The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-08-06


that river which has produced nothing
but miasma for one hundred miles, may
after awhile turn the wheels Of factories
and help TO support industrious and yirtu-
Gus populations; and there are family
lines which were poisoned that are a bene-
diction now. At the last day it viii be
found out that there are men who have
gone clear over into all forms of iniquity
and plunged into other abandonment, who
before they yielded to the first temptation
resisted more evil than many a man who
has been moral and upright al his life.
Again, I have to remark that in our esti-
mate of the misd0ings Of people who have
fallen from high respects bilitY and useful
n IS, We must take into confederation the
conjunction Of circumstances. In nine
cases out of ten the man who goes astray
does not intend any positive wrong. He
has trust funds. He risks part of these
funds in investment. He says: Snow, if
1 should lose that investment 1 have my
own property, five times as much, and if
this investment should go wrong 1 could
easily make It up; l could five times make
1t up" With that wrong reasoning ne
goes on and makes the investment, and it
does not turn out quite so well as he ex-
pected, and he makes another invest
meNt, and strange to say at the time all
his other affairs get entangled, and all his
other resources fail, and his hands are
Il d. Now he wants to extricate himself
He goes a little farther on in the wrong
investment. He takes a plunge further
ahead, gor he wants to save his wife and
children; he wants to save his home; ne
wants 10 save his membership IN the
church. He takes one more plunge and
eli is lost. Some morning at ten O'Clock
the bank door is not opened, and there is
a card on the door signed by an officer of
the bank, indicating there is trouble, and
the name Of the defaulter or the deTauder
heads the newspaper column.
Under these conditions hundreds Of men
gay, "Good for him." hundreds of other
men say: "rm glad he's found out at
LAST" hundreds of other men say: ''Just
as I told you;" hundreds OF other men
say, 1--WE couldn't possibly have been
tempted-nO conjunction OF circumstances
could ever have thrown mes" and there is
a superabundance of indignation, but no
pity. The heavens full of lightning, but
not one drop of dew. If God treated US as
society treats that man we would all have
been in he'll long ago! Wait for the
alIeviating circumstances. Perhaps he
may have been the dupe of others. Before
you let all the hounds out from their
ennels to maui and tear that man, fnd out
If he has not been brought up in a COM
mercial establishment where there was q
wrong system Of ethics taught; ind out
whether that man has not an extravagant
wife, who is not satisfied with his honest
earnings, and in temptation to please her
he has gone into that ruin into which
g. ~
temptation, to make procession of many
miles. Perhaps some sudden .ckness may
have touched his brain and his jud gment
may be unbalanced. He is wrong; ne IS
awfully wrong, and he must be condemn
ed, but there may be mitigating circum-
stances. Perhaps under the same tempta-
ton you might have fallen.
You dehanIy say: II could not be
tempted in that way" Perhaps you may
be tested after awhile. God has a very
good memory, and he sometimes seems to
say: This man feels so strong in his in
nate power and goodness he shall be
tested; he is so full of bitter invectiVe
against that unfortunate it snail be shown
now whether he has the power to stand"
Fifteen years go by. the wheel of for
tune turns several times, and you are in
crisis that you never could have antici-
pated. Now, all the powers of darkness
come around, and they chuckle, and they
chatter, and they say; "Ahal here Is the
old fellow who was so proud of his integ-
rity, and who Dragged he couldn't be
overthrOwn by temptation, and was so up
roarious in his demonstrations of indigna-
tion at the defalcation fifteen years ago.
Let Us see." God lets the man go. God,
who has kept that man under His protect
L. -, /,
self the majesty of his integrity. God,
letting the man go, the powers of dark
ness pounce upon him.
1 see you some day in your Office in
great excitement. One of two things you
can do. Be honest, and be pauperized,
and have your children brought home
from school. your family dethroned in So
cial influence. The other thing is, you
can step little aside from that which is
right, you can only just go half an inch
out 0f the proper path, you can only take
q little risk, and then you have all your
anhnces fair and right. You nave a large
property. You eau leave a fortune for
your children, and endow a college, and
build public library in your native town.
You halt and wait, and halt and wait un-
ia your lips get white. You decide to risk
il. Only a few strokes of the pen now.
But, Oh, how your hand trembles, how
dreadfUlly IL bemblesI The die is cast.
BY the stranges aud most awful conjunc-
tion of circumstances any one could have
ina gined, you are Frustrated. Bank
ruptcy, commercial humiliation, expos
ure, crime. Good men mourn and devils
hold carnival, and you see your own
name at the head of the newspaper COLI
umn in a whole congress of exclamation
points; and while you are reading the an
athena in the reportorial and editorial
paragraph, it occurs to you how much this
story is like that of the defalcation of If
teen years ago, and clap of thunder
shakes the window-sin, saying: with
what measure We mete, it shall be m cas-
ured TO you againW
You look in another direction. There is
nothing like an ehullition of temper to put
a man to disadvantage. You, a man with
calm pulses and a fns digestion and per-
feet health, can not understand how any
body should be capsiEed in temper by an
indnitesimRl annoyance. You say: ~
couldn't be unbalanced in that way"
Perhaps you smile at q provocation that
makes another man swear. You pride
yourself on your imperturba bility. You
say with your manner though you have
too much good taste to say it with your
words; II have great deal more sense
than chat man has; ! have a great deal
more equIpoise of temper than that man
bass never could make such puerile ex-
hibition of my self as that man has made"
Ny brother. you do not realize that that
man was born with keen nervous organ
iEation, that for forty years he has Teen
under depicting process, that sickness
and trouble have been helping undo what
was left OF original healthFulness, that
much Of bis time IL has been with him like
ding saws, that his nerves have come to
be merely a tangls of disorders, and that
be is the most pitiable object on earth
yrbD thoutgh ha fe verv sick dnae