The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-03-19

are entertainments that give a man dis
gust with the drudgery of life, with
tools because they are not swords, with
working aprons because they are not
robes. with cattle because they are not
Infatuated bulls of the arena. If any
amusement sends you home longing for
a life of romance and thrilling advent
ure. love that takes poison and shoots
itself. moonlight adventures and hair
breadth escapes, you may depend upon
it YOU are the sacrificed victim of I'M
sanctified pleasure. Our recreations
are intended to build us up, and if they
pull us down as to our moral or as to
our physical strength, you may come to
the conclusion that they are obnoxious
SLY AND ALLURING INsISUATIoSs.
There IS nothing more depraving than
attendance upon amusenents that are
full of innuendo and low suggestion.
The young man enters. At first he sits
far back, with his hat on and his coat
collar up, fearful that somebody there
may know him. Several nights pass
on. He takes off his hat earlier and
puts his coat collar down The blush
that first came into his cheek when
anything indecent was enacted comes
no more to his cheek. Farewell young
man! You have probably started on
the long road which ends in consum-
mate destruction. The stars of hope
will go out one by one until you will
be left iii utter darkness. Hear you
not the rush of the maelstrom, in whose
outer circle your boat now dances,
liking merry with the whirling waters2
But you are being drawn in, and the
gentle motion will become terrific agi
tation. You cry for help. In vain!
You pull at the oar to put back, but
the struggle will not avail. You will
be tossed and dashed and shipwreclzed
and swallowed in the whirlpool that
has already crushed in it's wrath ten
thousand hulks.
Young men who have just come from
country residence to city residence, you
will do well to be on guard and let no
one induce you to places of improper
amusement. 1t is nightly alluring
when young man, long a citizen, of
fers to show new conner all around.
Still further; those amuse!nents are
wrong which lead you into expenditure
beyond your means. Money spent in
recreation is not thrown away. 1t is
all folly for us to come from Il place of
amusement feeling that we have wasted
our money and time. You may by it
have made an investment worth more
than the transaction that yielded you
hundreds or thousands of dollars. But
how many properties have been rid
died by costly amusements.
The first time ever saw the city-it
was the city of Philadelphia was o
mere lad l stopped at hotel and ]
remember in~the eventide one of these
men piled me with his internal art. He
saw l was green He wanted to show
me the sights of the town. He painted
the path of sin until it looked like en-
erald but l was afraid of him l
showed back from the basilisk. made
up my mind he was basilislz. l re-
member how he wheeled his chair
round in front of me, and with concen-
| trated and diabolical effort attempted
to destroy my soul, but there were good
angels in the air that night 1t was no
good resolution on my part, but it was
the all encompassing grace of a good
God that delivered me. Beware! be-
ware! oh, young man. There is a
way that seemeth right unto man,
but the end thereof is DEATH"
The table has been robbed to pay
the club. The champagne has cheated
the children's wardrobe. The carous-
ing party has burned up the boys
primer The tablecloth of the corner
saloon is in debt to the wife's faded
dress. Excursions that III day make
a tour around a whole months wages,
ladies whose lifetime business is to go
shopping" large bets ON horses, have
their counterparts in uneducated chill
dren, bankruptcies that shock the mon
ely market and appal the church, and
that send drunkenness staggering across
sion, and dashing into the mirror, and
drowning out the carol of music with
the whooping of bloated sons come
home to break their old mothers heart.
ooh, THE PITY OF rTr'
l saw a beautiful home, where the
bell rang violently at night. The son
had been off in sinful indulgences. His
comrades were bringing him home.
They carried him to the door. They
rang the bell at l o'clock in the
morning. Father and mother came
down. They were waiting for the
wandering son, and then the comrades,
as soon as the door was opened, threw
the prodigal headlong into the doorway
crying, There he is, drunk as fool.
Ha, hap When men go into amuse
lnents that they cannot afford they
first borrow what they cannot earn,
and then they steal what they cannot
borrow. First they go into elnbarrass
ment, and then into lying and then
into theft; and when a man gets as fan
: on as that he does not stop short of the
penitentiary. There is not a prison in
, the land where there are not victims Of
unsanctifed amusements
Merchant of Brooklyn or New York,
is there a disarrangement in your &C
: counts9 Is there leakage in your
money drawer? Did not the cash ac
count come out right last night9
will tell you. There is a young mar
? in your store wandering off into bad
| amusements. The salary you give him
| may meet lawful expenditures, but moi
: the sinful indulgences in which he ha.
entered, and he takes by theft thai
, which you do not give him in Lawful
salary
How brightly the path of unre
: strained amusement opens The young
man says: Now 1 am off for COCO
time. Never mind economy. I'll ge
money somehow. What fine road