-
auisiteness OF s%arcophagus, and all the ex-
~travagance Of epitaphology cannot hide the
fact that my text has come again to tremen-
dous ful6lment; "Men shall clap their hands
at him and shall hiss him. out Of his place"
You sec the clapping comes before the hiss.
The world cheers before 1t damns; 80 IL IS
said the deadly asp tickles before it
stings. Going up, is he! Hurrah! Stand
back and let his galloping horses dash
by, a whirlwind of plated harness and
tinkling head gear and arched neck. DRINK
deep of his Madeira and cognac. BOAST OF
how well YOU know him. Ali hats OFT as ne
passes. Bask for days and years in the sum
PIIetend to be near-sighted so that you cannot
sea him as he walks past. When men ask
YOU if YOU know him, halt and hesitate as
though YOU were trying to Gallup q dim men,
ory and say: "Well, yes, yes; l believe
once did know him, but have not seen him
for q long while" Cross a different ferry
from the one where you used to meet him
ed life he spoke a good word for you at the
bank. Talk down his credit now that his
fortunes are collapsing. He put his name on
two of your notes; tell him that you have
changed your mind about such things and
that you never indorse. After a while his
matters come to a dead halt and an assign
m,nt or suspension or sheritf's sale takes
place. You say: "He ought to ave stopped
sooner. Just as I expected. He made too
big a splash in the world. Glad the balloon
has burst. Ha hal" Applause when be went
up, sibilant derision when he came down.
s'Men shall clap their hands at him and hiss
him out of his place" So, highiup amid the
crags the eagle futters dust into the eyes Of
the roebuck, and then with eyes blinded it
goes ~tumbling over the precipice, the great
antlers crashing on the rocks. :.
Now, compare some OF these goings ou1 OF iile
with the departure OF men and WOMEN who,
in the drama of life, take the part that God
assigned them and then went away honored
of men and applauded of the Lord Almighty.
It is about fifty years ago that in a.compara
lively small apartment of the city a newly
married pair set up a home. The first guest
invited to that residence was the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the Bible given the bride on the
day of her espousa!s was the guide OF thag
household. Days of sunshine were followed by
days of shadow. Did you verknow a homethat
for fifty years had no vicissitude? The young
woman who left her fathers house for her
Young husbands home started out with a
parental benediction and good advice she
will never forget. Her mother said to her
the day before the marriage: "Now, my
child, you are going away from US. VI
course as long as your father and live you
will feel that you can come to US at any
Fromlong experience I find it is best to serve
God. 1t is very bright with you now, my
child, and you may think you can get along
without religion, but the day will come when
YOU will want God, and my advice is. estab'
lish a family altar and. if need be. conduct
the worship yourself" The counsel was
taken, and that young wife consecrated
every room in the house to God.
Years passed. on and there we're in that
home hilarities, but they were good and
healthful; and sorrows, but they were com
forted. Marriages as bright as orange-blos-
SONS could make them. and burials in which
all hearts were riven. They have a family
lot in the cemetery, but all the place is illu-
minated with stories OF resurrection and re.
union. The children of the household that
lived have grown up and they are all Chris
tians, the father and mother leading the way
and the children following. What care
the mother took Of wardrobe and educatlon,
character and manners! How hard she
sometimes worked! When the head OF the
household was unfortunate in business she
scwed until her fingers were numb and bleed
ing at the tips. And what close calculation
of economies and what ingenuity in refitting
the garments of the elder children for the
younger, and only God kept account OF that
mothers sideaches and headaches and heart
aches and the tremulous prayers by the side
Of the sick child's cradle and by the couch
Of this one fully grown. The neighbors often
quaintances hardly knew her in the street:
But without complaint she waited
and toiled and endured and aeon.
plished all these years. The
children are out in the world-an honor to
themselves and their parents. After awhile
the mothers last sickness comes. Children and
grandchildren, summoned from afar, come
Softly into the room one by one, for she l.
too weak to see more than one at q tins.
She runs her dying fingers lovingly through
their hair and tells them not to cry, and that
she is going now, but that they Will all meet
again In a little while in a better world, aud
then kisses, them goodbye, and says God
bless and keep you, my dear child!'
Yhe day Of the obsequies comes, and
the officiating clergyman tells
the story of wifely and motherly endurance.
and many hearts on earth and in heaven
echo the sentiment, and as she is carried of
the stage of this mortal life, there are cries of
faith unto death; she hath done what she
could" while overpowering all the voices Of
earth and heaven is tho plaudit of the God
who watched her from first to last, saying,