St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1896-05-02
Do NOT WORRY.
arp Advises G. View ca tho
Brighter Side of Lifo.
No Comfort IN Lasncnting Over What J,
Going on in Turkey, Cuba aad Other
Troubled Countries Women
anu Longevity.

anu Longevity.
Outside of revelation, there is surely
sufficient proof Of original sin and
moral tufpitude in human kind Ii q
man could be lifted up in balloon
high enough to see the earth roll under
him and could keep his position until
1t had turned time or two on its
axis, the scene that would pass hts
vision would be proof enough. What d
horrible revelation of war aud blood.
shed and suffering would pass beneath
him in almost every part of the earth!
We boast Of modern civiliza. lion, but
has every advance to be baptized III
blood? Suppose man could see at
one time all the present raiseries of the
world aud all the crime that caused it
could he endure the awful picture
i Would it not paralyze his soul and OBJ
literate his power of vision, and make
him a maniac? Every day we read OF
these horrors and shudder, but they
are afar off and we have become almost
hardened to them by their daily repe-
tition. If familiarity with danger
breeds contempt, for it SO does, a daily
recurrence of crime and suffering and
grief breeds Indifference. Unless we
see it with our own eyes we are not
greatly affected.
7. The weeping prophet exclaimed:
"Ob, that my head were waters and
mine eyes fountain of tears!" but
there is no prophet to weep nowadays.
We have no time to weep. The poet
says:
Mans inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn"
and If we could actually see every hat-
t1efield and all the blood and agony,
and into all the prisons and chain
gangs and into every hosel and garret
and dark alley where the poor do con-
gregate, and into the hearts of all the
mourners at all the funerals, we would
never smile again. The memory OF
them would haunt us and we would be
more than willing to quit this horrible
world and take on. chances in another.
But we will let the preachers talk
/ about this. We must look on the
i
rondering and lamenting what is 60
ing on in Turkey and Abyssinia and
Cuba, Or over the long-continued quar-
rels at Washington, or the shameful
broils in Kentucky. or the daily crimes
and murders and suicides and lynch
ings that fill the newspapers. Now is
the blessed springtime, when all nature
is smiling upon US. When the flow
ers are blooming and the grass il
springing and the birds are singing.
Even the beasts of the field and the
fowls in the yard are happy, and every
created thing save man seems to re-
/ ioice in the goodness of the Creator.
What is the matter with man, anyhow ,
Woman is not so, nor are the little
children who play and sport around us.
The poet says: q
| Every prospect pleases
And only man is vile.''
But after all, there is comfort in
knowing that there are some good men.
Yes, lots of them. You can pick them
out in town and city and country, and
70 great traveller who has been all over
| the world and mingled with Gentiles
and Jews. and Arabs and Hottentots, and
the heather Chinee, says he found good
kind-heartcd people of every tribe and
nation and religion on the globe. He
| said that a traveller could never be
sectarian or be intolerant, like many
of our so-called Christians are.
Last Sunday went out in the coun-
| try with a friend to visit an old lady
who is On her last bed. She has lived
s3 years, and reckon never had an
evil thought in her life. She was pleased
| to see us, and the nearness Of death
gave her no alarm. For the sake of
my grandchildren, she said, 81 would
like to live little longer to help them
and guide them in the right way" Her
Bible was printed away before tbewar.
| and had been patched and pasted ana
ncndcd until it would hardly hold to-
gether, but she knows good deal by
| heart, and told US what portions of ii
were her greatest comfort. These old
| fashioned mothers are the best people
| on earth, and when they have passed
through all the perils of motherhood
| they seem to outlive the men. There arc
three times as many old women in this
town as old men and they are most all
| OF them widows. / had rather insure
| the life of a woman of As than a man
of 80. | would get the premiums long
er. The old-fashioned men lived long
er than they do now. They had simple
| habits and limited desires. mean the
| ssell-to-do men who lived in comfort
The old presidents, leaving out Wash
ington, whose death was not from old
age, outliyed the more modern ones.
John Adams lived to 81 ard
his son to 81. Jefferson was
So, Madison was IS, Monroe %, and
Jackson IS. This makes an average
of 50 years, which is very uncommon.
The average of all the presidents is
only Gs years. In looking over theirrec-
| ords / was surprised to find that three
of them died on the Fourth of July, and
that Adams and Jefferson expressed
desire to die ON that day. Whether
| Monroe did or not the biography does
not say. have no doubt that he did,
for that day was very dear to the pa
| triots of. that time. and their wish was
| father TO their fate. It amounted al
most to viii power. for the chance for
man to di: on that day was only one
in 365-and the chance for three pres
ifents out Of six to die on that day is
almost beyond computation. Gould Il
have been chance or was il their spirit
| uaf devotion to the day and the decIara-