The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1891-09-05
EurlLl1Y oe AnvloE.olvlNo.
Unless 1t Is rlcasing It Always Goes rA

Unless It Is Plonsing it Always Goes TAI
needed.
The mot thanlSless task that a phi
ianthropist Dr reformcr undertakes ~
to give warning of inevitable evil. AsI
long as you prophesy pleasant things,
draw attractive pictures that fattcr
mems and wonen's self-complacency
you are sure to be heard; but utter the
note of warning, and like jeremiah,
the prophet of old, you have only the
owl and the bittern to listen to you.
Cassandra, the prophecies of Troy, is
the exemplar of all who take upon
themselves the mission of driving men
against their own convictions and in
clinations. 1t is impossible in the ma
ture of men and women that this should
be otherwise. The most thorough
tyrant that the world ever saw can not
control the thoughts and convictions of
men. The mother can not bind her
daughter nor the father his son. Each
individual must live out his own expe-
rience, learn from the very beginning
that fire burns, that evil betrays, that
wrong reacts on the doer in shame and
modification. There are many things
that people think, and probably think
rightly, that they can manage for them
selves better than people can manage
for them. They invest their money in
wild schemes that not all the fnancier-
ing or legislation or all the warnings of
financial prophets will save them from.
To-day the most shallow methods of
obtaining money under false pretences
are as prevalent as in the days of the
Vicar of Wakefield, although they have
been repeatedly exposed in the news
papers. Not long ago a needlework
firm advertised throughout the country
co send work to embroiderers on receipt
Of one dollar for security for the work
given out Not one word or one line of
reference was given as security for tho
dollar, and those who answered the ad,
vertisement received in return for their
dollar few tawdry bits of cotton and
silk and of embroidery thread, not
worth over six cents, and when their
work was finished it was returned to
them as unsatisfactory, and the money
retained. This scheme was so shallow
on the face of it that it seemed that any
intelligent person would recognize it.
Letters were repeatedly sent to news
papers, asking if the scheme was cor
rect Yet in spite of general discredit
of it, thousands of dollars were col
lected through it from women who
could ill spare even so small sum.
Similar schemes, under slightly differ
ent forms, have taken in hundreds OF
thousands, and all in face of plain warn
ing
Crying in the wilderness to people on
the subject of their health usually falls
on listless ears. Tell the pale student
that she is breaking down her health by
late hours, by strong tea and other
foolish methods which she hopes vii
enable her to pass her examination, ant
your words are as the idle wind. Tel
the average man of the world of the evi
effect of his free habits and unless ht
has been previously alarmed at his OWL
condition, he will deem your advice
even if from his nearest relative, as ap
preaching to impertinence. People vii
not take advice about their health from
their own physicians unless they hav,
sent for them, and even then in man,
cases they reject it unless it suits thei
inclination. They would like to have
physician like the Indian medicine mai
who can charm away their illness
without the attendant inconvenience
of u change of habit of life now neces
sary to a cure. 1t is distressing to Sc
people rushing headlong to disaste
without being able to save them by ou
own experience, when we remember S
well how we fell into the same sloug
and recall the difficulties we had in e1
Treating ourselves from it, But peopl
do not learn from the experience of al
other. The infant tries the fire eve
though he is warned that it is hot, an
so people throughout life must g
through vicissitudes of all kinds befor
' they learn. The poet tells us that
"Nien may rise on stepping. stones
4 their dead selves to higher things"
N. Y. Tribune.