Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-06-24


and polluting? Why stop our ears TO a
heaven full Of songsters to listen to the
hiss Of dragon? Why turn back from
the mountain side, all a-bloom with wild
flowers and a-dash 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 rinks and all styles
of amusement, good and bad, put on
trial today and judge Of them by GER
tain cardinal principles. First, you
may judge Of any amusement by its
healthfuI result or by its baneful reac-
tion. There are people who seem made
up Of hard facts. They are a combina-
ton Of multiplication tables and statis-
ties. If you show them an exquisite pic
ture. they will begin to discuss the pig
ments involved in the coloring; if you
show them a beautiful rose, they will
submit it to a botanical analysis, which
is only the post mortem examination 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 bill
low Of reverberating laughter. They
seem as if nature had built them by
contract and made bungling job out
Of it, But, blessed be God, there are
people in the world who have bright
faces and whose life is song an an
them, pean 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
carnival. They are the people you like
to have come to your house; they are
the people | like to have come to my
house. Now it is these exhilarant and
sympathetic and warm hearted people
that are most tempted TO pernicious
amusements. In proportion as a ship is
swift it wants a strong helmsman; III
proportion as horse is gay 1t wants a
strong driver, and these people Of ex-
uberant nature will do well to look at
lllH lRdGIlOu Ol al AllCll -
an amusement sends you home at night
nervous so you cannot sleep, and you
rise in the morning not because you
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 10 his work bloodshOt,
yawning stupid. nauseated and they
are wrong kinds Of amusements. There
are entertainments that give 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
infuriated bulls Of the arena If any
amusement sends you home longing for
q life Of romance and thrilling adyen-
ture, love that takes poison and shoots
itself. moonlight adventures and hair
breadth escapes, you may depend upon
it that you are the sacrificed victim OF
unsanctifed pleasure. Our recreations
are intended to build US up, and If they
pull us down as to our moral or as
to our physical strength, you may come
to the conclusion that they are obnox-
ious.
Still further, those amusements are
wrong which lead into expenditure be-
yond your means Money spent in recre-
alton is not thrown away. 1t is all folly
for us to come from place Of amuse-
ment feeling that we have wasted our
money and time. You may by it have
made an investment worth more than
the transaction that yielded you SlOu
or $1,000. But how many properties
have been riddled by costly amuse-
ments? The table has been robbed tc
nav the club. The champagne has
cheated the childrens wardrobe. The
carousing party has burned up the boys
primer. The tablecloth Of the corner
saloon is in debt 10 the wife's faded
dress-excursions that in a day make
tour around a whole months wages
ladies whose lifetime business 1t is Il
ego shopping" have their counterpart
in uneducated children. bankruptcie'
that shock the money market and appal
the church and that send drunkenness
staggering across the richly figured car
net of the mansion and dashing into th'
mirror and drowning out the carol O.
music with the whooping Of bloatet
sons come home to break their Ole
mothers heart. When men 90 int
amusements that they cannot afford
they first borrow what they canno
earn. and then they steal what the.
cannot borrow. First they 90 into EN-
barrassment and then into theft, an'
when a man gets as far ON as that M
does not stop short Of the penitentiary
There is not a prison in the land wher
there are not victims OF unsanctlhe'
amusements. How often | have ha'
parents come to me and ask me 10 g
and beg their boy off from the conse
I nueuce of crimes that he had COMMITTEES
against his employer-the taking o
funds out of the employers till or tn
disarrangement of the accounts. Why
he had salary enough to pay all Lawful
expenditure, but not enough salary Z
meet his sinful amusements. And agail
and again have gone and implored 70
the young man-sometimes, alas, tn
petition unavailingl
How brightly the path Of unrestrain
ed amusement opens The young ma
saws: "Now am off for good time
Never mind economy. I'll get none
somehow. What a fine roadl What
beautiful day for ridel Crack tn
whip. and over the turnpikel Come
bows, fill high your glassesl Drink
Long life, health. plenty of rides Jus
like thisr' Hardworking men hear tn
clatter of the hoofs and look up and say
"Why, wonder where those fellows
get their money from. We have to tol
and drudge. They do nothing" T'
these gay men life is thrill and an ex
citement. They stare at other peopl.
and in turn are stared at. The watcl
chain jingles. The cup foams- Ih'
checks flush. The eyes flash. The MD
night hears their guffaw. They swag
ger. They jostle decent men off the side
walk. They take the name of God II
vain. They parody the hymn the,
learned at their mothers knee, and :