The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-06-30

ONAS = Aooh oSoDA
oh people, to your lawful amusement.
God means you to be happy. But,
When theresare SO many sources OF in
nocent pleasure, why tamper with any
thing that is dangerous and polluting?
Why stop our ears to a heaven full OF
songsters to listen to the hiss of a
dragon? Why turn back from the
mountain-side all abloom with wild
lowers and adash with the nimble tor
rents, and with blistered feet attempt
to climb the hot sides. of Cotopaxi?
Now, all opera houses, theaters, bowl
ing alleys, skating Kinks and all styles
OF amusement, good and bad, I put on
trial today and judge of them by certain
cardinal principles. First, you may
Judge of any amusement by it's health
full result or by it's baneful reaction.
There are people who seem made up
OF hard facts. They are a combina-
ton OF multiplication tables and sta
tlstlcs. If you show them an exquisite
picture they will begin to discuss the
pigments involved in the coloring; if
you show them a beautiful rose, they
Will submit it to a botanical analysis,
which is only the post norton exam
nation of a flower. They never do
anything more than feebly smile. There
are no great tides of feeling surging up
from the depth of their soul in billow
after billow of r~everberating laughter.
They seem as if nature had built them
by contract and made a bungling job
OF it. But, blessed be God, there are
people in the world who have bright
faces and whose life is a song, an an
them, a paean of victory. Even their
troubles are like the vines that crawl
up the side of a great tower on the
top of which the sunlight sits and the
soft airs of summer hold perpetual car
nlval. They are the people you like
to nave come to your house; they are
the people l like to have come to my
house. Now it is these e%xhilarant and
sympathetic and warm-hearted people
that are most tempted to pernicious
amusements. In proportion as a ship
is swift 1t wants a strong helmsman;
IN proportion as a horse is gay it wants
a strong driver; and these people of
exuberant nature will do we'll to look at
the reaction of all their amusements.
II an amusement sends you home at
night nervou so you cannot sleep, and
you rise in the morning, not because
o are slept out, but because your duty
drags you from your slumbers, you have
been where you ought not to have been.
There are amusements that send a man
next day to his work blood-shot, yawn-
ing, stupid, n~auseated, and they are
wrong kinds of amusements. There
are entertainments that give a man dis
gust with the drudgery of life, with
tools because they are not swords, with
working aprons because they are not
robes, with cattle because they are not
Infatuated bulls of the arena. If any
amusement sends you home longing for
a life of romance and thrilling adven-
ture, love that takes poison and shoots
itself, moonlight adventures and hair
breadth escapes, o may depend upon
it that you are the sacrificed victim of
unsanctifled pleasure. Our ~recreations
are intended to build us up, and if
CuCy pun uS uO"u do W Jul u1OIdl VI
as to our physical strength, you may
come to the conclusion that they are
obnoxious.
How brightly the path of unrestrain-
ed amusement opens! The young man
says: Nov I am off for a good time.
Never mind economy; I'll get money
somehow. What a fine road! What a
beautiful day for a ride! Crack the
whip, and over the turnpike! Come,
boys, fill high your glasses! Drink!
Long life, health, plenty of rides just
like this!" Hard-working men hear the
clatter of the hoofs and look up and say,
"Why,I wonder where those fellows get
their money from. We have to toll and
drudge. They do nothing" To these
gay~men life is, a. thrill and an excite
ment. They stare at other people and
in turn are stared at. The watch-chain
flush, the eyes flash. The midnight
hears their guffaw. They swagger.
They jostle decent men off the side
walk. They take the name of God in
vain. They parody the hymn they learn
ed at their mothers knee; and to all
pictures Of coming disaster they cry
out: "Who cares!" And to the coun-
sci of some Christian friend:
"Who are you?" Passing along
the street some night you hear a Shrek
in a grog-shop, the rattle of the watch
mans club, the rush of the police. What
is the matter now? Oh, this reckless
young man has been killed in a grog-
shop fight. Carry him home to his
fathers house.
Let me say to ali young men, your
style of amusement will decide your
eternal destiny. One night I saw a
young man at, street corner evidently
doubling as to which direction he had
better take. He had his hat lifted high
enough so 0 could see he had an in
telligent forehead. He had a stout
chest; he had a robust development.
Splendid young man. Cultured young
man. Honored young man Why did
he stop there while so many were go
ing up and down? The fact is that ev-
cry man has a good angel and a bad