St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-02-26

choice OF that which Is dcbauehing 10
body. mind and soul. Go to some iu-
tclligent man or woman, and ask for q
list of books that will he strengthening
to your mental and moral condition.
Life is SO short and your time for i'm
provement SD abbreviated that you can
not afford to fill up with husks. and
cinGers, and debris. In the interstices
of business that young man is reading
that which will prepare him to be q
merchant prince. AMI that young WON
an is filling her mind with an intelli-
gence that will yet either make her
the chief attraction of q good mans
home, or give her an independence
Of character that will qualify her
to build her own home and main
tain it in happiness that re-
quires no augmentation from any OF
our rougher sex. That young man or
young woman can, by the right liter
AIRY Or moral improvement OF the
spare ten minutes here or there every
day, rise head aud shoulders in pros
perity, and character. and influence
above the loungers 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 IL?
One book may for You or me decide
everything for this world aud the
next, 1t was n turning point with me
wlien>fn n book sore i'm Syracuse one
day / picked up u book called Tho
Beauties of Rushin.r 1t was only book
of extracts, but it was ail pure honey,
and / was not satisfied until L
had purchased all his works, at that
time expensive beyond TN easy cap
acity to own them. and with what de-
light | went through reading his
Seven Lamps of Architecture" and
his '.Stones of Venice" it is impossible
for me to describe, except by saying
that it gave me n rapture for good
books and an everlasting disgust for
decrepit or immoral books that will
last me while my life lasts ALI around
the church and the world to-day there
are busy hives of intelligence occupied
Oy huGuOFo anu 0ulAGACooNS AIotA W hoS~
pens drip a distiliation which is the
very nectar of Heaven, and why will
you thrust your rod of inquisitiveness
INTO the deathful saccharine of per-
dition?
Stimulating liquids also come into
the category of temptation delicious
but deathful. You say: Il can not
bear the taste of Intoxicating liquor,
and how any man can like it is to me
an amazement" Well, then. it is no
credit to you that you do not take il
Do not brag about your total absti-
nence, because it is not from any prin-
ciple that you reject 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 u natural fondness 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 insomnia, and they
take it to produce sleep; or they are
troubled, and they take it to make
them obIivious; or they feel happy. and
they must celebrate their hilarity.
They begiu with mint julep sucked
through two straws on the Long
Branch piazza and end in the ditch.
taking from jug liquid half kero-
sene and half whisky. They not only
like it, but it is an all-consuming pas
sion of body, mind and soul. and after
awhile have it they will. though one
wineglass of it should cost the tenn
poral and eternal destruction of them
selves, and all their families, and the
whole human race They would say:
Il am sorry it is going TO cost me. and
my family, and all the woid's popula-
tion 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 sweetest, the most inspir-
ing, the most delicious draught that
ever thrilled human frame. To cure
the habit before it came to its last
stages, various plans were tried in
olden times This plan was recommend
ed in the books; when = man wanted
to reform he put shot or bullets into
the cup or glass of strong drink-one
additional shot or bullet each day, that
displaced SO much liquor. Bullet after
bullet added day by day, Of course the
liquor became less and less until the
bullets would entirely fill up the glass.
and there was no room for the liq uid,
and by that time it was said the in
ebriate would be cured. Whether any
4. 4 l..
not, but by long experiment it is found
that the only way is to stop short OF,
aud when IL man does that he needs
God to help him. And there have been
more cases than you can count when
God has SO helped the man that he left
off the drink forever; and / could
count score of them. some of them
pillars in the house OF God.
One would suppose that men would
take wa rning from some of the omi-
nous names given to the intoxicants,
and stand of from the devastating in
fiuence. You have noticed, for in
stance. that some of the restaurants
are called 1.-The Shades" typical VI the
fact that it puts q mans reputation in
the shade, and his morals in the shade,
and his prosperity in the shade, and
his wife and children in the shade, and
his immortal destiny in the shade.
Now, find ON some of the liquor
signs in all our cities the words
.'Old Crow" nightly suggestive of the
carcass and the filthy raven thai
swoops upon it .Old Croww Men and
women without numbers slain of rum,
but unburied, and thus evil is peckiug
1T their glazed eyes, and pecking ai
their bloated cheeK, and peckiug a.
their destroyed manhood aud woman
hood, thrusting beak and claw into
the mortal remains of what was once
gloriously alive. but now morally
dead. ..Oid Croww But alas! how
many take no warning. They make
me think OF Caesar Oh his way to as
sassination, fearing nothing; though
his statue in the hall crashed int
fragments at his feet, and . scroll CON
tanning the names of the conspirators
was thrust into his hands, yet waIkiu
right ON TO meet the dagger that wa
to take his life. This infatuation o