The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-05-04

/
But are any Of you the star Wormwood?
Do you scold and growl from the thrones
paternal or maternal? Are your children
everlastingly pecked at2 Are you al
ways crying "Hushp ~ to the merry voices
and swift feet and their laughter, which
occasionally trickles through at wrong
times and Is suppressed by them until
I they can hold it no longer and all the bar
riers burst into unlimited guffaw and
| cachination, as in high weather the water
/ has tr1ckled through a slight opening in
/ the mill dam, but afterward makes wider
/ and wider breach until it tcarries all before
it with irresistible freshet? Do not be too
much offended at the noise your children
now make. 1t will be still enough when
one of them is dead. Then you would give
! your right hand to hear one of them 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. Alas, that
/ there are so many homes not known to
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
/ to Children, where children are put on the
limits, and wbacked, and cuffed, and ear
| pulled, and senselessly called to order
/ and answered sharp and suppressed, until
| it is a wonder that under such processes
| they do not all turn out Modocs and Mana
! Sahibs.
What is your influence upon the neigh
borhood, the town or the city of your res
! idence?
| win suppose that you are a star of wit.
! What kind Of rays do you shoot forth2 Do
| you use that splendid faculty to irradiate
| the world or TO rankle it2 I bless all the
apostolic colleges of humOrists. The man
that makes me laugh is my benefactor. I
do not thank any body to make me cry. I
can do that without any assistance. We
| all cry enough and have enough to cry
| about. God bless all skillful punsters, all
reparteeists, all propounders of ingenious
| conundrums, all those who mirthfully sur
/ prise us with unusual juxtaposition of
words. Thomas Hood, and Charles Lamb,
and Sidney Smith had a divine mission,
/ and so have their successors in these
times. They stir into the acid beverage of
/ life the saccharine. They make the cup
of earthly existence, which is sometimes
stale, effervesce and bubble. They pla-
| cate animosities. They foster longevity.
| They slay follies and absurdities which
all the sermons of all the pulpits can not
reach. They have for example Elijah,
/ who made fun of the Baalites when they
called down fire and it did not come, sug-
gesting that their heather god had gone
hunting, or was off on journey, or was
asleep, and nothing but vociferation could
wake him, saying: ''Cry aloud, for he is
q god; either he is talking or pursuing, or
peradventure he sleepeth and must be
awaken" They have an example in
| Christ, who, with healthful sarcasm
showed up the lying, hypocritical Phari-
sees by suggesting that such perfect peo-
pie like themselves needed no improve
ment saying: "The whole need not a
physician, but they that are sick"
But what use are you making Of your
wit? Is it besmirched with profanity and
| uncleanliness? Do you employ 1t in
| amusement at physical defects for which
| the victims are not responsible? Are your
powers of mimicry used to put religion in
| contempt? Is it bunch Of nettlesome in
vective? Is it a bolt Of unjust scorn? Is it
fun at others misfortune? Is it glee at
their disappointment and defeatS is it Bit
terness put drop by drop into cup? is ii
like the squeezing Of artemisia absinthium
into draught already distastefully pun
gent? TheL you are the star WormwOod.
Yours is the fun Of rattlesnake trying
how well it can sting. 1t is the fun of a
hawk trying how quick it can strike out
the eye of dove.
But I win change this, and I will sup
pose you are q star Of worldly prosperity.
Then you have large opportunity. You
can encourage the artist by buying his
picture. You can improve the fields, the
stables, the highway, by introducing
higher style of fowl and horse and COW
and sheep. You can bless the world with
| DOulOlORlCal OTG0hTQBs
You can advance arboriculture and arrest
this deathful iconoclasm of the American
forests. You can put a piece of sculpture
into the niche Of that public academy.
You can endow a college. You can stock
ing a thousand bare feet from the winter
frost. You can build church. You can
put missionary Of Christ on that foreign
shore. You can help ransom a world. A
rich man with his heart right-can you tell
| hOz Tav,7 7 n
George Peabody or q Peter Cooper or q
William K. Dodge did while living, or is
doing now that he is deadg There is not
a city, town or neighborhood that has not
glorious specimens of consecrated wealth.
But suppose you grind the face of the
poor. Suppose when a mans wages are
due you make him wait for them because
he can not help himself. Suppose that be-
cause his family is sick, and he has had
extra expenses, he should politely ask You
TO raise his wages for this year, and you
roughly tell him If he wants a better place
to go and get it. Suppose by your man
ner you act as though he were nothing and
you were every thing. Suppose you are
selfish, and overbearing, and arrogant.
Your first name ought to be Attila and
your last name Attila, because you are
the star w Wormwood, and you have embit-
tered one-third, if not three thirds, Of the
waters that roll past your employees, and
operatives, and dependents, and asso-
ciates, and the long line Of carriages
which the undertaken orders for your
funeral win be filed with twice as many
dry, fearless eyes as there are persons oc-
cupying them. The clumsy pall-bearers
may make the gates Of your sepulcher
quake by striking your silver-handled
coffin against them, but the world will feel
no jar as you go out of it.
/ There is an erroneous idea abroad that
there are only a few geniuses. There are
millions OF them; that is, men and women
who have especial adaptation and quick
ness for some one thing. 1t may be great,
it may be small. The circle may be like
the circumference of the earth or no
larger than a thimble. There are thou
sands Of geniuses here this morning, and
Ia some one thing you are star. What
kind of a star are your You will be in
this world Jut few minutes. As COM
pared with eternity the stay Of the longest
life on earth is not more than a minute.
What are we doing with that minuteg Are
we embittering the domestic or social OF
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 off the branch
of a certain tree and threw that branch
into the water, and ii became sweet and
slaked the thirst of the suffering hOstf
Are we a branch of the Tree Of Life
sWeeteuing all the brackish fountains that
we can touchy Dear Lord, send US all out
on Thy mission. All around US embittered
lives, emblttered by persecution, en-
bittered by hypercriticism, embittered
by poverty, embittered by pain, en-
bittered by injustice, embittered BY
sin. Why not 60 forth and sweeten them
by smiles, by inspiring words, by bene-
factions, by hearty counsel, by prayer
by gospeiized behavior. Let as remember
that If we are wormwOod TO others
we are wormwOod 10 ourselves, enc