The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-05-21

venture, love that takes poison and shoots
itself, moonlight adventures and hair
breadth escapes, you may depend upon
il that YOU are the sacrificed victim Of
unsanctifed pleasure. Our recreations
are intended to build US up, and if they
pull us down as to our moral or as to
our physical strength you may come to
the conclusion that they are obnoxious.
There is nothing more depraving than
attendance upon amusements that are
full OF innuendo and low suggestion. The
young man enters. AT first he sits far
back, with his hat on and his coat collar
up, fearful that somebody there may
know him. Several nights pass on. He
takes off his hat earlier and puts his coat
collar down. The blush that first came
into his cheek when anything indecent
was enacted comes no more to his cheek.
Farewell, young man! You have proba-
bly, started on the long road which ends
in consummate destruction. The stars
of hope will go out one by one, until you
will be left in utter darkness. Hear you
not the rush of the maelstrom, in whose
outer circle our boat now dances, max
ing merry with the whirling waters? But
you are being drawn in, and the gentle
motion will become terrific agitation.
" CRY " uSlp. LII fdlu. lOu pun AZ
the oar to put you back, but the struggle
will not avail You will be tossed and
dashed and shipwrecked and swallowed
in the whirlpool that has already crushed
in its wrath 10000 hulks. Young men
who have just come from country resi-
dence to city residence will do we'll to be
on guard and let no one induce them to
places of improper amusement. 1t is
nightly alluring when a young man, long
a citizen, offers to show q newcomer all
around.
Live Within Your Means.
Still further, those amusements are
wrong which lead you into expenditure
beyond our means. Money spent in rec
reation is not thrown away. 1t is all fol
by for us to come from a place of amuse-
ment feeling hat we have wasted our
money and time. You may by it nave
made IN investment worth more than the
transaction that yielded you hundreds of
thousands Of dollars. But how many
properties have been riddled by costly
amusements.
The first time I ever saw the city-it
was the city of Philadelphia was a
mere lad. I stopped at a hotel, and /
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 emer-
aid, but 1 was afraid Of him.. I showed
back from the basilisk-I made ND my
min he was a basilisk. I remember how
he wheeled his chair round in front of
me and, with a c~oncentered and dia-
bolical effort, attempted to destroy my
soul, but there were good angels in the
air that night. 1t was no good resolu-
ton on my part, but it was the all en-
comprising grace of a good God that de-
liyered me. Beware, beware, o young
man! There is q 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 carousing
party has burned up the boys primer.
The tablecloth of the corner saloon is in
debt to the wife's faded dress. Excur-
sions that in a day make a tour around
a whole months wages, ladies whose
lifetime business it is to ego shopping"
large bets on horses, have their counter
parts in uneducated children, bankrupt
cies that shock the money market and
appall the church and that send drunken
ness 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.
/ saw a beautiful home, where the bell
rang violently late at night. The son had
been off in sinful indulgences. His com
rades were bringing him home. They
carried him to the door. They rang the
bell at 1 o'clock in the morning. Father
and mother came down. They were wait
ing for the wandering son, and then the
comrades as soon as the doc was opened
threw the prodigal headlong into the
doorway, crying: There he is, drunk as
a foolI Ha, hal" When men go into
amusements that they cannot afford, they
first borrow what they cannot earn. and
then they steal what they cannot borrow.
First they go into embarrassment and
then into lying and then into theft. and
when a man gets as far on as that he
does not stop short Of the pentitentiary.
There is not a prison In the land where
there are not victims Of unsancti6ed
amusements.
Look Out For the Leakage.
Merchant. Is there a disarrangement
in your accounts? Is there a leakage in
your money drawer? Did not the cash
account come out right last night? |
will tell you. There is a young man in
your store wandering of into bad amuse-
meHts. The salary you give him may
meet lawful expenditures, but not the
sinful in~dulgences In which he has enter
ed. and he takes by theft that which you
do not give him in lawful salary.
How brightly the path Of unrestrained
amusement opens! The young man says:
Nov l am off for a good time. Never
mind economy. I'll get money somehow
What a fine roadi What q beautiful day
for a ride! Crack the whip. and over the
turnpike! Come. boys, I'LL high your
glasses. Drink! Long life, health. plen
ty Of rides just like thisw Hardwork
fng men hear the clatter Of the hoofs and
look up and say: why, I wonder where
| those fellows get their money from. We
have to toll and drudge. They do moth
ing" To these "a men life is a thrill
and excitement. They stare at other peo-