Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1899-03-18
men have the better. if they use it for

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and round, this moment it drops straight
on your heart and asks the question, Is
your life benediction to others CT an
imbitterment, a blessing or curse, a
balsam- OF wormwood? Some of you,
I know. are morning stars, and you are
making the dawning life Of your chill
dren bright with gracious influences,
and you are beaming upon oil the open
ing enterprises Of philanthropic and
Christian endeavor, and you are heralds
of that day of gospelization which will
yet flood all the mountains and valleys
of our sin accursed earth. Hail, Morn
ling star! Keep on shining with encour-
agement and Christian hopei
Some of You are evening stars, and
you are cheering the last days of old
people, and though cloud sometimes
comes over you through the querulous-
ness or unreasonableness of your aged
father and mother. it is only for mo-
ment, and the star soon comes out clear
again and is seen from all the balconies
of the neighborhood. The old people
will forgive your occasional shortcom-
ings, for they themselves several times
lost their patience with you when you
were young and perhaps whipped you
when you did not deserve it. Hail,
evening star Hang Oh the darkening
sky your diamond coronet
Wormwood In the Home.
But are any of you the star Worm
wood? Do you scold and growl from
tbe thrones paternal or maternal? Are
your children everlastingly pecked at2
Are you always crying "Hushl" tc 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 it
no longer, and all the barriers burst in
to unlimited guffaw and cachinnation,
as in high weather the water has
trickled through slight opening in the
milldam, but afterward makes wider
and wider breach until it carries all be-
fore it with irresistible freshet2 Do not
be too much offended at the noise your
children now make. 1t will be still
enough when one of them is 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 stiller than you want
it. Alas that there are so many homes
not known to the Society for the Pre-
vention of Cruelty to Children, where
children are whacked and cuffed and
ear pulled and senselessly called to or
der, and answered sharply and sup
pressed, until it is wonder that under
such processes they do not al turn out
Mana Sahibs
What is your influence upon the
neighborhood, the town or the city Of
your residence2 will suppose that you
are star of wit. What kind of rays do
you shoot forth2 Do you use that splen
did faculty to irradiate the world or to
rankle it? I bless all the apostolic col
.eee Of humcrists. Theman That makes
me laugh is my benefactor. do not
thank anybody to make me cry. ! can
do that without any assistance We all
cry enough and have enough to cry
about. God bless all sldllful. punsters,
all reparteeists. all propounders of in
genious conundrums, all those who
mirthfully surprise US with unusual
iuxtaposition of words. Thomas Hood
and Charles Dickens and Sydney ST. tn
had divine mission, and so havI their
successors in these times. They stir into
the acid beverage of life the saccharine.
They make the cup of earthly existence
which is sometimes stale, effervesce and
bubble. They placate animosities. They
foster longevity. They Stay follies and
absurdities which all the sermons of all
the pulpits cannot reach. But what use
are you making of your witt Is it be-
smirched with profanity and unclean-
ness2 Do you employ it in amusement
at physical defects for which the vic
tins are not responsible? Are your pow
ers of mimicry used to put religion in
contemptH Is it bunch of nettlesome
invective2 Is it bolt of unjust scorn 2
It it fun at others misfortune? Is it
glee at their disappointment and de-
feat? Is it bitterness put drop by drop
into a cup2 Is it like the squeezing
Of Artemisia absinthium into a draft
already distastefully pungent2 Then
YOU are the star Norwood. Yours is
the fun of a rattlesnake trying how we'll
II can STING IT is the fun Of q hawk
trying how quick it can strike out the
eye of dove.
Star of Worldly Prosperity.
But will change this and suppose
YOU are a star of worldly prosperity.
Then you have large opportunity. You
can encourage that artist by buying his
picture. You can improve the fields, the
stables. the highway. by introducing
higher style of fowl and horse and COW
and sheep. You can bless the world with
genealogical achievement in the orchard
You can advance arboriculture and ar
rest the deathful destruction of the
American forests You can put piece
of sculpture into the niche of that pub
lie academy. You can endow college
You can stocking 1000 bare feet from
the winter frost You can build a
church. You can put missionary OF
Christ on that foreign shore. You can
help to ransom a world. A rich man
with his heart right-can you tell me
how much good James Lenox or a
George Peabody or Peter Cooper OF a
William E. Dodge did while living or
is doing now that he is dead. There is
not city. town or neighborhood that
has not glorious specimens of conse-
Grated wealth.
But suppose you grind the face of the
poor. Suppose, when q mans wages are
due, you make him wait for them be-
cause he cannot help himself. Suppose
that, because his family is sick and he
has had extra expenses, he should po-
litely ask you to raise his wages for this
year, and you roughly tell him If ne
wants better place to go and get it.
Suppose, by your manner, you act as
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