Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1913-01-23
CHICKENS CONE
HOME TO ROOST
Dissipation Always Imposes
Penalty

Mr. Shepherd, the man to whom
Helen Gould is to be married, says
that when he started forth to seek his
fortune in life his father gave him this
homely counsel:
Remember, son, that chickens al
ways come home to roost."
And Mr.. Shepherd says that in many
a crisis in his life he has remembered
the old adage, and that it has been a
stay and prop, and a red lantern of
warning, and beacon of hope, all
combined to him.
Chickens come home to roost." 1t is
a good motto for us all. 1t is a good
motto to give to every girl and boy
starting out in life. 1t might not look
as elegant as do the Latin words en-
graved under an imitation coat Of
arms, but it would mean lot more,
and be better watchword in times
Of stress and trouble.
J For it means that the one thing that
1--WE can't get away from in life is the
: consequence Of what we do. For a
time We may deem to escape from our
bad deeds, or apear to receive no re
ward for our good ones, but in the end
they all come back to us. ur chickens
come home to roost, or as the Bible
grandly expresses it: las man sows
so shall he reap"
You often hear people, especially
women, complain that they are lonely
and that they have no friends, aud
that their children, even, do not love
them. 1t never seems to occur to these
women, that they are responsible for
their own forlornness, which is moth
ing but their own chickens comm
home to roost.
The woman who has no friends Is
the woman who has never kept her
sharp tongue from saying the thing
that she thought was witty, no matter
how badly it hurt another; she is the
woman who has ridden roughshod ov~
err other peoples right and pleasures
she is the woman who has been SO sell
fish and so determined to have the
best for herself that she has never
sacrificed her own comfort for any
body else. Sarcasm, and greed, AMI
Jealousy, and envy, and hardness tf
heart are the chickens that she's
Matched out, and as age darkens
around her they all futter up to their
roost pole in her heart.
But the woman who has been loving
and tender and kind; who has thought
of other people before herself; who
has been the first TO go with helping
hand to every one in distress about
her, who has shrouded the dead, and
pinned on the wedding wells, and cud-
, died the babies wherever there was
need of a woman's sympathy in joy or
sorrow, never complaining that her old
age is lonely, or that people don't like
to have old women around them.
Her birthdays are smothered in re-
membranes. Her old friends cleave
to her as David did to Jonathan
Young people come to her with their
condolences Her chickens come home
to roost and they are called love and
tenderness and honor.
Character isn't made in a day. It
isn't made up of one act. Nor is sue
cess or failure determined by one sim
gle spectacular deed, for in the end,
whether we do the big thing or not,
depends on whether we've done the
myriads of little things right The man
who can be trusted at the top of the
, business is the man who was faithful
at the bottom of it, 1t is the man who
saved his pennies when he was young
who has his thousands when he is old
AS we have sowed, so must we reap.
The law never changes. Our chickens
always come home to roost.