The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1891-03-21

amusement feeling that we have wasted
our money and time. You may by 1t
have made an investment worth more
han the transaction that yielded you
hundreds of thousands of dollars. But
how many properties have been riddled
by costly amusemeuts.
The first time | ever saw the city-it
wa the city of Philadelphia was a
mere lad. stopped at n hotel and l
remember in the cventide n of these
men piled me with his Internal art. He
saw | was green. lie wanted To show
me the sights Of the town. He painted
the path of sin until it looked like emcr-
aid, but | was afraid of him. showed
back from the busilislS-I made up my
mind he vas II basiliSk. remember
how he wheeled his chair round i'll front
of me and, with n ~conccntered and dia-
bOlical effort, attempted TO destroy my
soul, but there were good angels i'll the
air that night. 1t was no good resolu-
ton on my part, but it vas the all en-
comprising grace of Il good God that
delivered me. Beware! beware! o,
young man. "Thcre is Il way that
seemcth right unto a man, but h end
thereof is DEATH The table has been
robbed to pay the club. The champagne
has cheated the children's wardrobe.
When men go into amusements that
they can not afford they first borrow
what they can not earn and then they
steal what they can not borrow. First
they go into embarrassment and then
into lying and then into theft, and
when Il man gets as far on us that he
does not stop short of the p~enitentiary.
How bright the path of unrestained
amusement opens. The young man
says: "Now i am off for a good time.
Never mind economy. I'll get money
somehow. What Il fine road What a
beautiful day for a ride! Crack the
whip, and over the turnpike! Come,
boys, fill high your glasses. Drink!
Long life, health, plenty of rides just
like this!' Hard working men heal the
clatter of the hoofs and look up and
say: ''Why, l wonder where those fell
lows get their money from! We have
to toll and drudge. They do nothing"
To these gay men life is a thrill and an
excitement. They stare at other people,
and in turn are stared at. The watch
chain iingles. The cup foams. The
cheeks flush. The eyes flash. The
midnight hears their guffaw. They
swagger. They jostle decent men off
the sidewalk. They take the name of
God in vain. They parody the hymn
they learned at their mothers knee,
and to all pictures of coming disaster
they cry out, "Who cares!' and to the
counsel of some Christian friend, "Who
are you?" Passing along the street some
night you hear a shrek in n grog shop,
the rattle of the ~watchman's club, the
rush of the police. What is the matter
now? 0, this reckless young man has
been killed in n grog shop fight. Carry
him home to his mothers house. Par
ents will come down and wash his
wounds and close his eyes in death.
They forgive him all he ever did, al
though he cannot in his silence ask it.
The prodigal has got home ut last.
! go further, and say those are n
christian amusements which become
the chief business of n mans life. Life
is an earnest thing. Whether we were
born in a palace or a hovcl; whether we
are ~affluent or pinched, we have to
work. If you do not sweat with toll,
you will sweat with disease. You have
a soul that is to be TRANSPORTED amidst
the pomp of a Judgment day; and after
the sea has sung its last chant, and the
mountain shall have come down in an
avalanche of rock, you will live and
think and act, high on a throne where
seraplls sing, or deep in a dungeon
howl. In a world where there is so
much to do for yourself and so much to
10 for others, God pity hat man who
has nothing to do.
Your sports are merely means to an
end. They are alterations and helps.
The arm of toll is the only arm strong
enough TO bring up the bucket from the
deep well of pleasure. Amusement is
only the bower where business and phil
anthropy rest while on their way to
stirring achievements. Amusements
are merely the vines hat grow about
the anvil of toll and the blossoming of
the hammers. Alas for the man who
spends his life in laboriously doing
nothing, his days in hunting up loung-
ing places and loungers, his nights in
seeking u some gas-lighted foolery!
The man who always has on his sport
ing jacket, ready to hunt for game in
the mountain or fish In the brook, with
no time to pray, or work, or read, is not
so well off rs the greyhound that runs
by his side, or the fly bait with which
he whips the stream.
A man who does not work does not
know how to play. If God had intend
ed us to do nothing but laugh, He would
not have given MS shoulders with which
to lift, and hands with which to work,
and brains with which TO think. The
amusemepts of life are merely the
orchestra playing while the great trag-
edy of life plunges through it's five acts
infancy, childhood, manhood, old age
and death. Then exit the last earthly
opportunity. Enter the overwhelming
realities of an eternal world!
/ go further, and say that all those
a~musemcnts are wrong which lead into
bad company. If you go to any place
where you have to associate with the
Incorporate, with the unclcan, with the
abandoned, however well they may be
dressed, in the name of God quit it.
They will despoil your nature. They
will undermine our moral character.
They will drop you when you are de-
Stroyed.
/ had u friend ut the west@a rare
friend. lie was one of the first to well
come me to my new home. To fine
personal appearance he added a gener-
osity, ~frankness and ardor of nature
that made me love him like Il brother.
But saw evil people gathering around
him. They came up from the saloons,
from the gambling hells. They piled
him with II thousand arts. They seized
upon his social nature and he could not
stand the charm. they drove him ON
the rocks like aship full winged, shivs T.
ing on the breakers. I used to admon-
ish him. l would say: ''Now, l wish
you would quit these bad habits, and
become u Christian" Co." he would
reply, 81 would like; | would like to,
but | have gone so far ! don't think
there is any way back" In his mo.
ments of repentance he would go
home and take his little girl
of eight years, and embrace
her convulsively, and cover her with
adornments, and strew around her
pictures and toys, and everything that
could make her happy; and then, as
though bounded by an evil spirit, he
would go out TO the enflaming cup and
the house of shame, like a fool to the
correction of the stocks. / was sum-
moned TO his death bed. fastened. l
entered the room. l found him, to my
surprise, lying in full every day dress