Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-07-15

I show you domestic tragedy in five
acts:
Act the frst-A home, plain and
beautiful. Enter newly married pair.
Enter cOntentment. Enter as much
happiness as ever gets in one home
Act the second-Enter discomfort.
Enter desire for larger expenditure.
Enter envy Enter jealousy.
Act the third-Enter the Queenly
dressmakers Enter the French mil
liners. Enter all costly plate and all
great eXtrayagances.
Act the fourth-Tip top of society.
Princes and princesses of upper tendon
floating in and out. Everything Oh a
large and magnificent scale. Enter
contempt for other people.
Act the fifth and last-Enter the as
signee. Enter the sheriff. Enter the
creditors. Enter humiliation. Enter
the wrath of God. Enter the contempt
Of society. Enter ruin and death. Now
drop the curtain. The play is ended,
and the lights are out.
I called it a tragedy. That is q mis-
homer. 1t is a farce.
Extravaganza accounts for much of
the pauperism. Who are these people
whom you have to help? Many of them
are the children of parents who had
plenty, lived in luxury, had more than
! they needed, spent all they had, spent
more too; then died and left their fam
lilies in poverty. Some of those who
call on you now for aid had an ances-
try that supped on Burgundy and
woodcock. I could name a score of men
! WIN box
the best cigars, and they drink the fin
est wines, and they have the grandest
surroundings, and when they die their
families will go on the cold charity Of
! the world. Now, the death of such q
man is a grand larceny. He swindles
the world as he goes into his coffin, and
he deserves to have his bones sold to
the medical museum for anatomical
specimens, the proceeds to furnish
| bread for his children.
I know it cuts close. 1 did not know
but some Of you in high dudgeon would
get up and go out. You stand it WE'LL
Some of you make a great swash in
life, and after awhile you will die, and
ministers will be sent for to come and
stand by your coffin and lie about your
eXcellences, but they will not come. If
you send for me, l will tell you what
my text will be: HE that provideth not
for his own, and especially for those
of his own household, is worse than an
infidel!' And yet we find Christian
men, men of large means, who some
times talk eloquently about the Chris
tan church and about civilization, eX-
pending everything on themselves and
nothing on the cause Of God, and they
crack the back of their PaIais Royal
glove in trying to hide the one cent
they put in the Lords treasury. What
an apportionment! Twenty thousand
dollars for ourselves and one cent for
God! All, my friends, this extrava-
gance accounts for a great deal of what
the cause Of God suffers!
Funeral Dissertation.
And the Dissertation goes on even to
the funeral day. You know very we'll
that there are men who die solvent, but
the expenses are so great before they
get under ground they are insOlvent.
There are families that go into perjury
in wicked response to the demands Of
this day. They put in casket and tomb
stone that which they ought to put in
bread. They wanted bread; you gave
them q tombstone.
One would think that the last two OBJ
legations people would be particular
about would be to the physician and /
the undertaken. Because they are the |
two last obligations, those two profess
sions are almost always cheated. They |
send for the doctor in great haste, and !
he must come day and night. They |
send for the undertaken amid the great |
SoIemnities, and often these two men /
are the very last to be met with COM |
pensation. Merchants sell goods, and /
the goods are not paid for. They take |
back the goods, l am told. But there is |
no relief in this case. The man spent |
all he had in luXurieS and extravaganza !
while he lived, and then he goes out of |
the world and has left nothing for his
family, nothing for the obsequies, and |
as he goes out of the world he steals
the doctors pills and the undertaker's
slippers. l was reading in a New York
paper an account Of the obsequies in
family of very moderate estate, and the
aggregate was $4,000. A man in New
York of moderate estate dies. He has
lived in extreme luxury. He departs
this life. The family, DESTROYS of keep
ing up the magnificence, orders the fol-
lowing things. They were produced
and never paid for to this day:
Casket, covered with Lyons velvet, silver
holdings .......................... $3.50
Heavy plated handles. OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. 60
Solid silver plate, engraved in Roman letters IS
Ten linen scarfs. Observation-Disclosures. $50
Floral decorations Observation-Disclosures. 225
Music and quartet choir at the house. 40
Twenty carriages ............................ 40
Then Is other important expenditures
amounting to Observation-Disclosures. 1856
Making aggregate of.....................$1,s76