Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-12-31
dress to a house on fire askinSit to

dress to a house on fire askingpit to
step burning, no more use than steam
tug going out to help ship after it has
sunk to the bottom of the ocean. What
use in word Of warning to that inebri-
ate whose wife was dying from
wounds inflicted by his own hand. AS
he held the hand of his dying wife he
made this VOW, Mary, | will never
take another glass of strong drink until
l take it from this hand which | now
hold In an awful way he kept the
VOW, for when the wife was in her cof-
fir he filled a glass with brandy, put
the glass into the dead hand, then took
the glass out of her hand and drank
the LIQUID. Too late does any warning
come to such a one. But many man
now high up in usefulness and honor
was stopped on the wrong road by
kindly hand put upon the shoulder and
a word fifty spoken. All, yes, fifty spo-
ken-that is. at the right time, with the
right accentuation, with the right en-
phasis A dictatOrial way, a cOndem-
natory manner, fault finding tone of
voice. manner which seems to say,
Look at me and do as l do" will only
proval the inebriate will go out to take
a drink sooner than he would have
taken it and the disSOlute man a worse
plunge into sin. The word Of warning
must be charged and surcharged with
sympathy. You will practically say to
the man, 81 suppose you got into your
present habit through overwork, and
you took stimulus to keep up and do
the work you must do" or, 81 suppose
it was through illness, and you took an
intOXicant first as q incidence, or,
You are hail fellow well met, and
you took the liquid in sOciability," or:
You were the representative of COM
mercial house that expected you to
treat customers. l understand it all. If
| had been in the same circumstances,
l would probably be fast in the same
thraldom." By some such alternating
introduction prepare the way for ''be-
warer' that will halt your friend on the
wrong road as suddenly as any platoon
of soldiers was ever halted. Swing the
red lantern across that track and stop
that train before it reaches the chaSm!
Speak Gently to the Erring.
There must be no Impotence i'll the
warning we give others. We must real
iZe that but for the kindness of God to
us we would have been in the same
rapids. That man going wrong may be
struggling with q tide of evil inherited
from father and grandfather and great
grandfather. The present temptation
may be the accumulated force of gen
erations and centuries. NO" you say;
''his father was a good man. | knew
him." But did you know his GRANDPA
Their? Evil habit is apt to skip one
generation, a fact recognized in the
Ten Commandments, which speak of
the third and fourth generation, but
say nothing of the second generation.
Or the man astray may have an I'M
happy home, and that is enough to
wreck any one. We often speak of
men who destroy their homes, but do
not say anything about the fact that
there are thousands of wives in Ameri-
ca who by petulance and fretting and
reconsideration and lack of economy
and all manner of diSa greeableneSS
drive their husbands into dissipation.
The reason that thousands of men
spend their evenings in clubhouses and
tavcrns is because they cannot stand it
at home. | know men who are 80 year
martyrs in the fact that they are aw-
fully married. That marriage was not
made in heaven. Without asking di-
vine guidance they entered into an alli-
ance which ought never to have been
made. That is what is the matter with
many men you and know They may
be very brave and heroic and say
nothing about it, but all the neighbOrs
know. Now, if the man going wrong
has such domestic misfortune be very
lenient and eXcusatOry in your word of
warning. The difference between you
and him may be that you would have
gOnC down faster than he is going
down if you had the same kind Of con-
jugal Indebtedness.
Besides that, you had better be mer-
cifuI in your word of warning. for the
day may come when you may need
some one to be lenient and eXcusatory
to you. There may be somewhere
ahead of you temptation so mighty
that unless you have sympathetic treat
ment you may go under. ''Oh, no."
says some one; Il am too old for that"
How old are you? oh" you say, 81
nave Ueeh So lOuS All dcllNe OuSlHesS
life that am clear past the latitude of
danger" There is a man in Sing Sing
penitentiary who was considered the
soul of honor until he was so years of
age and then committed a dishonesty
that startled the entire commercial
world.
Divine Architecture.
In mentioning fine arts people are apt
to speak of music and painting and
sculpture and architecture, but they
forget to mention the finest of all the