Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-03-16

morning starl Keep ON shining with en-
oouragcment and Christian hopci
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 righteousness or unrca-
sonablCncss of your aged father and moth
err, it Is only for moment, and the star
soon comes out clear again and is seen
from all the balconies of the ncighbOrlOod
The old people will forgive your occasional
shortcomings, 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, even
ing starl Hang on the darkcning sky
your diamond coronct.
BnlcfuI Influence.
But are any of you the star Wormwood9
Do you scold and growl from the thrones
paternal or Materials Are your children
evcrlastingly pcckcd atY Are you always
crying Hush !" to the merry voices and
swift feet and to the laughter which oc-
casionally tricklcs through at wrong
times, and Is suppressed by them until
they can hold it no longer, and all the
barriers burst into unlimited guffaw and
exclamation, rs in this weather the water
has trcklcd through slight opening in
tho milldam, but aftCrward makes wider
and wider breach until it carries all before
it with irresistible frcshcty Do not be too
much offended at the noise your children
now make. 1t will he 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 before your house is
=
are so many homes not known to the So
cicty For the Prevention of Cruelty to
Children, where children are whacked and
cuffcd and ear pulled, and sensclcssly
called to order, and answered sharply, and
suppressed, until it is a wonder that un-
der such processes they do not all turn out
Mana Sahibsl
What is your influence upon the neigh
borhood, the town or the city of your resi-
dence? will suppose that you are star
of wit? What kind of rays do you shoot
forthY Do you use that splendid faculty
To irradiate the world or to rankle it,
bless all the apostolic college of humorists
The man that makes me laugh is my bcno-
factor. ] do not thank anybody to make
me cry. ! can do that without any assist
ancc. We all cry enough and have enough
to cry about God bless all skillful pun
sters all rcparteeists all propounders of
ingenious conundrums all those who
Inirthfully surprise us with unusual juxta-
position of words. Thomas Hood and
Charles Dickens and Sydney Smith had %
divine mission, and SO have their success
ors in these times. They stir into tho
acid beverage of life the saccharinc They
make the cup Of earthly existence, which
is sometimes stale, effcrvesce and bubble
They placatc animositics. They foster
longevity They Stay follics and absurdi-
ties which all the sermons of all the pull
pits cannot reach. But what use are you
making of your wit? Is 1t bcsmirched
with profanity and uncleanncss? Do you
employ it in amusement ut physical de-
fects for which the victims are not respon-
sible? Are your powers of mimicry used
to put religion in contemptY Is it n bunch
of nettlesome invectiveY Is it bolt Of
unjust scorn? Is it fun at others misfor-
tune? Is it glcc at their disappointment
and defeat? Is it bitterness put drop by
drop into a cup? Is it like the squeezing
of Artemisia absinthium into draft al
ready dists'tefully pungent? Then you
are the star NCrmwood. Yours is the fun
Of a rattlesnake trying how well it can
sting, 1t is the fun of hawk trying how
| quick it can strike out the eye OF u dove,
Ways of Doing Good.
But l will change this and suppose you
are a star of worldly prosperity Then
you have large opportunity. You can en-
courage 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 adj
vance arboriculture and arrest the death
| full destruction of the American forests.
| You can put piece of sculpture into the
niche Of that public academy, you can en-
| dow n college you can stocking 200 bare
feet from the winter frost, you can build
n church, You can put missionary OF
Christ on that foreign shore, you can hclT
to ransom world. A rich man with his
! heart riaht--can you tell me how much
| good IA James Lenox or George Peabody
or Peter Cooper or William f. Dodge
did while living or is doing now that he
is dead? There is not a city, town OF
neighborhood that has not glorious speci
mems Of cOnsccrated wealth.
But suppose you grind the face of the
| poor. suppose, when n mans wages arI
due, you make him wait for them because
| he cannot help himself Suppose that be
cause his family is sick and he has had OK
ira expenses, he should politely ask you t.
raise his wages for this year. and you
roughly tell him if he wants better place
to go and get it, suppose, by your man
ner you act as though he were nothing
and You were everything. Suppose yol
are selfish and overbearing and arrogant
Your first name ought to be Attila ant
your last name Attila because you are tn
star Worlnwood and you have imbitteret
one-third if not thrce-thirds of the water
that roll past your employees and opera
tives and dependents and associates, an,
the long line of carriages which the un
dertaker ORDERS for your funeral, In orde
to make the occasion respectable, will b
filled with twice as many dry fearless eye
AS there ere persons occupying them 70,
will be in this world but few minutes
As compared with eternity, the stay of tn
longest life on earth is not more than
minute. What are we doing with tina
minuteY Are we imbittering the domes
tic or social or political fountains, or ar
we like Moses, who when the lsraelites il
the wilderness complained that the water
of Lake Marah We're bitter and they coul
not drink them their leader cut off tn
branch of certain tree and threw tina
branch into the water, and it became swee
and slaked the thirst of the suffering host
Are we with branch of the tree Of lif
swcetening all the brackish fountains tina
) we can touchY
The Only Sweetening Power.
Dear Lord send us all out on this mis-
sion All around us imbittered lives
imbittercd by persecution, imbittcrcd b