Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-05-08
Garry Your Own Burdens.


My son. it is a comforting doctrine. and
one that men often preach to each other.
that man deserves all credit for every
thing good that he does and for all the
good that he is, but that somebody else is
to blame for all the evil in him. Mr..
Cough has been criticised for saying-and
they were his last words" Young man
make your record clean" The prophets
who speak comfortably say that the Young
man cannot make his record clean when
his father makes bad record before him,
that society and the evil tendencies of It,
and something the scientists call his en-
vlronment," write the young mans record
bad IN spite of him. Oh, my dear boy, this
is doctrine too cowardly for young man
to accept. Ever since Adam, the founder of
society and the inventor of the first record
ever made in this world, a man without an
environment to his back, made bad rec
ord and then said. THE woman thou gavest
to be with me, she" did it all, men have
always pleaded the irresistible force of sur
roundlngs and circumstances. The woman
was younger than Adam, she was weaker,
many wise men say she is intellectually
the inferior of man, she was a newcomer
in the garden, and yet how glad your old
grandfather was to say that il was all your
grandmother's fault, and that being thus
led astray by influences and examples
which no man could control or resist, he
should not be held responsible for his dis
obedience. And in her turn, your grand
mother laid it on to the snake, Just as to-
day, in the office of the ,Stul and in Chris
tan homes all over this land, the evil
deeds of men and servants are laid to the
cat. But, for all this excuse, Adam was
hired out OF the garden, and served him
right Now, my boy, the other man NAV
eat forbidden fruit until he founders. and
not q bite that he swallows is going to
hurt you. 4 dose of strychnine big
enough to kill COW won't hurt you, if YOU
don't swallow any of it. When YOU swear
you do your OVID swearing; you can't bor
row another mans tongue to damn beg
gar with. When you get drunk, you get
drunk. The law doesn't fine the man who
sells the whisky, it fines the man who
drinks it. When you steal anything, from
a pin to the Broadway road, you do your
own stealing and IN the case of the pin, at
least, the law holds you responsible for il,
not the man who coaxed YOU TO steal
nor yet the citizen who, by owning valu-
able property which you could not buy,
thereby tempted you to steal it. You are
the fellow that does all the wickedness
that is wrought by your hands and your
lips. 1t tires me to hear man always
excusing himself and citing some dreadful,
wicked Jeroboam which made him to sin.
Not, indeed, that we hold the Jeroboams
guiltless. " 1t must needs be that offenses
come; but woe to that man by whom
the offense cometh ~ But because the mill
stone and soft place in the sea is the
proper combination for the man who helps
you to stumble, you do not go free have
no right 10 turn a cross dog into the street,
but if do. he will bite you if you go fool
ing around him. Wherefore. cave canem -
which by Interpretation is. don't monkey
with the dog" AS the dog will not be aware
ofyou, do you be aware fthe dog. You NAV
have noticed on the sacredotal garments of
your instructor, my son, some qteer. I'M
slightly splashes here and there Well, ]
put them on myself. Without the assist
ance or by the fault of any man, l did it.
And If there are any more to go
on before l have it renovated |
am the only fellow who can put them
there. Now you may 90 and play and
have fun, and don't let me ever again hear
you say that you would be the best boy in
the world if only all the other boys were
dead.-LR. J. Burdette.