Connecticut western news., 1898-01-13

by hard knocks, foresaw how it was to be, and they tied up everything in the will. Now, there is nothing of that un- worthy descendant but his grandfather name and roast beef rotundity. And yet how many steamers there are which feel honored to lash fast that worm eaten tug, though 1t drags them straight into the breakers.
 The Club In Business.
 Another test by which you can find whether your club is legitimate or ille- gitimate-the effect it has on your sec-
 ular occupation. can understand how through such an institution man can reach commercial successes. I know some men have formed their best busi- ness relations through such channel | If the club has adyantaged you in an honorable calling, it is legitimate club. | But has your credit failed? Are bargain makers more cautious how they trust you with bill of goods? Have the men
 whose names were down in the com mercial agency Al before they entered the club been going down ever since in commercial standing? Then look outl | You and I every day know of com- mercial establishments going to ruin through the social excesses of one or two
 mem bers, their fortunes beaten to death with ball players bat, or cut amidships by the front prov of the regatta, or go-
 ing down under the swift hoofs of the fast horses, or drowned in large pota- | tions of cognac or monongahela. Their | clubhouse was the "Loch Earn. <" Their business house was the "Ville du
 Havre." They struck, and the "Ville | du Havre'' went under.
 A third test by which you may know whether the club to which you belong or the club to whose membership you
 are invited is q legitimate club or an il- | legitimate club is this: What is its ef- | feet on your sense of moral and religious obligation? Now, if 1 should take the names of all the people in any audience and put them on roll and then l should lay that roll back of the organ, and 100 years from now some one should take | that roll and call it from A to z, there ! would not one of you answer. l say that
 any association that makes me forget i that fact Is bad association. Now, to many of the cities there are two routes, and you can take the Pennsylvania rail- road or the Baltimore and Ohio; but | suppose that 1 hear that on one route
 the track is torn up and the bridges are | torn down and the switches are unlock ed? It will not take me a great while to decide which road to take. Now, here
 are two roads into the future, the Chris | tian and the un- Christian, the safe and | the unsafe. An institution or any asso- | citation that contuses my idea in regard | to that fact is Lad institution and a
 bad association. l had prayers before l | joined the club. Did have them after? I attended the house of God before connected myself with the club. Since
 that union with the club do I absent
 myself from religions influences? Which
 would you rather have in your hand
 when you come to die, pack of cards or Bible? Which would you rath-
 CT have pressed to your lips in the
 closing moment, the cup of Belshazza- rean wassail or the chalice of Christian
 communion? Who would you rather
 have for your pallbearers, the elders of | a Christian church or the companions whose conversation was full of slang and innuendo? Who would you rather have for your eternal companions, those men who spend their evenings betting, | gambling, swearing, carousing and tell ing vile stories or your little child, that | bright girl whom the Lord took? Oh, I you would not have been away so much nights, would you, if you had known she was going away so soon? Dear me, | your house has never been the same l place since Your wife has never bright
 ened up. She has not got over it; she
 never will get over it. How long the 1 evenings are, with no one to put to bed
 and no one to tell the beautiful Bible
 story. What pityi is that you cannot
 spend more evenings at home in trying | to help her bear that sorrow! You can never drown that grief in the wine cup.
 ou can never break away from the lit
 tie arms that used to be flung around your neck when she used to say, Papa,
 do stay home tonight-do stay home to- | night" You will never be able to wipe
 away from your lips the dying kiss of your little girl. | The fascination of dissipating club house is so great that sometimes man | has turned his back on his home when
 his child was dying of scarlet fever. He went away. Before he got back at mid night the eyes had been closed, the un- | dertaker had done his work, and the | wife, worn out with three weeks watch
 ing, lay unconscious in the next room.
 Then there is rattling of the night key
 in the door, and the returned father
 comes up stairs and sees the empty cra-
 dle and the window up. He says,
 "What is the matter?" In Gods judg-
 ment day he will find out what was the
 matter. Oh, man astray, God help youl
 The influence which some of the club
 houses are exerting is the more to be de-
 plored because it takes down the very
 best men. The admission fee sits out
 the penurious and leaves only the best
 fellows. They are frank, they are gener-
 ous, they are whole souled, they are tal-
 ented. Oh, I begrudge the devil such a prize After awhile the frank look will
 go out of the face, and the features will
 be haggard, and when talking to you,
 instead of looking you in the eye, they
 will look down, and every morning the
 mother will kindly ask, My son, what
 kept you out so late last night?" and he 1 will make no answer, or he will say,
 That's my business 1" Then some time
 he will come to the store or the bank
 cross and befogged, and be will neglect
 some duty, and after awhile he will
 lose his place, and then, with nothing
 to do, he will come down at 10 o'clock
 in the morning to curse the servant be-
 cause the breakfast is cold. The lad who
 was clerk in the cellar has got to be
 chief clerk in the great commercial es-
 tablishment, the young man who ran
 errands for the bank has got to be cash
 fer, thousands of the young men who
 were at the foot of the ladder have got
 to the top of the ladder, but here goes
 the victim of the dissipating clubhouse
 with staggering step and bloodshot eye | and mud bespattered hat set sidewise on