Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1891-10-09
FUTltlTY OF ADVICE-GIvlNG
Unless It Is Pleasing It Always Goes I'll
needed.


needed.
The most thankless task that phi.
lanthropist or reformer undertakes is
to give warning of inevitable evil. As
long as you prophesy pleasant things,
draw attractive pictures that flatter
mems and women'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
DO 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 financier-
ing or legislation or all the warnings Of
financial prophets will save them from.
! To +ho e1o1 lie -
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
to 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 the
dollar, and those who answered the adj
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 corr
rect. Yet in spite of general discredit
of it, thousands of dollars were coll
lected through it from women who
|
Similar schemes, under slightly differ
emit 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 will
enable her to pass her examination, anG
your words are as the idle wind. Tel
the average man of the world of the evi
effect of his free habits, and unless hi
! 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 will
not take advice about their health from
their own physicians unless they have
sent for them, and even then in many
cases they reject it unless it suits thei
inclination. They would like to have
physician like the Indian medicine maj
!, who can charm away their illness
without the attendant inconvenience
of change of habit of life now neces
sary to a cure. 1t is distressing to SCI
! people rushing headlong to disaste
without being able to save them by on
own experience, when we remember s
= well how we fell into the same slougl
and recall the difficulties we had in ex
Treating ourselves from it. But peopl
: do not learn from the experience of an
other. The infant tries the fire evel
though he is warned that it is hot, an
: so people throughout life must G
through vicissitudes of all kinds befor
d they learn. The poet tells us that
! Men may rise on stepping,stones
4 OF their dead selves to higher things"
|. N. Y. Tribune,