The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1900-03-31
wanted any of it since" That father

wanted any of it since" That father
erred on one side.
Then the discipline is an entire fail
ure in many households because the
father pulls n way and the mother
pulls the other way. The father says:
my son, l told you if 1 ever found you
guilty of falsehood again l would chas-
tise you, and 1 am going to keep my
promise" The mother says: Don't.
Let him off this time"
Now the father and mother are wait
ing for the son to come home at night.
1t is ~ o'clock, it is half-past 12 O'Clock,
it is one o'clock. The son comes through
the hallway. The father says: "My
son, what does all this mean? 1 gave
you every opportunity. 1 gave you all
the money you wanted, and here in my
old days I find that you have become
a spendthrift, a libertine and a sot."
The son says: "Now, father, what is
the use Of your talking hat way? You
told me to go it, and 1 just took your
suggestion" And so to strike the me-
dunn between severity and too great
leniency, to strike the happy medium
between the two and to train our chill
dren for God and for Heaven is the
anxiety of every intelligent parent.
Some go to work and try t~o'correct
all this, and the boy is picked at and
picked at and picked at. That always
is ruinous. There is more. help in one
good thunderstorm than in five DAYS of
cold drizzle. Better the old-fashioned
style of chastisement if that be neces-
sary than the fretting and the scolding
which have destroyed so many.
There is also a cause of great solicit
tude sometimes because our young pee-
pie are surrounded by so many temp
tations. A castle may not be taken by a
straightforward siege, but suppose
there be inside the castle an enemy. and
in the night he shoves back the bolt
and swings open the door. Our young
folks have foes without, md they have
foes within. Who does not understand
it? Who is the man here who is not
aware of the fact that the young peo-
pie of this day have tremendous tempta-
tons?
Some man will come to the young
people and try to persuade them that
purity and honesty and uprightness
are a sign of weakness. Some man will
take a dramatic attitude, and he will
talk to the young man, and he will say:
You must break away from your
mothers apron strings. You must get
out of that puritanical straightiacket.
1t is time you were your own master.
You are verdant. You are green. You
are unsophisticated. Come with me;
I'll show you the world. I'll show you
life. Come with me. You need to see
the world. 1t won't hurt you" After
awhile the young man says: "WelI,
l can't afford to be odd. Ican't afford
to be peculiar. 1 can't afford to sacri-
fee all my friends. I'll just go and see
for myself" Farewell to innocence,
which once gone never fully comes
back. Do not be under the deJusion
that because you repent of sin you get
rid forever of its consequences. 1 say
farewell to innocence, which once gone
never fully comes back.
Oh, how many traps set for the
young! Styles of temptation just suit
ed to them. Do you suppose that a man
who went clear to tie depths of dissi-
patton went down in n great plunge?
oh. no! At first it was a fashionable
hotel. Marble floor. No unclean pic
lures behind the counter. No drunken
hiccough whila thsy drink, but the click
IF ont r1occ To zLa 11ar,rA eo-x..1w
You ask that Joung mar now to go into
som low restaurant and get a drink,
and he wedld say: do you mean to
insult me?" But the fashionable and
the elegant hotel is not always close by,
and new the young man is on the down
grade. Further and further down, I'M
til ne has about struck the bottom of
the depths of ruin. Now he is in the
low restaurant. The cards SO greasy
you can hardly tell who has the hrst
hand. Gambling for drinks. Shuttle
away, shuttle away. The landlord
stands in his shirt sleeves, with his
hands on his hips, waiting for an order
to fill up the glasses.
The clock strikes 12-the tolling of
the funeral bell of q soul. The breath
of eternal woe fushes in that young
mans cheeks. In the jets of the gas
light the fiery tongue of the worm that
never dies. Two o'clock in the morn
ing, and now they are sound asleep in
their chairs. Landlord comes around
and says: "Wake up, wake up! Time
to shut up!" what ?' says the
man. slime to shut up?" Push them
all out into the night air. Now they are
going home. Going home! Let the
wife crouch in the corner and the chill
dren hide under the bed. What was
the history of that young man? He be-
gan his designations in the barroom of
a Fifth avenue hotel and completed his
damnation in The lowest grogshop.
Sometimes sin does not halt in that
way. Sometimes sin even comes to the
drawing-room. There are leprous
hearts sometimes admitted in the high
est circles of society. He is so elegant.
he is so bewitching in his manner he is
SO refined, he is so educated, no one sus-
nanfs f1,a civ f,.I I = -