The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-04-12

boot and his coat of the right pattern,
and now. if he can only swear without
| awkwardness. and as well as his COM
rades, he believes he is in the fashion.
There are young men who walk in an at
mosphere of imprecation on their
lips, under their tongues, nesting in their
shock of hair. They abstain from it in
the elegant drawing room, but the street
and the club house ring with their pro-
families. They have no regard for God,
although they have great respect for the
ladiesl My young brother. there is no
manliness in that. The most ungentle-
manly thing a man can do is to swear.
Fathers foster this great crime. There
are parents who are very cautious not to
swear in the presence Of their children I;
in moment of sudden anger they look
around to see if the children are present
when they indulge in this habit. Do you
not know, oh father, that your child is
aware Of the fact that you swear2 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, oh
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 bead of men in hat factories
and in dock yards, and at the head Of
great -basiness establishments. When
you go down to look at the work of the
scaffolding, and you find it is not done
right, what do you say? 1t is not pray
ing, is it? The employer swears-his en-
ploye is tempted to swear. The man says:
~ don't know why my employer, worth
$50, 900 or 800, 600, should have, any
luxury should be denied simply because
am poor. Because I am poor and de-
pendent on days wages, haven't as
much right to swear as he has with his
large income?" Employers swear, and
that makes SO many employees swear.
The habit also comes from infirmity of
temper. There are good many people
who, when they are at peace, have
righteousness Of speech, but when an
gered they blaze with imprecation. Per-
haps 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. ] knew of q
man who excused himself for the habit,
saying: II only swear once in q great
while. must do that just to clear my
self out.
The habit comes also from the pro-
fuse use of bywords. The transition
from byword which may be perfectly
harmless to imprecation and profanity, is
not very large transition. It is "'nly
stars!" and 'smercy on met and ''good
graciousl" and ''by Georger' and ..by
Jove!' and you go on with that little
while, and then you swear. These
words, perfectly harmless in themselves,
are next door to imprecation and bias
phemy. A profuse use of bywords
always ends in profanity. The habit is
creeping up into the highest styles of
society. Women have no patience with
fiat and unvarnished profanity. They
will order 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 holiest of names in utter triviality.
Why, my friends, the English language
is comprehensive and capable Of express
ing all shapes of feeling and every de-
gree of energy. Are you happy, Noah
Webster will give you ten thousand words
with which to express your exhilaration.
Are yos righteously indignant, there are
whole armies in the vocabulary, righte-
Gus ocabulary-whole armies of de-
/ nunciation 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 will come
right OF after you and give a thousand
| fold more emphasis Of denuneiation to
the same meanness and the same hypoc-
| risy in words across which no slime has
ever trailed and into which the fires of
| hell have never shot their forl1ed 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 a 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, 1t is because
| your ears have been hardened by the din
of imprecations 30 that you are not
| stirred and moved as you ought to be by
profanities 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 reeklessness and
thoughtlessness are fostering the crime
Of perjury? Make the name OF God a
foot ball in the community, and it has no
| power when in court room and in legis-
lative assembly it is employed in solemn
| adjurationl See the way sometimes they
administer the oath: .'S'help you God
kiss the book!'' Smuggling, which is
| always violation of the oath, becomes
| in some circles a grand Joke, You say
to man. "How is it possible for you to
sell these goods so vHy cheap? can't
UNDERSTAND IL. AN u6 replies, WIN
| twinkle of the eye, s'the custom house
tariff Of these goods isn't a. 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 un-
accountable verdicts, and judges give un-
accountable charges, and useless railroad
schemes pass in our state capitols, and
| there are most unjust changes made in
the tarifs-tariff lifted from one thing
and put upon anothera
What is an oath? Anything soiemni
Anything that calls upon the Almighty
Anything that marks an event in man 3
history Oh, mol 1t is kissing the book
There is no habit, tell you plainly-and
I talk to hundreds and thousands of men
to-day WHO will thank me for my utter
ance-I tell you, nay brQther-I talk to
you not professionally but just as one
brother talks to another ON some very
important theme-I tell you there is no
habit that SO depletes mans nature as
the habit Of profanity. You might as
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