Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-04-20

ana your SOu uOt KNOW IL. IL AS hA a"Au
thing to start tho habit in a family-the
father to be profaue, and then to have the
echo of his example to come back from
other generations; so chat generations afte,
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 busi-
ness establishments. Wher you go down
to look at the work of the scatfoding, and
you find it is not done right, what do you
say? 1t is not praying, is it? The en-
ployer swears-his employe is tempted to
swear. The man says: II don't know
why my employer, worth $4,000 or $780,
900, should have any luxury I should be
denied simply because 1 am poor. Be-
cause am poor and dependent on days
wages, haven't Us much right TO swear as
he has with his large income?" Employ
ers swear, and that makes so many en-
ployes swear.
The habit also comes from infrmity of
temper. There are a good many people
who, when they are at peace, have right
eousness of speech, but when angry they
blaze with imprecation. Perhaps ali the
rest Of the year they talk in right language,
but now they pour out the fury of u whole
year in one red not paragraph Of five min
L "
self for the habit, saying: 81 only swear
once in a great while. I must do that to
clear myself out"
The habit comes also from the profuse
use of bywords. The transition from a
byword which may be perfectly harmless
to imprecation and profanity, is not very
large transition. 1t is "my stars" and
mercy on mel" and good gracious!" and
"by George!" and "bv Jove!" and you go
on with that a little while and then you
swear. These words, perfectly harmless
in themselves, are next door to impreca-
ton and blasphemy. A profuse use of by
words always ends in profanity. The
habit is creeping up into the highest styles
of society. Women have no patience with
tlatand unvarnished profanity. They will
! blasphemy, and yet you will sometimes
find them with fairy fan to the lip, and
under chandeliers which bring no blush
to their cheek, taking on their lips the
hottest names in utter triviality.
Why, my friends, the English Language
is comprehensive and capable of express
ing all shades of feeling and every degree
of energy. Are you happy, Noah Webster
will give you ten thousand words to ex-
press your exhilaration. Are you right
eously indignant, there are whole armies
in the neutrality-suspicious. armies of denun-
citation and scorn, and sarcasm and irony,
yourself against some meanness or hypoc-
risy, in all the oaths that ever smoked up
from the pit, and will come right on after
you and give thousand-fo more en-
phasis 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 inno-
cent, 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 a 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 ia on the increase,
and if you do not know it, it is because
your ears have been hardened by the din
of imprecations SO that you are not stirred
and moved as you ought to be by profani-
ties in these cities which ore 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 it has no power
when in courtroom and in legislative as
sembly it is employed in solemn adjura-
minister the oath: as'help you God-kiss
the book" Smuggling, which is always
violation Of the oath, becomes in some
circles grand joke. You say to man:
"How is it possible for you to sell these
goods so very cheap? / can't understand
it." "Ah." he replies, with twinkle of
the eye, "the customs 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 .unaccouutable verdicts, and
judges give unaccountable charges, and
useless railroad schemes pass in our state
made in the tariffs-tarif lifted from one
thing and put upon another?
|. What is an oath? Anything solemn?
Anything that marks an event in mans
history? Oh, no! 1t is kissing the book!
There is no habit; I tell you plainly-and
l talk to hundreds and thousands of men
to-day who will thank me for my utter
| ance--I tell you, my brother-I talk to you
not professionally but just as one brother
talks to another on some very important
theme-J tell you there is no habit that so
| depletes mans nature as the habit of
profanity. You might as we'll try to raise
vineyards and orchards on the sides of
belching Stromboli as to raise anything
good on heart from which there pours
out the scoria of profanity. You may
swear yourself down; you cannot swear
yourself up. When the Mohammedan
finds a piece of paper he cannot
read: he puts it aside very
cautiously for fear the name of God
may be on it. That is one extreme. We
go the other. Now, what is the cure of
this habit? 1t is a mighty habit. Men
have struggled for years to get over it.
There are men in this house of God who
would give half their fortune to get rid of
it. An aged man was in the delirium of a
fever. He had for many years lived a
most upright life and was honored in all
the community; but when he came into the
delirium of this fever he was full of inn
precation and profanity, and they could
not understand it. After he came to his
right reason he explained it. He said:
"When was young man was very pro-
fame. I conquered the habit, but had to
struggle all through life. You haven't for
forty years heard me say an improper
word, but it has been an awful struggle.
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