The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-07-18


sources of much of the Indebtedness and
sin of the world.
know there are exceptions to it some
times. From bright and beautiful
Christian home husband or a son will
go out to die. oh, how long you had that
boy in your prayers He does not know
how many sleepless nights you have
spent over him. He does not understand
how many tears you have shed for his
waywarduess. Oh it is hard, after you
have toiled for child, and given him
every advantage and every kindness, to
have him pay you back in ingratitude.
As one Sabbath morning father came to
the foot of the pulpit as L stepped out of
it, and said: so, my son, my son!"
There is many young man proud of his
mother, who would strike into the dust
any man who would insult her, who is at
this moment himself, by his evil doing
and his bad habits, sharpening dagger
to plunge through that mothers heart. A
telegram brought him from affair." He
went bloated and SCARED into the room
and he stood by the lifeless form of his
mother.
Her hair gray; it had turned gray IN
sorrow. Those eyes had wept floods of
tears over his wauderings. That still
white hand had done him many a kind
ness, and had written many loving in
vitation and good counsel. He had
broken her old heart. He came into the
room and threw himself on the casket
and he sobbed outright: "Mother,
motherp' but those lips that had kissed
him in infancy and uttered so many kind
words spake not; they were sealed.
Rather than have such a memory come
on my soul, l would prefer to have roll
over me the Alps and the Himalayas.
But while sometimes there are sons who
turn out very badly coming from good
homes, 1 want to tell you for your en-
couragement it is great exception. Yet
an unhappy and undisciplined home is
the poisonous caldron from which vast
multitude drink their death.
l remark that another caldron of in
iquity is an indolent life. All the rail
trains down the Hudson river yesterday,
all the rail trains ON the PENNSYLVANIA
ronte, all the trains on the Long Island
road brought to these cities young men to
begin commercial life. Some of them
are here this morning, doubt not. Do
you know what one of your great tempta-
tions is goiUg to be? 1t is the example of
indolent people in our cities. They are
in all our cities. They dress better than
some who are industl ious. They have
access to all places of amusement-plenty
of money, and yet idle. They hang around
our great Notes.-The Fifth Avenue, the
Windsor, the Brunswick, the Stuyvesant,
the Gilsey House-all our beautiful hotels
you find them around there any day-men
who do nothing, never earn any thing
yet well dressed, having plenty. Why
should work? Why should you work?
Why drudge and toll in bank, and shop
and office, or on the scaffolding, or by the
anvil, when these men get along so we'll
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
fail from the officeholder's table. Some
of them hang around the City Hall for the
city van bringing criminals from the sta
tion-houses. They stand there and gloat
over it-really enjoy the disgrace and
suffering of those poor creatures as they
get out of the city van and go into the
courts. Where do they get their money?
That is what you ask. That is what ask.
Only four ways of getting money-only
four: by Inheritance, by earning it, by
begging it, by stealing it: and there are a
vast multitude among US who get their
living not by Inheritance, nor by earning
it, nor by begging it. l do not like to
take the responsibility of saying how
they get it.
Now, these men are constant tempta-
ton. Why should toll and wear myself
out in the bank, or the Office, or the store,
Or hn chOy1 fha 60
have nothing to do. They get along
great deal better. And that is the
temptation under which a great many
young men fall. They begin to consort
with these men, these idlers, and they go
down the same awful sleeps. The num-
Der of men IN our cities who are trying to
&c their living by their wits and by
sic ght of hand is all the time increasing.
A New York merchant saw a young
man, one of his clerks, in half disguise,
going into very low place of amuse-
ment. The merchant said to himself: II
must look out for that clerk; he is going
in bad company aud 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
have been speaking came up in as
sumed CONSERVATION and said: 'Oh, sir,
the store has been on fire; l have put out
the fire, but there are a great many goods
lost; we have had great crowd of peo-
pie coming and going" Then the mer-
chant took the clerk by the collar and
said: II have had enough of this; you
can not deceive me: where are those
goods you stole?' The young man in
stautly confessed his villainy.
O, the numbers of people in these great
cities who are trying TO get their living
not honestly And they are a mighty
temptation to the industrious young man
who can not 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 pillow around with a yoke of
oxen in one day. He hooked up the oxen
to-the plow, and he cut a very large circle
aud plowed until he came to the same
point where he started, and all that prop
erty was his. But / have to tell you to-
day that just so much financial, lust so
much moral, just so much spiritual pos
session you will have as you compass
with your own industries, and lust 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 sluggard; consider her
ways and be wise" One of the most
awful caldrons of death to-day is an in