The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-03-24

nETaluS OIL IlaL Jay OI SOSpEIZdllOu
which will yet flood all the mountains
and valleys of our sin accursed earth
Hail, morning star! Keep on shining
with encouragement and Christian
hopei
Some of you are evening stars, and
you are cheering the last days Of old
people, and though a cloud sometimes
comes over you through the %querulous-
ness or unreasonableness of you aged
father and mother, ii Is only for a mo-
ment, and h star soon comes out clear
again n is seen from all the balco-
MES Of the neighborhood. The old peo-
pie will forgive your occasional short
comings, for they themselves several
times lost their patience with you when
you were young and perhaps whipped
you when you did not deserve il. Hail,
evening star! Hang on the darkening
sky your diamond coronet
WORMWOOD IN THE HOME.
But are any Of you the star Of Worm
wood? Do you scold and growl from
the thrones p~aternal or maternal? Are
your children ~everlastingly pecked at?
Are you always crying Hush" TO the
merry voices and swift feet, and to the
laughter, which occasionally trickles
through at wrong times, and is sup
pressed by them until they can hold IL
no longer, and all the barriers burst in
TO unlimited guffaw and cachinnation,
I'D III nigh WcdlLET Tile water HAS
trickled through a slight opening in the
milldam, but afterward makes wider
and wider breach until it carries all
before it with irresistible freshets? Do
not be too much offended at the noise
your children now make. 1t will De still
enough when one of them lie dead. Then
you would give your right hand to hear
one shout from the silent voice, or one
step from the still foot. You will not
any of you have to wait very long be-
fore your house is stiler than you
want it. Alas that there are so many
homes not known TO the Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children,
where children are whacked and cuffed
and ear pulled, and senselessly called
to order, and answered sharply and
suppressed, until it is a wonder that
under such processes they do not all
turn out Mana Sahibs!
What is your influence upon the
neighborhood, the town or the city of
your residence? 1 will suppose that you
are a star of wit. What kind of rays
do you shoot forth? Do you use thai
splendid faculty to irradiate the world
or to rankle it? 1 bless all the apos-
tolic college of humorists. The man tina
makes me laugh is my benefactor. 1
do not thank anybody to make me cry.
1 can do that without any assistance.
We all cry enough and lave enough to
cry about. God bless all skillful pun
sters, all reparteeists, all propounders
of ingenious conundrums, all those who
mirthfully surprise us with unusual
j~uxtaposition of words. Thomas Hood
and Charles Dickens and Sydney Smith
had a divine mission, and so have their
successors in these times. They stir
into the acid beverage of life the sac
charine. They make the cup of earth
ly existence, which is sometimes stale,
effervesce and bubble. They placate
! 2nimOSitipC They foster lon aUitv
They Stay follies and absurdities which
all the sermOn of all the pulpits can
! not reach. But VIA use are you max
ing of your wit? Is it besmirched with
profanity n uncleanness? Do you
employ it in amusement at physical de-
fects for which the victims are not
responsible? Are your powers of MINI
; icry used to put religion in contempt?
Is it a bunch of nettlesome invective?
Is 1T a bolt of unjust scorn? Is it fun
at others misfortune? Is it glee at
their disappointment and defeat? Is
it bitterness put drop by drop into a
cup? Is it like the squeezing Of Ar
temisia absinthium into a draft al
ready distastefully pungent? Then you
are the star NORWOOD. Yours is the
fun of a rattlesnake tryins how we'll
it can sting. 1t is the fun of a hawk
trying how quick it can strike out the
; eye Of a To-
VI "oILLDL1 I'LL L.
But I will change this n suppose
you are a star Of worldly prosperity.
Then you AVE large opportunity. You
can encourage that artist by buying
his picture. You can improve the fields.
the stables, the highway, by introduce
ing higher style of FOWL and horse and
COW and sheep. You a bless the world
with genealogical achievement in the
orchard. You can advance arboricul-
t1ra and 9rrpSt the daothfn1 6octr11o-
ton of the American forests. You can
put a piece of sculpture into the niche
of that public academy. You can en-
dow a college. You can stocking 1000
bare feet from the winter frost. You
can build a church. You can put a mis-
sionary Of Christ on that foreign shore.
You can help to ransom asWorld. A rich
man with his heart right-can you tell
me how much good a James Lenox or
a George Peabody or a Peter Cooper or
a William E. Dodge did while living or
IS doing now that he is There
is not a city, town or n~eighborhood
that has not glorious specimens Of con-
secrated wealth.
But suppose o grind the face of the
poor. Suppose, when a mans wages
are due, you make him wait for them
because he cannot help himself. Sup
pose that, because his f lily is sick
and he has had extra expenses, he
oAACoAo r. AilC1y - you W dis lis
wages TO- this year, and you roughly
tell him If he wants a better place to
go and get it. Suppose by your man
ner, you at as though he were moth
ing and you were everything. Sup
pose you are selfish and overbearing
n arrogant. Your first name ought
to be Attila and your last name At
tia, because you are the star Worm
wood and o have imbittered one
third, if not ~three-thirds of the waters
that roll past your employees and OPP
eratives and dep ndents and assocl-
ates, and the long line of carriages
which the undertaken orders for your
funeral in order to make the occasion
respectable will be filled with twice as
many dry, fearless eyes, as there are
persons occupying them. You will be
in his world but a few minutes. AS
compared with eternity, the stay of the
longest life on earth is not more than
a minute. What are you doing with
that minute? Are we imbittering the
domestic or social or political foun-
fainc or oro VIC IiGn AFacoc rho r,hor