Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-02-06
Killing Time.

The following Is On extract from
q ermon prepared by Ell. w. Howe,
OF Atchison. in anticipation Of leaving
the press for tho pulpit:
Notwithstanding the fact that time
Is heeting. and the grave is a few
inches nearer every time we draw Il
breath or light a cigar. there are nine.
teen men in every twenty who are
scheming around for some way to
"pass tho time" About the date when
old Father Time gathers them in with
his twine binder, they will wish they
had economical the hours they have
thrown away. but at present the great
OBJECT OF life is an usement. These
moonlight nights it is fashionable, and
d~eclfedly pleasant, they say, to have
q pretty horse and q young woman OF
a similar description, with q cutter and
lots of robes, and a few extracts from
"Courtship Made Easy" learned by
heart. But on these occasions the
young man looses sight Of horse, and
forgets whether the moon is over or
under him, and lets the cutter 90 to
thunder, and devotes all his time to
his companion, and when lie gets back
be cannot tell for tho life of him
whether be WAS driving in n graveyard
or up tho side of a barn. Ee has killed
time, however. and it is only q CUES.
ton Of days when Time will get even
aud Kill him. Another plan is to hitch
two or three hand sleds together, fas-
ten an upholstered plank on top, and
slide down the hill where there is the
greatest probability Of causing blood
she'd and broken necks. A great many
men who were born lazy and never
got over it, are greatly addicted to
this sport. They would watch the
fall OF dynasties and the clash
OF worlds before they would
saw o stick OF wood for tho house, or
draw a bucket Of water for a woman
who has worked until she feels "a
though her very soul was exhausted.
but at night, when the woman is still
working and driving nails into her
coffin with dull eyes and drooping
head, the boss Of the house, who has
got to ''kill time somehow or other,
Is out hauling these big bob sleds hall
q mile up hill just for the alleged fun
OF riding down again, and breaking
the legs Of those who have 10 legs to
spare. There are young ladies there,
too, and young men who stand st 81
angle with .he moon, 80 their mus.
taches will show up, who slide halt
way down tho hill on these vehicles,
and are thon slung all over the land
scspe; and amidst tho cracking of
joints, and the swapping of ccrssge.
and the shower Of French heels, bus
ties and stand up collars, comes tho
cry that it is delightful. And If one of
these young men should be obliged to
carry a scuttle of coal out from the
cellar, he wouldn't get oyer the fatigue
in a week, and il one of the young
ladies should be beguiled into pairing
seventeen potatoes, it would give her o
sick headache. Ali these people are
killing time" together with an occa-
sionsl pedestrian who attempts TO cross
the street when the sign isn't right. A
life without enjoyment is a dismal bus
mess, but an enjoyment that endapgers
the lives and legs of others, or an en-
ioyment that fills a fat mans face with
joy, and leaves a thin weman's face at
home full of fatigue, WEAKNESS and
misery, is not the kind that the angels
smile upon. or that receives the bless
ing Of the man who hits n flying sled
with bis skull, and is picked up in the
next township.