Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-07-26

ShipwrecIs-TTortI of the Soul.
WASHINGTON, July 25.-This dis
fourse of Dr.. Ta1mage shows how all
may help in the restoration Of good
times, and is most appropriate. Text,
lamentations iii, 80, wherefore doth
living man complaint
a cheerful interrogatory in the most
melancholy book of the Bible! Jere-
miah wrote SO many sad things that we
have a word named after him, and
when anything is sUrcharged with grief
and complaint we call It q jeremiad
But in my text Jeremiah, as by sud
den jolt, wakens US to thankful spirit.
Our blessings are so much more nu-
merous than our deserts that he is sur
prised that snybody should ever find
fault Having life and with it thou
sand blessings it ought TO hush into
perpetual silence everything like criti-
cism Of the dealings Of God. Where
fore doth living man complaint
While everything in our national
finances is Frightening, for the last few
years the land has been set to the tune
OF "Naomi. - There has been here and
there q cheerful soloist. but the grand
chorus has been one of Iamentation, ac-
companied by dirges over Frustrated
commerce, silent manufactures, unem-
pIoyed mechanism, and all those disor-
ders described by the two short words.
s'hard times . The fact is that we have
been paying for the bloody luxury of
war more than 80 years ago There
n SJifforo-,ooc
had not enough Christian character to
settle them by arbitration and treaty,
and so we went into battle, expanding
life and treasure and well nigh swamp
ing the national finances, and north and
south, east and west, have ever since
been paying for those four years in
diligence IL barbarism.
But the time has come when this de-
preston ought to end-yea, when it
will end if the people are willing to
do two or three things by way Of finan-
cial medicament, for the people as we'll
as congress must join IL the work Of
recuperation. The best political econo-
mists tell rs that there is 10 good reason
for continued prOstratiOn. Plenty Of
money awaiting investment. The ma
tional health with never so strong an
arm or so clear q brain. Yet we go on
grooming, grCaning, grooming, as though
God had put this nation upon Cruel and
allowed US but enc decent breakfast in
six months The fact is the habit of
complaining has become chronic III this
country, ana after ali these years Of
whimper and waiIing and Objurgation
we are under such momentum Of sniv-
Ell that we Cannot stop.
3 Plea For Cheerfulness.
There are three prescriptions by which
I believe that our individual and na-
tional finances may be cured of their
present depression. The first is cheerful
conversation and behavior. I have no.
ticed that the people who are most vo-
ciferous against the day in which we
live are those who are in comfortable
circumstances. have made inquiry Of
those persons who are violent in their
Jeremiads against these times, and I
have asked them, CHOW, after all, are
you not making q living?' After some
hesitation and coughing and clearing
their threat three or four times they
say stammeringly, ''Y -e-s - So that
with great multitude Of people it is
not question of getting livelihood,
but they are dissatisfied because they
cannot make as much money as they
would like to make. They have only
$4,000 in the bank, where they would
like to have 81, 600. They can clear in
ayear only So, 900, when they would like
to clear $4,000, or things come out
just even. Or in their trade they get So
a day when they wish they could make
81 or So. ''Oh, :" says some one, are
you not aware Of the fact that there is a
great population out of employment,
and there are hundreds of the good fam
lilies Of this country who are at their
wits end, not knowing which way to
turn?' Yes, know it better than any
man i'll private life can know that sad
fact, for it comes constantly to my eye
and ear, but who is responsible for this
state Of things?
Much of that responsibility put
upon men in comfortable circumstances
who by an everlasting growing keep
public confidence depressed and new en-
terprises from starting out and new
houses from being built You know
very well that one respondent man can
talk 90 men into dependency, while one
cheerful physician can wake up into ex-
hilaratiOn q whole asylum Of hypochon-
driacs. 1t IS no kindness to the poor or
the unemployed for you to join in this
deploration. If you have not the wit
and the common sense to think of some
thing cheerful to say, then keep silent.
There is no man that can be independ-
ent Of depressed conversation. The
medical journals are ever illustrating
it. I was reading of five men who re-
solved that they would make an ex-
pertinent and see what they could do
In the way of depressing a stout,
healthy man and they resolved TO meet