St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-01-02

Rev. T. Dewitt Tallnage, on his recent
return to Brooklyn from his Western lee
ture tour, chose the above timely topic for
his first Sunday evening discourse, taking
for his text
Pray ye that your flight be not in the win
ter.-Matbew xiv. 90
The inhabitants of the old cities were
here told that they would have to fly for
their lives. Such flight would be painful,
even in the flush of spring time. but super
latively aggravating if in cold weather;
therefore they were told to pray that their
flight be not in the winter There is some-
thing in the winter season that not only
tests our physical endurance but, especial
4y in the city, tries our moral character.
1t is the winter months that ruin morally
and forever many of our young men. We
sit in the house on a winters night and
hear the storm raging on the outside and
imagine the helpless crafts driven on the
coast, but if our ears were only good
enough, we could on any winter night
hear the crash of 100 moral shipwrecks.
Many who came last September to town,
by the first of March will have been blast
ed. It only takes one winter to ruin a
young man. Whom the long winter even
ings have come many of our young men
will improve them in forming a more inti-
mate acquaintance with books, contract
ing higher social friendships and strength
ening and enrolling characters. But not
so with all. | will show you before get
through that at this season of the year
temptations are especially rampant, and
my counsel is, look out how you spend your
winter nights!
remark, first, that there is no season of
the year in which vicious allurements are
so active. In warm weather places of dis
sipation win their tamest triumphs. Peo-
pie do not feel like going in the hot nights
of summer among the blazing gaslights or
breathing the fetid air of assemblages.
The receipts of most grog shops in De-
cember night are three times what they
are in any night in July or August.
doubt not there are larger audiences in the
Casinos in winter than in the summer
weather. Iniquity plies a more profitable
trade. December, January and February
are harvest months for the devil. The
playbills Of the low entertainments then
are more charming, the acting is more ex-
quisite, the enthusiasm of the spectators
more bewitching. Many a young man
who makes out to keep right the rest of the
year, capszes now. When he came to
town in the autumn his eye was bright,
his cheek rosy, his step elastic; but before
spring, as you pass him you will say to
your friend: "What is the matter with
that young MANI" The fact is that one
winter of dissipation has done the work of
ruin.
This is the season for parties, and if they
are OF the right kind, our social nature is
improved end our spirits are cheered up.
But many of them are not of the right
kind, and our young people night after
night are keptin the whirl of unhealthy ex-
citement, until their strength fails, and
their spirits are broken down, and their
taste for ordinary life corrupted; and by |
the time the spring weather comes they are |
in the DOCTORS hands or sleeping in the
cemetery. The certificate of their death is |
made out, and the physician, out of regard
for the family, calls tn disease by some
Latin name, when the truth is that they
died of too many parties.
Away with these wine drinking convivi-
alities. How dare you, the father of a
household, trife with the appetites of our
young people? Perhaps out of regard for
the minister or some other weak temper
ance man, you have the decanter in side
room. where, after refreshments, only
select few are invited: and you come back
with glare in your eye and stencil in
your breath that show that you have been
out serving the devil.
'bo axr,hi
give for this is that it is necessary, after
such late eating, by some sort of stimulant
to help digestion. My plain opinion is
that IL 4 man have no more contro- over
his appetite than to stuff himself until his
digestive organs refuse to do their office,
be ought not to call himself man, but
rather to class himself among the beasts
that perish. take the words of the Lord
Almighty, and cry: "Woe to him that
putteth the bottle to his neighbours lipsw
Young men, take it as the counsel of
friend when bid you be cautious where
you spend your winter evenings. Thank
God that you have lived to see the glad
winter days in which your childhood was
made cheerful by the faces of fathers and
mothers brothers and sisters, some of
whom, alas will never again wish you I
Happy New Year" or "Merry Christ 7
mas"
Let no one tempt you cut of your So s
'riety. l have seen respectable young t
men of the best families drunk on q
New Years Day. The excuse they J
gave for the inebriation was that the '
aides insisted on their taking it. There i
lave been instances where the delicate Il
land of woman hath kindled young S
mans taste for strong drink, who, after v
many years, when the attractions of that s