Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-06-25

1ntO young man neart tnere seems
to be no human power to stop him
from committing mental, physical and
spiritual suicide. Senator Chauncey
NJ. Depcw of New York city, whom
even the most literally minded men
would not charge with being bigot.
once gave this startling testimony: "A
considerable proportion of failures in
business and 90 per cent Of the de-
falcations, thefts and ruin Of youths
among those who are employed in
places Of trust are due directly to
gambling. I have seen in my vast en-
ployment so much misery caused by
the head Of the family squandering his
| savings in a policy shop and promising
| young men led astray in a small way
and finally becoming fugitives or land
Ing in the criminal dock that l have
come to believe that the community
which licenses and tolerates public
gambling cannot have prosperity in
business" With such an impressive
warning as that before us, can we
afford to triHe with this sin in even
the smallest way? The policy shop or
the slot machine Is only a step from
the roulette table and the race track.
The race track and the roulette table
are the threa tening rocks where thou
sands upon thousands Of human craft
are wrecked for time and for eternity.
Trifle not with the games Of chance,
however small the wager, any more
than you would play about a rattle
snakes fang or toy with n boa con-
strictor's coils or tigers claw.
Flirting Denounced.
Summer rcd light the fourth: Be-
ware Of trfing with human affections.
That means do not be flirt. Do not
falsify with the glance of the eye or the
smile of the lip or the touch of the hand.
Do not imagine that you can treat the
delicate instrument Of the human heart
as mere temporary plaything, thump-
ing and banging it and swapping its
many silver strings, and indulge the
belief TINT it can afterward be re-
tuned and made capable of sending
forth sweet music. That means do not
trife with the beautiful diamond Of
love and plunge it into the Satanic
fires of n summer Irritation and then
ter. 1t will not. retain It's purity. 1t
will become as black and hideous as
the filthy piece Of charcoal which the
servant losses into the CRATE on win
ter night 1t will become as black as
the fatal line on Gains forehead which
marked him as destroyer of his
brothers life.
Oh, the destinations and yet the hell
ish malforming power of summer
Irritation. Have you ever sat upon a
hotel porch and watched the insects
gather out of the darkness and buzz
and play about the electric lights?
Those lights have for them the fatal
spell that the glittering eye Of the
black snake has for the mother bird
sitting upon the edge Of her nest.
These insects will circle round and
round the brilliant light. They will
disappear for awhile. as though they
know the hot tongue of death is ready
to touch them. Then at last they will
make one plunge and in an instant the
wings and the legs are gone. Then the
poor suffering creatures fall to tho
ground, wriggling and twisting and
dying, to be trampled under the foot Of
man. Such are the awful results which
follow when the human insects play
about the kissing, blasting fires of a
summers Irritation. 1t may be pleas
ant for awhile to feel the hot flush
upon the cheek. 1t may seem only fun
|, to pass a few hours as coquette, tear
ing and inflaming the tenderest feel
ings Of true man in summer row
boat or in romantic walks through the
woods. II may seem to be a glorious
act to boast how many you can con-
quer In love, as an Indian warrior
| boasts Of his prowess in war by the
number of scalps he carries at his belt.
, But by the scorched and bruised and
mutilated hearts of thousands which
) have been malformed for time and
| eternity in the glowing flames of a
, summer Irritation l denounce triling
, with human love. l denounce 1t be-
| fore the young people who may be par.
Elephants during their next summer va
! cation in this merciless, heartless and
tamning universal evil.
Peril of the Wine Cup.
Summer red light the fifth. Beware
, of the serpent which lies coiled up In
the bewitching wine cup. A few sum-
mer and winter resorts of this country
are especially noted for the power of
their mineral waters to physically
straighten a man out after a long de-
: bauch. Not many miles from Chicago
there is resort where many Of our
3 drunkards go at least once a year.
{ have been told by some of these
drunkards that it Is impossible to drink
a whisky and at the same time drink OF
? those mineral springs. But though
i there are a few, very few, summer
+ watering places whose waters have
? these curative qualities, most Of oul
= summer watering places are noted fol
q the fact that they make drunkards
T.. rather than reform them. They make
>. them in wholesale quantities and no
a In retail. Men carry their bottles o.
, intoxicating beverages when they q
q fishing or dancing or taking a tram
! In the woods, and men drink every
\ where.
. But this is not the greatest curse 70
" which our summer resorts are famous
/, They are noted as places where womeI
get drunk as well as the men, To me tn
a most abjectly repulsive creature oil