The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-09-28

Montmorency. It Is generally the case
that the Sabbath is more of carousal
than any other day, and there are Sum
day walks, and Sunday rides, and Sun
day excursions. Elders and deacons
and ministers of religion who are en-
tirely consistent at home, sometimes
when the Sabbath dawns on them at
Niagara falls or the White mountains
take day to themselves. If they 60
to the church, it is apt to be sacred
parade, and the discourse, instead of be-
ing plain talk about the soul, is apt to
be what is called crack sermon-that
is, some discourse picked out of the ef-
fusions of the year as the one most
adaped to excite Arbitration, and in
those churches, from the way the ladies
hold their fans, you know that they are
not SO much impressed with the heat as
with the picturesqueness of half dis
closed features. Four puny souls stand
in the organ loft and squall tune that
nobody knows, and worshipers, with
$4,000 worth of diamonds on the right
hand, drop cent into the poor box, and
then the benediction is pronounced,
and the farce is ended. The toughest
thing I ever tried to do was to be good
at watering place. The ais is be-
witched with the "world, the flesh and
the devil" There are Christians who,
in three or four weeks in such place,
have had such terrible rents made in
their Christian robe that they had to
keep darning it until Christmas to get
it mended.
The health of a great many people
makes an annual visit to some mineral
spring an absolute necessity, but take
your Bible along with you, and take an
hour for secret prayer every day,
though you be surrounded by guffaw
and saturnalia. Keep holy the Sab
bath, though they deride you as big
oted Puritan. Stand off from gambling
hells and those other institutions which
propose to initiate on this side the wa
ter the iniquities of Baden-Baden. Let
your moral and your immoral health
keep pace with your physical recupera-
ton, and remember that all the sui
phur and chalybeate springs cannot do
you so much good as the healing,
perennial flood that breaks forth from
the 'Rock of Ages" This may be your
last. summer. If SO, make it fit vesti-
bule of Heaven.
Another temptation lowering around
nearly all our watering places is the
horse racing business. We all admire
the horse, but we do not think that it's
beauty or speed ought to be cultured at
the expense of human degradation. The
horse race is not of such Importance as
the human race. The Bible intimates
that man is better than sheep, and 1
suppose he is better than a horse,
though, like Jobs stallion, his neck
be clothed with thunder. Horse races
in olden times were under the ban Of
Christian people, and in our day the
same institution has come up under f1c-
titious names. And it is called a "sum-
mer meeting" almost suggestive Of
positive religious exercises. And it is
called an agricultural fair" suggest
i've of everything that is improving in
the art of farming, but under these de-
ceptive titles are the same cheating,
and the same betting, and the same
drunkenness, and the same vagabond-
age, and the same abomination that
were to be found under the old horse
racing system.
Another temptation lowering around
the watering place is the formation of
hasty and lifelong alliances. The wa
tering places are responsible for more
of the domestic infelicities of the coun-
try than nearly all other things COM
bined. Society is SO artificial there that
no sure judgment of character can be
formed They who form companion
ships amid such circumstances go into
lottery where there are 20 blanks to
one prize. In the severe tug of life you
want more than glitter and splash. Life
is not ballroom where the music de-
cides the step, and bow and prance and
graceful swing of long train can make
up for strong common sense. You
might as well go among the gayly-
painted yachts of summer regatta to
find war vessel as to 60 among the
light spray of the summer watering
place to find character that can stand
the test of the great struggle of human
life. In the battle of life you want a
stronger weapon than lace fan or a
croquet mallet. The load Of life is
so heavy that in order to draw it you
| want team stronger than that made
up of a masculine grasshopper and a
feminine butterfly. If there is any man
in the community who excites my con-
tempt and who ought to excite the con.
tempt of every man and woman, il
| is the soft-handed. soft-headed dude
who, perfumed until the air is actual
| ly sick, spends the summer in striking
killing attitudes, and waving senti
| mental adieux, and talking infinitesimal
| nothings, alnd finding his heaven in
the set of lavender kid glove. Boot.
as tight as an inquisition. Two hours
of consummate skill exhibited in thu
tie of flashing cravat. His converse
ton made up Of "Ahs!" and "Ohs!'
and He hest"
There is only one counterpart to sucf