The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-10-21

~ NIL up, gallon above gallon. hoos.
mead above hogshead, and about mid
summer these two reservoirs will he
orl1nmlng full, and hose will be Mt.
tached to each one, and it will nlav
away on these nominees, and thev will
nave to stand it, and take the abuse.
and the falsehood, and the carica-
tnre, and the anathema, and the cater
waullng, and the filth, and they will
be rolled in it and rolled over and over
In it until they are choked, and SUBJ
merged, and strangulated, and at every
sign of returning consciousness they
Will be barked at by all the hounds of
political parties from ocean to ocean,
ana yet there are hundred men to-
day struggling for that privilege and
there are thousands of men who are
helplng them in that struggle. Now,
that is not life worth living. You
can get slandered and abused cheaper
than that! Take it on smaller scale.
Do not be SO ambitious to have a whole
reservoir rolled over on you.
But what you see in the matter of
high political preferment you see in
every community in the struggle for
what is called social position Tens of
thousands of people trying to get into
that realm, and they are under terrific
tension. What is social position? 1t is
difficult thing to define, but we all
know what it is. Good morals and in
telligence are not necessary, but
wealth, or show of wealth, is abso-
lutely indispensable. There are men
to-day as notorious for their libertin-
ism as the night is famous for its dark
ness who move in what is called high
social position. There are hundreds
OF out-and-out rakes in Am merican So
clety whose names are mentioned
among the distinguished guests of the
great levees They have annexed all
the known vices, and are longing for
other worlds of dlabolism to conquer.
Good morals are not necessary in many
of the exalted circles of society.
Neither is intelligence necessary.
You fl nd in that realm men who would
not know an adverb from an adjective
if they met it a hundred times day,
and who could not write letter of &C
ceptance or regrets without the aid of
secretary. They buy their libraries
by the square yard, only anxious to
have the binding Russian. Their ig-
norance is positively sublime, making
English grammar almost disreputable.
And yet the finest parlors open before
them. Good morals and Intelligence
are not necessary, but wealth, or q
show of wealth, is positively indispen-
sable. 1t does not make any difference
how you got your wealth, if you only
got it. The best way for you to get
into social position is for you to buy q
large amount on credit, then put your
property in your wife's name,
have few preferred creditors,
and then make an assignment.
Then disappear from the community
until the breeze is over and come back
and start in the same business. Dc
you not see how beautifully that will
put out all the people who are in COM
petition with you and trying to make
an honest living? How quickly it will
get you into high social position?
What is the use of toiling with 40 or so
years Of hard work when you can by
two or three bright strokes make a
great fortune? All. my friends. when
you really lose your money how quick
ly they will let you drop. and the
higher you get the harder you will
drop.
A life of sin, life of pride, a life of
indulgence, a life of worldliness, life
devoted to the world, the flesh and the
devil is failure, a dead failure, an in
definite failure. | care not how many
presents you send to that cradle, or how
many garlands You send to that grave,
you need to put right under the name
on the tombstone this inscription: bet
ter for that man if he had never been
born"
But l shall show you a life that is
worth living. A young man says: II
am here. l am not responsible for my
ancestry; others decided that | am
not responsible for my temperament;
| God gave me that. But here am, in
the evening of the nineteenth CEN
tury, at 20 years of age. | am here,
and must take an account of stock.
Here l have body which is a di-
| vinely-constructed engine. | must
put it to the very best uses, and 1
must allow nothing to damage this
rarest of machinery. Two feet. and
they mean locomotion. Two eyes, and
they mean capacity to pick out my own
way. Two ears, and they are tele-
phones of communication with the out
side world, and they mean capacity to
catch sweetest music and the voices of
friendship-the very best music. A
tongue, with almost infinity of urticu-
lation. Yes, hands with which to well
come or resist, or lift, or smite, or
wave, or bless-hands to help myself
and help others.
Here is world which after 5000
years of battling with tempest and ac-
cidcnt is still grander than any archi-
tect, human or angelic, could have
drafted. have two lamps to light me
"a golden lamp and silver Tampa
golden lamp set on the sapphire man
tel Of the day, a silver lamp set on the
jet mantel of the night. Yea, have
that at 30 years of age which 6efes all