Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1888-04-27

s.appca you when you did not deserve =
Hull, evening start Hang on the darllening

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paternal or maternal? Are your children
evcrlastingIy pccked at3 Are you always
crying, "Husll" to the merry voices and
swift feet and their laughter, which occa-
siolally trickos through Mt wrong times and
Suppressed bytEcm until they can hold it
no longer and all the barriers burst into UNI
limited gulTaw and exclamation, as in high
weather tho water has trickled through q
slight opening in the mill dam, but afterward
makes wider and wider breach until it car
ries all before it with irresistible freshet. Do
not he too much offended ut the noise your
children now make. It will be still enough
when one of them is 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
stiller than you want it. Alasl that there
!. are SO many homes not known to the Society
for the Prevention OF Cruelty to Children,
where children arc put on the limits and
whacked and cufYed and ear-pnlled and sense;
lessly called to order and answered sharp and
suppressed until It'll IS a. ssoilae ts,fnder
such processes
docs md Nina Sahi6s y: = =,
What is your influence upon the neighbor-
hood. the town or the city Of your. residences
1 will suppose that you are star of wit.
Whnt kind of rays do you shoot forth? Do
YOU use that splendid faculty to irradate the
world or to ran!ile it? bless all the apos-
tolic 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 all cry
enough and have enough to cry about. God
bless all skflful punsters, al repnrtceists, all
propounders- of ingenious conundruns, oil
those who mirthfully- surprise us with un-
usual iuxtaposition OF words. Thomas Hood
and Charles Lamb and Sidney Smith had a
divine mission, md so have their successors
in these times. They stir into the acid bcver-
age of life the sacchnrinc. They make the
cup of earthly existence, which is sometimes
stale, efrcrvesce and bubble. They placate
animosities They foster longevity. They
slay follies and a5surdities which MI tho
sermons of all the pulpits cannot reach.
They havo for examples Elijah, who made
fun of the Baalitcs when they called down
fire and it did not conc, suggesting that their
heather god had gone hunting, or was OF on
o. Journey, or was asleep and nothing but
vociforation could wake him, saying: CRY
aloud for he is god; either he is talking or
pursuing or peradvcnture he slecpeth and
must be awnkcd." They have oil example in
Christ, who with henlthful sarcasm showed
up the lying, hypocritical Pharisccs, by sug-
costing that such perfect people like them
selves needed no Improvements, saying: 1.-The
whole need not n physician, but they that
arc sick"
But what use are you making Of your witt
Is it bcsmircled with profanity and unclean-
ness? Do you employ it in amusement at
plysical defects for which the victims are
not responsible? Are you: powers of inimicry
used to put religion in contenipts Is it a
bunch of nettlesome invec.ivc! Is it Il bolt
of unjust scorn! Is it fun ut others mis-
fortune? Is it glce at their disappointment
md defeat! Is it bitterness put drop by drop
into cup? Is it like the squeezing OF arte-
misia absnthium into n draught already dis.
tastefully pungcnt7 Then you are the star
NORWOOD Yours is the fun of q rattle
snake trying how we'll it can sting. 1t is the
fun of hawk trying how quick it can strike
out tho eye of dove.
But will change this, and / will suppose
YOU are star of worldly prosperity. Then
You have large opportunity. You can ell
You can npro Sstis BY 1h}layins hs Resu p
highway, by introducing higher style of
fowl and horse and COW and sheep You can
bless the world with genealogical achieve
ment in the orchards. You can advance
arboriculturc and arrest this beautiful icono-
clasm of the American forests You can put
a piece of sculpture into the niche of that
nublic academy. You can endow college.
You can stocking n thousand bare feet from
the winter frost You Gun build q church.
You can put missionary of Christ on thnt
foreign shore You can help ransom world.
A rich man with his heart right. Can You
tell me how much good James Lcnnox or a
George Peabody or Peter Cooper OF Will
lam 3. Dodge did while living, or is doing
now that lie is dcadl There is not IL city,
town or neishborhood that has not glorious
specimens of consc0nted wealth.
But suppose you grind the face of the poor.
Sunpose when q mans wages are due you
make him wait for them because he cannot
help himself Suppose TINT because his
family is sick md he has had extra expenses
he should politely ask you to raise his wages
for this year, and YOU roughly tell him il he
wants better place to go and get it. Sup
pose by your manner you act US though he
were nothing and you were everything.
Suppcse YOU are selfish and overhcarinS and
arrogant. Your first name ought to be At
tia. and your last name Attila, because you
are the star Norwood and you have en-
Uttered one-third, if not three-thirds, of the
waters that roll past your employees and
operatives and dependents end associates,
and the long line of carriages which the UNI
dertaker orders for your funeral in order 10
make the occasion respectable, will be filed
with twice as many dry, fearless eyes as there
arc persons occupying them. The clumsy
pail bearers may mako the gates of your
sepulcher quake by striking your silver
handled coffin against them, but the world
will feel no jar rs you so 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 quicEness
for some one thing. It may be great it may
be small. The circle may be like the clrcuin-
ference of the earth or no larger than a
thinlble. There are thousands Of geniuses
here this morning, and in some one thing
YOU are a star What kind of star are
you? You will be in this world but q few
minutes. As compared with eternity the
stay of the longest life on earth is not more
than a minute What arc we doing With
that minutei Are VIC embittering the dones-
tic, or social, or political fountains, or are
we like Moses, who, when the Israelites in
the wilderness complained that the waters
of Lake Marah were bitter and they could
not drink them, their leader cut of the
branch of certain tree and threw that
branch into the water, aud it became sweet
and slaked the thirst of the suffering hostl
Are we with branch OF the tree of life
sweetening all the brackish fountains that
we Gun touch! Dear Lord, send us all oft
on thy mission. All Ground US embittered
lives, embittercd by persecution, embttered
by hypercriticism, embittercd by poverty,