The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1896-05-02
DO NOT WORRY.
Arp Advises q View On tho
Brighter Side of Life.
No Comfort in Lamcnting Over What 10
Going on In Turkey, Cuba and 0thcr
Troubled Countries Women
and Longevity.

Outside of revelation, there is surely
sufficient proof OF original sin and
moral turpitude in human kind. If "
man could be lifted up in a 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 his
vision would be proof enough. What Is
horrible revelation of war and blood
shed and suffering would pass beneath
him in almost every part of the earth!
We boast of modern civilization but
has every advance to be baptized in
blood? Suppose a man could see at
one time all the present miseries of the
world and all the crime that caused it,
could he endure the awful picture?
Would it not paralyze his soul and OBJ
literate his power of vision, and make
him 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-
/ ttion. If familiarity with danger
breeds contempt, for it SO does, daily
recurrence of crime and suffering and
grief breeds Indifference. Unless we
see it with our own eyes we are not
greatly affected.
The weeping prophet eXclaimed:
"Oh, that my head were waters and
mine eyes a fountain of tcars!' 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 bit
tlefield and all the blood and agony,
and into all the prisons and chain
gangs and into every howell and garnet
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 orr chances in another.
But we will let the preachers talk
about this. We must look on the
brighter side. There is no comfort in
rondsring and lamenting what is 60
ing on in Turkey and Abyssinia and
Cuba, or over the long-continued quar-
rels Mt 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 ID
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:
Every prospect peascs
| 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
great traveller who has been all over
the world and mingled with Gentiles
and Jews, and Arabs and IIottentots,and
the heather Chinee, says he found good,
kind-hearted people of every tribe and
nation and religion on the globe. He
said that a traveller could never be q
sectarian or be intolerant, like many
Of our so-called Christians are.
Last Sunday | went out in the coun-
try with friend to visit an old lady
who is on her last bed. She has lived
So years, and | reckon never had an
evil thought in her life. She was pleased
to see us, and the ncarness of death
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 the war.
and had been patched and pasted and
mcnded until it would hardly hold to-
| gethcr, but she knows good deal by
heart, and told us what portions of it
were her greatest comfort. These old
fashioned mothers are the best people
on earth, and when they have passed
through all the pcrls of motherhood
they seem to outlivc the men. There are
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 n woman of As than n man
of 30. | 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
vcll-to-do men who lived in comfort.
The old presidents, leaving out Wash
| ington, whose death was not from old
age, outlived the more modern ones.
John Adams lived to 81 and
| his son to 81. Jefferson was
Sc, Madison was IS, Monroe 70, and
| jackson IS. This makes an average
of So years, which is very uncommon.
| The average of all the presidents is
only 6s years. In looking over their rec
ords | was surprised to find that three
| of them died on the Fourth of July, and
| that Adams and jefferson expressed
desire 10 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. 1t amounted al
most to will power for The chance for a
man 20 Iii, on that day was only one
| in 3G5-and the chance for three pres
ideGis out of six TO die on that day is
almost bc.iond computation. Could IL
have been chance or was il their spirit
ual devotion to the day and the declara-