The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1896-06-04

This allusion seems to be dramatic.
The Bible more than once makes such
illusions. Paul says: ''We are made
a theater or spectacle to angels and
to men," 1t is evident from the text
that some of the habits Of theater-
goers were known in Jobs time, be-
cause he describes an actor Kissed
on the stage. The impersonator comes
on the boards and, either through
lack of study of the part he is to take
or happiness OF other incapacity, the
audience is offended. and expresses it's
disapprobation and disgust by kissing.
Men clap their hands at him and
shall hiss him out of his place."
My text suggests that each one Of
us is put on the stage of this world
to take some part. What hardship
and suffering and discipline great act
Ors have undergone year after year
that they might be perfected in their
parts, you have often read. But we,
put on the stage of this life to rep
resent charity and faith and humility
and 'helpfulness- what little prepare
ton we have made, although we have
three galleries of spectators earth and
heaven and hell! Have we not been
more attentive to the part taken by
others than to the part taken by our
selves, and, while we needed to be
looking at home and concentrating on
our own duty, we have been criticising
the other performers, and saying,
""That was too high or ''too low" or
AtcO tame," OF too demonstratative,"
while we ourselves were making a
dead failure and preparing to be
ANONYMOUSLY Kissed OH the stage?
Each one is assigned a place; no sup
elnnmeraries hanging around the
drama Of life to take this or that or
the other part, as they may be called
upon. No one can take our place. We
can take no other place. Neither can
we put off our character; no change
of apparel can make us anyone else
than that which we etcrnally are.
Many failure of their part in the
drama Of life through dissipation.
They have enough intellectual equip
ment and good address and geniality
unbounded. But they have wine
closet that contains all the forces for
their social and business and moral
overthrow. So far back as the year
$50 King Edgar of England made
law that the drinking cups should
have pins fastened at a certain point
in the side, SO that the indulger might
be reminded to stop before he got to
the bottom. But there are no pins
projecting from the sides OF the
modern wine cup or beer mug, and
the first point at which millions stop
is at the gravelly bottom Of their own
grave. DR.. Sax, of France. has dis
covered something which all drinkers
ought to know. He has found out that
alcohol, in every shape, whether of
wine or brandy or beer. contains par
asitic life called bacillus potumaniae.
BY powerful microscope these liv-
Ing things are discovered, and when
you take strong drink you take them
Into the stomach and then into your
blood, and, getting into the crimson
canals OF Life, they go into every tissue
OF your body, and your entire organ,
ism is taken possession of by these
noXious infinitesimals. When in de-
lir1um tremenS a man sees very form
OF reptilian life, it seems it is only
these parasites of the brain in exag-
gerGted size. 1t is not 4 halllcination
that the victim is suffering from. He
only sees in the room what is actually
crawling and rioting in his own brain.
Every time you take strong drink you
swallow these maggOtS, and every
time the imbiber of alcohol in any
shape feels vertigo or rheumatism or
nausea it is only the jubilee of these
,maggots. Efforts are being made for
'the discovery of some germicide that
can kill the parasites Of alcoholism,
but the only thing that will ever ex-
'tirpate them is abstinence from alco-
shol and teetotal abstinence, to which
I would before God swear all these
young men and old.
America is a fruitful country, and
lor >E Il
corn and oats, but the largest crop
we raise in this country is the crop Of
drunkards. With sickle made out of
the sharp edges of the. broken glass
Of bottle and demijohns they are cut
down, and there are whole swarthes
Of them, whole winrows of them, and
1t takes all the hospitals and penitenti-
aries and graveyards and cemeteries
to hold this harvest of hell. Some of
you are going down under this evil,
and the never-dying worm of alco-
fOliSm has wound around you one Of
it's coils, and by next New Years Day
1t will have another coil around you,
ind it will after awhile put a coil
around your tongue and a coil around
your brain and coil around your
dung and coil around your foot and a
coil around your heart, and some day
this never-dying worm will with one
spring tighten all the coils at once,
and in the last twist Of that awful
'convolution you will cry out, "Oh, my
'God!' and be gone. The greatest of
'dramatists in the tragedy Of The Tenn
pest send staggering across the stage
.''Stephano," the drunken butler; but
across the stage Of human life strong
drink sends kingly and queenly and
princely natures staggering forward
against the footlights Of conspicuity
and then staggering back into failure
till the world is impatient for their
disappearance, and human and dia-
bolic voices join in kissing them off
the stage.
Many also make failure in the
drama of life through Incidence. They
are always making calculations how
little they can do for the compensa-
ton they get. There are more lazy
ministers, lawyers, doctors, merch4
ants. artists and farmers than have
ever been counted upon The com
munity is full Of laggards and shirk-
,ers. l can tell it from the way they
crawl along the street; from their
hardness in meeting engagements,