The Progress. (Shreveport, La.) 1892-1900, 1897-08-07
Prescriptions for the Alienation
of Financial Distress.
Pointers for Cr0ekeFs Who Infest the
Country-Cheerful Behavior and
Conversation One Of tho
P0n0CO00,


help restore good times. The text is:
mentatiOns I'LL, 80.
A cheerful interrogatory in the most
melancholy book of the Bible! Jere-
miah wrote 80 many sad things that
we have q word named after him, and
when anything is surcharged with
.grief and complaint, we call 1t jere'
:miad. But in my text, Jeremiah, "a
by a sudden jolt, wakens us to thank
full spirit.
Our blessings are SO much more nu'
merous than our deserts that he is sur.
.prised that anybody should ever find
fault. Having life, and with it q thou
sand blessings, it ought to hush into
perpetual silence everything like crit
licism of the dealings of God. "Where-
fore doth living man complaint"
While everything IN our national
finances is Frightening, for the last
flew years the land has been set to the
tune Of Naomi" There has been
here and there . cheerful soloist but
the grand chorus has been one of lam
entation, accompanied by dirges over
Frustrated commerce. silent manufac-
tories, unemployed mechanism, and
all those disorders described by the
1.-TWO short words. ''hard times" The
fact is that we have been paying for
the bloody luxury of war, more than
80 years ago. There were great ma
tional differences, and we had not
enough Christian character to settle
them by arbitration and treaty, and
SO we went into battle, expanding life
and treasure, and we'll nigh swamping
the national finances; and north and
south, east and west have ever since
been paying for those tour years in
diligence in barbarism. But the time
has come when this depression ought
to end-yea. when it will end
II the people are willing to do
two or three things by way Of
financial medicament, for the people
rs we'll as congress must Join in the
work Of recuperation. The best po-
litical economists tell us that there is
no good reason for continued prOstra-
ton. Plenty Of money awaiting in
vestment. The national health with
never SO strong an arm or so clear
brain. Yet we go on grooming, groan-
ing, grooming. rs though God had put
this nation upon Cruel, and allowed us
but one decent breakfast in six months
The fact is the habit of complaining
has become chronic in this country,
0uu 01VcT AAA tAcSc years "a WAlNpc1
and wailing aad objurgation, we are
under such y momentum Of SWIVEL that
we cannot stop.
There are three prescriptions by
which believe that our individual and
national finances may be cured of their
present depression. The first is cheer
full conversation and behavior. have
noticed that the people who are most
vociferous against the day in which we
live arc those who are in comfortable
circumstances. I have made in quiry
of those persons who are violent in
their jersIniads against these times,
and have asked them: "Now. after
all, are you not making . living?"
After some hesitation and coughing,
clearing their throat three or four
times, they say, stammeringly: Yea"
So that with = great multitude
OF people IL is not question of getting
n livelihood. but they are unhappy and
dissatisfied because they can not make
as much money ~ they would like to