The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-05-29

| gong TO be? 1t Is the example OF mdolenl
people in il, our cities. They are in all our
Industrious. They have access to all places
of amusement-plentyo of money and yet
idle. They hang around our great hotels
the Fifth Avenue, the Windsor, t--
Brunswick, the Stuyvesant, the Gilsey
House-all our beautiful hotels, you find
them around there any day-men who do
nothing, never earn anything, yet well
Why should you work? Why drudge and toll
in bank and shop and Office, or on the scaf-
folding, or by the anvil, when these men get
Nong so well and do not work?
Some of them hang around the city halls Of
our great cities, toothpick in their mouth,
waiting for some crumb to fall from the
Office holders table. Some of them hang
around the city hall for the city van bring
ing criminals from the station houses They
stand there and gloat over it-really enjoy
! the disgrace and suffering of these poor
creatures as they get out of the city van and
20 into the courts
Where do they get their money? That is
what you ask. That is what I ask. Only
four ways of getting money-only four: by
inheritance, by earning it, by begging it, by
stealing it; and there are vast multitude
among us who get their living not by in
"
it. do not like to take the responsibility Of
saying how they get it!
Now, these men are constant temptation.
Wny should toll and wear myself out in
the bank, or the Office or the store, or the
shop or the factory? These men have moth
ing to do. They get along great deal bet
ter And that is the temptation under
which great many young men fall. They
begin to consort with these men, these idlers,
&l,ae oyr-f,,
The number of men in our cities who are
trying to get their living by their wits and
by sleighJ Of hand is all the time increasing.
A New York merchant saw young man,
one of his clerks in half disguise, going into
q very low place of amusement. The mer-
chant said to himself I" must look out for
that clerk; he is going in bad company and
going in bad places; must look out for him"
A few months passed on and one morning the
merchant entered his store, and this clerk of
whom I have been speaking came up
in assumed CONSERVATION and said: 'Oh,
sir, the store has been on fire; have put out
the fire, but there are great many goods
lost; we have had a great crowd of people
coming and going" Then the merchant
took the clerk by the collar and said: II
have had enough Of this; you cannot deceive
young man instantly confessed his vilainy:
o the numbers of people in these great cities
who are trying to get their living not honestly!
And they are mighty temptation to the In
drstrious young man who cannot understand
it. While these others have it so easy they
have it so hard. Horatius of olden time was
told that he could have just as much ground as
he could plow around with yoke OF oxen In
one day. He hooked up the oxen to the plow
and he cut q very large circle and plowed un-
til he came to the same point where he started,
and all that property was his. But have to tell
YOU to-day that just so much financial, just
so much moral, just so much spiritual pos
session you will have aS you compass with
your own industries and just so much as
from the morning of your life to the evening
of your life you can plow around with your
own hard work. "Go to the ant thou slug
gard; consider her ways and be wise" One
Of the most awful caldrons of death to-day is
an indolert life Thank God that you have
to work.
III. Once more remark: that the dram
shop is great caldron Of iniqulty In our
time Anacharsis said that the vine bore
three grapes: the first was Pleasure, the next
was Drunkenness, and the next Misery:
Every saloon above ground OF under ground
is fountain of iniquity. 1t may have
license and it may 60 along quite respectfully
for while, but after while the cover will
fall off and the color of the illiquity will be
displayed: sF6Sy :..s sor,. mo avo,, onrht to bs
easier on such traffic when it pays such
large revenue to the government, and helps
support your schools and your great lnstltu-
tions of mercy" And then I think of what
William E. Gladstone said-I think it was
the first time he was chancellor Of the e1-
chequer-when men engaged in the ruinous
traffic came to him and said their business
ought to have more consideration from the
fact that it paid such large revenue to the
English government, Mr.. Gladstone said:
gentlemen, don't worry yourselves about
the revenue; give me thirty millions OF sober
people, and well have revenue enough and
surplus"
We might in this country-this traffic per-
ished-have less revenue but we would have
more happy homes, and we would have more
peace, and we would have fewer people in
the pcnitcntiary, and there would be tens OF
thousands Of men who are now on the road
to hell who would start on the road to heaven.
But the financial ruin is a very small
part of it. This iniquity of which I speak
takes everything that is sacred out OF
the family, everything that is holy
in religion, everything that is infinite In the
marriage day has come. The twain
sounds. Gay feet 60 up and down
the d1awing-room. Did ever vessel launch on
such bright and beautiful sea? The scene
changes. Dingy garrett. No fire. On
broken chair a sorrowful vito. Last hope
gone. Poor forsaken, troduen under foot
wife. "Oh," she says, The was tho kindest
s. ;Ia eoodi God ii n5vef vi n:s5s Isl! gran5sF man
than he was, but the drink did it, the drink
did itm Some day she will press
her hands against her temples and cry: ''Oh,
nv brain, my BRAIN" or she will go out on
the abutment of the bridge some moonlight
night and look down on the CLASSY surface
and wonder if under that CLASSY surface there
is not some restfor broken heart.
a young man, through the intercesSion OF
metropolitan friends, gets place in bank
or store. he is going to leave his country
home. That morning they are up early in
the old homestead. The trunk is on the
Bible in the trunk, 1 hope you will read it
often" She wipes the tears away with her
apron. "Oh," he says, "come, don't you be
worried know how to take care of my
self. Don't be worried about me-" The IA
ther says: my son, be good boy and
write home often, your mother will be anx-
ious to hear from you" Crack goes the
whip, and over the hills goes the wagon:
Five years have passed on, and dissipated
life has done its work for that young man.
There is hearse coming up in front Of the
old homestead. The young men of the neigh
borhood who have stayed on the farm
come in and say: SIS it possible? Why, he
doesn't look natural does hes Is that the
fair brow we used to know? Is that the
healthy cheek we used to know? 1t can't be
possible that is him" The parents stand
looking at the cash in the forehead from
which the life oozed out. and they lift their
hands and say: :. Oh, my son. Absalom, my
son, my son Absalom; would God that had
died for thee, oh Absalom, my son, my SOM"