The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1892-09-13
WHAT'S THE MATTER
WITH THE WORLD THESE DAYS?
ASKS BILL ARP.
He Points to Some Strange Scenes-People
Dying With Cholera While Others
Are at Prize Fights.

1t strains weak mind to take it all
In and keep up with it. What with the
awful cholera across the seas and the
famine in Russia and the presidential
election and the third party and HogS,
Clark and Cmpany in Texas and Tom Wat
son and Black in Georgia and the coal
miners in Tennessee and Sullivan and
COrbett in New Orleans and the worlds
fair and the strikes and hangings and
lynchings and murders and suicides and
rattleSnakeS thrown on to fill up the
columns, l don't know what will become
Of us all. The planet Mars must be on a
rampage sure enough and is throwing
down a few rocks to show that he is
mad. We sec that some more meteoric
stones are falling out west. l reckon
we had better quit reading the papers
and take up the Bible awhile and go to
meeting and draw our minds away from
this sublunary world until some Of these
things are over. Thank goodness that
the prize fights are over for Il season.
That JOB is done Now let us have peace.
/ reckon most men would confess to
sneaking desire to see q prize fight
do, and it is one of the best evidences
of original sin that | know Of. l would
like to be out of sight behind a curtain
and have a peep hole and see how it was
DONE One time would do me for with
me it is curiosity mainly. If there was
much blood I would retire early for blood
makes me sick l expect L would take
sides and want my man to whip. Original
sin makes a man or a boy love TO see II
dog fight or a chicken fight or bull fight
or to run foxes with hounds. 1t is all
cruel and devilish and hardens the heart.
A cruel boy will make a cruel man and
l wouldn't want him for u son-in-laW.
But age and reflection and the grace
of God will change man and drive out
this original sin if he is willing. The
danger is that before he is aware of it
it becomes total depravity and then he
is gone. A young man can indulge III
some vice or passion until it is his very
life and he can't quit He can indulge
a passion for gaming until it absorbs him
and he is not fit for anything else. what
q miserable life it is that is bet away On
races and fights and the turn of a card.
When u man is on his last bed what
comfort is there in saying to himself L
bet and | bet and | bet. Only this and
nothing more. II our young men would
only stop and think how much better is
q useful life than to die Il wreck and j
nOncntity!
But | did not start to preach sermon.
| was only Illuminating upon the spectacle
that the world presents to those who see
it just now as it revolves upon its axis.
Human beings-men women and children
dying in Persia and Russia by the thou
Sa1dS every day-dying of pcStiience or
fanine-dying faster than they can be
buried, and in Hamburg at the rate Of
$50 q day, and all business stopped eX-
cept funerals and grave digging and all
night long the mutiied runbling of the
hearSeS and carts and ambulanceS and
in almost every cottage of the poor the
walls and groans of misery. Pestilence
and famine are holding q carnival. These
people are not our kindred nor our friends
but they are human beings with hearts and
feelings and affections like our own. God
pity them! And as the world turns an
other scene comes to view where thou
sands Of wild excited people are gathered
to see two men punch each other unto
death or victory and there are shouts and
yellS and Oaths and pandemonium and
betting high and fast and furious and Ike
o shadow over all is the devil smiling and
happy and his fOrked tail is wagging calm
and serene. | ruminated over this and
wondered. Suppose that death on the
pale horse should suddenly have appeared
in that crowd, or the destroying angel
should have come with his gitterinS
sword or the east wind should have watt
ed there q breath Of the pestilence that
is raging on the other side-WOuld it have
violated the eternal fitness OF things!
The trouble with all sporting is the
company that one must keep who wishes
to enjoy it. This trouble begins with
the school boy at his games of marbles
or ball and with the young man
who is fond Of baseball or bill
lizards or cards, or the young
lady who likes to dance. Some good
pous people believe that all such things
are sinful in themselves while some be
ieve they become q sin only by asSocia-
ton and by Over-indulgence. Every man
has the privilege of his own opinions upon
these things and every parent is rcSp0n-
sible for the good conduct of his children;
but still the preachers are right i'll warn
ing and forewarning and if they do as
sumo to know more than other people it
is 81 pardonable presumption for as
general thing they are against vice and
folly in all it's forms. Nevertheless