Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1911-11-24
Mistakes Caused by Bad Thoughts.

Having passed many milestones along
the journey of life, find there are a few
ideas in the attic that have not been
used. Now if 1 can set my thoughts
awhirling to the tune of rag time or
hurdy gurdy, they may be relished by
many readers of today. l made the re-
mark to my nephew several years ago
that the bread and butter problem is not
very serious one providing we make
no mistakes.
Recently the editor of a religious
weekly paper in Chicago, out of curios-
ity, counted the automobiles passing a
given point on the boulevard on Sunday
afternoon. with the following result:
In two minutes 25 passed, another % in
the next three minutes, in another
count 80 passed in less than five min
utes. that is, 100 machines passed in
less than 10 minutes. You will agree
with me that is going some for a Sun
day afternoon, but this Is only one num-
Der on the program for observing the
Sabbath as holiday; the crowds are on
the street cars headed for the parks, on
railroad trains and excursion boats and
up in the air on flying machines; the
theatres are open, nickel shows and dime
museums are in full blast and baseball
games draw immense crowds Right
here the devil gets busy and labels the
whole performance recreation.
Can we help but reflect upon what
ed by intelligent, educated men and cost
the nation at least 1000 lives. The
differences between the north and the
south could have been settled In peace
full ways If the minds of leading men
had been filled with good thoughts
We can easily trace the course OF
many of our trials and tribulations to
some ones mistake. Allowing that the
mind controls our actions we can read
lily see how important it is that we live
in a good, moral atmosphere. We
naturally depend upon teachers and
books for food for the mind. The chief
librarian of the British Museum says
there are AZ miles of books on the iron
shelves of that institution which no hui
man being reads or ever will read. Once
a book was such an achievement that IL
was thought to be here to stay. Grant
that these written volumes are the
leaves and blossoms of the human mind,
put that Is no reason why they should
always stay; on the contrary it would be
a sign of mental poverty of the new
generations. Hence books may perish,
but the book Of life stays, because in it
Is summed up and centred the religious
interests Of mankind.
My first recollection of going to meet
ing was when / ate caraway-see cookies
out of mothers bead bag and learned the
catechism, and a little later on, feeling
chilly as the preacher dwelt on being
born sinner and the punishment where
1t is hot, the next morning my chum
and I would meet and talk about the
bad fix we were in. and could see no
way OF escape from going where we did
MT want to go. This part of the sermon
was what appealed to my boyish imagi-
nation. However, my chum grew up to
be heavyweight, and served many
years on the Boston police force. while
your humble servant carried a gun to
defend the flag that flies above us.
The best we can do is to keep on the
right road and gladly help others along
the highway OF life as we have oppor-
tunity. The daily press keeps us in
formed about scores OF unfortunate peo-
pie that have been led into trouble by
bad thoughts, which, to speak mildly. is
poor reading matter.
A RECRUIT.