The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1898-06-30

nImbie torrents, and with bltatered
feet attempt 10 climb the hot sides of
Cotopazi?
Now all opera houses, theateFs
bowling alleys, skating Kinks and all
styles Of amusement, good and bad, 7
put on trial to-day and judge Of them
by certain cardinal principles First,
you may Judge Of any amusement by
is healthsnl result or BY It's baneful
reaction There are people who seem
made Up Of hard faces. They are q
combination Of multiplication tables
and statistics - yon show them an
exquisite picture they win begin 70
discuss the pigments Involved ia the
colorings If sou show them q beautiful
rose. they wlIl submit it to o botanical
analysis, whichiso only the p~Ost-mortem
examination 81 q 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 bill9w Of reYerber-
ating laughter. They seem as # na-
ture had built them by contract and
made o bungling job Dut Of IT, But
blessed be TO God, there are people 10
tile world who have bright faces and
whose life is a song an anthem, q
paeau 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 the summer hold perpetual
carnival They are the people you
like 10 come to your house; they are
the people / like 10 have come 10 my
house. Now it is these exhilarant
and sympathetic and warm-hearted
people that are most tempted TO
pernicioua amusements. In proportion
as a ship Is swift it wants a strong
helmsman; in proportion as a horse Is
gay it wants "a strong driver; and these
people Of exuberant nature viii do
well 10 look at the reaction Of all their
amusements. II an amusement sends
you home at night nervous so you can
not sleep and you rise in the morning
not because you are slept ont
bat because your duty drags
you from your slumbers, you
have been where you ought not
70 have been. There are amuse-
ments that send a man next day 10
bis work bloodshot, yawuing, stupid,
nauseated, and they are wrong
kinds Of amusaments. There
are entertainments that give
q man disgust with the drudgery Of
life, with tools because they are not
swords, with working aprons because
they are not robes, with cattle be-
cause they are not Infatuated bulls Of
the arena. If any amusement sends
you home longing for a life Of rOmance
and thrilling adventure, love that
takes poison and shoots itself, Oon
light adventures and hairbreadth es-
capes, you may depend upon it that
you are the sacrificed victim Of un-
sanctiGed pleasure. Our recreatiOns
are intended TO build us up, and Il they
pull MS down as 10 our moral or as 10
oar physical strength, you may come
to the conclusion that they are OBJ
uoxious,
Still further. Those a~musements are
wrong which lead into expenditure be-
yUnd your means Money spent in
recreation Is not thrown away, It IS
all folly for us to come from a place OF
amusement feeling that we have wasted
our money and time. You may by it
have made an investment worth more
than the transaction which yielded
you a hundred or q thousand dollars,
But how many properties have been
riddled by costly amusemeuts2 The
table has been robbed to pay the club,
The champagne has cheated the
children's wardrobe, The Carousing
party has burned up the boys primer,
The tabie-clOth Of the cOrner sR-
loon Is in debt TO the wife's faded
dress. Excursions that in a day make
a tour around a whole months wages;
ladies whose lifetime bushes it is to
Ego shopping have their counterpart
In uuedncated children, bankruptcies
that shock the money market and APP
pail the church, and that send drunk
enncss staggering the richly
figured carpet of the mansion and
dashiug into the mirror, and drowning
out the carol OF music with the whoop-
ing of blOated ons come home To break
their old mothers heart. When men
20 into amusements that they can
not afford, they first borrow what
they can not earn. and then they
steal what they can not borrow.
First they go into embarrassment
and then into theft, and when a man
gets as far as that he does not stop
short OF the pe]nitentiary There is
not d prison In the land where there
are not victims Of unsanctidod amuse-
ments. How often | have had parents
come TO me and ask me To go and beg
their boy oft from the consequence OF
crimes that he had committed against
his cmployer--the taking Of funds out
of the employers tilI or The disarrauge-
meut of the ~accountsl Why, he had
salary enough to pay all lawful eN-
pcuditure, but not enough salary to
meet his sinful amusements. Aud
again and again / have gone aud tm-
plored for the young mar sometimes
alas, the petition unavailtng.
How brightly the path Of unre.
strained amusement opens, The Young
man says. Nov / ann Off for d good
time Never mind economy; i'll get
money somehow, What a fine road
What a beautiful day for q ride, Crack
the whip, and over the turuptsel
Come, boys, I'm high your glasses!