The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-09-23

green apples which make them sick,
the physician who attends them dur
ing their distress. and the undertaken
wh: fits them out for their departure
from the neighhorhood where they
owe everybody when they pay the
debt OF nature, the only debt they
ever do pay.
Now our young men are coming up
in this depraved state of commercial
ethics and | am solicitous about them.
l want to warn them against being
slaughtered on the sharp edges OF debt.
You want many things you have not,
nv Young friends You shall have
them if you have patience and hon
esty and industry. Certain lines OF
| conduct always lead out to certain sue
cesses. There is law which controls
even those things that seem haphazard.
| have been told by those who have
observed, that it is possible to cal
| culate just how many letters will be
sent 20 the dead letter office every
year through instruction; that it is
possible to calculate just how many
| letters will be detained for lack of
| postage stamps through the forgetful-
| ness of the senders, and that it is posi-
Bile to tell just how many people will
fall in the streets by slipping on an
orange peel. In other words, there are
no accidents. The most insignificant
event you every heard of is the link
between two eternities-the eternity
of the past and the eternity Of the flu
ture. Head the right way, young man,
and You will come out at the right
| goal.
When a young man willfully and of
choice, having the comforts of life,
goes into the contraction of unpayable
debts, he knows not into what he goes.
The creditors get after the debtor, the
pack of hounds in full cry, and alas.
for the reindeer. They jingle his door
bell before he gets up in the morning,
they jingle his door bell after he has
gone to bed at night They meet him
as he comes off his front steps. They
send him a postal card or a letter, in
curtest style, telling him to pay up
They attach his goods They want
cash, or a note at 80 days, or a note on
demand. They call him a knave. They
say he lies. They want him disciplined
in the church. They want him turned
out of the bank. They come at him
from this side and from that side, anC
| from before, and from behind. and
from above, and from beneath, and he
is insultcd, and gibbeted, and sued
and dunned, and sworn at, until he
gets nervous dyspepsia, gets neuralgia
gets liver complaint, gets heart dis
ease, gets convulsive disorder, get
consumption. Now he is dead, anC
you say: of course you will let hin
alone" Oh, NO! Now they are watch
full to see whether there are any IN
necessary expenses at the obseq lies
to see whether there is any useless
handle on the casket, to Sc.
whether there is any surplus plai
on the shroud, to see whether the
hearse is costly or cheap, to SCI
have been bought by the family or do
mated. See in whose name the deed t.
grave is made out. Then they ransacl
the bereft household the books, tn,
pictures. the carpets, the chairs, tn
sofa, the piano, the mattresses, the pill
= low on which he died. Cursed b
/ debt. For the sake of your own hap
} piness, for the sake of your GOO
; morals, for the sake of your immorta
, soul, for Gods sake. young man, as ia
as possible, keep out of debt.
| But | think more young men ar
: slaughtered through irreligion. TAX
away young mans religion and yo
= make him the prey of evil. We al
know that the Bible is the only perfec
= system of morals. Now, if you wan
+ to destroy the young mans morals
: take his Bible away. How will yo
| do that? Well, you will caricature hi
reverence for the Scriptures, you will
| take all those incidents of the b
BILE which can be made mirth c
: -Jonah's whale, Samson's foxes
Adams rib-then you will car
cature eccentric Christians, or incon
= sistent Christians; then you will pas
= off as your own all those hackneye
e arguments against Christianity, whic
2 are as old as Tom Paine, as old as Vo
L taire, as old as sin. Now, you hav
A captured his Bible, and you have take
e his strone est fortress; the way is con
S paratively clear, and all the gates c
his soul are set open in invitation t
q the sins of earth and the sorrows
e death, that they may come in an
S drive the stake for their encaml men
, A steamer 1900 miles from shore wit
d broken rudder and lost compass, an
| hulk leaking so gallons the hour,
e better off than a young man when 20
r have robbed him Of his Bible. Hay
e you ever noticed how despicably mea
# it is to take away the worlds Bib
{, without proposing a substitute. 1t
V meaner than to come to sick man ar
a steal his medicine, meaner than
o come to cripple and steal his crutc1
% meaner than to come to pauper ar
steal his crust, meaner than to come
i poor man and burn his house dow
It 1t is the worst of all larcenies
d steal the Bible, which has BET
Y crutch and medicine and TO,
If and eternal home to so man
y What a generous and magnanimo
IF business infidelity has gone into. Th
S. splitting up of lifeboats and takil