The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-05-23

more than the transaction that yield
ed you hundreds of thousands of dol
lars. But how many properties have
been riddled by costly amusements.
The first time l ever saw the city
1t was the city of Philadelphia was
mere lad. / stopped at hotel, and
l remember in the eventide one of
these men piled me with his Internal
art. He saw l was green. He wanted
to show me the sights of the town. He
painted the path of sin until it looked
like emerald. but was afraid of him.
l showed back from the basilisk-I
made up my mind he was a basilisk.
l remember how he wheeled his chair
round In front of me and, with con-
centered and diabolical effort at
tempted to destroy my soul, but there
were good angels in the air that night.
1t was no good resolution on my part,
but it was the all encompassing grace
of good God that delivered me. Be-
ware, beware, o young man! There
is way that seemeth right unto a
man, but the end thereof is death.
The table has been robbed to pay
the club. The champagne has cheated
the children's wardrobe. The carous-
ing party hasburned up the boys prim-
er The tablecloth of the corner sa-
loon is in debt to the wifes faded
dress. Excursions that in day make
tour around whole months wages
ladies whose lifetime business it Is
to go shopping" large bets on horses,
nave their counterparts in uneducated
children, bankruptcies that shock the
money market and appall the church
and that send drunkenness staggering
ACROSS the richly figured carpet of the
mansion and dashing into the mirror
and drowning out the carol of music
with the whooping of bloated sons
come home to break their old mothers
| heart
Look Out for the Leakage.
Merchant, is there disarrangement
in your accounts? Is there leakage. in
your money drawer? Did the cash ac-
count come out right last night? l
will tell you. There is a young man
in your store wandering off into bad
amusements. The salary you give him
may meet lawful expenditures, but not
the sinful indulgences in which he has
entered, and he takes by theft that
which you do not give him in lawful
salary.
How brightly the path of unre-
strained amusement opens! The young
man says: Now l am off for a good
time. Never mind economy. I'll get
money somehow. What fine road.
What beautiful day for ride! Crack
the whip, and over the turnpike! Come,
boys, fill high your glasses. Drink!
Long life, health, plenty of rides Just
like this' Rardworking men hear the
clatter of the hoofs and look I'D and
say: WHY, l wonder where those fell
lows get their money from. We have
to toll and drudge. They do nothing"
10 these gay men life is a thrill and
excitement. They stare at other peo-
pie and in turn are stared at. The
watch chain jingles. The cup foams
The cheeks flush. The eyes flash
The midnight hears their guffaw. They
swagger They jostle decent men off
the sidewalk They take the name of
God in vain. They parody the hymn
they learned at their mothers knee
and to all pictures of coming disaster
they cry out, who cares!" and to the
counsel of some Christian friend,
Who are your
Passing along the street some night
/ you hear shiek in grogshop, the
rattle of the watchman's club the rush
of the police. What is the matter now?
Oh, this reckless young man has been
killed in grogshop fight. Carry him
home to his fathers house. Parents
will come down and wash his wounds
and close his eyes in death. They for
give him all he ever did, although he
cannot in his silence ask it. The prod
igal has got home at last. Mother will
so to her little garden and get the
sweetest flowers and twist them into
a chaplet for the silent heart of the
Maynard boy and push back from the
bloated brow the long locks that were
once her pride. And the air will be
rent with the agony. Inc great dram
atist says, How sharper than SER
penis tooth it is to have thankless
child"
| Sports u Means to an Emo.
| Your sports are merely means to an
end. They are alleviations and helps.
The arm of toll is the only arm strong
enough to bring up the bucket out OF
the deep well of pleasure. Amusement
is only the bower where business and
philanthropy rest while on their way
to stirring achievements. Amusements
are merely the vines that grow about
the anvil of toll and the blossoming Of
the hammers. Alas for the man who
spends his life in laboriously doing
nothing, his days in hunting up loung-
ing places and loungers, his nights in
seeking out some gaslight foolery The
man who always has on his sporting
jacket, ready to hunt for game in the
mountain Or fish in the brook with no
time to pray or work or read, is not SO
well off as the greyhound that runs by
his side or the fly bait with which he
whips the stream. A man who does not
work does not know how to play.
If God had intended us to do nothing
but laugh he would not have given us
shoulders with which to lift and hands
with which to work and brains with
which to think The amusements OF
life are merely the orchestra playing
| ,1,s1 !,