Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-04-18

| SGdlu llOHl III III Guo elegant UIdWlu& -IOon
but the street and the club house ring wit
their profanities. They have no regard f
God, although they have great respect II
the ladiesl My young brother, there is r
manliness in that. The most ungentlemal
ly thing man can do Is to swear,
Fathers foster this great crime. Ther
are parents who are very cautious not
swear 10 the presence of their children; in
moment of sudden anger, they look aroun
to see if the children are present when the
indulge in this habit. Do you not know,
father, that your child is aware of the fac
that you swear? He overheard you in th
next room, or some one has informed hin
of your habit. He is practicing now. Il
ten years he will swear as we'll as you do
Do not, o father, be under the delusiol
that you may swear and your son not know
it. 1t is an awful thing to start the habit il
family-the father to be profane, and thel
to have the echo Of his example come bacl
from other generations; SO that generation
after generations curse the Lord.
The crime is also fostered by master me
chanics. boss carpenters, those who are a.
the head of men in hat factories, and il
dock yards, and at the head of great busi
ness establishments. When you go dowr
to look at the work of the scaffoldlng, and
you find it is done right, what do you say
1t is not praying, is it? The employer
swears-his employee is tempted to swear
The man says: 81 do not know why my
employer, worth $50, 900 or $100, 900, should
have any luxury should be denied simply
because am poor. Because am poor aud
dependent on days wages, haven't I 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 lnf3rmity oil
temper. There are a good many people
who, when they are at peace, have right.
eousness of speech, but when angered they
blaze with imprecation. Perhaps all the
rest of the year they talk in right language,
bnt now they pour out the fury of whole
year in one red hot paragraph of Eve min
utes. l knew of man who excused him.
self for the habit, saying: 81 only swear
once in great while. must do that just
to clear myself out"
The habit comes also from the profuse use
of bywords. The transition from a by word
which may be perfectly harmless to impre-
cation aud profanity, is not very large
transition. 1t is my starsp and ENERGY
on mep' and "good graciousv' and s'by
Georgep and "by Jovep' and you go on
with that little while, and then you swear.
These words, perfectly harmless in them
selves, are next door to imprecation and
blasphemy. A profuss use of bywords al
ways ends in profanity. The habit is Creep
ing up into the highest styles of society
Women have no patience with flat and un-
vanished profanity. They will order a
man out of the parlor indulging in bias
phemy, 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 of
names in utter triviality.
Why, my friends, the English language
is comprehensive and capable of expressing
all shapes of feeling and every degree of en-
ergy. Are you happy, Noah Webster will
give you ten thousand words with which
to express your exhilaration. Are you
righ:eously indignant, there are whole ar
mories in the ocabulary-fighteous vocab-
armies of denunciation. and
scorn, and sarcasm, and Irony, and carica-
ture, 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 on after you and give
a thousandfold more emphasis of denuncia-
tion 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 Anglo
Saxon in which Milton sang, and John
Buuyan dreamed, and Shakspere drama
tised.
Thefe is no excuse for profanity when we
have such magnificent laDguage-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, 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 profanities in these
cities which are enough to bring hurri-
cane of fire like that which consumed So
dom.
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 bal
in the community, and it has no power
when in court room and in legislative as
sembly it is employed in solemn adjura
tionl See the way they sometimes admin
lister the oath: "S'help you God-kiss the
bookv' Smuggling, which is always vic
lation of the oath, becomes in some circles
grand joke. You say to man; "How il
it possible for you to sell thess goods SC
very cheap? I can't understand it," "Ahr
he replies, with twinkle of the eye, "ths
Custom house tariff of these goods isn't al
much as it might be-" An oath does mo-
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 unac
countable verdcts, and judges give unac
countable charges, and useless railroad
schemes pass in our State capitals, and
there are most unjust changes made il
tariffs-tariff lifted from one thing and put
upon another?
What is an oath? Anything solemni
Anything that calls upon the Almighty
Anything that marks an event in mans
history? Oh, no! II is kissing the book
There is no habit, l tell you plainly-and
talk to hundreds and thousands of men to-
day who will thank me for my utterance-
tell you, my brother-I talk to you not
professionally, but just as one brother talks
to another on some very important theme
1 tell you there is no habit that so de-
pletes mans nature as the habit of pro
family. You might as we'll try to raise
vineyards and orchards on the sides OF
belohing 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 enc
extreme. We go to the other. Now what is
the cure of this habit? 1t is mighty habit.
Men have struggled for years to get over
it. There are meu in this house OF God
who would give half their fortune to get
rid OF it, An aged man was in the delirlum
OF fever. He had for many years lived a
most upright life and was bonored In all
the community; but when he came into the
delirium of this fever he was full OF impre-
cation and profanity and they could not un-
derstand it. After he came to his right rea-
son he explained it. He said: "When was
a young man, was very profane. l con-
quered 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. The tiger is
chained, but he is alive yet"
If you would get rid of this habit, want
you, my friends, to dwell upon the useless
ness of it,, Did a volley of oaths ever start
heavy load? Did they ever extirpate
meanness from a customer? Did they ever
L IL In 4. orrrn n