The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-10-24

RoOQ uedi ol la1e, lof JuSV dtoNi Oval ~
same scrape Now il there is
anything l can do to help you out
will gladly do it. Better just put those goods
out Of sight for the present and next season
we will plan something about them. will
help you to some goods that you can sell Tor
me on commission, and I will go down to one
Of the wholesale houses and tell them that
know you and will back you up, and If you
can let you have them Be as economical as
you can, keep stiff upper lip, and remember
that you have two friends, God and myself.
Good morningl" The Old merchant goes
away and the young man goes behind his
desk and the tears roll down his cheeks. 1t
is the first time he has cried. Disaster made
him mad at everything, anil mad at man
him. and the tears seem to relieve his brain,
and his spirits rise from ten below zero to
eighty in the shade, and he comes
out of the crisis. And about three years
after. this young merchant goes into the old
merchants store and says: swell, my old
friend. was this morning thinking over
what you did for me three years ago. You
helped me out of an awful crisis in my COM
mercial history. Learned wisdom and pros
perity has come, and the pallor has
gone out Of my wifes cheeks and
the roses that were there when I
courted her in her fatherls house have
bloomed again, and my business is splendid,
and thought ought to lot you know that
you saved man. In a short time after,
shaky in his limbs and had poor spells
is called to leave the world and one
morning after he had read the twenty
third Psalm about 1.-The Lord is my
Shepherd" he closes his eyes on this
world, and an angel who had been
for many years appointed to watch the Old
mans dwelling, cries up yard tn, news that
the patriarch's spirit is about ascending.
And the twelve angels who keep the twelve
gates Of heaven unite in crying down to this
approaching spirit of the old man: Come in
at any Of the twelve gates you choose!
Come in and welcome, for it has been told oil
over these Celestial neighborhoodS that You
saved man."
There sometimes come exigencies in tho
life of woman. One morning about two
years ago saw in the newspaper that there
was a young woman in New York whose
pocketbook containing thirty-seve dollars
and thirty-shree cents had been
stolen and she had been left with
out a farthing at the beginning of
winter in a strange city, and no work.
And although she was stranger, l did
not allow the nine o'clock mail to leave the
lampost on our corner without carrying the
thirty-seven dollars and thirty-three cents:
and the case was proved genuine. Now =!
have read all Shakespeares tragedies, and all
Victor Hugo's tragedies, and all Alex.
ander Smiths tragedies but l never read
a tragedy more thrilling than that case,
and similar cases by the hundreds and
thousands in all our large cities; young wo-
men without money and without home and
without work in these great maelstroms Of
metropolitan life. When such case comes
under Your observation, how do you treat it,
"Get out Of my way, we have no room in our
establishment for any more hands. I don't be-
l;eve In women anyway, they are lazy, idle.
worthless set. John, please show this person out
of the door," Or do you compliment her per-
sonal appearance and say things to her which
if any man said to your sister or daughter
you would kill him on the spot? That is one
way. and it is tried every day in these large
cities, and many Of those who advertise for
female hands in factories and for gorerneSses
in families have proved themselves unfit to
be in any place outside of hell.
But there is another way. and saw 1t the
other day in the Methodist Book Concern in
New York, where young woman applied
for work, and the gentleman in tone and
manner said in substance: my dang hter, we
employ women here. but I do not know OF
any vacant place in our department.;
You had better inquire at such and
~
successful in getting something to do" The
embarrassed and Inundated woman seemed
to give way to Christian confidence. Shs
started out with hopeful look that l think
must have won for her place in which to
earn her bread. ! rather think that consid-
crate and Christian gentlemen saved q
woman. New York and Brooklyn ground
up last year about thirty thousand
Young women. and would like to grind
up about as many this year. Out of all
that long procession Of women who march
on with no hope for this world or the next,
battered, bruised, sco!fed at and flung of
the precipice, not one but might have been
saved for home and God and heaven. But
good men and good women are not in that
Kind of business Alas for that poor thing
nothing but the thread of that evening girl
needle held her, and the thread broke. have
heard men tell in public discourse what q
man is, but what is woman! Until some
one shall give a better definition will tell
YOU what woman is. Direct from God, a
sacred and delicate gift with affections SO
great that no measuring line short of that OF
the infinite God can tell their bound. Fash.
ioned to refine and soothe and lift and
irradiate home and society and the
one can appreciate it. unless his mother
lived long enough to let him understand it,
or who in some great crisis of life when all
else failed him, had wife to reinforce hiU
with a faith in God that nothing could dis
turb. Speak out, ye cradles, and tell of the
feet that rocked you and the anxious faces
that lowered over you! Speak out, ye
nurseries of all Christendom, and ye homes
whether desolate or still in full bloom with
the faces of wife, mother and daughter, and
help me to define what woman is. IT man
during all his life accomplish nothing else
Except to win the love and confidence ana
help and companionship Of good woman,
be is a garlanded victor and ought to nave
The hands OF all the people between here and
the grave stretched out to him IN con-
graduation.
But as geographers tell us that the depths
Of the sea Correspond with the heights OF the
mountains, I have to tell you that good
womanhood is not higher up than bad woman
hood is deep down. The grander the palace,
he more awful the conhagration that destroys
It. The grander the steamer oregon, tne
more terrible her going down Just on tne
coast. Now l should not wonder II you
srembled little with a sense of responsible
ity when I say that there is hardly person
in this house but may have an opportunity
to save woman. 1t may, in your casa, 90
done by good advice, or by financial heip, or
by trying to bring to bear some one OF
thousand Christian influences YOU
would not have to 60 lar. II,
tor instance, you Kno" AMONG yoG
acquaintance a young woman who is
apt to appear on the streets about the honr
when gentlemen return from business ana
you find her responding to the smile Of entire
strangers, hogs that lift their hat, 60 to her
and plainly tell her that nearly all the de-
stroyed womanhood Of the world began the
downward path with that very kind OF be-
havior.
! Or if. for instance, you find a woman in
! financial distress and breaking down IN
health and spirits trying to support her chill
| dren, now that her husband is dead or an In
valid. doing that very important and honor,