Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-05-29

'A"o We lave wasted our money!
ano clmc. You may by it have made an
investment worth more than the transac-
.ion that yielded you a hundred or a
thousand dollars. But how many proper
Ties I've been riddled by costly amuse-
ments! The table has Seen robbed to pay
cne cluo. The champagne has cheated the
cnlldren's wardrobe. The carousing party
nas burned up the boys primer. The table,
cloth OIL the corner saloon is in debt to the
wife's faded dress. Excursions that in a
day make q tour around a whole months
ladies whose lifetime business is
20 go shopping" have their counterparts
IN ~uneducated children, bankruptcies that
shock the money market and appall
the church and that send drunkenness
staggering across the richly figured carpet
Of the mansion and dashinr into the mirror
and drowni ng out the carol of music with
the whooping of bloated sons come home
to break their old mothers heart. When
men go into amusements that they can not
afford they first borrow what they can not
earn, and then they steal what they can
not borrow. First they go into embarrass-
ments and then into lying, and then init
theft, and when a man gets as far on as
that he does not stop short of the peniten-
tiary. There is not q prison in the and
where there are not victims of unsanctified
amusements. How often have had parents
come to me and ask me to go over to New
York and beg their boy off from crimes
that he had committed against his en-
ployer-the taking of funds out of the
employers till or the disarrangement of
the accounts. Why, he had salary enough
to pay all lawful expenditure, but not
enough salary to meet his sinful amuse-
ments.
How brightly the path of unrestrained
amusement opens! The young man y
"Now l am off for a good time. Never
mine economy. Iyn get money somehow.
What a fine road! What a beautiful day
for q ride! Crack the whip and over the
turnpike! Come, boys, fill high your
glasses. Drink! Long life, health, plenty
of rides just like thisw Hard working
men hear the chatter of the hoofs and look
up and say: "Why, Iwonder here those
fellows get their money from? We have
to toll and drudge. They do nothing" To
these gay men life is a thrill and an excite
ment. They stare at other people and in
turn are stared at. The watch-chain
jingles. The cup foams. The cheeks
flush. The eyes flash. The midnight hears
their guifaw. They swagger. They jostle
decent men off the sidewalk. They take
the name of God in vain. They parody th e
hymn they learned at their mothers knee!
and to all pictures of coming disaster they
cry out: "Who cares" and to the coun-
sci of some Christian frieni: "Who are
you" Passing along the street some
night you hear a shrek in a grog-shop,
the rattle of the watchman's club, the
rush of the police. What is the matter
now? Oh, this reckless young man has
been killed in a grog-shop fight. Carry
him home to his fathers house. Parents
will come dow and wash his wound and
close his eyes in death. They forgive him
all that he ever did, though he can not in
his silence ask it. The prodigal has got
home at last.
You may judge of amusements by their
effect upon physical health. The great
need of many good people is physicalre-
cuperation. l want to tell the Christian
people of my congregation that God will
hold you responsible for your invalidism
if it is your fault, and when through right
exercise and prudence you might be ath-
letic and well. The effect of the body upon
the soul you acknowledge. Put q man OF
mild disposition upon the animal diet OF
which the Indian partakes and in a little
while his blood will change it's chemical
proportions. 1t will become like unto the
blood of the lion or the tiger, or the bear,
while his disposition will change and be-
come fierce, cruel and unrelenting. The
6oIr hoe n novyarf,,1 afpant ,,c tho ccn1
There are good people whose ideas of
Heaven are all shut out with clouds of to-
bacco smoke. There are people who dare
ITO shatter the physical vase in which God
put the jewel of eternity. There are men
with great hearts and intellects in bodies
worn out by their own neglects; magnid-
cent machinery, capable of propelling q
Great Eastern across the Atlantic, yet
fastened in a rickety North River pro-
peller. Physical development which
merely shows itself in fabulous lifting, OF
in perilous rope-walking, or in pugilistic
encounters, excites only our contempt.
But we confess to great admiration for the
man who has a great soul in an athletic
body, every nerve, muscle and bone OF
which is conseyrated to right uses. Oh! it
seems to me outrageous That men, through
neglect, should allow their physical health
to go down beyond repair, spending the
rest of their life, not in some great enter
prise for God and the world, but in study
ing what is the best thing to take for dys-
pepsia. When you may, through some OF
the popular and healthful recreations Of
our time, work off your spleen and your
righteousness and one-half Of your. ply
steal and mental ailments, do not turn
your back from such a grand medicament.
Again, judge of places of amusement by
the ~companionship into which they put
you. If you belong to an organization
where you lave to associate with the in
temperate, with the u~nclean, with the
abandoned, however we'll they may be
dressed, in the name of God quit it. They
will despoil your nature. They will uhder-
mine your moral character. They will
drop you when you are destroyed. They
will give not one cent to support your
children when you are dead. They will
weep not one tear at your burial. They
will chuckle over your damnation. But
the day comes when the men who ave ex-