Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1891-03-07

the relief OF the working classes and the
salvation OF the nation. will undertake
10 say that there is not q healthy labor
or in the United States who, within the
next twenty years, II he will refuse all
intoxicating beverages and be saving,
may not become capitalist on small
scale.
o, how many are waiting TO see II
something can not be done for the stop
ping of intemperance. Thousands OF
drunkards waiting who can not go ten
minutes in any direction without having
the temptation glaring before their eyes
or appealing TO their nostrils, they
fighting against 1t with enfeebled will
and diseased appetite. conquering, then
surrendering, conquering again, and
surrendering again. and crying, "How
long. o Lord. how long before these in
famous solicitations shall be gomez"
And how many mothers are waiting
to see II this national curse can not lift.
Oh. is that the boy who had the honest
breath who comes home with breath vi
tiated or disguised? What a change.
How quickly those habits OF early COM
ing home have been exchanged for the
rafting of the night.key in the door
long after the last Waterman has gone
by and tried TO see that everything was
closed up for the night. Oh. what u
change for that young man who we had
hoped would do something il merchan-
disc, or in craftsmanship, or in Il profession
that would do honor 10 the family name
long after mothers wrinkled hands
are folded from the last toll! All that
exchanged for startled look when the
door-bell rings, lest something has hap
pened: and the wish that the scarlet
fever twenty years ago had been fatal,
for then he would have gone directly to
the bosom OF his Saviour. But alas!
poor old soul, she has lived to expert
ence what Solomon said: "a foolish
son is a heaviness to his mother"
o, what funeral it will be when that
boy is brought home dead! And how
mother will sit there and say: rs this
my boy that used to fondle and that
walked the floor with in the night when
he was sick? Is this the boy that / held
to the baptismal font for baptism? Is
this the boy for whom l toiled until the
blood burst from the tips Of my fingers
that he might have good start and a
good home? Lord, why hast thou let
me live to see this? Can it be that these
swollen hands are the ones that used to
wander over my face when rocking him
to sleep? Can it be that this swollen
brow is that once so rapturously kissed?
Poor boy. how tired he does look. |
wonder who struck him that blow across
the temples? Iwonder if he uttered u
dying prayer? Wake up. my son; don
YOU hear me? Wake up? o. he can't
hear me. Dead!' dead. dead! %, Alb
salon, my son, my son. would to God
that had died for thee. O. Absalom,
my son, my son." | am not much of a
mathematician and cannot estimate it,
but is there any one here quick enough
at figures to estimate how many moth
ers there are waiting for something TO
be done?
Ay, there are many wives waiting for
domestic rescue. He promised some
thing different from that when, after
the long acquaintance and the careful
scrutiny of character. the hand and the
heart were offered and accepted. What
Il hell on earth woman lives in who
has drunken husband. o, Death, how
lovely thou art to her and how soft and
warm the skeleton hand. The sepul-
chre at midnight in winter is a kings
drawing room compared with that wo-
mans home. 1t is not so much the blow
on the head that hurts as the blow on
the heart. The rum fiend came to the
door of that beautiful home, and opened
the door and stood there, and said: Il
curse this dwelling with an unrelenting
curse. l curse that father into a ma
MAC, curse that mother into
a pauper. l curse those sons
into vagabonds. l curse those
daughters into profigacy. Cursed he
the bread tray and cradle. Cursed be
couch and chair. and family bible with
record OF marriages and births and
deaths. Curse upon curse" o! how
many wives there are waiting to see II
something cannot be done to shake
the frost OF the second death off the
orange blossoms! Yes, God is waiting.
the God who works through human in
strumentalities, waiting to see whether
this nation is going to overthrow this
evil: and If it refuse to do so. God will
wipe out the nation as He did Phenicia
as He did Rome, as He did Thebes, as
He did Babylon. Ay, He is waiting to
see what the church of God will do. II
the church does not do its work. then
He will wipe it out as He did the church
OF Ephesus, church OF Thyatira, church
of Sardis. The Protestant and Roman
Catholic churches to day stand side and
side with an impotent look, gazing on
this evil. which costs this country more
than 81 900, 0OO. 900 q year to take care
of the 800, 900 pappers, 3l5, 900 criminals,
and the 30, 900 idiots. and to bury the
IS, 600 drunkards. Protagoras boosted
that out of the sixty years of his life
forty years he had spent in running
youth; but this evil may make the more
Infamous boast that all its life it has
been running the bodies, minds and