Year: 1878

What a common occurrence it isl you


read of it every day, and often it hap


pens in your immediate locality Some


body lost


Is it a child whose whereabouts are


unknown? How you mourn over it.


How tender your heart grows over its


pains and suferings? You cannot sleep,


for its Wailing cry of despair comes with


its pitiful moaning to your ears, and for


bids the closing of your eyes in slumber.


What earnest prayers you breathe to the
/ Great Spirit to guide the feet of the
/ searchers to its presence on the noun


tain side, or the plain where it has un-


willingly strayed its unskilled and un-
| taught feet.


Is it q woman who is lost-gcae, no
/ one knows where? The belle Cf the
/ village, the pet of the community, gone.
gone, but where? The bells, high up in
the steeples, that clang and clash to sum-
mon the neighbors, find an echo in your
I hearts. YOu wonder if, in the darkness,
I a beautiful form, by the mere chance Of
a misstep, fell swiftly into the waters Of
! the rolling torrent anI was rapidly car
ried aWay-sucked through eddies, to
find q lodging place far, far away. You
imagine the moment of despair when
the consciousness Of falling seized her
mind. You shudder at the cold plunge.
You hear the gurgling and choking and
strangled cry for help that never came
to her. You see the golden hair un-
bound and floating gently on the surface
Of the water, now leaving strand en-
tangled in the branches Of a projecting
bush, and again hidden from sight by
some action of the waters. FaF distant
in the future you see the remains of
once beautiful form that has been dis
covered by the merest chance, which is
now loathing to the sight and sense
what was once angelic in its purity and
beauty, now frightful IN its very exis-
tence. Or, in your mind-Wanderings you
see her muffled and unconscious in the
power Of some fend who stole her. The
rest of the picture is too dark to contem-
plate, and 70 horrible 70 paint. she's
lost, lost, forever lostl


But what if it is a man-and not
child, ora wOman-who is lOst2


A strong man, man who can feel, suf-
fer and experiences as only strong man
Can-lost to the world, lost to his friends,
lost to himself What PAIN is SO great as
his? for Is he not greater than woman?
and is he not older than a child?


What a fearful thing to contemplate? ?
What a dreadful thing to happen2 A
man, in all his power, and glory, and
knowledge, and strength, and lmpor-
lance, and greatness, lost.


He was not lost at sea. The noun
tains do not contain his perishing body
for a few days, and then the wolves pick
his bones and the eagles his eyeballs.
His course, on the plains, was not mys-
terv to him until his death.


He was a man. He is only lost, that's
all He knows he's LOST, too, and has
given himself up to his fate. He has
been searched after, but in vain. His
trail has been struck at times, and often
'sign" OF HIM is discovered; but the
most skiIlful are baffied when they at
tempt to find him and reclaim him.


Do you know whom mean2 Must l
read the riddle to you? Must / point
you to the bones of the man who passed
through the gate of weak will and traV-
eled out upon the dessert waste and
burning sands of Indiscretion? Must
tel you of his scOfings at the warnings
of friends; of his increasing weakness;
of his stumblings and bruises until his
heart, and his life, and his soul were
gone?


Do you know of any lost ones about
you? Do you see the entrance to the de- !
viOus way of darkness even yourself? /
Then take a lesson from those around |
you-take a lesson from life Conquer |
your will-subdue your passions, or you,
even you, may be.


A man lost.