Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-10-07
with you. Our engagement With each other i

1 - On THE ROAD TO PERDITION.
Out Of employmentr' What does tina
mean to good young mani 1t means oppor
tunity to get another and perhaps n bette
place. 1t means opportunity for mental i'm
| proyement and preparation for higher work
| Out OF employmentW What does that meal
TO dissipated young manl 1t means light
ming express train on a down grade on thu
grand trunk TO perdition. AL Borak was
winged horse on which Mahomet pretended Il
have ridden by night from Mecca TO Jeru
salem, and from Jerusalem to the seventh
heaven, with such speed that each step wa.
as far as the eye could reach. A young mar
out Of employment through his designations Ii
seated on an AL Borak, riding as fast in tho
opposite direction.
1t is now only five years since Edward came
to town. He used to write home once week
at the longest He has not written home 70,
three months. "What can be the matterp'
say the old people at home. One Saturday
morning the father puts on the best apparel
OF his wardrobe and goes to the city to find
out.
20. he has not been here for long while, J,
say the gentlemen Of the firm. "Your son,
am sorry TO say, is on the wrong track
The father goes hunting him from place 10
place aud comes suddenly upon him that night
in place of abandonment. The father saws:
''My son, come with me. Your mother has
sent me to bring you home. / hear you are
out OF money and good clothes and you know
right away" he says, putting his hand on the
young mans shoulder
fHE OLD FATHERS ANXIETY.
In angry tone Edward replies: ''Take YOUR
hands off me! You mind your own business
/ will do as please! Take your hands off of
me or will strike you down! You 20 your
way and will go mine!"
That Saturday night, or rather Sunday
morning-for IL is by this time o'clock in the
morning-the father goes to the city home OF
his son Nicholas, and rings the bell and rings
again and again, and it seems as IL no answer
would be given; but after while a window is
hoisted and n voice cries: who's there"
ut is me-" says the old man.
"Why father, is that you!"
In minute the door is opened and the son
says:
''What in the world has brought you to the
city at this hour of the night"
30, Edward has brought me here. feared
your mother would go stark crazy not hearing
from him, and | find on. that 1t is worse with
him than | Suspected
''Yes," says Nicholas, 81 had not the heart
to write you anything about it. have tried
my best with him and all in vain. But it is
after 2 O'clock" says Nicholas to his father,
land | will take you to a bed.n
On comfortable couch in that house the
old father lies down coaXing sleep for few
hours, but no sleep comes. Whose house is it!
That Of his son, Nicholas. The fact is, that
Nicholas soon after coming to the city became
Indispensable in the commercial establish
ment in which he was placed. He knew, what
few persons know, that while in all depart
ments Of business, and mechanism, and art,
there is surplus Of people of ordinary appli-
cation and ordinary diligence, there is great
scarcity, and always has been a great scarcity,
OF people who excel. Plenty of people to do
things poorly or tolerably well, but very few
clerks, or business men, or mechanics who can
do splendidly well.
ATTENDING STRICTLY TO BUSINESS.
Approaching this, Nicholas had resolved to
do so grandly that the business firm could not
do without him. Always at his place a little
polite to those who decline purchasing as to
those who made large purchases. He drank
no wine, for he saw 1t was the Imprisonment
Of multtudes, aud when any one asked him to
take something, he said mo" with the pc
culiar intonation that meant no. His CONVEX
sation was always as pure as If his sisters had
been listening. He went to no place of amuse-
ment where he would be ashamed to die. He
never bet or gambed even at a church fair
When he was at the boarding house, after he
had got all the artistic development he could
possibly receive from the chrome on the wall,
he began to study that which would help him
to promotion-study penmanship, study BIZ
ographes of successful business men; or went
forth to places of innocent amusement and to
Young mems Christian associations, and was
not ashamed TO be found at church prayer
meeting. He rose from position to position,
and from one salary to another salary.
SUCCESS CROWNS INTEGRITY
Only five years in town, and yet he has
rented his own house or a suite of rooms, not
very large, but home large enough in its
happiness to be a type of heaven. In the
morning as the old father with handkerchief
In hand comes CRYING down stairs to the table
there are four persons, one for each side The
ed n, /.
blessing that a God of infinite goodness can
bestow, namely, good wife and on another
side the high chair filed with dimpled and
glee, that makes the grandfather
opposite smile outside while he has a broken
heart within.
Well, as | said, it was Sabbath, and Nicho-
las and his father, knowing that there is no
place so appropriate for troubled soul as the
house Of God, find their way to church. 1t is
day, and what is the old mans
surdrse to see his son pass down the aisle with
one Of the silver chalices, showing him to be a
church official. The fact was that Nicholas
from the start in city life honored God, aud
God had honored him. When the first wave
Of city temptation struck him he had felt the
need of divine guidance and divine protection,
and in PRAYER had sought regeneratcd heart,
and had obtained that mightiest of all armOr,
that mightIest of all protection, that IN ghtest
Of all reinfOrcements, the multipotent and ON
nipitent grace of God, aud you might as well
throw thistle down against Gibraltar, expect
ing to destroy 1t, as with all the combined temp
tations of earth and hell try to overthrow
young man who can truthfully say: God is my
refuge and strength"
THE END OF RIoToUs LIFE
Come, let us measure Nicholas around the
head. As many inches of brain as any other
intelligent man. Let us measure him around
the heart. 1t is so large it takes in all the
earth and all the heavens. Measure him around
the purse. He has more resources than nine
tenths of those who on that Monday, Septem-
Der 20, came in on any of the railroads from
north or south or east or west.
But that Sabbath afternoon while In the back
room Nicholas and his father are talking over
any attempt at the reclamation of Edward,
there is a ringing of the door bell and man
with the uniform of policeman stands there,
and a man with some embarrassment and some
hating, and in a roundabout way says that in a
fight in some low haunt OF the city Edward had
been hurt. He says to Nicholas: II heard that
he was some relation of yours, aud thought
you ought to know it,"
''Hurt, Is he badly hurtm
Eyes; very badly hurt"
as the wound mortal!"
Yes; it is mortal. TO tell you the whole
truth, SIR" says the policeman, although l
can hardly bear to tell you, he is dead"
"Deadr' cries Nicholas. And by this
time the whole family are in the hallway.
"Just as feared. 1t viii kill his mother
when she hears of It. my son, my son!
Would to God had died for thee. o my son,
my SOM"
wash of the wounds" says Nicholas,
''and bring him right here to nv house, and
let there be all respect and gentleness shown
him. 1t is the last we can do for him.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN.
o, what obseques! The next door neigh
bors hardly knew what was going on; but
Nicholas and the father and mother knew.
Out OF the Christian and beautiful home Of
the one brother Is carried the absolute broth
er. No word of blame uttered No harsh
things said. On a bank of camellias is spelled
out the word Brother" Had the prodigal
been true and pure and noble in life and hon
orable in death he could not have been carried
forth with more tenderness, or slept in a more
beautiful casket, or been deposited in more
beautiful garden Of the dead. Amid the
loosened turf the brothers who left the coun-
try for city life five years before now part for
ever. The last scene Of the fifth act of an aw-
full tragedy of human life is ended.
What made the difference between these
two young meni Religion. The one depend
ed on himself, the other depended on God.
They started from the same home, had the
same opportunities of education, arrived in
the city on the same dav, and II there was any
difference, Edward had the advantage, for he
was brighter and quicker, and all the neigh