The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1886-01-07

side of the bottle. Not being able to find
any one who could tell me what this
mark means, have had to CUES that the
whole thing was an allegory: "XXX"-
that Is, thirty heart breaks, thirty agon-
| les, thirty desolated homes, thirty chances
for a drunkard's grave, thirty ways to per-
dition. "XXXy" If were to write a
story the first chapter would be NIX"
| the last the pawnbroker'S shop. Be watch
full! At this season all the alluremants to
| dissipation will be especially busy. Let
not your flight to he'll he in the winter.
also remark that the winter evenings,
through their very length, allow great
swing for iniulgcnces. Few young men
would have the taste to go to their
rooms at seven o'clock and So until
| eleven, reading Motley's Dutch Republic
! or John Fosters ESSAYS. The yoang men
who have been confined to the store all
day want fresh air and sightseeing: and
they must go somewhere. The most of
them have of q winters evening three
or four hours of leisure. After til" even
ing repast the young man puts on his hat
aud coat and goes out. "Come in here"
cries another. go" says Satan; you
ought to see for yourself" Why don't
you go" SAYS a comrade, lit is u shame
for young man to be as green as you
are. By this time you ought to have seen
everything"
Especially is temptation strong when
business is dull. have noticed that mon
spend more money when they have lit'le
to spend. The tremendous question to he
settled by our great population, day by
10 hn, 70 af
our young men just starting for them
selves are very much discouraged. They
had hoped before this to have set up a
household of their own But their gains
have been slow, their discouragements
many. The young man can hardly take
care Of himself. How can he take care Of
another? And, to the curse of modern So
ciety, before young man is able TO set up
a home OF his own, he is expected 20 have
enough to support in idleness somebody
else, when God intended that they should
begin together and jointly earn a liveli
hood, So, many uf our young men are
utterly discouraged and utterly unfit to re-
sist temptation.
The time when the pirate bore down
upon the ship was when its sails were
down and it was making no Roadway.
People wish they had more time to think
The trouble is, in dull times, that people
have too much time to think. Give to
many Of our commercial men the four
hours of these winter nights, with nothing
to divert them, and before spring they viii
have lodgings in an insane asylum. / re-
mark further that the winter is especially
trying to the moral character of our
l. \,
in winter are especially unattractive. In
summer they can sit on the steps or have
bouquet in theEase on the mantel, and the
evenings are so short that soon after gas
light they feel like retiring. Parents do
not take enough pains to make these long
winter nights attractive. 1t is strange that
old people know so little about young peo-
pie. One would think that they had never
been young themselves, but had been born
with spectacles on. 1t is dolorous for
young people to spend the three or four
hours of winters evening with parents
who sit talking over their own ailments
and miSfortuneS and the nothinXneSs of
this world. How dare you talk such BIAS
phemyT God was busy six days in max
ing the world, and has allowed it to hang
six thousand years on his holy heart; and
that world hath fed you and clothed you
and shone on you for fifty years, and yet
you talk about the nothingness of this
world? Do you expect the young people
in your family to sit and groan about this
magnificent, star lighted, sun warmed,
shower baptized, fiower-strewn, angel
watched, God-inhabited planet: From
such homes young men make a wild plunge
into dissipation. Many of you have the
means-why do you not buy them a violin
or a picture? or have your daughter
cultured in music until she can help
to make home attractive? There
are ten thousand ways OF lighting
up the domestic circle. 1t requires
no large income, no big house, no rich
wardrobe, no chased silver, no gorgeous
upholstery, but parental heart awake to
its duty. Have doleful home and your
children will not stay in it, though you
block up the door with Bibles and tie fast
to them a million catechisms. ! said to q
man: "This Is a beautiful tree in front of
your house." He answered, with whine:
"Yes; but 1t will fade" | said to him:
"You have a beautiful garden" He re-
piled: "Yes, but it will perish" found
out afterward that his son was a vaGa-
bond, and l was not surprised at it. You
can not groan men into decency, but you
can groan them out of it.
Pray ye that your flight be not In the winter,
Arm yoarself against the especial temp
tations of this season. Poets and painters
have represented Satan as horned and
| hoofed. If were a poet l should describe
| him with manners noG shed To the last per-
lection; hair flowing in graceful ringlet8;
| eye little bloodshot, but floating in be-
witching languor; hands soft and dia-
monded; step light and artistic; voice
mellow as flute; boot elegantly shaped;
conversation facile, carefully toned and
| Frenchy; breath perfumed until it would
seem that nothing had ever touched his
lips save balm and myrrh. But his heart
| would encase with the scales of mon
ster, then fill with pride, with beastliness
of desire, with recklessness, with hypocrisy
with death. Then l would have him touched
with some rod of disenchantment
| until his two eyes would become the cold
| orbs of the adder, and on his lips would
come the foam of raging intoxication, and
to his feet the spring of the panther, and
his soft hand would become the clammy
hand of a wasted skeleton; while sud
denly from his heart would burst in crack
ling and all-devouring fury the unquench
able fame, and in the affected lisp of his
tongue would come the hiss of the worm
that never dies. But, until Disseminated,
nothing but myrrh and balm and ringlet
and diamond and tilte-like voice and con-
versation aromatic, facile and Frenchy.