Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-05-04

I Some of you are evening stars, and 20
are cheering the last days of old people
and though cloud sometimes comes owe
sonableness Of your father ana mother, it i
only for q moment, and the star sool
comes out clear again and is seen from al
the balconies of the neighborhood. The
old people will forgive your occasional
shortcomings, for they themselves several
times lost their patience with you wher
you did not deserve it. Hail, evening
star! Hang on the darkening sky YOU
diamond coronet.
But are any of you the star NORWOOD?
Do you scold and growl from the thrones
pateraal or maternal? Are your children
everlastingly pecked at? Are you always
crying: "Hush!" to the merry voices and
swift feet and their laughter, which occa-
sionally trickles through at wrong times.
and is suppressed by them until they con
into unlimited gutfaw aud cach:nnaticn, as
in high weather the water has trickled
through slight opening in the mill dam
but afterwards makes wider and wider
breach until it carries all before it with ir-
resistible freshet. Do not be too much
offended at tho noise your children now
make. 1t will be still enough when they
arc dead. Then you would give your right
hand to hear one shout from their silent
voices or one step from the still foot. You
will not any of you have to wait very long
before your house is stil1er than you want
it. Alas that there are so many homes not
known to the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children, where children are
put on the limits and whacked and cuffed
and ear pulled and senselessly called to
order and answered sharp and suppressed
until it is wonder that under such cir
cumstances they do not all turn out Mo-
docs and Mana Sahihs.
What is your influence upon the neigh.
borhood, the town, or the city of your
residence2
will suppose that you are star of wit.
What kind Of rays do you shoot forth? Do
you use that splendid faculty to irradiate
the world, or to rankle it? bless all the
apostolic college of humorists. The man
that makes me laugh is my benefactor. l
do not thank anybody to make me cry.
can do that without any assistance. We
cry enough and have enough to cry about.
God bless all skillful punsters, all repair
teeists. all propounders of ingenious con-
undrums, oil those who mirthfully surprise
us with unusual juxtaposition of words.
Thomas Hood and Charles Lamb and
Sidney Smith had divine mission and so
have their successors in these times. They
stir into the beverage of life the saccha.
rine. They make the cup of earthly en-
istence, which is sometimes stale, effer-
vesce and bubble. They placate animesi-
ties. They foster longevity. They STAY
follies and absurdities which oil the SER
mons of all the pulpits cannot reach. They
have for examples Elijah, who made fun
of the Baalites when they called down fire
md it did not come, suggesting that their
god had gone hunting or was of
on journey, or was asleep and nothing
"Cry aloud, for he is god; either he is
talking or pursuing; or peradventure he
sleepeth and must be awaked." They have
M example in Christ, who with healthful
sarcasm showed up the lying. hypocritical
Pharisees by suggesting that such perfect
people like themselves needed no improves
ments, saying: "The whole ed not
physician but they that are sick"
But what use are you making of your
wit? Is it besmirched with profanity and
Do you employ it IN amuse-
ment at physical defects for, which the
victims nre not responsible? Are your
powers of mimicry used to put religion in
Is it bunch of nettlesome in
vectiyes? Is it a bolt of unjust scorn? liz
it fun ut others misfortune? liz it glee ut
their disappointment and defeat? Is it
bitterness put drop by drop into cup? Is
it like the squeezing of Artemisia Absin-
thium into q draught already distastefully
pungent? Then you are the star Worm-
wood. Yours is the fun of rattlesnake
trying how we'll it can sting. 1t is the fun
of hawk trying how quick it can strike
out the eye of dove.
But will change this and will sup
Then you have large opportunity. You
can encourage that artist by buying his
picture. You can improve the fields, the
stables, the highways: by introducing
higher style of fowl and horse and COW and
sheep. You can bless the world with
genealogical achievement in the orchards.
You can advance horticulture and arrest
this beautiful iconoclasm of the American
forests. You can put piece of sculpture
into the niche of that public academy.
You can stocking thousand bare feet
from the winter frost. You can build q
church. You can put missionary of
Christ on that foreign shore. You can
help ransom world. A rich man with
heart right-can you tell me how much
good James Lennox Or George Pea
OO0y OF REFER cooper or William f..
Dodge did while living or is doing now. that
he is dead? There is not city, town, or
that has not glorious speci-
mems of consecrated wealth.
But suppose you grind thesface of the
poor. Suppose when mans wages are
due you make him wait for them because
he cannot help himself. Suppose that be-
cause his family is sick and he has had
extra expenses he should politely ask you
to raise his wages for this year and you
roughly tell him that if he wants better
place to go and get it. Suppose by your
manner you act as though he were nothing
and You were everything. Suppose you
are selfish and overbearing and arrogant.
Your first name ought to be Attiia and your
last name Attila. because you are the star
Norwood, and you have embittered one
third, if not three thirds, of the waters
that.roll past your employees and operatives
and dependents and associates. and the
long line of carriages which the undertaken
orders for your funeral in order to make
the occasion respectable, will be filled with
twice as many dry, fearless eyes as there
are persons occupying them. The clumsy
pail bearers may make the gates of your
sepulcher quake by striking your silver
handled coffin against them, but the world
will feel no jar as you 60 out Of it.
There is an erroneous idea abroad that
there are only few geniuses. There are
millions of them; that is, men and women
who have especial adaptation and quick