Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1886-10-23
Ths reply Is: 1--WE do not wish any words
with You. Our engagement with each other

DebUer place. IL means Oppo 'JunlUy TOT Hlel-
tai mproven ent AMI preparation for higher
work 'Out of employment" What does
that mean to diSsipated young mani IL
means a lightning express train on down
gi ade on the Grand Trunk to Perdition. AL
BJrak was winged horse on which Ma
homet pretended to have ridden by night
from Mecca to Jerusalem, and from Jerusl-
10 u to the seventh heaven with such speed
that each step was as ar as the eye could
reach. A young man out Of employment
through his designations is seated on an Al
Borak, riding as fast in the opposite dire;-
ton
It is now only five years since Edward
rame to town. He used to write home once
n week at the longest. He has not written
home Tor three months. ''What can be the
matter" say the old people az home. One
Saturday morning the father puts on the best
apparel of his wardrobe and goes to the city
to find out.
"Oh, he has not been here for q long
WHILE" say the gentleman of tie firm.
"Your son, am sorry to say, ID on tne
wrong track"
The old father goes hunting him from place
to place and comes suddenly upon him that
night in place of abandonment. The father
says: 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 as long as we live you can have
ting his hand on the Young mans shoulder.
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 l will strike you down
You go your way and will go mine"
That Saturday night or rather Sunday
morning-for it is by this time two o'clock in
the morning, the father goes to the CITY hons
of his son Nicholas and rings the bell ano
rings again and again, and it seems as il ne
answer would be given, but after while
window is hoisted and a voice cries:
IWho's thereT'
''It is me- says the old man.
'tWhy, father, is that you 7"
In a minute the door is opened and tina e6El
says:
''What in the world has brought you to
the city this hour of the night I"
"Oh, Edward has brought me here. feared
your mother would go stark crazy not hear
ing from him, and find out that it is worse
with him than l suspected"
"Yesn says Nicholas, II hal not the heart
to write you anything about it. l have tried
nv best with him and all in vain. But it is
after two O'clock says Nicholas to his
father land will take you to bel"
On comfortable couch in that house the
old father lies down, coaxing sleep for few
hours, but no sleep comes. Whose house is
it. One rented by his son, Nicholas. The
fact is that Nicholas soon after coming to
the city became indispensable in the COM
mercial establishment where he was pla ed.
He knew, what few persons know, that while
in all departments of business and mechan-
ism and art there is a surplus OF people OF
ordinary application and ordinary diligence,
there is great scarcity and always has been
great scarcity of people who excel. Plenty
of people to do things poorly or tolerably
well, but very few clerks or business men or
me .hanics who can do splendidly well. Ao-
prec ating this, Nicholas had resolved to do
so grandly that the business firm could hot
do witaout him ALWAYS at his place before
the time he was required to come. Always
at his place little after everybody had gone
AS extremely polite to tn Sc who de lined
purchasing as to those who made large pur-
chases. He drank no wine, for he saw it
was the empoisonment of multitudes, and
when any one asked him to take something
he said "No,' with the peculiar information
that meant no. H conversation was always
as pure as if his sister had been listening
He went to no place of amusement where he
would be ashamed to die. He never bet or
gamblei. even at church fair. When he
was at the boarding house after he got all
the artistic development he could possibly
receive from the chromos on the wall he be-
gan to study that which would helD him TO
promotion; study penmanship, study biog-
raphiss of successful 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 an ,ther salary.
Only five years in town and yet he has
rented his own house or q suit of rooms, not
very large but home large enough in its
hap ainess to be a type of heaven. In tbs
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
- - l. sw4a hast
blessing that God of infinite goodness can
bestow, namely good wite and on another
side the high chair filed with dimpled and
rollicking glee that ma es the grandfather
opposite smile outside while he has broken
heart within.
Well as said, it was Sabbath and Mich
olas and his father knowing that there is no
The house Of God, finl their way to church.
tits communion day, and what is the old
mans surprise to see his son pass down thu
aisle with one of the silver chalices, showing
him to be a church oil iaL the fact was
that Nicholas from the start in city life hon
ored God and 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
q regenerated heart, and had obtained that
m;ghtiest of all armor, that mightiest of all
protection, that mightiest Of all reinforce.
inents, the multipotentando mnipotent grace
of God, and you might as well throw thistle
down against Gibraltar, expecting to destroy
it, as with all the combined temptations Of
earth and hell try to overthrow young man
who can truthfully say: God is my refuge
and strength"
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 re-
sources than ninetenths of auy Of those who,
on that Monday, September 20, came in on
any of the railroads from North, or South,
or East, or West.
But that Sabbath afternoon, while in the
baek room, Nicholas and his father are talk
ing over new plan for the reclamation of
Edward, there is ringing of the door bell,
and a man with uniform of a policeman
stands there. and with some embarrassment
and some hating. and in roundabout way
saws that in a fight in some low haunt OF the
city Edward has been hurt. He says u
Nicholas: 81 heard that he YVES some rela
ton of yours and thought you ought to know
itn
"Hurt. Is he badly hurtl'
Eyes, very badly hurt"
SIS the wound mortalf
eyes: it is mortal 10 tell yon the whole
truth, SIR" says the policeman, although
can hardly bear To tell you, he is dead"
"Dea1!n cries Nicholas. And by this time
the whole family are in the hallway. The
father says: Just as feared. 1t will kill