The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1894-02-02
MUST FACE DANGERS.
THUS OUR SOULS GROW AND OUR
MISSIONS ARE FULFILLED.

Blame Rest For Many Failures?-The Re-
sponsibility of Paternity.
What would be thought of a ship that
was launched from its docks with flour
ish of music and flowing wine, built to
sail the toughest and deepest sea, yet
manned for an unending cruise along
shore? Never leaving harbor for dread
of storm. Never swinging out of the
land girt bay because, over the bar, the
waters were deep and rough. Iou
would say of such a ship that its captain
was a coward and the company that
built it were tools.
And yet these souls Of ours were
fashioned for bottomless soundings.
There is no created thing that draws
as deep as the soul of man; our life lies
straight across the ocean and not along
shore, but we are afraid to venture; we
hang upon the coast and explore shall
low lagoOns or swing at anchor IN idle
bays. Some of us strike the keel into
riches and cruise about therein, like
men of-war in a narrow river. Some OF
us are contented all our days to ride at
anchor in the becalmed waters of self
ish ease. There are guns at every port
hole of the ship we sail, but we use
them for pegs to hang clothes upon or
~pigeonholes to stack full of Idle hours.
We shall never smell powder, although
the magazine is stocked with holy wrath
wherewith to fight the devil and his
deeds. When | see a man strOlling along
at his ease, while under his very nose
some brute is maltreating a horse, or
some coward venting his ignoble wrath
upon a creature more helpless than he,
whether it be a child or a dog. | mvolun-
tarily think Of a double decked whaler
content to fish for minnOws. Their
uselessness in the world is more appar-
ent than the uSelessness Of a Cunardcr
in a park pond.
What did God give you muscle and
, girth and brain for if not to launch you
, on the high seas? Up and away with
you then into the deep sCundings whore
you belong, o belittled soul! Find
the work to do for which you were fit
4 ted and do it, or else run yourself on
, the first convenient snag and founder.
} Some great writer has said that we
4 " nv 40 tt AilN t''it ~ "
river, growing deeper every league to
( the sea. whereas, in fact. thousands
, enter the river ut its mouth and sail
| inland. finding less and less water ry-
, cry day. until in Old age they lie shrunk
and &nSplnG upon dry ground.
Bat there are more who DO not sail
AT all than there are OF those who make
the mistake OF sailing up stream. There
are the women who devote their lives
to the petty business of pleasing WORTH
less men. What progress do they make
even inland? With sails set and brassy
stanchions polished to the similitudo of
gold, they hover "a lifetime chained to
a dock and decay of their own useless
! ness at last, like keels that are mud
slugged. 1T is not the most profitable
thing in the world to please. Suppose it
shall please the inmates Of a bedlam
house to see yon set fire to your clothing
and burn to death, or break your bones
\ one by one upon a rack, or otherwise
destroy your bodily parts that the poor
lunatics might be entertained. Would
it pay to be pleasing to such al audi
ence at such a sacrifice? We were put
into this world with a clean way bill
for another port han this. Across the
ocean of life our way lies, straight to
the harbOr of the city of gold. We are
u freighted with a consignment from
y roomage hold to keep which is bound
~ to be delivered soOner or later at the
great Masters wharf. Let US be alert,
- then. to recognize the seriousness of oul
'7 own destini.s and content ourselves nc
- longer with shallow %soundings. Spread
~ the sails, weigh the anchor and point
!" the PROV for the country that lies the
q other side of a deep and restless sea
sooner or later the voyage must be made
let MS make it, then, while the timber
is stanch ard the rudder true.
When you look at a picture and fine
-. it good or bad. as the case may be, whom
~ do you praise or blame, the owner O.
~ the picture or the artist who painted 1t
-. When you hear a strain Of music ant
~ are either lifted to heaven or cast int
i. the other place by its harmonies or it
i, discord, whom do you thank or curs
for the benefactiOn or the intiictiOn
Ia whichever it may have proved to be
the man who wrote the score or the mu
$500 sic dealer who sold it? YOu go to
,a restaurant and order spring CHECKER
Of which turns out to be the primeval fowl
or Who is to blame, the waiter who serve
% it or the business man of the cOncer'
al who does the marketing: And so whe
na you encounter the bad boy, whom d
you hold responsible for his badness
70 the boy himself or the mother VIII
OF trained him? | declare, as | look abou
Nv me from day to day and see the me
Of and women who play so poor a part j
in life, it is not the poverty Of their pei
ba Torrance that astonishes me SO muc
no as the fact that it is as good as ii is.
With the parents that many boys an
he girls lave and the training they recelv
l am perfectly amazed that they eve
&C. attain to ever half way responsibility
Did you ever stop to think, l wonder
what an awful responsibility is lai
upon you with every child given
your home? If you appreciate the rs