Democratic messenger., 1894-03-10


was his own. Not only enough To redden
his garments and to redden his horse, but
enough TO wash away the sins of the
world. Oh. the blood ON his brow, the
blood on his hands the blood ON his feet,
the blood on his side! 1t seems as if an
artery must have been cut.
There is a fountain filed with blood
Drawn from Immanucl's veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.
At , o'clock tomorrow afternoon 90
among the places of business or toll. II
will be no difficult thing for You To find
men who by their looks show YOU that
they are overworkcd. They are prema-
turely old. They are fastening rapidly
toward their decsase They have gone
through crises in business that shattered
their nervous system and pulled on the
brain. They have shortness of breath.
and a pain III the back of the head, and
at night AN insomnia that alarms them.
Why are they drudging at business early
and late: For fun: No: il would be diff
cult to extract any amusement out of
that exhaustion. Because they are avari-
cious! In many cases, no. Because their
own personal expenses are lavish! No; a
few hundred dollars would meet all their
wants.
The simple fact is the man is enduring
all that fatigue and exasperaiion and
wear and tear to keep his home prosper
Gus. There is an invisible line reaching
from that store, from that bank, from
that shop, from that scaffoldins. To a
quiet scene few blocks. few miles
away, and there is the secret of that busi-
ness endurance. He is simply the cham
pion of homestead, for which he wins
bread and wardrobe and education and
prosperity. and i'll such battle IL, 900 men
fall. OF ten business men whom bury
nine die of overwork for others. Some
sudden disease finds them with no power
of resistance, and they are gone. Life
for life. Blood for blood. Substitution!
LIFE FOR LIFE.
At l o'clock tomorrow morning, the
hour when slumber is most uninterrupt-
ed and most profound, walk amid the
dwelling houses of the city Here and
there YOU will find dim light, because
it is the household custom to keep sub
dued light burning. but most of the
houses from base to top are as dark as
though uninhabited. A merciful God
has sent forth the archangel of sleep,
and he puts his wings over the city. But
yonder is clear light burning. and out
side on the window easement u glass or
pitcher containing food for sick child
the food set III the fresh air.
This is the sixth night that mother has
sat up with that sufferer. She has to the
last point obeyed the physicians pre-
scription, not giving drop too much or
too little. or moment too soon or too
late. She is very anxious, for she has
buried three children with the same dis
ease, and she prays and weeps, each pray
er and sob ending with kiss of the pale
cheek. By dint of kindness she gets the
little one through the ordeal.
After il is all over the mother is taken
down. Brain or nervous fever sets in.
and one day she leaves the convalescent
child with mothers blessing and goes
up to join the three in the kingdom of
heaven. Life for life. Substitution.
The fact is that there are an uncounted
number of mothers who. after they have
navigated large family of children
through all the diseases of infancy and
got them fairly started up the Towering
slope of boyhood and girlhood, have only
strength enough left to die. They fade
away. Some call ii consumption; some
call it nervous prostration; some call it
intermittent or malarial disposition, but
call it martyrdom of the domestic cir
Gle. Life for life. Blood for blood.
Substitution!
THE SACRIFICE OF PATRIOTISM.
Or perhaps the mother fingers long
enough TO see son get on the wrong
road, and his former kindness becomes
rough reply when she expresses anxiety
about him. But she goes right ON, look
ing carefully after his apparel, remem-
bering his every birthday with some me
mento, and when he is brought home.
worn out with dissipation, nurses him
till he gets well and starts him again
and hopes and expects and prays and
counsels and suffers until her strength
gives out and she falls. She is going,
and attendants bending over her pillow
ask her if she has any message to leave.
and she makes great effort to say some
thing, but out of three or four minutes
of indistinct utterance they can catch
but three words. My poor boy" The
simple fact is she died for him. Life for
life. Substitution!
About 33 years ago there went forth
from our homes hundreds of thousands
of men TO do battle for their country.
All the poetry of war soon vanished and
left them nothing but the terrible prose.
They waded knee deep in mud. They
slept in snowbanks. They marched till
their cut feet tracked the earth. They
were swindled out of their honest rations
and lived on meat not fit for n dog. They
had Jaws all fractured, and eyes extin-
guished, and limbs shot away. Thou
sands of them cried for water as they lay
dying on the field the night after the
battle and got it not. They We're home
sick and received no message from their
loved ones. They died i'll barns, in
bushes, in bitches, the buzzards of the
summer heat the only attendants ON their
obsequies.
No one but the infinite God, who knows
everything, knows the ten thousandth
part of the length and breadth and
depth and height of anguish of the
northern and southern battletields. Why
did these fathers leave their children and
go to the front. and why did these young
men. pos:poning the marriage day, start
out into the probabilities of never COM
ing back? For the country they died.
Life for life. Blood for blood. Substi-
tuition!
But we need not go so far. What is
that monument in Greenwood? 1t is to
the doctors who fell in the southern epi-
denies. Why 90: Were there not
enough sick TO b. attended in these
northern latitudes: Oh, yes: but the
doctor puts Il few medical books in his
valise, and some vials Of medicine, and
leaves his patients here in the hands of
= - 4. l.