The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-04-08

corner saloon Is in debt to the wife's faded
dress. Excursions that in day make tour
around whole months wages; ladies whose
lifetime business It Is to "go shopping"
large bets on horses have their counterpart
in uneducated children, bankruptcies that
shock the money market and appall tht
church, and that send drunkenness stagger
ing across the richly figured carpet of tht
mansion and dashing into the mirror and
whopping of bloated sons come home te
break their old mothers heart.
saw beautiful home, where the bell
rang violently late at night The son had
been off in sinful indulgencies. His COM
rades were bringing him home They car
ried him to the door. They rang the bell at
o'clock in the morning. Father and mother
came down. They were waiting for the
wandering son, and then the comrades, as
| prodigal headlong into the doorway. crying:
There he is drunk as fool. Ha, hap
| When men 60 into amueements they cannot
afford they first borrow what they cannot
earn and then they steal what they cannot
borrow. First they 60 into embarrassment
and then into lying and then into theft;
| and when man gets as far on as that no
does not stop short OF the penltentlary.
| There Is not prison In the land where there
| are not victims of unsanctifed amusements.
Merchants Of Brooklyn or New York, is
there a disarrangement In your accounts!
Is there leakage in your money drawerf
| Did not the last account come out right last
night? I will tell you. There is young
man in your store wandering off into bad
amusements. The salary you give him may
meet lawful expenditures, but not the sinful
lndulgences in which he has entered, and he
takes by theft that which you do not give
him in lawful salary.
How brightly the path Of unrestrained
amusement opens. The young man says:
"Now am off for good time. Never mind
economy. I'll get money somehow. What
3 fine roadl What beautiful day for
ride! Crack the whip and over the turn
pikeI Come, boys, fll high your glasses.
Drink! Long life, health, plenty of rides just
like this! Hard working men hear the clat-
ter Of the hoofs and look up and say: "Why,
wonder where those fellows get their
money from? We have to toll and drudge.
they do nothing" To these gay men life
Is thrill and On excitement. They stare at
other people. and in turn are stared at. The
watch chain jingles. The cup foams.
The cheeks flush. Their eyes flash.
The midnight hears their guffaw.
they swagger. They jostle decent men
off the sidewalk. They take the name
IF God in vain. They parody the hymn they
learned at their mothers knee; and to all
pictures of coming disaster they cry out,
s'Who caresp and to the counsel OF some
Christian friend, "Who are you"
Passing along the street some night you
hear shrek in grog shop, the rattle OF
the watchman's club, the rush Of the police.
What is the matter nowp Oh. this reckless
young man has been killed in a grog shop
light. Carry him home to his fathers house.
Parents will come down and wash his
wounds and close his eyes in death. They
forgive him all he ever did, although he can
not in his silence ask it. The prodigai has
got home at last. Mother will go to her
and twist them into chaplet for the silent
heart of the way ward boy and push back
from the bloated brow the long locks that
were once her pride, and the air will be rent
with the agony. The great dramatist says:
''How sharpsr than a serpent's tooth it is to
havea thankless child"
I go further, and say these are unchristian
amusements which become the chief business
of a mans life. Life is an earnest thing.
Whether we were born in palace or hovel,
whether we are affluent or pinched, we have
to work. If you do not sweat with toll, you
will sweat with disease. You have soul
that is to be transagured amid the pomp OF
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, big 81 on throne
where seraphs sing, or deep Ia dungeon
where demons howl. In world where there
is SO much to do for yourselves, and so much
To do for others, God pity that man who hal
nothing to do
Your sports are merely means to an end,
They are alleviations and helps. The arm OF
toll is the only arm strong enough to bring
up the bucket out Of ths deep we'll OF pleas
urre. Amusement is only the bower where
business and philanthropy rest while on theii
way to stirring achievements. Amusement
are merely the vines that grow about the
anvil Of toll and the blossoming OF the ham
mers. Alas for the man who spends his llfe
in laboriously doing nothing, his days in
hunting up lounging places and loungers,
his nights in seeking out some gas lighted
fooleryl The man who always has on hi,
sporting 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 as the greyhound that runs by his side, OF
the fly bait with which he whips the stream.
A man who does not work does not know
how to play. If God had intended us to do
nothing but laugh He would not have given
us shoulders with which to lift, and hands
with which to work, and brains with which
to think The amusements OF life are mere.
" the orchestra playing while the great
tragedy of life plunges through its five acts
Infancy, childhood, manhood, old age and
death. Then exit the last earthly opportun'
ity. Enter the overwhelming realities OF an
eternal worldi
90 further, and say that all those amuse
ments are wrong which lead into bad com.
pany. If you 20 to any place where you
have to associate with the intemperate, with
the unclean, with the abandoned, however
well they may be dressed, In the name OF
God quit it. They will despoil your nature.
They will undermine your moral character.
They will drop you when you are destroyed.
children when you are dead. They will weep
not one tear at your burial. They will
.chuckle over your dannation.
! had friend at the weSt-a rare friend.
He was one of the first to welcome me to his
new home. To fine personal appearance he
added generosity, frankness and ardor OF
nature that made me love him like brother.
But saw evil people gathering around him.
They came up from the saloons, from the
gambling bells. They piled him with thou
sand arts. They seized upon his social ma
ture, and he could not stand the charm.
They drove him on the rocks like ship full
winged, shivering on the breakers. | used
to admonish him. I would say, "Now
wish you would quit these bad habits and
become Christian" "Oh," he would reply,
81 would like to. Iwould like to, but have
gone so far I don't think there is any way
back" In his moments Of repentance he
would go home and take his little girl OF
eight wears, aud embrace her convulsively,
and cover her with adornments and strew
around her pictures and toys and every thing
that could make her happy; and then, as
though bounded by an evil spirit, he would
20 out to the enHaming cup and the house OF
shame, like fool to the correction of the
stocks.