The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1894-01-12

uepenu Oh inc proInlhe III JerelnldI
xix, II, Leave thy fatherless chill
dren, will preserve them alive, and
let thy widows trust in me-" But il
you are able to, remember you have nc
right to ask God to do for your house
hold that which you can do for them
yourself.
For the benefit Of those young mer
excuse practical personality. Begin
ming my life's work on the munifcent
salary of $500 year and parsonage,
and when the call was placed in my
hands did not know how in the world
| would ever be able to spend that
amount of money, and remember in
dulging in devout wish that might
not be led into worldliness and prodi-
gality by such an overplus of resources,
and at time when articles of food and
clothing were higher than they are
now, l felt it religious duty to got my
life insured, and presented myself at
an office of one of the great companies,
and stood pale and nervous lest thu
medical examiner might have to de-
clare that had consumption and heart
disease and a half dozen mortal all.
ments, but when l got the document,
which l have yet in full force, felt q
sense of manliness and confidence and
quietude and reinforcement, which is q
good thing for any young man to have.
For the lack of that feeling there are
thousands of men today in Greenwood
and Laurel Hill and Mount Auburn
who might as well have been alive and
well and supporting their families.
They got little sick, and they were
so worried about what would become
of their households in case of their de-
mise that their agitations overcame the
skill of the physicians, and they died
for fear of dying. have for many
years been such an ardent advocate of
life insurance, and my sermon on THE
Crime of Not Insuring" has been so
long used on both sides of the sea by
the chief life insurance companies that
some people have supposed that l re-
ceived monetary compensation for what
have said and written. Not penny.
L will give any man 800 for every pen
ny have received from any life insur-
ance company. What l have said and
written on the subject has resulted
from the conviction that these institu-
tions are benediction to the human
race. But, alas, for the widespread i'm
providence! You are now in your char
tiles helping to support the families Of
men who had more income than you
now have, or ever have had, or ever
will have, and you can depend on the
improvidence of many for the truth Of
my text in all times and in all places,
"Ye have the poor always with you. .
LACK OF MENTAL BALANCE.
Another fact that you may depend
Upon for perpetual poverty is the in
capacity of many to achieve liveli
hood. You can go through any com
munity and find good people with more
than usual mental caliber, who never
have been able to support themselves
and their households. They are mys-
terry to us, and we say, II do not know
what is the matter of them, but there is
screw loose somewhere" Some of
these persons have more brain than
thousands who make splendid sue
cess. Some are too sanguine of tenn
permanent, and they see bargains where
there are none. A common minnow is
to them gold fish, and quail fla
mingo, and blind mule on towpath
Bucephalus. They buy when things
are highest and sell when things are
lowest. Some one tells them of city lots
out west, where the foundation Of the
first house has not yet been laid. They
say, What an opportunity" and they
put down the hard cash for an orna-
mented deed for 10 lots under water
They hear of new silver mine opened
in Nevada, and they say, "What
chance!" and they take the little
money they have in the savings bank
and pay it out for as beautiful a certif-
cate of mining stock as was ever print
ed, and the only thing they will ever
get out of the investment is the aforesaid
illuminated Autograph. They are al
ways on the verge of millionairedom
and are sometimes worried as to whom
they shall bequeath their excess Of for
tune. They invest in aerial machines
or new inventions in perpetual motion,
and they succeed in what mathemati-
clans think impossible, the squaring of
a circle, for they do everything on the
square and win the whole circle of dis
appointment. They are good. honest,
brilliant failures. They die poor, and
leave nothing to their families but
model of some invention that would not
work and whole portfolios of diagrams
of things impossible. / cannot help
but like them, because they are SO
cheerful with great expectations. But
their children are bequest to the bu-
reau of city charities. Others admin
lister to the crop of the worlds misfor-
tune by being too unsuspecting. Honest
themselves, they believe all others are
honest. They are fleeced and scalped
and vivisected by the sharpers in all
styles of business and cheated out of
everything between cradle and grave,
oiiA taooO WV OASCpilOlo Jill UCCduSC
they have nothing to do in buying
either of them. Others are retained for
misfortune by inopportune sickness.
just as that lawyer was to make the
plea that would have put him among
the strong men of the profession, neu-
ralgia stung him. Just as that physi-
clan was to prove his skill in an cpl
demic, his own poor health imprisoned
him. just as that merchant must be
at the store for some decisive and intro
ductory bargain, he site with a rheu-
matte joint on a pillow, the room redol-
ent with IMMINENT. What an over
whelming statistic would be the story
of men and women and children i'm
poverished by sicknesses! Then the cy-
clones. Then the Mississippi and Ohio
freshets. Then the stopping of the
factories. Then the curculios among
the peach trees. Then the insectile
devastation of potato patches and wheat
fields. Then the epizootics among the
horses and the hollow horn among the
herds. Then the rains that drown out
everything and the droughts that burn
up half continent. Then the orange
groves die under the white teeth of
the boar fros Then the coal strikes,