The Nicodemus cyclone. [volume] (Nicodemus, Graham County, Kan.) 1887-1888, 1888-01-20

was built he often found the load when he
| came TO count it thousand clans short. Yes,
| Goodness is profitable for both worlds. Most
| of the great honest permanent worldly success
| es are by those who reverence God and the
| Bible. But what do say is that if man
have nothing but social position and financial
resources, woman who puts her happiness
| by marriage in his hand re-enacts the
| folly of Abigail when she accepted disa-
| greeable Nabal ''whOse possessions were
| In Carmel; and the man was very great
and he had three thousand sheep, and thous-
and goats"
If there be good moral character accompau-
| led by atfiuent circumstances l congratulate
| you. If not let the morning lark flv clear OF
| the rocky mountain eagle. The sacrifice or
/ woman on the altar of social AMI financial e1-
| pectatiOn is cruel and stupendOus L sketch
| you q scene you have more than once witness
| ed. A comfortable home with nothing more
| than ordinary surroundings but an attractive
| daughter carefully and Christianity reared
| From the outside world comes in man with
nothing but money, unless YOU count profanity
| and selishness and fOndness for champagne
and general recklesSneSs as part OF his pos
| session. He has his coat collar turned up
| when there is no chill in the air but because it
| gives him an air of abandon, and eyeglasses
not because he is near sighted but because 1t
! gives a classical appearance, and with an at
| tire somewhat loud, a cane thick enough to be
/ the club of Hercules and clutched at the mid
| die, his conversation interlarded with French
! phrases inaccurately pronounced and sweep
| of manner indicating that he was not sbOrn
| like most folks but terrestrially landed. BY
| arts learned of the devil be lnsinuateS himself
! into the affections of the daughter of that
! Christirn home. All the kindred congratulate
! her on the almost supernatural prospects.
! Reports come in that the young man is
! fast in his habits. that he has broken several
| young hearts, and that he is mean and selfish
! aud cruel. But all this is covered up with the
| fact that he has several houses in his own
name, and has large deposits at the bank. and,
more han ali, has father worth many hun
dred thousand dollars and very feeble in
| health and may any day drop of, and this is
| the only son, and round dollar held close
! to ones eye is large enough to shut
out a great desert, and how much more
will several bushels Of dollars shut out
The marriage day comes and goes. The
wedding ring was costly enough and the
orange blossoms fragrant enough and the
benedction solemn enough and the wedding
march stirring enough. And the audience
shed tears of sympathetic gladnesS, suppOs-
| ing that the craft containing the two has
sailed off on a placid lake. although God
knows that they are launched on a Dead Sea,
its waters brackish with tears and ghastlv
with CHASTITY faces of despair floating to the
surface and then going down. There they
are, the newly-married pair In their new
home. He turns out to be a tyrant. Her
will is nothing, his will every thing. Lavish
her the pennies he pinches out into her tremb-
ling palm. Inste ad Of the kind words she
left behind in her former home. now there
are complaints aud fault-tindings and curses.
He is the master and she is the slave. The
worst villain on earth is the man who, having
captured woman from her fathers house
and after the oath of the marriage altar has
been pronounced, says by his manner if not in
words: 81 have you now in my power What
can you do! My arm is stronger than yours.
My voice is louder than yours. My fortune is
greater than yours. My name is mightier than
yours. Now crouch before me like dog Now
crawl away from me like reptile. You are
nothing but a woman anyhow. Down, you
miserable wretch?" Can halls of mosaic
can long lines of Etruscan bronze, or statuary
by Palmer Powers and Crawford and Chan
try and Canova, can galleries rich from the
pencil of Bierstadt and Church and Kenset
and Cole and CrOpsey, could flutes played by
an Ole Bull or pianos fingered by Colts
chalk, or solos warbled by a SOnntag
could wardrObes like that of Marie An
tOnette, could jewels like those Of a Eugene
make a wife in such OmpanOnship happy?
Imprisoned in castle! Her gold
bracelets are the chains of
lifelong servitude. There is sword
over her every feast, not like that of
Damocles staying suspended but dropping
through her lacerated heart. Her wardrobe
| is full of shrouds for deaths which she dies
daily, and she is buried alive though buried
under gorgeous upholstery. Tn ere is one
| word that sounds under the arches and rolls
| along the corridors and weeps in the falling
| fountains echOing in the shutting of every
| door and grOans in every note of stringed and
wind instrument: "WOe! Wool The oxen
| and sheep in Olden times brought to the tenn
pie Of Jupiter to be sacrificed used to be cover
ed with ribbons and flowers, ribbons on the
| horns and flowers on the neck. But the floral
and ribbOned decoration did not make the
stab of the butchers knife less beautiful, and
all the chandeliers you hang over such wo-
| man and all the robes with which you enwrap
| her and all the ribbons with which YOU adOrn
| her and all the beWitching charms with which
| YOU embank her footsteps are the ribbons and
flowers of horrible butchery.
AS if to show how wretched good woman
may be in splendid surroundings We have two
recent illustrations, two ducal palaces in Great
| Britain. They are the focus OF the best things
that are possible in art, in literature, in archl-
| lecture, the accumulation of other estates I'M
| til their wealth is beyond description. Que
! of the castles has cabinet set with gems
| that cost two million five hundred thousand
| dollars. and the walls of it bloom with Rem
| brandts and Claudes and POussins and Gui-
! dos and Raphaes, and there are SOuthdOwn
fOcks in summer grazing on its lawns and
/ Arab steedssprancing at the dOorways on the
first open dav at the kennels" From the
! one castle the duchess has removed with her
! children because she can no longer endure the
orgies of her husband, the duke, and in
the other castle the duchess remains confront
| ed by insults and denominations in the pres
ence of which | do not think God or ecent
society requires a good woman to remain.
| Alas for those ducal country seats! They on
a large scale illustrate, what on smaller scale
may be seen in many places that without
moral character in a husband all the accessO-
ries Of wealth are to a wife's soul taGtsliza-
ton and mOckery. When Abigail finds Nebal,
her husband. beastlv drunk, as she comes
home from interceding for his fortune and
| life it was no alienation that the old brute
had possessions in Carmel, and was very
! great and had three thousand sheep, and one
/ thousand goats" and he the worst goat
among them. The animal in his nature
seized the soul in its mouth and ran off with
/ it.
Before things are right in this world genteel
/ villains are to be expurgated. Instead of be-
4 ing welcomed into respectable society be-
! cause of the amount Of stars and carriers and
medals and estates they represent, they
/ ought to be fumgated two or three years be-
fore they are allowed without peril to them
selves to put their hand on the door Knob of a
I moral house The time must come when a
masculine estray will be as repugnant TO good
I society as a feminine estrav, and no coat OF
arms or family embaz0nry or epaulet can
/ pass Lolhario unchaIenged among the
/ sanctities Of home life. BY what law Of God
or common sense is an AbsalOm better than a