Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-08-20

| first and last, I want to tell you that
| when YOU propose that / give up my
soul for the world you cannot give me
/ the first item Of title.
| Having examined the title of prop
| erty, your next question is about insUr-
| ancc. You would not be silly enough
| to buy s large warehouse that could
| not possibly be insured. You would
| not have anything to do with such q
| property. Now, l ask you what assur-
| ance can you give me that this world
| is not going to be burned up? Abso-
| Iutely none. Biologists tell us that it
| Is already on fire; that the heart of the
world is one great living coal; that it
| is just like a ship on fire at sea, the
! flames not bursting out because the
! matches are kept down. And yet you
| propose to palm off on me, in return for
my SOUL world for which, in the first
| place, you give no title, and in the sec
| ond place, for which you can give no
| insurance. "Oh," you say, ''the water
of the oceans will wash over all the
land and put out the fire" Oh, no.
| There are ilf1ammabIe elements in the
water, hydrogen and oxygen. Call off
| the hydrogen, and then the Atlantic
and the Pacific oceans would blaze like
/ heaps of shavings. You want me to
take this world, for which you can give
no possible insurance.
Troublesome Property.
Astronomers have swept their tele-
scopes through the sky and have found
out that there have been Is worlds, in
the last two centuries, that have disap-
peared. At first they looked just like
other worlds. Then they got deeply
red-they were on fire. Then they got
ashen. showing they were burned
down. Then they disappeared, show
ing that even the ashes were scattered.
And, if the geOlOgiSt be right in his
prophecy, then our world is to go in the
same way. And yet you want me to
exchange my soul for it. All, no; it is
q world that is burning now. Suppose
you brought an insurance agent to look
| at Your property for the purpose Of
giving you & policy upon it and while
he stood il front of the house he
should say. THAT house is on fire now
in the basement" you could not get
any insurance upon it. Yet you talk
about this world as though it were 6.
safe investment, as though you could
get some insurance upon it, when down
in the basement it is on fire.
l remark, also, that this world is 4
property, with which everybody who
las taken it as a possession has had
trouble. Now, between my house and
my church in Brooklyn there was &
reach Of land which was not built on.
asked what was the matter, and they
replied that everybody who had any
thing to do with that property got into
trouble about it. 1t is just SO with this
world-everybody that has had any
thing to do with it as q possession has
been in perpleXity. How was it with
Lord Byron? Did he not sell his i'm
mortal scul for the purpose Of getting
the world: Was lie satisfied with the
possession? Alas, alas! the poem
graphically describes his case when it
says:
Drank every cup of joy,
Heard every tru3lp of fame;
Drank early, deeply drank,
Drank drafts which common millions might have
quenched,
Then died Of thirst, because there was no more to
drink.
Oh, yes, he had trouble with it, and
so Gid Napoleon. After c0nquering ma
tons by tie force Of the sword, the
victor lies down to die, his entire pos
session the military boots that he i'll
sisted on having upon his feet While he
was dying. So it has been with men
who had better ambition. Thackeray,
one of the most genial and lovabIc
souls, after he had won the applause OF
all intelligent lands through his Won
derfuI genius, sits down in a restau-
rant in Paris, looks to the other end Of
! WIZ &c +I,o+
forIorn and Nretched face. Rising up
after awhile, he finds that it is Thack-
cray in the mirror. Oh, yes, this world
is cheat Talk about a man gaining
the world! Who ever gained half of
The world? Who ever owned a hemis-
phere? Who ever gained a continent?
Who ever owned Asia? Who ever
gained city? Talk about gaining the
world No man ever gained it, or the
thOusandtl part of it. You are de-
handing that sell my soul, not for the
world, but for a fragment of it.
fay TO Measure.
Here is a man who has had large
estate for 40 or so years. He lies down
to die. You say: '"That man is worth
millions and millions of dollars" Is
he? You call up a surveyor, with his
compass and chains, and you say:
''There is a property extending three
miles in one direction and three miles
in another direction" Is that the way
to measure that mans property? No!
You do not want any surveyor, with
compass and chains. That is not the
way to measure that mans property
now. It is an undertaken you need,
who will come and put his finger in his
vest pocket and take out q tapeline and