The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1889-09-26

with the TACT Ghat TniS lie ID d scene OF Ion
and struggle. By 10 o'clock every day the
city is jarring with wheels, and shutting with
feet, and humming with voices, and covered
with the breath of smoke-stacks, and a-rush
with t%raf1ckers. Once in a while you
find a man going along with folded
arms and with leisurely step, as
though he had nothing to do; but, for the
most part, as you find men going down these
streets on the way to business there is anx'
iety in their faces, as though they
had some errand which must be executed at
the first possible moment. You are jostled
by those who have bargains to make and
notes to sell. Up this ladder with a hod OF
bricks, out OF this bank with a roll of bills, on
this dray with a load of goods, digging q eel
lar, or shingling a roof, or shoeing q horse,
or building a wall. or mending a watch, OF
binding q book. Industry, with her thousand
arms, and thousand eyes, and thousand feet,
goes on singing her song ofwork! work! work!
while the mills drum it and the steam whistles
fife it. All this is not because men love toll.
Some one remarked: Every man is as lazy
as he can afford to be." But it is because
necessity, with stern brow and with upllfted
whip, stands over them ready whenever they
relax their toll to make their shoulders sting
with the lash. Can it. be that, passing up
and down these streets on your way to work
and business, you 10 not learn anything of
the worlds toll and anxiety o~fstruggle? Oh!
how many dropping hearts, how many eyes
on the watch, how many miles
Travelled, how many burdens carried, how
many losses suffered, how many battles
fought, how many victories gained, how
many victories gained, how many defeats
suffered, how many exasperations endured
what losses, what hunger, what wretched-
ness, What allor, what disease, what agony,
what despair! Sometimes I have stopped at
the corner of the street as the multitude went
hither Inc yon, and it has seemed to be o
great ~pantomine, and as l looked upon it
my heart broke. This great tide of human
life that goes down the street is arapid, toss
ed and turned aside, and dashing ahead and
driven back-beautiful in it's confusion and
confused in it's beauty. In the carpeted
aisles of the forest, in the woods from which
the eternal shadow is never lifted, on the
the tangled foam, sprinkling the cracked
cliffs with q baptism Of whirlwind and tenn
pest, is the best place to study God; but in
the rushing, swarming, raving street is the
best place to study man. Going down to
your place of business and coming home
again, I charge you look about-see these
signs of poverty, of Indebtedness, Of hunger,
OF sin, of bereavement-and as you go
through the streets, gather up in the arms
of your prayer all the sorrow, all the losses,
oil the suffering, all the bereavments Of those
whom you pass, n present them in pray
er before an all-sympathetic God.
Again, the street impresses me with the
fact that gil classes and conditions OF eocie-
ty must cOmmlngle. We sometimes cultivate
wicked exclusivensss. Intellectdespises ig-
norance. Refinement will have nothing to
do with boorishness. Gloves hate the sun
burned hand, and the high forehead despises
the fat head, and tbs trim hedgerow will
have nothing to do with the wild copse-
wood, and Athens hates Nazareth. This
come down from his starry revelry and help
us in ~ navigation. The surgeon must
ONE away from his study of the human or
ganism and set our broken bones. The
chemis must come away from his lab0rato-
ry, where he has been studying analysis and
synthesis, al help us to understand the ma
ture OF the soils. l bless God that all classes
are compelled to meet on the street. The
glittering coach wheel clashes against the
scavenger's cart. Fine robes run against
the peddler's pack. Robust health meets
wan sickness. Honesty confronts fraud.
Every class of peoplemeets every other class.
Independency and modesty, pride and hui
mility, purity and beastliness, frankness and
hypocrisy, meeting on the same block, in the
same street, in the same city. Oh! that is
what Solomon meant when he said: "The
rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is
the maker Of them nll." / like this demo-
cratic principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ
which recognizes the fact that we stand be-
fore God on one and the same platform.
Do not take ON any airs; whatever position
You have gained in society; you are nothing
but q man born of the same parent, regen-
Grated by the same spirit, cleansed by the
same blood, to lie down in the same dust, to
get up in the same resurrection. 1t is high
time that we all acknowledged not only the
fatherhood Of God, but, the brotherhood Of
man. /
Again, the streetimpresses me with the fact
that life is full OF pretensions and sham. What
snbteffuge, what double dealing, what two
facedness! Do all the people who wish you q
good morning really hope for you q happy
day? Do all the people who shake hands
love each other? Are all those anx-
ious about your health who inquire concer-
to calf Does oil the world know half as
much as 1t pretends to know? Il there not
many a wretched stock of goods with a. bril-
liant show window? Passing up and down
these streets to your business are you
not impressed with the fact that much of
society is hollow, and that there are subter-
fuges and pretensions? OH how many there
are who swagger and strut, and how few peo-
pie who are natural and walk. While tops
simper, and fools chuckle, and simpletons
giggle, how few people are natural and laugh.
The courtesan and the libertine go down. the
street In beautiful apparel, while within the
heart there are volcanoes OF passion consum.
ing their life away. say these things not
to create nyou incredulity and misanthropy,
nor do I forget there are thousands of people
q great deal better than they seam. Init r do