The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-05-10

when they indulge in this habit. Do you
not know, o father that your child is
aware of the fact that you swear? He
overheard you in the next room, or some
one has informed him of your habit. He
is practicing now. In ten years he will
swear as well as you do. Do not, o father,
be under the delusion that you may swear
and your son not know it. 1t is an awful
thing to start the habit in a family-the
father to be profane, and then to have the
echo of his example come back from other
generations, SO that generations after
generations curse the Lord.
The crime is also fostered by master
mechanics, boss carpenters, those who
are at the head of men in hat factories,
and in dock yards, and at the head of
great business establishments. When you
go down to look at the work of the scat
folding, and you find it is not done right,
what do you say? 1t is not praying, is it?
The employer swears; his employe is
tempted to swear. The man says:
81 don't know why my employer, worth
fifty thousand dollars or one hundred
thousand dollars, should have any luxury
should be denied, simply because L am
poor. Because am poor and dependent
on days wages, haven't as much right
to swear as he has, with his large in
Gomez"
Employers swear, and that makes so
many employees swear.
The habit comes from infirmity Of tenn =
per. There are good many people who,
when they are at peace, have righteous
ness of speech, but when angered they
blaze with imprecation. Perhaps all the
rest of the year they talk in right
language, but now they pour out the fury
OF whole year in one red-hot paragraph
of five minutes. l knew of q man who
excused himself for the habit, saying: 81
only swear once in great while. l must
do that just to clear myself out"
The habit comes also from the profuse
use of by-words. The transition from a
by-word which may be perfectly harmless
to imprecation and profanity, is not very
large transition. 1t is ''my stars! !" and
''mercy ON mev and "good gracious -
and "by George!" and ''by Jove!" and
you go on with that little while, and then
you swear. These words, perfectly harm
less in themselves, are next door to i'm
precation and blasphemy. A profuse use
of by-words always ends in profanity
The habit is creeping up into the highest
style of society. Women have no patience
with fiat and unvarnished profanity They
will order a man out of the parlor indulg-
ing in blasphemy, and yet you will some
times find them with fairy fan to the lip,
and under chandeliers which bring no
blush to their cheek, taking on their lips
the hottest of names in utter triviality.
Why, my friends, the English language
is comprehensive and capable of express
ing all shapes of feeling and every degree
of energy. Are you happy, Noah Webster
will give you ten thousand words with
which to express your exhilaration. Are
you'righteously indignant, there are whole
armories in the vocabulary, righteous
neutrality-suspicious. armies of denun cia-
ton, and scOrn, and sarcasm, and irony,
and caricature, and wrath. You express
yourself against some meanness or
hypocrisy, in all the oaths that ever
smoked up from the pit, and I will come
right on after you and give a thousand
fold more emphasis of denunciation to
the same meanneSs and the same
hypocrisy in words across which no slime
has ever trailed, and into which the fires
OF hell have never shot their forked
tongues-the pure, the innocent, God
honored Anglo-Saxon in which Milton
sang, and John Bunyan dreamed and
Shakespeare dramatized.
There is no excuse for profanity when
we have such magnificent language
such flow of good words, potent words,
mighty words, words just to suit every
crisis and every case. Whatever be the
cause of it, profanity is on the increase,
and If you do not know it, it is because
your ears have been hardened by the din
OF lmprecations so that you are not stirred
and moved as you ought to be by pro-
families in these cities which are enough
to bring hurricane of fire like that which
consumed Sodom.
Do you know that this trivial use of
Gods name results in perjury? Do you
know that people who take the name of
God on their lips in recklessness and
thoughtlessness are fostering the crime of
perjury? Make the name of God foot
ball in the community, and ithas no power
when in courtroom and in legislative as
sembly it is employed in solemn adjura-
ton! See the way sometimes they adj
minister the oath: $50 help you God
kiss the book" Smuggling, which is al
ways violation of the oath, becomes in
some circles a grand joke. You say to a
man:
show is it possible for you to sell these
goods so very cheap? can't understand
it."
"Ah" he replies, with a twinkle of the
eye, 1.-THE custom house tariff of these
goods isn't as much as it might be-" An
oath does not mean as much as it would
were the name of God used in reverence
and In solemnity. Why is it that so often
Jurors render unaccountable verdicts and
judges give unaccountable charges, and
useless railroad schemes pass in our State
capltols, and there are most unjust
changes made in tariffs-tariff lifted from
one thing and put upon another?
II you would get rid of this habit, want
you, my friends, to dwell upon the use
lessness Of it. Did a volley of oaths ever
start heavy load9 Did they ever extir-
pate meanness from a customer? Did
they ever collect bad debt? Did they
ever cure toothache? Did they ever
stop the twinge of the rheumatism? Did
they ever help you forward one step in the
right direction? Come, now, tell me, We
who have had the most experience in this
habit, how much have you made out of it?
Five thousand dollars in all your life?
No. One thousand? No. One hundred?
No. One dollar? No. One cent? No. iIf
the habit be so utterly useless, away with