The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-10-09

Ing OIL Tor the summer takes some READ
ing matter. 1t is a book out of the IL
brary or off the book stand, or bought
of the boy hawking books through the
cars. / really believe there is more pes
tiferous 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, l found sitting on
hotel piazzas or under the trees read
! ing books, the index of which would
make them blush if they know that
! you knew what the book was
''Oh," they say, ''you must have in
tellectual recreationl" Yes. There is
no need that you take along into a wa
tering place "Hamilton's Metaphysics,
or some thunderous discourse on the
eternal DEGREES, or 'Faraday's Philoso-
ply" There are many easy books that
are good. You might as we'll
say; Il propose now to give
listle rest to my digestive organs; and,
instead of eating heavy meat and Vege-
tables, l will for a little while take
lighter food-a little strychnine and
few grains of ra tsbane." 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
those paper-covered romances--the hero
Partisan roue, the heroine an unprin-
cipled fiirt-chapters in the book that
you would not read to your children at
the rate of one hundred dollors a line'
Throw out that stuff from your
summer baggage. Are there not
good books that are easy to read
books of cQngenial history, books of
pure fun, books of poetry ringing with
merry canto, books of fine engravings,
books that will rest the mind as we'll as
purify the heart and elevate the whole
life? My hearers, there will not be an
hour between this and the day Of your
death when you can afford to read
book lacking in moral principle.
Another temptation lowering all
around our watering places is the in
toxicating beverage. 1 am told that it
is becoming moro and more fashionable
for women to drink. l care not how
well women may dress, If she has
taken enough Divine to flush her cheek
and put glassiness on her eyes, she is
Intoxicated. She may be handed
into q observation-disclosures car
riage and have diamonds enough to con
found the Tiffanys-she is intoxicated.
She may be graduate of great in
stitute, and the daughter of some man
in danger of being nominated for the
presidency-she is drunk. You may
have larger vocabulary than I~have,
and you may say in regard to her that
she is ''convivial, or she is merry"
or she is FESTIVE" or she is "exhil.
arated," but you can not with all your
garland of verbiage cover up the plain
fact that it is an old-fashioned case OF
drunk.
Now, the watering-p1aces are full of
temptations to men and women to tip
pie. At the close of the ten-pin OF
billiard game they tipple. At the close
of the cotillon they tipple. Seated OF
the piazza cooling themselves off, they
tipple. The tinged glasses come around
with bright straws, and they tipple.
First they take eight wines, " as they
call them; but Eight vines are heavy
enough to debase the appetite. 1t is
not very long road between champagne
at five dollars per bottle and whisky at
five cents a glass.
Satan has three or four grades down
which he takes men to destruction.
One man he takes up, and through one
spree pitches him into eternal darkness.
That is a rare case. Very seldom, in
deed, can you find man who will be
such a fool as that
My friends, whether you tarry at
home-which will be quite as safe and
perhaps quite as comfortable-or go
into the country, arm yourself against
temptation. The grace of God is the
only safe shelter, whether in town or
country. There are watering places
accessible to all of US. You can not
open a book of the Bible without
finding out some such water
ing place. Fountains open for
sin and uncleanness: wells, of
salvation; streams from Lebanon; a
flood struck out of the rock by Moses;
fountains in the wilderness discovered
by Hagar; water to drink and water TO
battle in; the river of God, which is full
of water; water of which if man drink
he shall never thirst; wells of water in
the Valley of Baca; living fountains of
water: a pure river of water as clear
as crystal from under the throne Of
God.
These are watering places accessible
to all of US. We do not have a labori-
Gus packing-up before we start-only
the throwing away of our transgres-
sions No expensive hotel bills to pay;
tits without money and without price"
No long and dirty travel before we get
there-it is only one step away. In
California in five minutes l walked
around and saw ten fount ains, all bub-
bling up, and they were all different.
And in five minutes l can &c through
this Bible parterre and find you fifty
bright, sparkling fountains bubbling up
! into eternal life