The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1898-03-18

s = Gossip for the Ladies = s :



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. . March. S
Out Of the cavern OF Time spring, .:..
On the dancing feet OF the Wind 8
Wildly, oh! wildly my way ! wing, =" =.
While the gray clouds hurry behind, N
Trailing a mantle far over the sky, 5 ->,s.s !
And the maniac winds so believing by,
The scndding grasses all shivering fly, T
And the plants crouch down to the earth,
The OLD oaks groan aud the poplars sigh, +
But laugh with a frenxlel mirth, %@#
And call on the tempest to mock their cries
With thunderous tongues and flaming eyes.
Not a trembling tree but lifts it's arms ~.
With vain appeal to the Skies
Oh! love their terrors and wild alarms,
>, ANA merciless. mad replies
That ! hold in leash in my Auntlng:s.ounas:
bernard Malcolm Ramsay In Pail Mali
A sermon on '"The Restlessness of
Wealthy Women" was recently preached
by Rev. Madison C. Peters, d. d., of
the Bloomingdale church. He took for
his text: Eye have lived luxurlously
on the earth, and have taken your pleas
ure; ye have nourished your hearts in a
day of slaughter. James, v. 5. To
a congregation that listened throughout
with rapt attention he said:
st. James here presents to the con-
science of his readers the sin of selfish
ness, and the hOll0wness of living in and
for pleasure. There is just as much to
be said on the mans side as on the won-
ans, but the request of a woman that
l preach on this subject leads me to say
that if the fault indicated in the text
could be corrected on the woman's side
her influence would soon correct it on the
other. 1t is to woman's side that shall
contine my remarks this day, leaving the
mans side Of the question for our consid-
GRAFTON next Sunday morning.
Christianity is popularity regarded as
opposed to pleasure. 10 be pious is con-
sidered a melancholy sort of thing. There
needs all the mirth of womanhood to
tighten it. But light-heartedness is one
thing-frivOlity is another. 1t is the
blight of frivolity which Is seizing upon
so many of our brightest women, with
their great possibilities of noble woman
hood, crushing out their fine aspirations
after an unselfsh life, and turning their
existence into the dreary mockery of a
living death.
We must all have our times of sport,
and we are never so old, nor so piOus,
as to dispense with them altogether; but
that which may be commended as an
occasional recreation becomes very UNI
womanly if made the object Of daily pur-
suit. Have taken your pleasure" may
be translated ''have become sportive"-
dissipated. Female dissipation is pleas
ure-seeking-the love of admiration, de-
votedness to fashion, self-indulgence and
the like. These lead to extravagances,
waste of time, frivolity of character, neg
lect of duty, unwomanliness of conduct;
in word, to a worldly, irreligious life.
How undignified, careless and unchris-
tan life devoted to the whims of fash
ion and to the supreme demands of social
life is, Paurs judgment is expressed upon
it, when he says: ''She that liveth in
pleasure is dead while she liveth." Dead,
and yet alive! Living, and yet dead!
Dead to God, dead to any noble purpose,
dead to all true womanhood. Dead, but
not buried. and, therefore, dead weight
upon the living.
The life here described leads to extrav-
agance and increasing evil among us.
Many a man in this city is forced to
devote himself day and night to gain the
wherewithal to keep sunshine in his home
by the unlimited indulgence of IL friv-
olous woman's fancies. Her heart is set
upon show, dress, social distinction, news
paper notoriety; upon surprising some RI
val. upon climbing round moro of the
social ladder. Many man, to keep up
the glare and glitter, has abandoned his
integrity, proven false to his ideal, for
the sake of these paltry social bubbles.
Here let me say that men are often to
blame for the pleasure do-nothing
lives of their wives and daughters. Are
they not giving themselves so closely to
business that they have no time to devote
to their families? Making their homes
mere places to eat and sleep. instead of
a miniature heaven? Do not many men
imagine their duty done when they toll to
supply their wives with dresses, houses
and turnouts? Are not hundreds of
wealthy women in this bustling city prac-
tically deprived of the attention and So
ciety of their husbands? Time thus
hangs heavily upon them and they find
themselves driven to seek pleasure else
where than at home. For are they not
left alone most of the time? Through
circumstances beyond their control they
find home disagreeable to them, and be-
fore they know it they are brought to a
state of mind that engages all their facul-
ties in discovering modes of enjoyment
rather than methods of usefulness.
But to return again 10 the designations
of fashiona BILE life, another objection to be
found in it is the frequent sacrifice of
health. The physical education of wom-
an is, at the best, too much disregarded.
It is quite luxury to see a society wom-
an of 80 in the enjoyment of vigorous
health and with a fresh, natural color.
Before the school days are over the social
dissipation begins. The lessons are
learned with double diligence that the
evening and afternoon may be given to
pleasure. How frequently when the win
ter is over do we see young ladies pale
and languid, as though recovering from a
long sickness.
DO you wonder why the number of
healthy women III the higher circles is so
small? And here is where the last clause
of my text has it's application.
Living in the extravagant, self -indulgent
way, our lives come to be beastly, as
beasts are fed in the stall and fattened for
the days when they are to be slaughtered,
nature is this, they are simply fit to be
killed: Do we not find that many people
in this city often spend their money iii
such fashion that, while it fattens their
hearts, it hastens the day of their doom?
Permit me now to make some sugges-
tons: Act uncer a sense of your indi-
vidual responsibility. Have an aim in life
IN woman's nature. Let a forgotten God
and neglected duty trouble you more than
an questionable bonnet or an ill-ftting
dress.
1 don't know of anything that would
more effectually cure the restlessness of
our society women than children. Chill
dren are the poetry of the world. the foun-
tains of love, the incarnations of the smile
of God. If we could place at least two
children in every home in this city, you
would find therein perpetual benedictions
If YOU don't like children, you would never
be happy in Heaven, for they are all there.
A society woman once, in her restless
ness, imagining herself sick, went to her
physician. He gave her prescription,
and this same prescription I give to you.
She took it to the drug store to get it
filled. The druggist returned it, saying
he could not fill it. She read it, and this
was what it was: DO something for
somebody. Listen to the means of suffer-
ing around you. Let your life henceforth
be marked by tears. Of thankfulness and
breathings of grateful love. Begin with
some plain, petty, practical duty immedi-
ately at hand, and in faithfulness to that
duty you will soon be brought under the
regenerating power of holy purpose
And so make life, death and the vast for
ever, one grand, sweet song!'-New York