Connecticut western news., 1897-09-16

and take the abuse, and the falsehood, and the carioature, and the anathema, and the caterwauling, and the filth, and they will be rolled in it and rolled over and over in it until they are choked and submerged and strangulated, and at every sign of returning con- soiousness they will be parked at by all the hounds of political parties from ocean to ocean. And yet there are hundred men today struggling for that privilege, and there are thousands of men who are helping them in the strug- gle. Now, that is not life worth liv- ing. You can get slandered and abused cheaper than that. Take it on smaller scale Do not be so ambitious to have 8 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? It 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 absolutely in dispensable. There are men today as notorious for their ibertinism as the night is famous for it's darkness who move in what is called high social posi- tion. There are hundreds of out and out rakes in American society whose names are mentioned among the distinguished guests at the great levees. They have annexed all the known vices and are longing for other worlds of diabolism to conquer. Good morals are not neces- sary in many of the exalted circles of society.
 Neither is intelligence necessary. You find in that realm men who would not know an adverb from an adjective if they met it hundred times in 8 day, and who could not write letter of &C., ceptance CT regrets without the aid of secretary. They buy their libraries by the square yard, only anxious to have the binding Russian. Their ignorance 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 a show of wealth is positively indispensable. It does not make any difference how you got your wealth, if you only got 1t. The best way for you to get into social position is for you to buy 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. Do you not see how beautifully that will put out all the people who are in competi- tion 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 40 or 50 years when you can by two or three bright strokes make great fortune? An, my friends, when you really lose your money how quickly they will let you drop, and the higher you get the harder you will drop.
 There are thousands today in that realm who are anxious to keep in it. There are thousands in that realm who are nervous for fear they will fall out of it, and there are changes going on every year, and every month, and every hour which involve heartbreaks that are never reported. High social life is constantly in futter about the delicate question as to whom they shall let in and whom they shall push out, and the battle is going on-pier mirror against pier mirror, chandelier against ohande- Her, wine cellar against wine cellar, wardrobe against wardrobe, equipage against equipage. Uncertainty and in security dominant in that realm, wretch edness enthroned, torture at premium and life not worth livingl
 All Dead Failures.
 A life of sin, life of pride, life of indulgence, life of worldliness, life devoted to the world, the flesh and the devil, is failure, dead failure, an in- finite failure. I 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 shall show you life that is worth living. A young man says: 1T am here. I am not responsible for my ancestry. Others decided that. I am not responsible for my temperament. God gave me that But here I am in the evening of the nineteenth century, at 90 years of age. I am here, and I must take an account of stock. Here I have body, which is divinely con- structed engine. must put it to the very best uses, and I must allow noth- ing to damage this rarest of machinery, Two feet, and they mean looomotion. Two eyes, and they mean capacity to pick out my own way. Two ears, and they are telephones of communication with all the outside world, and they mean capacity to catch sweetest music and the voices of friendship-the very best music. A tongue, with almost in fnity of articulation. Yes, hands with
 which to welcome or resist or lift O, smite or wave or bless-hands to helI myself and help others.
 Here is world which after 6,0oO
 ycdIb Ol Ud1blluS WILL t6lup upSst duu hCCl- dent is still grander than any architect, human or angelic, could have drafted. I have two lamps to light me-a golden
 lamp and silver lamp-a golden lamI
 set on the sapphire mantel of the day,
 silver lamp set on the jet mantel o1
 the night. Yea, have that at 20 o1
 age which defies all inventory of valu.
 ables-a soul with capacity to choose O,
 reject, to rejoice or to suffer, to love O, to hate. Plato says it is immortal. Sen
 eca says it is immortal. Confucius sayi it is immortal. An old book among the
 family relics, book with leatherr cover almost worn out and pages almost
 obliterated by oft perusal, joins the oth
 er books in saying am immortal.
 have 80 years for a lifetime, 60 years yet to live. may not live an hour, but
 then I must lay out my plans intelli. gently and for long life. Sixty years
 added to the 90 have already lived
 that will bring me to 80. must re,