Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1896-04-02

| ordered them to strike up an inspiriting
air, and no sooner did they strike the air
than the Highlanders were rallied and
helped to win the day. Oh, ye who have
been routed in the conflicts of life, try, by
the force Of music, to rally your scattered
battalions.
am glad to know that In our great
| cities there Is hardly night in which
there are not concerts where, with the
best musical instruments and the sweetest
voices, people may find entertainment
Patronize such entertainments when they
are afforded you. Buy season tickets If
you can for the Philharmonic and the
Handel and Haydn societies. Feel that
the 81. so or 81 that you spend for the pur-
pose of hearing an artist play or sing is a
profitable investment. Let your academies
Of music roar with the acclamation of ap-
preciative audiences assembled at the con-
cert or the oratorio.
| Physical Culture.
Still further, commend as worthy of
their support, the gymnasium. This in
| stitution is gaining in favor every year,
and know Of nothing more free from
| dissipation, or more calculated to reouper-
ate the physical and mental energies.
| While there are good many people who
have employed this institution, there is
vast number who are ignorant of its ex-
| cellencies. There are men with cramped
| chests and weak sides and respondent
| spirits who through the gymnasium might
| be reused up to exuberanos and exhilara-
| ton of life. There are many Christian
| people Respondent from year to year, who
might, through such an institution, be
| benefited in their spiritual relations.
There are Christian people who seem to
think that 1t is good sign to be poorly;
and because Richard Baxter and Robert
Hall were invalid, they think that by the
same sickliness they may come to the same
grandeur Of character. want to tell the
Christian people of my congregation that
God will hold you responsible for your in
yalidism II 1t Is your fault, and when,
through right exercise and prudence, you
might be athletic and we'll. The effect of
the body upon the soul you acknowledge.
Put man Of mild disposition upon the
animal diet of which the Indian partakes,
all. in little while his blood will change
It's chemical proportions. 1t will become
like unto the blood of the lion, or the tiger
or the bear, while his disposition will
change, and become fierce and unrelent-
ing. The body has powerful effect upon
the soul.
There are good people whose ideas of
heaven are all shut out with clouds of to-
baoco smoke. There are people who dare
to shatter the physical vase in which God
has put the jewel of eternity. There are
men with great hearts and intelleots, in
bodies worn out by their own negleots-
magnificent machinery, capable of pro-
pelling Majestic across the Atlantic, yet
fastened in a rickety North river propeller.
Martin Luther was SO mighty for God,
first, because he had a noble soul, and Sec
ondly because he had muscular develop
ment which would have enabled him to
thrash any five of his prosecutors, If it had
been Christian SO to do. Physical devel-
opment which merely shows itself in fabu-
lous lifting or in perilous rope walking, or
in pugilistio encounter, excites only our
contempt; but We confess to great admira-
ton for the man who has a great soul in
an athletic body, every nerve, muscle and
bone of which is consecrated to right uses.
Oh, 1t seems to me outrageous that men,
through neglect should allow their phys
iCal health to 60 down beyond repair-a
ship which ought with all sail set and ev-
cry man at his post, to be carrying a rich
| cargo for eternity, employing all its men
in stopping up leakages! When you may,
through the gymnasium, work off your
spleen and your querulousness and one
half of your physical and mental ailments,
do not turn your back upon such grand
medicament.
Still further, commend to you large
class of parlor games and recreations
There is a way of making our homes
hundredfold more attractive than they are
now. Those parents cannot expect to
keep their children away from outside dis
sipations unless they make the domestic
circle brighter than anything they can find
outside of 1t. Do not, then, sit in your
home surly and unsympathetc and with
half condemnatory look because of the
sportfulness of your children. You were
young once yourself; let your children be
young. Because your eyes are dim and
your ankles are stiff, do not denounce
sportfulness in those upon whose eyes there
is the first luster, and in whose foot there
Is the bounding joy of robust health.
thank God that in our drawing rooms and
in our parlors there are innumerable games
and sports which have not upon them the
least taint of iniquity.
Light up all your homes with innocent
hilarities. Do not sit down with the rheu-
matism, wondering how children can go
on so. Rather thank God that their hearts
are so light and their laughter Is so free,
and their cheeks are so ruddy, and that
I,osx
night will come soon enough, and the
heartbreak, and the pang and the desola-
tion-it will come soon enough for the
dear children. But when the storm actu-
ally clouds the sky it will be time enough
for you to haul out your reef tackles.
Garry, then, into your homes not only the
innocent sports and games which are the
inventions of our own day, but the games
which come down with the sportfulness of
all the past ages-chess and charades and
tableaux and battledore and calisthenics
and lawn tennis, and all those amusements
which the young people of our homes know
SO well how to contrive. Then there will
be the parlor socialities-groups of people
assembled in your homes, with wit and
mimicry and joviality, filling the room
with joy from door to mantel, and from
the carpet to the ceiling. Oh, is there any
exhilaration like score of genial souls in
one room, each one adding contribution
of his own individual merriment to the
aggregation of general hilarity?
Suppose you want to go abroad in the
city, then you will find the panorama, and
the art gallery, and the exquisite oolleo-
tions of pictures You will find the mu-
scum and the Historical society rooms full
Of rare curiosities, and scores of places
which can stand plainly the test of what is
right and wrong in amusements. You
will find the lecturing hall, which has been
honored by the names Of Agassiz in natural
history, Doremus in chemistry, Boynton
In geology, Mitchell in astronomy, John
B. Cough in moral REFORM and scores and
hundreds of men who have poured their
wit and genius and ingenuity through