The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-23

and there are thousands Of men who are
helping them in the struggle. Now. that
is not life worth living. You can get
slandered and abused cheaper than that!
Take it on a smaller scale. Do not be so
ambitious TO have a whole reservoir rolled
over on you. But what YOU see in the
matter of high political preferment you
see in every community in the struggle
for what is called social position.
Tens of thousands of people trying to
get into that realm, and they are under
terrific tension. What is social pOsition2
1t is a difficult thing TO define. but we all
know what it is. Good morals and intel
ligence are not necessary, but wealth. or
show of wealth, IS absolutely indispensa-
BILE. There are men to-day as notorious
for their hbertinism as the night is
famous for its darkness, who move in
what is called high social position. There
are hundreds of out-and-out rakes in
American society whose names are men
toned among the distinguished guests at
the great levees. They have annexed all
the known vices and are longing for other
worlds of diabOlism to conquer Good
morals are not necessary in many OF the
exalted circles of society.
Neither is intelligence necessary. You
find in that realm men who would not
know an adverb from an adjective if they
met it a hundred times a day, and who
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regrets without the aid of a secretary.
They buy their libraries by the square
yard, only anxious TO have the binding
Russian. Their ignorance is positively
sublime. Making English grammar al
most disreputable. And yet the finest
parlors open before them. Good morals
and intelligence are not necessary, but
wealth, or a show of wealth, is positively
indispensable. II does not make any differ
NUpalfh if
only get it. The best way for you to get
into social position is for you to buy a
large amount on credit, then put your
property in your wife's name. have a few
preferred creditors, and then make an
assignment Then disappear from the
community until the breeze is over, and
then come back and start in the same
business. DO you not see how beautifully
that will put out all the people who are
in competition with you and trying to
make an honest livingl How quickly it
will get you into high social position
What is the use of forty or fifty years of
hard work when you can by two or three
bright strokes make a great fortunel All
my friends, when you really lose your
money, how quick they will let you drop,
and the higher you get the harder you
will drop
There are thousands to-day in that
realm who are anxious TO keep in it,
There are thousands in that realm who
are nervous for fear they will fall
out of it, and there are changes
going on every year, and every
month, and every hour which involve
heartbreaks that are never reported.
High social life is constantly in a fiutter
about the delicate question as to whom
they shall let in and whom they shall
push out, and the battle is going on-pier
mirror against pier mirror, chandelier
against chandelier, wine cellar against
wine cellar, wardrobe agaist wardrobe,
equipage against equipage. Uncertainty
and insecurity dominant in that realm,
Indebtedness enthroned, torture at a
premium, and life not worth living.
A life of sin, life Of pride, life of in
diligence, life of worldliness, a life de-
voted to the world, the flesh and the devil
is failure, dead failure, an infinite fail
ure. care not how many presents you send
to that cradle, or how many garlands you
send to that grave, you need to put right
under the name on the tombstone this in
scription: Better for that man if he
had never been born"
But shall show youa life that is worth
living. A young man says: Il am here
| am not responsible for my ancestry /;
others decided that | am not responsible
for my temperament; God gave me that.
But here | am, in the afternoon of the
nineteenth century, at 20 years of age
am here, and / must take an account of
stock. Here 1 have a body which is a
divinely constructed engine, l must put
it to the very best uses, and L must
allow nothing to damage this
and they mean locomotion. Two
eyes, and they mean capacity to pick out
my own way, Two ears, and they are
telephones of communication with all the
outside world, and they mean capacity to
catch sweetest music and the voices of
frieudship-the very best music "A
tongue with almost infinity of articula-
tion. Yes, hands with which to well
come, or resist, or lift or smite, or wave,
or bless-hands to help myself and help
others
Here is world whick after six thou
sand years of battling with tempest and
accident is still grander than any archi-
tect, human or angelic, could have
drafted. have two lamps to light me-a
golden lamp and a silver Tampa golden
lamp set on the sapphire mantel of the
day, a silver lamp set on the jet mantle
of the night. Yea, | have that at twenty
years of age which dehes all inventory of
valuables-a soul, with capacity to
choose or reject, to rejoice or to suf-
fer, to love or hate. Plato says it is i'm
mortal. Seneca says it is immortal Con-
fucius says it is immortal. An old book
among the family relics-a book with
leathern Govern almost worn out, and
pages almost obliterated by oft perusal
joins the other books in saying l am i'm
mortal. have eighty years for a life
time, sixty years yet to live. 1 may not
live an hour, but then l must lay out my
plans inteligently and for long life
Sixty years added to the twenty | have
already lived, that Will bring me to
eighty. ! must remember that these
eighty years are only a brief preface to
the five hundred thousand millions of
quintillions of years which will be my
chief residence and existence Now, l
understand my opportunities and my res
possibilities.
"If there is any being in the universe
all wise and all beneficent who can help
man in such juncture, | want him. The
old book found among the family relics
tells me there is God, and that for the
sake of his son, one Jesus. he will give
help to man, To him l appeal. God
help me Here have yet sixty years to
do for myself and to 90 for others. [
must develop this body by all industries,
by all gymnastics, by all sunshine. by all
fresh air, by all good habits. And this
soul must have swept, and garnished
and illumined and glorifed by all that l
can do for it and all that
l can get God can do for
it. 1t shall be Luxembourg OF fine pic
lures II shall be an orchestra of grand
harmouies. IL shall be palace for God