Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-10-29

| melted window glass into the street.
But the flying population will not stop
to scoop it up. The cry of .Firev'
from the mountain will be answered
by the cry of ''Firev' in the plain The
confa grafton will burn out from the
continent toward the sea and then
burn in from the sea toward the land.
New York and London, with one cut
of the red scythe of destruction, will
go down. Twenty-Five thousand miles
Of conf1agrationi The earth will wrap
itself round and round in shroud of
fame and lie down to perish. What
then will become of your golden calf?
Who then so poor as to worship it?
Melted or between the upper and
neither millstones of falling mountains
ground to powder. Dagon down,
Moloch down, Juggernaut down, gold
en- calf down!
But every day is a day Of judgment,
and God is all the time grinding to
pieces the golden calf. Some years ago,
in a time of panic, we learned as never
before that forgeries will not pay; that
the watering Of stock will not pay;
that the spending of $4,000 on country
seats and palatial city residence when
there is only $4,000 income will not
pay; that the appropriation Of trust
funds to our own private speculation
will not pay. We had a great national
tumor in the shape of fictitious pros
perity. We called it national enlarge
ment. Instead Of calling it enlarge
ment we might better have called it
+ T1<1
it out, and the nation was sent back to
the principles Of our fathers and grand
fathers, when twice three made six in
stead of 60, and when the apples at the
bottom of the barrel were just as good
as the apples on the top of the barrel,
and a silk handkerchief was not half
cotton, and a man who wore a So coat
paid for was more honored than a man
who wore a $50 coat not paid for.
A Canniba1 Appetite.
The modern golden calf, like the one
Of the text, is very apt to be made out
of borrowed gold. These Israelites of
the text borrowed the earrings of the
Egyptians and then melted them into
a god. That is the way the golden calf
is made nowadays. A great many
housekeepers, not paying for the artf-
Giles they get, borrow of the grocer and
the baker and the butcher and the dry
goods seller Then the retailer borrowS
of the wholesale dealer. Then the
wholesale dealer borrows of the capt.
taIist, and we borrow and borrow and
borrow until the community is divided
into two clasSeS-those who borrow
and those who are borrowed of-and
after awhile the capitalist wants his
money, and he rushes upon the whole
sale dealer, and the wholesale dealer
wants his money, and he ruSheS upon
the retailer, and the retailer wants his
money, and he rushes on the customer,
and we all go down together. There is
many man in this day who rides in a
carriage and owes the blacksmith for
the tire, and the wheelwright for the
wheel, and the trimmer for the curtain,
and the driver for unpaid wages, and
the harness maker Tor the bride, and
the furrier for the robe, while from the
tip of the carriage tongue clear back to
the tip of the camePs hair shawl fut-
tering out of the back of the vehicle
everything is paid for by notes that
have been three times renewed.
1 tell you that in this country we
shall never get things right until we
stop borrowing and pay as we go. 1t
is this temptation to borrow and bor-
row and borrow that keeps the people
everlastingly praying to the golden calf
for help, and just at the minute they
expect the help the golden calf treads
on them. The judgments of God, like
Moses in the text, will rush in and
break up this worship, and l say let
the work go on until every man shall
learn to speak truth with his neigh
Dor, and those who make engagements
shall feel themselves bound to keep
them, and when man who will not
repent of his business iniquity, but
goes on wishing to satiate his cannibal
appetite by devouring widows houses,
shall, by the law of the land, be COM
PEELED to exchange the brownstone
front for the penitentiary. Let the
golden calf perish!
Demolished Idols.
But if we have made this world our
god, when we come to die we shall see
our idol demolished. How much Of this
world are you going to take with you
into the next? Will you have two
pockets = one in each side of your
shroud? Will you cushion your casket
with bonds and mortgages and certifi-
Gates of stock? Ah no. The ferryboat
that crosses this Jordan takes no bag
gage-nothing heavier than an imma-
terial spirit. You may, perhaps, take
$500 with you two or three miles in the
shape of funeral trappings to the GEM
etery, but you will have to leave them
there. It would not be safe for you to
lie down there with a gold watch or a