Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1901-05-25

Y
arise and play before u.s.
There are two armies encamped by the
pool of Gideon. The time hangs heavily
on their hands. One army proposes n
game of sword fencing. Nothing could
be more healthful and innocent. The
other army accepts the challenge. Twelve
men against twelve men, the sport opens.
but something went adversely. Perhaps
one of the swordSmen got an unlucky clip
or in some way had his ire aroused and
that which opened in sportfulness ended
in violence, each one taking his contest
ant by the hair and with the sword
thrusting him in the side, so that that
which opened in innocent fun ended in
the massacre of all the twenty-four
sportsmen. Was there ever Il better IL
lustration of what was true then and is
true now-that that which is innocent
may be made destructive?
What of a worldly nature is more i'm
portant and Strengthening and innocent
than amusement, and yet what has count
ed more victims? | have no sympathy
with a Straitjacket religion. This is n
very bright world to me, and | propose
TO do all | can to make it bright for 9th
ers. | believe the church of God made
a great mistake in trying to suppress the
sportfulness OF youth and drive out from
men their love of amusement. If God
ever implanted anything in us, he inn
planted this desire. But instead of pro-
viding for this demand of our nature the
church Of God has for the main part
ignored it. Paul the apostle commends
those who use the world without abusing
IN Thn 1
done everything to please and amuse us.
And | am glad to know that in all our
cities there are plenty of places where we
may find elevated moral entertainment.
But all honest men and good women will
agree with me in the statement that one
or the worst things in these cities is
corrupt amusement. Multitudes have
gone down under the blasting infinence
never to rise. If we may judge of what
Is going on in many of the places of
amusement by the pictures on board
fences and in many of the show win
dows, there is not a much lower depth
of prohigacy to reach. At Naples, Italy,
they keep such pictures locked up from
indiscriminate inspection. Those pictures
were exhumed from Pompeii and are not
Mt for public gaze. If the effrontery of
bad places of amusement in hanging out
improper advertisements OF what they
are doing night by night grows worse in
the same proportion, in fifty years some
of our modern cities will beat Pompeii
Find Out for Yourselves.
l project certain principles by which
you may judge in regard TO any amuse-
ment or recreation, finding out for your
self whether il is right or wrong
| remark, in the first place. that you
can judge of the moral character of any
amusement by its healthful result or by
Its baleful reaction. There are people
who seem made up Of hard facts. They
are combination of multiplication tables
and statistics. If you show them an ex-
quisite picture they will begin to discuss
the pigments involved in the coloring
If you show them n beautiful rose they
will submit ii to a botanical analysis,
which is only the post-mortem examina-
ton of flower. They have no rebound
IN their nature. They never do any
thing more than smile. There are no
great tides Of feeling surging up from
the depths of their soul in billow after
biilow of reverberating laughter They
seem as il nature had built them by CON
tract and made a bungling job out Of it.
But blessed be God, there are people in
the world who have bright faces and
whose life is a song, an anthem, a paean
OF victory. Even their troubles are like
the vines that crawl up the side of Il
great tower on the top of which the sun
light sits and the soft airs Of summer
hold perpetual carnival. They are the |
people yon like to have come to your
house; they are people | like to have |
come TO my house. If you but touch the |
hem Of their garments you are healed
There is nothing more depraving than |
attendance upon amuscments that are |
full of innuendo and low suggestion. The |
young man enters. Al first he sits far |
back, with bis hat on and his coat collar |
up, fearful that somebody there may |
know him. Several nights pass on He |
takes on 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 !
10 consummate destruction. The stars
of hope will go out one by one, until you
will be left in utter darkness. Hear You
outer circle your boat now dances, max
ing merry with the whirlng waters? But
you are being drawn in, and the gentle
motion will become terrific agitGtion You
cry for help. In vain. You pull at the
BAR 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 it's
wrath 10000 hulks Young men who
have just come from country residence 10
city residence will do well to be on guard
and let no one induce them 10 places Of
improper amusement. 1t is nightly al
uring when a young man, long a citizen,
offers to show a newcomer all around.
Live Within Your Means.
Still further, those amusements are
wrong which lead you into expenditure
beyond your means. Money spent in rec
'eation is not thrown away. 1t is al fol-
= for Us TO come from place Of amuse-
nent feeling that we have wasted our
money and time. You may by il have
made an investment worth more than the
transaction that yielded you hundreds Of