Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-01-28

QCNll uOtS UOI OWu all lue uOucg. 4uoIo
is o wealth of good books coming forth
from our publishing houses that leave
no excuse for the choice Of that which
is debauching to body, mind and soul
Go to some intelligent man or woman
and ask for a list of books that will be
strengthening to your mental and moral
condition.
Life is so short and your time for i'm
provement so abbreviated that you can
not afford TO fill up with husks and Gin
ders and debris. In the interstices Of
business that young man is reading that
which will prepare him to be mer-
filling her mind with an intelligence
that will yet either make her the chief
attraction Of a good mans home or give
her an independence of character that
will qualify her to build her own home
and maintain it in a happiness that re-
quirCs no augmentation from any of our
rougher sex. That young man or young
woman car by the right literary and
mora improvement Of the spare ten
mint tes here or there every day rise
head and shoulders in prosperity and
character and influence above the loun'
gers who read nothing or read that
which bedwarfs See all the forests Of
good American literature dripping with
honey. Why pick up the honeycombs
that have in them the fiery bees which
will sting you with an eternal poison
while you taste it? One book may for
you or me decide everything for this
word and the next. 1t was a turning
point with me when in a bookstore IN
Syracuse one day picked up book
called 1.-THE Beauties of Ruskin." IL
was only book of extracts, but It was
all pure honey, and was not satisfied
until had purchased all his works at
that time expensive beyond an easy ca
pacity to own them. and with what de-
light | went through reading his "Sey.
en- Lamps of Architecture" and his
Stones Of Venice" it is impossible for
me to describe except by saying that it
gave me a rapture for good books and
an everlasting disgust for decrepit or
immoral books that will last me while
my life lasts. AL around the church
and the world today there are busy hives
Of intelligence occupied by authors and
authoresses from whose pens drip dis
tillation which is the very nectar Of
heaven. and why will you thrust your
rod Of inquisitiyeness into the deathful
saccharine Of perdition!
Beware OF Strong Drink.
Stimulating liquids also come into
the category Of temptation delicious but
deathful. You say, II cannot bear the
taste Of intoxicating liquor, and how
any man can like it is to me an amaze
ment." Well, then, it is no credit to
YOU that you do not take it. Do not brag
about your total abstinence, because 1t
is not from any principle that you re-
iect alcoholism, but for the reason that
YOU reject certain styles OF food; you
simply don't like the taste Of them.
But multitudes Of people have anatural
foudness for all kinds Of intoxicants.
They like it so much that it makes
them smack their lips to look at it.
They are dyspeptic, and they like to aid
digestion; or they are annoyed by In
somnia, and they take it to produce
sleep; or they are troubled, and they
take it to make them oblivious; or they
feel happy, and they must celebrate
their hilarity They begin with mint
iulep sucked through two straws on the
Long Branch piazza and end IN the
ditch, taking from a jug liquid hall
kerosene and half whisky. They not
only like it, but it is an all consuming
passion Of body, mind and soul, and aft
er awhile have it they will, though one
wineglass Of it should cost the temporal
and eternal destruction Of themselves
and all their families and the whole hu'
man race. They would say, Il am sorry
it is going to cost me and my family
and all the worlds population so very
much. but here it goes to my lips, and
now let it roll over my parchcd tongue
and down my heated throat, the sweet
est the most inspiring, the most dell
cious draft that ever thrilled human
frame. To cure the habit before 4
comes to its last stages, various rlan'
; were tried in olden times This plan
was recommended in the books; Nhol
a man wanted to reform, be put shot ol
bullets into the cup or glass OF stroni
drink--one additional shot or bulle
each day, that displaced so much liquor
: Bullet after bullet added day by day, o
course the liquor became less and les
until the bullets would entirely fill NJ
the glass and there was no room for tn
LIQUID. and by that time it was said tn
, inebriate would be cured. Whether an.
one ever was cured in that way know
not, but by long experiment 1t is foun'
t that the only way is to stop short on
g and when a man does that he needs Go'
d to help him, and there have been NOR
= cases than you can count when God ha
. so helped the man that he left of tn
drink forever. and could count a scor
e of them. some Of them pillars in tn
L house of God.
One would suppose that men woui
= take warning from some of the ominou
: names given to the intoxicants an
. stand off from the devastating infu
ence. You have noticed, for instance
! = that some Of the restaurants are calle
u 1.-The Shades, typical of the fact tina
:, il puts mans reputation in the shade
y and his morals in the shade, and hi
a prosperity in the shade, and his wifi
:; and children in the shade, and his i'm
= Mortal destiny in the shade. Now,
It find on some Of the liquor signs In a
IT our cities the words "Old Crow,
3. nightly suggestive Of the carcass an
d the filthy raven that swoops upon !
3 "Old Crowi" Men and women witho'
le numbers slain Of rum, but unbarie'
If and this evil is pecking at their glaz'
Ie eyes, and peclxing at their bloat'
70 cheek, and pecking at their destroy'
manhood and womanhood. thrustir
D. beak and claw into the mortal remail
70 g ,..lat xras onca ploriouglv alive b