Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-04

the watering place is to the formation Of
hasty and lifelong alliances. The
watering-places are responsible for more
of the
DOMESTIC ISFELICITIEs
OF this country than all the other things
combined. Society is so artificial there
that no sure Judgment of character can
be formed. Those who form companion
ships amid such circumstances go into q
lottery where there are twenty blanks to
one prize. In the severe tug of life you
want more than glitter and splash. Life
is not ballroom where the music de-
oides the step, and bow and prance and
graceful swing of long trail can make up
for strong common sense. You may as
well go among the gaily painted yachts
of summer regatta to find war vessels
as to go among the light spray of the
summer watering place to find character
that can stand the test of the great
struggle of human life. All, in the bat
tie of life you want stronger weapon
than lace fan or croquet mallet! The
load of life is so heavy that In order to
draw it, you want team stronger than
one made up of a masculine grasshopper
and feminine butterfly.
II there is any man In the community
that excites my contempt, and that ex-
cites the contempt of every man and
woman, 1t is the soft-handed, soft
headed fop, who, perfumed until the air
is actually sick, spends his summer in
taking killing attitudes, and waving
sentimental adieus, and talking infinite
sinai nothings, and finding his heaven
in the set of a lavender kid glove. Boots
as tight as an inquisition, two hours of
n;I ~
flaming cravat, his conversation made
up of "Ah's' and "Oh's' and "He-
hee's.'' 1t would take five hundred of
them stewed down to make teaspoonful
of calves-foot jelly. There is only one
counterpart to such man as that, and
that is the frothy young woman at the
watering place, her conversation
MADE UP OF FRENCH MooNsHrNE;
what she has on her head only equalled
by what she has on her back; useless
ever since she was born, and TO be use
less until she is dead, and what they will
do with her in the next world do not
know, except to set her upon the banks
of the River of Life for all eternity to
look sweet! God intends us to ad-
mire music and fair faces and
graceful step, but amid the
heartlessness and the imitation and the
fantastic influences of our modern water
ing places, beware how you make life
long covenantsl
Another temptation that will hover
over the watering place is that of baueful
literature. Almost everyone starting off
for the summer takes some reading mat
ter. 1t is a book out OF the library or off
the book stand, or bought of the boy
81 hn
really believe there Is more pestiferous
trash read among the intelligent classes
in July and August than in all the other
ten months of the year. Men and women
who at home would not be satisfied with
book that was not really sensible, 1
found sitting on hotel pazzas or under
the trees reading books, the index of
which would make them blush il they
knew that you knew what the book was.
CON- they say, 'tyou must have
intellectual recreation!" Yes. There
is no need that you take along into O
watering place ''Hamilton Metaphys-
ics'' or some thunderous discourse on
the eternal DEGREES, or "Faraday's
Philosophy. There are many easy
books that are good. You might as we'll
say: 81 propose now to give little rest
eating heavy meat and vegetables, l
will for little while take lighter food
little strychnine and few grains of
ratsbane.
LITERARY POISON IN AUGUST
Is as bad as literary poison in December.
Mark that. Do not let the frogs and the
lice of corrupt printing-press jump and
crawl INTO your Saratoga trunk or White
Mountain valise.
Would It not be an awful thing for
you to be struck with lightning some
day when you had in your hand one of
these paper covered romances-the hero
q Partisan roue, the heroine an unprin-
cipled tlirt-chapters In the book that
you would not read to your children at
the rate of 500 line. Throw out that
stuff from your summer baggage. Are
there not good books that are easy to
read-books of cougenlal history, books
of pure fun, books of poetry ringing
with merry canto, books of fine engrav-
ings, books that will rest the mind as
well as purify the heart and elevate the
whole life3 My hearers, there will not
be an hour between this and the day of
your death when you can afford to read q
book lacking in moral principle.
Another temptation lowering all
around our watering places is the intoxi-
eating beverage. l am told that it is
becoming more and more fashiona BILE for
to drink. l care not how well
may dress, If she has taken
enough of wine to flush her cheek and
put glassiuess on her eyes, she is intoxi-
Gated. She may be handed into S2500 |
and have diamonds enough TO
confound the Tiffanys-she is intoxi-
Gated. She may be graduate of q
great institute, and the daughter of |
some man in danger of being nominated |
for the presidency-she is drunk. You |
may have a larger vocabulary than l |
have, and you may say IN regard to her !
that she is "convivial, - or she is
merry or she is "fes,ive,' or she |
Is "exhilarated, " but you cannot with |
all your garlands of verbiage cover up |
the plain fact that it is an old-fashioned |
case of drunk.
Now, the watering places are full of |
o men and women TO tipple. |
At the close of the tenpin or billiard |
game they tipple. At the close of the |
cotilion they tipple. Seated on the
piazza
COOLING THEMSELVES OFF
they tipple. The tinged glasses come |