The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-05-21

After parliament adjourned then would
come round of debauch Gambling with
him was a mad passion. He was both
spendthrift and libertine How can he
guard his Kings finances" asked the
people, when he cannot protect his own
pocketbook? Charles James Fox had
every qualification to make himself the
political dictator of Europe save the sim
gle essential of character, the lack of
which destroyed his whole career for
practical good.
But you do not have to go back to
history to prove the truth of nay state
ment that character is one of the great
est builders of the towers of life and
that without true character those towers
are always left in half completed stage.
Who was the most brilliant young man
of your school days with whom you were
associated? Tall, handsome, fine looking
he was. His brain became perfect re-
postory of facts. While you had to sweat
and plod and groan over your studies he
seemed to absorb his at glance. On the
football field or the baseball diamond he
was the schools star athlete. The girls
all hattered him. The young men ran
after him. But no one could trust him.
He was not a true man. oh" said the
world, "Winfred will go right to the front
in life. Success is sure to be his" Was
it? No sooner had he left school few
years than his name got mixed up with
some shady transactions. With all his
brains and ability, what became of him?
I know and you know. He Is dead now, a
suicide; or he is living, a social outcast
or he is begging and cheating his way
through life. Oh. the magnificent ruins
of the half completed towers of life we
see everywhere around us! These towers
should have been eitadels for defense and
safety They are me.e dungeons for the
owls and the bats and the vermin of sin
to inhabit
A Fatal Gift.
But is there no direct lesson from this
eharacterless tower for the women as
well as the men? How is it, o woman.
with the most brilliant friend of your
childhood days? You see her now, a per-
feet dream of beauty. AS a little girl her
teeth We're collection Of priceless pearls.
When she laughed all the sunshine of the
heavens seemed to dance In her blue eyes.
Her dimples looked like the eddies in the
surface of mountain brook. Her hair
could be likened unto nuggets of gold
were It not for the fact that. like that
of Miriam of old. each curl had dancing
feet that never kept STILL Her hands
were perfect hands. her feet perfect feet.
Then her mind--it was so clear and bright
and sparkling and witty and resourceful!
What became of her? Where is she?
You mention her name now with hushcd
lips and downcast eyes. The asp of SIN
placed one fatal fang about one side OF
her heart and another fang about the
other side of her heart and bit until she
died. She destroyed her own life. Yes.
but like Cleopatra. She not only destroyed
an Antony, but the moral lives of scores
of other men who would today have been
noble husbands and fathers and honored
citizens of this commonwealth but for evil
influence. Lack of true moral character
destroyed her. All yes, brain power and
perseverance alone do not build the
strong. high towers of life. If we do not
admire Satan we must at least, as a