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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2603-h.zip b/2603-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2d5d13 --- /dev/null +++ b/2603-h.zip diff --git a/2603-h/2603-h.htm b/2603-h/2603-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db5f158 --- /dev/null +++ b/2603-h/2603-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3895 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes, by J. M. Judy + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Questionable Amusements and Worthy +Substitutes, by J. M. Judy + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes + +Author: J. M. Judy + +Commentator: George H. Trever + +Release Date: December 22, 2008 [EBook #2603] +Last Updated: February 6, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUESTIONABLE AMUSEMENTS *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + QUESTIONABLE AMUSEMENTS AND WORTHY SUBSTITUTES + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By J. M. Judy + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Introduction by George H. Trever, Ph.D., D.D. The manuscript of + This book was not submitted to any publisher, but was put in its + present form by JENNINGS & PYE, for a friend of the author. + Address. Chicago: Western Methodist Book Concern, 1904. +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + INTRODUCTION. + </h2> + <h3> + By George H. Trever, PH.D., D.D. + </h3> + <p> + Author of Comparative Theology, etc. + </p> + <p> + A BOOK on "Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes" is timely + to-day. Such a grouping of subject matter is in itself a commendation. + Possibly we have been saying "Don't" quite enough without offering the + positive substitute. The "expulsive power of a new affection" is, after + all, the mightiest agency in reform. "Thou shalt not" is quite easy to + say; but though the house be emptied, swept, and garnished, unless pure + angels hasten to occupy the vacated chambers, other spirits worse than the + first will soon rush in to befoul them again. + </p> + <p> + The author of these papers, the Rev. J.M. Judy, writes out of a full, warm + heart. We know him to be a correct, able preacher of the gospel, and an + efficient fisher of men. Having thoroughly prepared himself for his work + by courses in Northwestern University and Garrett Biblical Institute, by + travel in the South and West of our own country, and by a visitation of + the Old World, he has served on the rugged frontier of his Conference, and + among foreign populations grappling successfully with some of the most + difficult problems in modern Church work. + </p> + <p> + The following articles aroused much interest when delivered to his own + people, and must do good wherever read. In style they are clear and vivid; + in logical arrangement excellent; glow with sacred fervor, and pulse with + honest, eager conviction. We bespeak for them a wide reading, and would + especially commend them to the young people of our Epworth Leagues. + </p> + <p> + WHITEWATER, WIS., March 2, 1904. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + PREFACE. + </h2> + <p> + "QUESTIONABLE Amusements and Worthy Substitutes" is a consideration of the + "so-called questionable amusements," and an outlook for those forms of + social, domestic, and personal practices which charm the life, secure the + present, and build for the future. To take away the bad is good; to give + the good is better; but to take away the bad and to give the good in its + stead is best of all. This we have tried to do, not in our own strength, + but with the conscious presence of the Spirit of God. + </p> + <p> + The spiritual indifference of Christendom to-day as one meets with it in + all forms of Christian work has led us to send out this message. + "Questionable Amusements," form both a cause and a result of this + widespread indifference. An underlying cause of this indifference among + those who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, is lack of conviction + for sin, want of positive faith in the fundamental truths of the + Scriptures, too little and superficial prayer, and lack of personal, + soul-saving work. Is the class-meeting becoming extinct? Is the + prayer-meeting lifeless? Is the revival spirit decaying? Is family worship + formal, or has it ceased? However some may answer these questions, still + we believe that the Church has a warm heart, and that signs of her + vigorous life are expressed in her tenacious hold for high moral + standards, and in her generous GIVING of money and of men. + </p> + <p> + Our point of view has been that of the person, old or young, regardless of + sect, race, party, occupation, or circumstances, who has a life to live, + and who wants to make the most out of it for himself and for his + fellow-men, and who believes that he will find this life disclosed in + nature, in history, and in the Word of God. J.M.J. + </p> + <p> + ORFORDVILLE, WIS., March, 1904. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + Contents + </h3> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION. </a> + </td> + <td> + + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE.</a> + </td> + <td> + + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + + </td> + <td> + + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_PART1"> PART I. </a> + </td> + <td> + QUESTIONABLE AMUSEMENTS. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> I. </a> + </td> + <td> + TOBACCO. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> II. </a> + </td> + <td> + DRUNKENNESS. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> III. </a> + </td> + <td> + GAMBLING, CARD-PLAYING + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> V. </a> + </td> + <td> + THEATER-GOING. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + + </td> + <td> + + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_PART2"> PART II. </a> + </td> + <td> + WORTHY SUBSTITUTES. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> VI. </a> + </td> + <td> + BOOKS AND READING. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> VII. </a> + </td> + <td> + SOCIAL RECREATION. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> VIII. </a> + </td> + <td> + FRIENDSHIP. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> IX. </a> + </td> + <td> + TRAVEL. A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> X. </a> + </td> + <td> + HOME AND THE HOME-MAKER. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PART1" id="link2H_PART1"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + PART I. QUESTIONABLE AMUSEMENTS. + </h1> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The excesses of our youth are drafts on our old age, + payable about one hundred years after date without + interest."—JOHN RUSKIN. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. TOBACCO. + </h2> + <p> + Tobacco wastes the body. It is used for the nicotine that is in it. This + peculiar ingredient is a poisonous, oily, colorless liquid, and gives to + tobacco its odor. This odor and the flavor of tobacco are developed by + fermentation in the process of preparation for use. "Poison" is commonly + defined as "any substance that when taken into the system acts in an + injurious manner, tending to cause death or serious detriment to health." + And different poisons are defined as those which act differently upon the + human organism. For example, one class, such as nicotine in tobacco, is + defined as that which acts as a stimulant or an irritant; while another + class, such as opium, acts with a quieting, soothing influence. But the + fact is that poison does not act at all upon the human system, but the + human system acts upon the poison. In one class of poisons, such as opium, + the reason why the system does not arouse itself and try to cast off the + poison, is that the nerves become paralyzed so that it can not. And in the + case of nicotine in tobacco the nerves are not thus paralyzed, so that + they try in every way to cast off the poison. Let the human body represent + the house, and the sensitive nerves and the delicate blood vessels the + sleeping inmates of that house. Let the Foe Opium come to invade that + house and to destroy the inmates, for every poison is a deadly Foe. At the + first appearance of this subtle Foe terror is struck into the heart of the + inmates, so that they fall back helpless, paralyzed with fear. When the + Intruder Tobacco comes, he comes boisterously, rattling the windows and + jostling the furniture, so that the inmates of the house set up a + life-and-death conflict against him. + </p> + <p> + This is just what happens when tobacco is taken into the human system. + Every nerve cries out against it, and every effort is made to resist it. + You ask, Will one's body be healthier and live longer without tobacco than + with it? We answer, by asking, Will one's home be happier and more + prosperous without some deadly Foe continually invading it, or with such a + Foe? When the membranes and tissues of the body, with their host of nerves + and blood vessels, have to be fighting against some deadly poison in + connection with their ordinary work, will they not wear out sooner than if + they could be left to do their ordinary work quietly? To illustrate: A + particle of tobacco dust no sooner comes into contact with the lining + membrane of the nose, than violent sneezing is produced. This is the + effort of the besieged nerves and blood vessels to protect themselves. A + bit of tobacco taken into the mouth causes salivation because the salivary + glands recognize the enemy and yield an increased flow of their precious + fluid to wash him away. Taken into the stomach unaccustomed to its + presence, and it produces violent vomiting. The whole lining membrane of + that much-abused organ rebels against such an Intruder, and tries to eject + him. Tobacco dust and smoke taken into the lungs at once excretes a + mucous-like fluid in the mouth, throat, windpipe, bronchial tubes, and in + the lungs themselves. Excretions such as this mean a violent wasting away + of vitality and power. Taken in large quantities into the stomach, tobacco + not only causes an excretion of mucus from the mouth, throat, and + breathing organs, but it produces an overtaxing of the liver; that is, + this organ overworks in order to counteract the presence of the poison. + But one asks, If tobacco is so injurious, why is it used with such + apparent pleasure? A small quantity of tobacco received into the system by + smoking, chewing, or snuffing is carried through the circulation to the + skin, lungs, liver, kidneys, and to all the organs of the body, by which + it is moderately resisted. The result is a gentle excitement of all these + organs. They are in a state of morbid activity. And as sensibility depends + upon vital action of the bodily organisms, there is necessarily produced a + degree of sense gratification or pleasure. The reason why these sensations + are pleasurable instead of painful is, in this state of moderate + excitement the circulation is materially increased without being + materially unbalanced. But as with every sense indulgence, when the + craving for increased doses becomes satisfied, when larger doses are taken + the circulation becomes unbalanced, vital resistance centers in one point, + congestion occurs, then the sensation becomes one of pain instead of one + of pleasure. This disturbance or excitement caused by tobacco is nothing + more nor less than disease. For it is abnormal action, and abnormal action + is fever, and fever is disease. It is state on good authority, "that no + one who smokes tobacco before the bodily powers are developed ever makes a + strong, vigorous man." Dr. H. Gibbons says: "Tobacco impairs digestion, + poisons the blood, depresses the vital powers, causes the limbs to + tremble, and weakens and otherwise disorders the heart." It is conceded by + the medical profession that tobacco causes cancer of the tongue and lips, + dimness of vision, deafness, dyspepsia, bronchitis, consumption, heart + palpitation, spinal weakness, chronic tonsillitis, paralysis, impotency, + apoplexy, and insanity. It is held by some men that tobacco aids + digestion. Dr. McAllister, of Utica, New York, says that it "weakens the + organs of Digestion and assimilation, and at length plunges one into all + the horrors of dyspepsia." + </p> + <p> + *Tobacco dulls the mind.* It does this not only by wasting the body, the + physical basis of the mind, but it does it through habits of intellectual + idleness, which the user of tobacco naturally forms. Whoever heard of a + first-class loafer who did not e-a-t the weed or burn it, or both? On the + rail train recently we were compelled to ride for an hour in the + smoking-car, which Dr. Talmage has called "the nastiest place in + Christendom." In front of me sat a young man, drawing and puffing away at + a cigar, polluting the entire region about him. In the short hour enough + time was lost by that young man to have carefully read ten pages of the + best standard literature. All this we observed by an occasional glance + from the delightful volume in our own hands. The ordinary user of tobacco + has little taste for reading, little passion for knowledge, and + superficial habits of continued reasoning. His leisure moments are + absorbed in the sense-gratification of the weed. But if as much attention + had been given in acquiring the habit of reading as had been given in + learning the use of tobacco, the most valuable of all habits would take + the place of one of the most useless of all habits. When we see a person + trying to read with a cigar or a pipe in his mouth, Knowing that + nine-tenths of his real consciousness is given to his smoking, and + one-tenth to what he is reading, we are reminded of the commercial + traveler who "wanted to make the show of a library at home, so he wrote to + a book merchant in London, saying: 'Send me six feet of theology, and + about as much metaphysics, and near a yard of civil law in old folio.'" + Not a sentimentalist, a reformer, nor a crank, but Dr. James Copeland + says: "Tobacco weakens the nervous powers, favors a dreamy, imaginative, + and imbecile state of mind, produces indolence and incapacity for manly or + continuous exertion, and sinks its votary into a state of careless + inactivity and selfish enjoyment of vice." Professor L. H. Gause writes: + "The intellect becomes duller and duller, until at last it is painful to + make any intellectual effort, and we sink into a sensuous or sensual + animal. Any one who would retain a clear mind, sound lungs, undisturbed + heart, or healthy stomach, must not smoke or chew the poisonous plant." It + is commonly known that in a number of American and foreign colleges, by + actual testing, the non-user of tobacco is superior in mental vigor and + scholarship to the user of it. In view of this fact, our Government will + not allow the use of tobacco at West Point or at Annapolis. And in the + examinations in the naval academy a large percentage of those who fail to + pass, fail because of the evil effects of smoking. + </p> + <p> + Tobacco drains the pocketbook. "Will you please look through my mouth and + nose?" asked a young man once of a New York physician. The man of medicine + did so, and reported nothing there. "Strange! Look again. Why, sir, I have + blown ten thousand dollars—a great tobacco plantation and a score of + slaves—through that nose." The Partido cigar regularly retails at + from twenty-five to thirty cents each. An ordinary smoker will smoke four + cigars a day. Three hundred and sixty-five dollars a year, besides his + treating. A small fortune every ten years! A neighbor of ours on the farm + used to go to town in the spring and buy enough chewing tobacco to last + him until after harvest, and flour to last the family for two weeks. Among + all classes of people this useless drain of the pocketbook is increasing. + In our country last year more money was spent for tobacco than was spent + for foreign missions, for the Churches, and for public education, all + combined. Our tobacco bill in one year costs our Nation more than our + furniture and our boots and shoes; more than our flour and our silk goods; + one hundred and forty-five million dollars more than all our printing and + publishing; one hundred and thirty-five million dollars more than the + sawed lumber of the Nation. Each year France buys of us twenty-nine + million pounds of tobacco, Great Britain fifty millions, and Germany + sixty-nine million pounds, to say nothing of how much these nations import + from other countries. Never before has the use of tobacco been so + widespread as to-day. "The Turks and Persians are the greatest smokers in + the world. In India all classes and both sexes smoke; in China the + practice—perhaps there more ancient—is universal, and girls + from the age of eight or nine wear as an appendage to their dress a small + silken pocket to hold tobacco and a pipe." Nor can the expense and + widespread use of tobacco be defended on the ground that it is a luxury, + for the abstainer from tobacco counts it the greater luxury not to use it. + The only explanation for its use is, that it is a habit which binds one + hand and foot, and from which no person with ordinary will power in his + own strength can free himself. + </p> + <p> + Tobacco blunts the moral nature. It is not certain how long tobacco has + been used as a narcotic. Some authorities hold that the smoking of tobacco + was an ancient custom among the Chinese. But if this is true, we know that + it did not spread among the neighboring nations. When Columbus came to + America he found the natives of the West Indies and the American Indian + smoking the weed. With the Indian its use has always had a religious and + legal significance. Early in the sixteenth century tobacco was introduced + into England, later into Spain, and still later, in 1560, into Italy. Used + for its medicinal properties at first, soon it came to be used as a + luxury. The popes of Italy saw its harm and thundered against it. The + priests and sultans of Turkey declared smoking a crime. One sultan made it + punishable with death. The pipes of smokers were thrust through their + noses in Turkey, and in Russia the noses of smokers were cut off in the + earlier part of the seventeenth century. "King James I of England issued a + counterblast to tobacco, in which he described its use as a 'custom + loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous + to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fumes thereof nearest resembling + the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.'" As one + contrasts this sentiment with the practice of the present sovereign of + England, his breath is almost taken away in his great fall from the + sublime to the ridiculous! + </p> + <p> + While we do not believe a moderate use of tobacco for a mature person is + necessarily a sin, yet we do believe that it does blunt the moral sense, + and soon leads to spiritual weakness and indifference, which are sins. To + love God with all one's heart, mind, soul, and strength, and one's + neighbor as himself, means not only a denial of that which is questionable + in morals, but a practice of that which is positively good. However noble + or worthy in character may be some who use tobacco, yet by common consent + it is a "tool of the devil." Every den of gamblers, every low-down + grogshop, every smoking-car, every public resort and waiting-room + departments for men, every rendezvous of rogues, loafers, villains, and + tramps is thoroughly saturated with the vile stench of the cuspidor and + the poisonous odors of the pipe and cigar. "Rev. Dr. Cox abandoned tobacco + after a drunken loafer asked him for a light." Not until then had he seen + and felt the disreputable fraternity that existed between the users of + tobacco. + </p> + <p> + Owen Meredith gives us a standard of strength and freedom, which is an + inspiration to every lover of rounded, perfected manhood and womanhood: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Strong is that man, he only strong, + To whose well-ordered will belong, + For service and delight, + All powers that in the face of wrong + Establish right. + + And free is he, and only he, + Who, from his tyrant passions free, + By fortune undismayed, + Has power within himself to be, + By self obeyed. + + If such a man there be, where'er + Beneath the sun and moon he fare, + He can not fare amiss; + Great nature hath him in her care. + Her cause is his." +</pre> + <p> + Only let the "will," the "powers," the "freedom," and the "self" of which + the writer speaks become the "Christ will," the "Christ powers," the + "Christ freedom," and the "Christ self." Then the strongest chains of + bondage must fly into flinters. For "if the Son make you free, ye are free + indeed." (John viii, 36.) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. DRUNKENNESS. + </h2> + <p> + I. A TEMPERANCE PLATFORM. + </p> + <p> + WE bring to you three words of counsel with respect to this subject. + First, Beware of the Social Glass; second, Study the Drink Evil; third, + Openly oppose it. This is a Temperance Platform upon which every sober, + informed, and conscientious person may stand. Would it be narrow or + uncharitable to assert that not to stand upon this platform argues that + one is not sober, or not informed, or not conscientious? The crying need + of to-day is, that men and women shall be urged into positions of + conviction and activity against this most colossal evil of our time. In + our country the responsibility for drunkenness rests not with the + illiterate, blasphemous, ex-prison convicts who operate the 250,000 + saloons of our Nation, nor yet with the 250,000 finished products of the + saloon who go down into drunkards' graves every year, but with the sober, + respectable, hard-working, voting citizens of our country. Nor does this + exempt women, whose opportunity to shape the moral and political + convictions of the home is far greater than that of the men. When the + women of America say to the saloon, You go! the saloon will have to go. + The moral and political measures of any people are easily traceable to the + sisters and wives and mothers of that people. You and I and every ordinary + citizen of our country had as well try to escape our own shadow, as to try + to escape the responsibility that rests upon us for the drunkenness of our + people. To help us to do our whole duty in our day and generation in this + matter is the purpose of our message. + </p> + <p> + II. BEWARE OF THE SOCIAL GLASS. + </p> + <p> + The first and least thing that one can do to destroy drunkenness, is to be + a total abstainer. Beware of the social glass! But quickly one replies, + "Why should there be any social glass?" "Why allow sparkling, attractive + springs of refreshing poison to issue forth in all of our social centers, + and then cry to our sons and daughters, to our brothers and sisters, + Beware?" My friend, we must deal with facts as they are. There should not + be a social glass; but what has that to do with the fact that the social + glass is here? You answer, "Why allow these fountains of death to exist?" + while we cry to our loved ones, "Beware!" We do not advocate the presence + of these fountains; but while we seek to destroy them beseechingly we cry, + "Beware!" The social factor in the liquor traffic is its Gibraltar of + defense. Rare is the young man who has the intellectual stamina and moral + courage to resist the invitations to take a social drink. And in our + frontier and foreign towns many of our bright and respected girls use the + social glass. But in its use is the beginning of a fateful end. The + subtlest thing in this world is sin. Listen! + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Sin is a monster of so frightful mien; + To be hated needs but to be seen; + But seen too oft, familiar with the face, + We first endure, then pity, then embrace." +</pre> + <p> + The subtle thing about it is, that the first embracing of any sin seems to + be but a trifling, an occasional affair. For one who lives in an ordinary + city of a thousand inhabitants or upwards, unless he is an "out-and-out" + Christian and selects only associates like himself, it becomes a real + Embarrassment not to indulge in a social drink. It seems polite, clever, + the kindly thing to do. And the sad fact is, that the majority of + unchristian young people and many older ones do not decline. To prove this + we have but to look at the human wrecks along the shore. Two young men + lived near our home. Their parents were well-to-do. The family grew tired + of the farm and moved to town. The boys fell in with bad company. They did + not decline the social glass. Soon they furnished other young men with + drink from their own pocket. This was fifteen years ago. To-day one of + them is a hardened sinner, violent in his passions and blasphemous against + God. The other one, having spent a term in our Illinois State University + at Champaign, married a beautiful neighbor girl and moved to Missouri. + Here he lived off the money of his father's estate, practicing his + early-learned habits of drinking, gambling, and loafing. He moved from + State to State until, finally left in poverty, he tended bar in a saloon. + While visiting with relatives in his old neighborhood a few years ago he + stole a watch and some money from his own nephew, and was tried in the + courts, and sentenced to the penitentiary for one year. His wife, having + carried the burden of disgrace and want through all these years, with the + seven unfortunate children were released from him to struggle alone. All + this we have seen with our own eyes as the years have come and gone. The + downfall and ruin of this young man, and the unsaved fate of his brother, + easily may be traceable to the "social glass" and the boon companions of + the social glass—tobacco and playing-cards. Last year I met a man + who had prided himself in the fact that he could drink or let it alone, + and thought that it was all right to take a "social glass" occasionally. + Election time came around; he fell in with his friends, and, as one always + will do sooner or later who tampers with it at all, went too far. Before + he knew it he was as low in the gutter as a beast. It was three days + before he was a sober man again. He work had ceased, he had disgusted his + fellow-workmen, disgraced his Christian family, and had humiliated himself + so that he was ashamed to look any man in the face until he had repented + of his sins before God, and had promised Him, by His help, that he would + never drink another glass. What a pleasure it was to hear that old man, as + he is close to sixty years of age, to hear him tell in a spirited + religious service of how he had strayed from his path and had got lost in + the woods, but thanked God that he was out of the woods, and by His help + would remain out. When we become undone in Christ He lifts us up and + starts us on our new way rejoicing in His love. If Christ Himself were + here in body, do you know what He would advise on this point? He would + say: "As it is written;" "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when + it giveth its color in the cup, when it goeth down smoothly: at the last + it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." Beware of the social + glass, my friend, for though it promises pleasure, it gives but pain; it + promises joy, it gives but sorrow; it promises deliverance, it gives but + eternal death! + </p> + <p> + III. STUDY THE DRINK EVIL. + </p> + <p> + We hear it said, "No use to picture the horrors of the drink evil; every + one knows them already." In part, this is true. All of us know more than + we wish it were possible to be true; and yet no one can ever realize its + horrors until caught, and torn, and mangled in its pinching, jagged, + griping meshes. It is one thing to know by a distant glance, it is another + thing to know by the pangs of a broken heart and of a wrecked life. For + those who are not thus caught in its meshes to realize its horrors so as + to seek its destruction but one course is possible; namely, To study the + evil. Let the teacher tell of its ravages; let the minister proclaim its + curses; let the poet sing it; the painter paint it; the editor report it; + the novelist portray it; the scientist describe it; the philosopher decry + it; the sisters and wives and mothers denounce it—until all shall + unite in smiting it to its death! + </p> + <p> + We should study the drink evil in its relation to disease. That strong + drink tends to produce disease is no longer questioned. "During the + cholera in New York City in 1832, of two hundred and four cases in the + Park Hospital only six were temperate, and all of these recovered; while + one hundred and twenty-two of the others died. In Great Britain in the + same year five-sixths of all who perished were intemperate. In one or two + villages every drunkard died, while not a single member of a temperance + society lost his life." "In Paisley, England, in 1848, there were three + hundred and thirty-seven cases of cholera, and every case except one was a + dram-drinker. The cases of cholera were one for every one hundred and + eighty-one inhabitants; but among the temperate portion there was only one + case to each two thousand." "Of three hundred and eighty-six persons + connected with the total abstinence societies only one died, and he was a + reformed drunkard" of three months' standing. "In New Orleans during the + last epidemic the order of the Sons of Temperance appointed a committee to + ascertain the number of deaths from cholera among their members. It was + found that there were twelve hundred and forty-three members in the city + and suburbs, and among these only three deaths had occurred, being only + one-sixth the average death-rate." "In New York, in 1832, only two out of + five thousand members of temperance societies died." The Northwestern Life + Insurance Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one of the oldest and most + successful Companies in the Northwest, has lived for nearly forty years + next neighbor to lager beer interests. The shrewd men of this company have + studied the influence of the beer industry upon those who engage in it. + The result is, that they will no longer grant an insurance policy to a + beer-brewer, nor to any one in any way engaged in the business. In their + own words their reason is this: "Our statistics show that our business has + been injured by the short lives of those men who drink lager beer." + </p> + <p> + Then, we need to study the drink evil in its relation to society. "A + recent report of the chaplain of the Madalen Society of New York shows + that of eight-nine fallen women in the asylum at one time, all but two + ascribed their fall to the effect of the drink habit." "A lady missionary + makes the statement that of two thousand sinful women known personally to + her, there were only ten cases in which intoxicating liquors were not + largely responsible for their fall." "A leading worker for reform in New + York says that the suppression of the curse of strong drink would include + the destruction of ninety-nine of every one hundred of the houses of + ill-fame." "A missionary on going at the written request of one of these + lost women to rescue her from a den of infamy remonstrated with her for + being even then slightly under the influence of drink." "Why," was her + indignant reply as tears filled her eyes, "do you suppose we girls are so + dead that we have lost our memories of mother, home, and everything good? + No, indeed; and if it were not for liquor and opium, we would all have to + run away from our present life or go mad by pleadings of our own hearts + and home memories." + </p> + <p> + Only by a study of the drink evil shall we know its ravages in the home. + Those of us who have lived in the pure air of free, country home-life can + not easily realize the moral plague of drunkenness as it blights the home + in the crowded districts of city slum life. Nor is the home of the city + alone cursed by the drink evil. Three years ago this last holiday season + we were doing some evangelistic work in a neighboring town, a mere village + of a couple hundred inhabitants. I shall never forget how the mother of a + dejected home cried and pleaded for help from the ravages of her drunken + husband. She said that he had spent all of his wages, and had made no + provision for the home, in furniture, in books for the children, nor in + clothing for them nor for her. She had come almost to despair, and was + blaming God for allowing her little ones to suffer because of a worthless + man. O, the world is full of this sort of thing to-day, if we only knew + the sighs and heartaches and blasted hopes of those who suffer! In a + smoking-car one day a commercial traveler refused to drink with his old + comrades, by saying: "No, I won't drink with you to-day, boys. The fact + is, boys, I have sworn off." He was taunted and laughed at, and urged to + tell what had happened to him. They said: "If you've quit drinking, + something's up; tell us what it is." "Well, boys," he said, "I will, + though I know you will laugh at me; but I will tell you all the same. I + have been a drinking man all my life, and have kept it up since I was + married, as you all know. I love whisky; it's as sweet in my mouth as + sugar, and God only knows how I'll quit it. For seven years not a day has + passed over my head that I didn't have at least one drink. But I am done. + Yesterday I was in Chicago. Down on South Clark Street a customer of mine + keeps a pawnshop in connection with his business. I called on him, and + while I was there a young man of not more than twenty-five, wearing + thread-bare clothes, and looking as hard as if he had not seen a sober day + for a month, came in with a little package in his hand. Tremblingly he + unwrapped it, and handed the articles to the pawnbroker, saying, 'Give me + ten cents.' And, boys, what do you suppose that package was? A pair of + baby's shoes; little things with the buttons only a trifle soiled, as if + they had been worn once or twice. 'Where did you get them?' asked the + pawnbroker. 'Got 'em at home,' replied the man, who had an intelligent + face and the manner of a gentleman, despite his sad condition. 'My wife + bought 'em for our baby. Give me ten cents for 'em. I want a drink.' 'You + had better take those back to your wife; the baby will need them,' said + the pawnbroker. 'No, she won't..She's lying at home now; she died last + night.' As he said this the poor fellow broke down, bowed his head on the + showcase, and cried like a child. 'Boys,' said the drummer, 'you can laugh + if you want to, but I have a baby of my own at home, and by the help of + God I'll never drink another drop.'" The man went into another car, the + bottle had disappeared, and the boys pretended to read some papers that + lay scattered about the car. Ah, this is only one out of hundreds of such + scenes that are being enacted every day in our saloon-cursed cities. + </p> + <p> + We should study the drink evil to see how it makes people poor and keeps + them poor. A story is told of a drinking man who related to his family a + dream that he had had the night before. He dreamed that he saw three cats, + a fat one, a lean one, and a blind one; and he was anxious to know what it + meant that he should have such a strange dream. Quickly his little boy + answered, "I can tell what it means. The fat cat is the saloon-keeper who + sells you drink, the lean cat is mother and me, and the blind cat is + yourself." "In one of our large cities," one day, "a laboring man, leaving + a saloon, saw a costly carriage and pair of horses standing in front, + occupied by two ladies elegantly dressed, conversing with the proprietor. + 'Whose establishment is that?' he said to the saloon-keeper, as the + carriage rolled away. 'It is mine,' replied the dealer, proudly. 'It cost + thirty-five hundred dollars. My wife and daughter couldn't do without + that.' The mechanic bowed his head a moment in deep thought; then, looking + up, said with the energy of a man suddenly aroused by some startling + flash, 'I see it!' 'I see it!' 'See what?' asked the saloonkeeper. 'See + where for years my wages have gone. I helped to pay for that carriage, for + those horses and gold-mounted harnesses, and for the silks and laces for + your family. The money I have earned, that should have given my wife and + children a home of their own and good clothing, I have spent at your bar. + By the help of God I will never spend another dime for drink.'" South + Milwaukee has five thousand inhabitants. Three large mills operate there. + A reliable business man, foreman in one of the mills, told me that the + laboring people of South Milwaukee put $25,000 each month into the tills + of the saloons. Dr. J.O. Peck, one of the most successful pastor + evangelists of recent years, tells of a man who crossed Chelsea Ferry to + Boston one morning, and turned into Commercial Street for his usual glass. + As he poured out the poison, the saloonkeeper's wife came in, and + confidently asked for $500 to purchase an elegant shawl she had seen at + the store of Jordan, March & Co.. He drew from his pocket a + well-filled pocketbook, and counted out the money. The man outside the + counter pushed aside his glass untouched, and laying down ten cents + departed in silence. That very morning his devoted Christian wife had + asked him for ten dollars to buy a cloak, so that she might look + presentable at church. He had crossly told her he had not the money. As he + left the saloon he thought, 'Here I am helping to pay for + five-hundred-dollar cashmeres for that man's wife, but my wife asks in + vain for a ten-dollar cloak. I can't stand this. I have spent my last dime + for drink.' When the next pay-day came that meek, loving wife was + surprised with a beautiful cloak from her reformed husband. She could + scarcely believe her own eyes as he laid it on the table. 'There, Emma, is + a present for you. I have been a fool long enough; forgive me for the + past, and I will never touch liquor again.' She threw her arms around his + neck, and the hot tears told her heartfelt joy as she sobbed out: + 'Charley, I thank you a thousand times. I never expected so nice a cloak. + This seems like other days. You are so good, and I am so happy.'" The + drink bill of our Nation for last year was over a billion of dollars, more + money than was spent for missions—home and foreign—for all of + our Churches, for public education, for all the operations of courts of + justice and of public officers, and at least for two of the staple + products of use in our country, such as furniture and flour. More than for + all these was the money that our Nation paid for drink last year. When the + people of our country get their eyes open to the cost and degradation of + the drink evil, something definite will be done by every one against it. + </p> + <p> + The drink evil in its relation to lawlessness and crime, and to political + corruption, reveal still more ghastly aspects of it than we have yet + mentioned. The saloon strikes at the very heart, not only of law and + order, but at personal liberty and justice in securing law and order. It + was in a police court in Cincinnati on Monday morning. Before the judge + stood two stalwart policeman and a woman. She was charged with disorderly + conduct on the street and with disturbing the peace. The policemen were + sworn, and one of them told this story, to which the other one agreed. He + said: "I arrested the woman in front of a saloon on Broadway on Saturday + night. She had raised a great disturbance, was fighting and brawling with + men in the saloon, and the saloonkeeper put her out. She used the foulest + language, and with an awful threat struck at the saloonkeeper with all her + force. I then arrested her, took her to the detention house, and locked + her up." The saloonkeeper was called to the witness stand, and said: "I + know dis voman's vas making disturbance by my saloon. She comes and she + makes troubles, und she fights mit me, und I put her de door oud. I know + her all along. She vas pad vomans." The judge turned to the trembling + woman and said: "This is a pretty clear case, madam; have you anything to + say in your defense?" "Yes, Judge," she answered, in a strangely calm, + though trembling, voice: "I am not guilty of the charge, and these men + standing before you have perjured their souls to prevent me from telling + the truth. It was they, not I, who violated the law. I was in the saloon + last Saturday night, and I will tell you how it happened. My husband did + not come home from work that evening, and I feared he had gone to the + saloon. I knew he must have drawn his week's wages, and we needed it all + so badly. I put the little ones to bed, and then waited all alone through + the weary hours until after the city clock struck twelve. Then I thought + the saloons will be closed, and he will be put out on to the street. + Probably he will not be able to get home, and the police will arrest him + and lock him up. I must go and find him, and bring him home. I wrapped a + shawl about me and started out, leaving the little ones asleep in bed. + And, Judge, I have not seen them since." She did not give way to tears, + for the worst grief can not weep. She continued: "I went to the saloon, + where I thought most like he would be. It was about twenty minutes after + twelve; but the saloon, that man's saloon"—pointing to the + saloonkeeper, who now wanted to crouch out of sight—"was still open, + and my husband and these two policemen were standing at the bar drinking + together. I stepped up to my husband and asked him to go home with me; but + the men laughed at him, and the saloonkeeper ordered me out. I said, 'No, + I want my husband to go home with me.' Then I tried to tell him how badly + we were needing the money that he was spending; and then the saloon-keeper + cursed me, and told me to leave. Then I confess I could stand no more, and + said, 'You ought to be prosecuted for violating the midnight closing law.' + At this the saloonkeeper and policemen rushed upon me and put me into the + street; and one of the policemen, grasping my arm like a vice, hissed in + my ear, 'I'll get you a thirty days' sentence in the workhouse, and then + we'll see what you think about suing people.' He called a patrol wagon, + pushed me in, and drove to jail; and, Judge, you know the rest. All day + yesterday I was locked up, my children at home alone, with no fire, no + food, no mother." The judge dismissed the woman; but the saloonkeeper, the + perjured policemen, nor the corrupt judge were ever prosecuted for their + unlawfulness. The whole affair was dropped because the saloon power in + Cincinnati reigns supreme. "This case is a matter of record in the + Cincinnati courts." It is a disgraceful fact that the liquor-traffic rules + in politics to-day. A saloonkeeper in Richmond, Virginia, overheard some + one talking of reform in municipal politics, when he scornfully said: "Any + bar-room in Richmond is a bigger man in politics than all the Churches in + Richmond put together." + </p> + <p> + IV. THE PRACTICAL QUESTION FOR US HERE AND NOW IS, How may we openly + oppose this drink evil? + </p> + <p> + The Churches need not expect a widespread revival of religion until + professing Christians do their duty with respect to the saloon. Mothers + and fathers need not expect their sons to remain sober while the saloon + opens to them day and night. Wives need not expect their husbands to + remain devoted and loyal until the saloon is abolished. What is our duty? + How shall we oppose the evil? How do the American people deal with evils + when they deal with them at all? When Great Britain went a little too far + in "taxation without representation," what course did the American + Colonies adopt in remedying the evil? Their chief men said, "These + Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States." The + popular voice of the people decided it. When the British Government unduly + impressed American seamen, how was the difficulty settled? The + representatives of the people, their lawmakers, declared war against the + opposing nation, and forced her to cease her oppression. The popular vote + decided it. When Negro slavery darkened the entire sky of our country, and + caused our leading men to realize that we could not long exist half-slave + and half-free, how was the dark cloud dispelled? The representatives of + our people, the lawmakers of the land, in letters of blood wrote the + immortal Thirteenth Amendment to the American Constitution: "Neither + slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, + whereof the person shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the + United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." When we wanted + to increase our territory in 1803, and in 1845, and in 1867, how did we go + about it? The representatives of the people, the lawmakers of the land, + voted to make the purchases, and they were made. When a Territory is + organized, or a State comes into the Union, what is done? The + representatives of the people, the lawmakers of the land, vote upon it, + and it is done. When treaties are to be made with foreign countries; when + immigration of foreigners is to be regulated; when money is to be borrowed + or coined; when post-offices and post-roads are to be established; when + counterfeiting is to be punished, and public abuses are to be reformed, + whose business is it? The Constitution of the United States says the + representatives of the people, the lawmakers of the land, have this power. + When will the drink evil cease in our country? When our representatives in + Congress, or lawmakers, stand for the abolition of the American saloon, + and vote it out of existence; then, and not until then, will drunkenness + cease. When will we have representatives in Congress, lawmakers who will + stand for the abolition of the saloon, and who will vote it out of + existence? Not until you and I have select them, and place them there with + our vote. To expect Christian temperance in our country from any other + source is absolute folly. + </p> + <p> + The abolition of drunkenness by local option is selfish, unpractical, and + unscriptural. You vote the liquor-traffic out of your town; we vote it in + ours. Remember every saloon exists only by vote of the people. Your young + people come over to our town for drink. We have the curse of God upon us. + "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink." (Hab. Ii, 15.) It is + unpractical, for so long as intoxicants are made they will be sold. It is + selfish, for to vote against the saloon in your town election, and to vote + for it in your State or National election, is to drive the mad-dog on past + your door to the door of your neighbor, when you might have killed him. + </p> + <p> + The abolition of drunkenness by regulating the traffic through license is + the most gigantic delusion that Satan ever worked upon an intelligent + people. It is a well-known truth that "limitation is the secret of power." + The best way to provoke an early marriage between devoted lovers is + bitterly to oppose them. The stream whose water spreads over its low banks + is without depth and current and power. But confine the waters between + high, narrow banks, the bed of the stream is deepened, and its mighty + current supports animal life and turns the wheels of mill and factory. The + regulation of the liquor-traffic by license makes it a financial and + political power second to none in America to-day. To vote for any party or + man who advocates liquor license, is to give a loyal support to the + American saloon. + </p> + <p> + To expect the abolition of drunkenness solely through processes of + education is to preach one thing and to practice another. It is to + perpetuate an evil that costs two hundred and fifty thousand precious + lives every year. It is to leave to the next generation a work that God + expects us to do here and now. Dr. Banks relates an incident witnessed by + Major Hilton on the coast of Scotland. "Just at the break of day the + people of a little hamlet on the coast were awakened by the boom of a + cannon over the stormy waves. They knew what it meant, for frequently they + had heard before the same signal of distress. Some poor souls were out + beyond the breakers perishing on a wrecked vessel, and in their last + extremity calling wildly for help. The people hastened from their houses + to the shore. Out there in the distance was a dismantled vessel pounding + itself to pieces. Perishing fellow-beings were clinging to the rigging, + and every now and then some one was swept off into the sea by the furious + waves. The life-saving crew was soon gathered. 'Man the life-boat!' cried + the man. "Where is Hardy?" But the foreman of the crew was not there, and + the danger was imminent. Aid must be immediate, or all would be lost. The + next in command sprang into the frail boat, followed by the rest, all + taking their lives in their hands in the hope of saving others. O, how + those on the shore watched their brave loved ones as they dashed on, now + over, now almost under the waves! They reached the wreck. Like angels of + deliverance they filled their craft with almost dying men—men lost + but for them. Back again they toiled, pulling for the shore, bearing their + precious freight. The first man to help them land was Hardy, whose words + rang above the roar of the breakers: "Are you all here? Did you save them + all?" With saddened faces the reply came: "All but one. He couldn't help + himself at all. We had all we could carry. We couldn't save the last one." + "Man the life-boat again!" shouted Hardy. "I will go. What! leave one + there to die alone? A fellow-creature there, and we on shore? Man the + life-boat now! We'll save him yet." But who is this aged woman with worn + garments and disheveled hair, with agonized entreaty falling upon her + knees beside this brave, strong man? It is his mother! "O, my son! your + father was drowned in a storm like this. Your brother Will left me eight + years ago, and I have never seen his face since the day he sailed. No + doubt he, too, has found a watery grave. And now you will be lost, and I + am old and poor. O, stay with me!" "Mother," cried the man, "where one is + in peril, there is my place. If I am lost, God surely will care for you." + The plea of earnest faith prevailed. With a "God bless you, my boy!" she + released him, and speeded him on his way. Once more they watched and + prayed and waited—those on the shore—while every muscle was + strained toward the fast-sinking ship by those in the life-saving boat. At + last it reached the vessel. The clinging figure was lifted and helped to + its place. Back came the boat. How eagerly they looked and called in + encouragement, and cheered as it came nearer! "Did you get him?" was the + cry from the shore. Lifting his hands to his mouth to trumpet the words on + in advance of their landing, Hardy called back above the roar of the + storm, "Tell mother it is brother Will!" + </p> + <p> + My friend, simply talking and praying will not save our loved ones from + drunkards' graves. We must man the life-boat of municipal, State, and + National reform, and vote for principle and Christian temperance until we + save the last man. He may be "brother Will." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. GAMBLING, CARD-PLAYING + </h2> + <p> + GAMBLING has become a moral plague of modern society. In one form or + another it has entered the rank and file of every department of life—in + private parlor over cards; in hotel drawing-room over election reports; in + college athletic grounds over brains and brawn; in the counting-room over + the price of stocks; in the racing tournament over jockeying and speed; in + the Board of Trade hall over future prices of the necessaries of life; in + the den of iniquity at dice; in the drinking saloon at the slot-machine; + in the people's fair at the wheel of fortune; in the gambling den itself + at every conceivable form of swindling trick and game. Gambling has come + to be almost an omnipresent evil. In treating this subject, it is our + purpose to point out something of the nature of its evil, not only that we + may be kept from it but that we may save others whom it threatens to + destroy. + </p> + <p> + Gambling grows out of a misuse of the natural tendency to take risks. A + social vice is some social right misused. Men have the social right to + congregate to talk over measures of social and economic welfare. But if + they discuss measures which oppose the principles of free Government, + their meeting together becomes a crime against the State. A personal vice + is some personal right misused. As some one has put it, "Vice is virtue + gone mad." It is a personal right and a personal virtue to be charitable, + even beneficent. But since justice comes before mercy, if one uses for + charity that which should be used in payment of debt, his virtue of + beneficence becomes a vice of theft. So it is with gambling. It is giving + the natural tendency to chance, to risk an illegitimate play. The person + who is afraid to risk anything accomplishes but little in any way, is + seldom a speculator, and never a gambler. Usually the gambler is the man + who is naturally full of hazard, who loves to run risks, to take chances. + Nor will one find a more practical and useful tendency in one's make-up + than this. See the discoverer of America and his brave crew for days and + days sailing across an unknown sea toward an unknown land. But that was + the price of a New World. Note the hazard and risk of our Pilgrim Fathers. + But they gave to the world a new colonization. See the Second greatest + American on his knees before Almighty God, promising him that he would + free four million of slaves, providing General Lee should be driven back + out of Maryland. General Lee was driven back, and that immortal though + most hazardous of all documents, from man's point of view, was read to his + Cabinet and signed by Abraham Lincoln. All great men have taken great + risks. Not a section of the United States has been settled without some + risk. No business enterprise is launched without some risk. To secure an + education, to learn a trade, to marry a wife, all involve some risk, much + risk. The tendency to risk, to hazard, to chance it is a practical and + useful tendency. Only let this tendency be governed always by wisdom and + justice. No person ever became a gambler until consciously or + unconsciously he forfeited wisdom and justice in his chances and risks. + </p> + <p> + Gambling takes a variety of forms. First of all is the professional + gambler. He has no other business. His investment is a "pack of cards" and + a box of "dice. See him with his long, slender fingers; with his shaggy, + unkempt hair; with keen eyes, and a sordid countenance. He is prepared to + "rake in" a thousand dollars a night, and would not hesitate to strip any + man of his fortune. The professional is found at county fairs, on railway + trains, in gilded dens, and at public resorts. Being a professional + outlaw, and subject at any time to arrest and imprisonment, usually he has + an accomplice. Sometimes a gang work together, so that it is with perfect + ease they may relieve any unwary novice of his money. They know human + nature on its low, mercenary side, and soon can find their man in a crowd. + But few persons have started out in life having it for their aim to get + something for nothing who, sooner or later, have not been "taken in" by + this gang of swindlers. They know their kind. The end of the professional + gambler is final loss and ruin. He will make $100, he will make $500, he + will make $1,000, he will make $2,000; then he will lose all. Then he will + borrow some money and start anew. And again he will make $200, he will + make $600, he will make $1,200, and he will lose all. Like the winebibber + and the professional murderer, the professional gambler has his den. Not a + large city in the world is without these haunts of vice. Who is it that + feeds and supports them? The novice at cards and dice, husbands and sons + of respectable families, just as the occasional dram-taker supports the + saloon. As one has asked: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Could fools to keep their own contrive, + On whom, on what could gamesters thrive?" + —GAY. +</pre> + <p> + The penny novice seeks the penny gambling den. The aristocratic speculator + seeks the gilded gambling den. The expert trickster of large luck and + large fortune makes his way to Monte Carlo, the gambling Mecca of the + world. Monte Carlo is a famous resort situated in the northwest part of + Italy. It is notorious for its gambling saloon. This city of nearly four + thousand inhabitants is located in Monaco, the smallest independent + country in the world. Monaco is about eight miles square, and lies on a + "barren, rocky ridge between the sea and lofty, almost inaccessible + rocks." The soil is barren, except in small tracts which are used for + fruit-gardens. For centuries the inhabitants, the Monagasques, lived by + marauding expeditions, both by sea and land, and by slight commerce with + Genoa, Marseilles, and Nice. But in the last century the people have + converted their country and city into a world-wide resort. In 1860, M. + Blanc, a famous gambler and saloon proprietor of two German cities, went + to Monaco, and for an immense sum of money received sole privilege to + convert their province into a gambler's paradise. Soon immense marble + buildings arose in the midst of such beauty as to make it a modern rival + of the gardens of ancient Babylon. Costly statues, gorgeous vases, + graceful fountains, elegant basins, and beautiful terraces, all of which + are made alluring by blooming plants, by light illuminations, and by free + concerts of music day and night,—these are the attractions in this + gambler's paradise. Here fortunes are won and lost in a night. For, as has + been sung, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Dice will run the contrary way, + As well is known to all who play, + And cards will conspire as in treason." + —HOOD. +</pre> + <p> + Then we have the speculator in commerce. He is the denizen of the Board of + Trade hall. He speculates on the prices of next week's, of next month's + meat and breadstuffs. And still this sort of gambler may be a book-keeper + in a bank, a farm hand, or a clerk in a grocery store. It ha become so + simple and so common a practice for persons to speculate on the markets + that any person with ten dollars, or twenty-five dollars, or a hundred + dollars may take his chances. Tens of thousands of dollars to-day are + being swept into this silent whirlpool, the gambler's commerce. + </p> + <p> + Also we have the pool gambler. He is actuated by love of excitement. He is + found at the race course, at the baseball diamond, and at all sorts of + contests, where he may find opportunity to be on the outcome. It is a + common thing for young men to steal their employers' money, for young + girls to take their hard-earned wages to stake on games and races. + Recently $175,000 were paid for the exclusive gambling right for one year + at the Washington Park races in Chicago. + </p> + <p> + Last of all, we have the society gambler. He is growing numerous to-day. + He is the same person, whether clad in full dress in the drawing-room of + the worldling, or in common dress around the fireside of the unchristian + Church member. Like the professional gambler his instrument is "cards," + and he can shake the "dice." His games are whist, progressive euchre, and + sometimes poker. The stakes now are not money, but the gratification of + excitement and the indulgence of passion. One, two, four hours go by + almost unnoticed. Prizes are offered for the best player. As a Catholic + priest told me after he had won a small sum with cards. Said he: "We just + put up a few dollars, you know, to lend devotions to the game." So prizes + are offered in the social gambling "to lend devotions to the game." It is + under such circumstances as these that young men and young women receive + their first lessons in card-playing. A passion for card-playing is called + forth, developed, and must be satisfied, even though it takes one in low + places among vile associates. "A Christian gentleman came from England to + this country. He brought with him $70,000 in money. He proposed to invest + the money. Part of it was his own; part of it was his mother's. He went + into a Christian Church; was coldly received, and said to himself: 'Well, + if that is the kind of Christian people they have in America, I don't want + to associate with them much.' So he joined a card-playing party. He went + with them from time to time. He went a little further on, and after a + while he was in games of chance, and lost all of the $70,000. Worse than + that, he lost all of his good morals; and on the night that he blew his + brains out he wrote to the lady to whom he was affianced an apology for + the crime he was about to commit, and saying in so many words, 'My first + step to ruin was the joining of that card party.'" + </p> + <p> + In all of its forms gambling is loaded down with evil. In the first place + it destroys the incentive to honest work. Let the average young man win a + hundred dollars at the races, it will so turn his head against slow and + honorable ways of getting money that he will watch for every opportunity + to get it easily and abundantly. The young girl who risks fifty cents and + gets back fifty dollars will no longer be of service as a quiet, contented + worker. The spirit of speculation, the passion to get something for + nothing, is calculated to destroy the incentive to honest toil and to + honorable methods of gain. As one values his character, as he values his + peace of mind, so should he zealously guard himself against + overfascinating games of chance. Once we had a family in our Church who + played cards, and who taught their children to play cards. Of course these + families had no time for prayer-meeting, nor for Christian work. + Card-playing for amusement or for money will create a passion that must be + satisfied, although one must give up home and business and pleasure. In a + town where we once lived a young man and his wife attended our Church. In + every way the husband was kind, and attentive to business. But he had + fallen a victim to playing cards for money. When that passion would seize + him he would leave his business, his hired help, his home and wife and + little one, and would lose himself for days at a time seeking to satisfy + that passion. An enviable husband, father, citizen, and neighbor but for + that evil; but how wretchedly that ruined all! Dr. Holland, of + Springfield, Massachusetts, says: "I have all my days had a card-playing + community open to my observation, and yet I am unable to believe that that + which is the universal resort of starved soul and intellect, which has + never in any way linked to itself tender, elevating, or beautiful + associations, but, the tendency of which is to unduly absorb the attention + from more weighty matters, can recommend itself to the favor of Christ's + disciples. I have this moment," says he, "ringing in my ears the dying + injunction of my father's early friend: 'Keep your son from cards. Over + them I have murdered time and lost heaven.'" + </p> + <p> + Gambling is dishonest. It seeks something for nothing. Man possesses no + money, that he might risk giving it to some rogue to waste in sin. All the + property one possesses, he possesses it by stewardship to be used wisely + and honestly for good. Every age has needed a revival of the Golden Rule + in business. Much of the business of to-day is attended to on the + dishonest principle that characterizes gambling, "Get as much as possible + for as little as possible." This spirit is first cousin to the spirit of + gambling. The only difference is, one is called wrong and is wrong; the + other is wrong and is called right. Tell the gambler he is a thief; he + will acknowledge it, and will beat you, if he can, while he is talking to + you. Tell the other man he is a thief, and he will sue you at court and + win his case, although it is just as wrong to steal $100 from an + unbalanced mind, as it is to steal $100 from an unlocked safe or off of an + untrained football team. It will be an easy matter to produce professional + gamblers so long as society upholds dishonest dealers by another name. + What men need in this matter is moral and spiritual vision, spiritual + discernment. Some persons live by taking advantage of those who are down. + </p> + <p> + In all of its forms gambling leads to a long train of crimes. In addition + to his crime of theft the professional gambler, through passion or drink, + becomes a murderer. I knew a professional gambler who killed a man, with + whom he had been playing cards for money, for fifty cents. After it was + all over the man was sorry he had done it, for he had committed the crime + in a passion while he was intoxicated. The one who speculates on the + markets is not counted dishonest by the world, but how often and how + quickly it leads one into crime! In our neighboring town in Illinois a man + of a good family and of good standing in the community began to speculate + on the Chicago Board of Trade. He was as honest a person, perhaps, as you + or I. He thought he was. For years he had been a trusted, Christian + worker, and treasurer of the Sunday-school. But he made just one venture + too many. He had lost all; could not even replace the Sunday-school fund + that he had simply used, no doubt expecting to replace it with usury; but + the loss and disgrace were too much for him to face, so he deserted home + and friends and honor and all, and secretly ran away. The speculating + gambler became a deserting embezzler. The person who has acquired a + passion for betting on races and games is on a fair way to professional + gambling and to speculating on the markets. And rarely does one ever + escape these, if once he gets a start in them. + </p> + <p> + The evil of society gambling is most dangerous of all, because it is most + subtle of all. Ah first no one would suspect an innocent game of cards, + played just for fun. You may be the fourth one to make up a game; you may + not know how to play, but you are told you can quickly learn. You brave + it, and go in for a game. The next time a similar circumstance arises, you + can not easily decline, for you must confess you have played, and so you + go in as an old player. This may be as far as the matter ever goes with + you. But here is one who is more impulsive than you; his surroundings are + entirely different. He learns to play, and comes to revel in it. A passion + is created for the game. He is shrewd; soon learns the tricks, and one + evening—purely by chance, as it seems to him—he wins his first + five dollars. Strange possibilities with cards lay hold upon him. He is + consumed by that passion. He plays for business, for keeps; he has become + a professional gambler. Ah! this is no finespun tale; it is being worked + out every year in our country, all over the world. Among many things for + which I have to thank my father and mother not the least is, that they + would allow no gamblers, nor gambling, nor the instruments of gambling + about our home. Better keep a pet rattlesnake for your child than a deck + of cards; for if he gets poisoned by the snake he may be cured; but if the + passion for card-playing should happen to seize him, there is little + chance of a cure. The inmates of our penitentiaries to-day, almost to a + man, testify that "card-playing threw them into bad company, led them into + sin, and was one of the causes of their downfall." Dr. Talmage was asked + if there could be any harm in a pack of cards. He Said: "Instead of + directly answering your question, I will give you as My opinion that there + are thousands of men with as strong a brain as you have, who have gone + through card-playing into games of chance, and have dropped down into the + gambler's life and into the gambler's hell." A prisoner in a jail in + Michigan wrote a letter to a temperance paper, in which he gives this + advice for young men: "Let cards and liquor alone, and you will never be + behind the gates." Friends, not every one who touches liquor is a + drunkard, but every drunkard touches liquor; so not every one who plays + cards is a professional gambler, but every professional gambler plays + cards. Is there nothing significant about these facts. "A word to the wise + is sufficient." "In a railway train sat four men playing cards. One was a + judge, and two of the others were lawyers. Near them sat a poor mother, a + widow in black. The sight of the men at their game made her nervous. She + kept quiet as long as she could; but finally rising came to them, and + addressing the judge, asked: 'Do you know me?' 'No, madam, I do not,' said + he. 'Well, said the mother, 'you sentenced my son to State's prison for + life.' Turning to one of the lawyers, she said: 'And you, sir, pleaded + against him. He was all I had. He worked hard on the farm, was a good boy, + and took care of me until he began to play cards, when he took to gambling + and was lost.'" Dr. Guthrie writes: "In regard to the lawfulness of + certain pursuits, pleasures, and amusements, it is impossible to lay down + any fixed and general rule; but we may confidently say that whatever is + found to unfit you for religious duties, or to interfere with the + performance of them; whatever dissipates your mind or cools the fervor of + your devotions; whatever indisposes you to read your Bibles or to engage + in prayer, wherever the thought of a bleeding Savior, or of a holy God, or + of the day of judgment falls like a cold shadow on your enjoyment, the + pleasures you can not thank God for, on which you can not ask His + blessing, whose recollections will haunt a dying bed and plant sharp + thorns in its uneasy pillow,—these are not for you..Never go where + you can not ask God to go with you; never be found where you would not + like death to find you. Never indulge in any pleasure that will not bear + the morning's reflection. Keep yourselves unspotted from the world, not + from its spots only, but even from its suspicions." + </p> + <p> + IV. DANCING. + </p> + <p> + DANCING is the expression of inward feelings by means of rhythmical + movements of the body. Usually these movements are in measured step, and + are accompanied by music. + </p> + <p> + In some form or another dancing is as old as the world, and has been + practiced by rude as well as by civilized peoples. The passion for amateur + dancing always has been strongest among savage nations, who have made + equal use of it in religious rites and in war. With the savages the + dancers work themselves into a perfect frenzy, into a kind of mental + intoxication. But as civilization has advanced dancing has modified its + form, becoming more orderly and rhythmical. The early Greeks made the art + of dancing into a system, expressive of all the different passions. For + example, the dance of the Furies, so represented, would create complete + terror among those who witnessed them. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, + ranked dancing with poetry, and said that certain dancers, with rhythm + applied to gesture, could express manners, passions, and actions. The most + eminent Greek sculptors studied the attitude of the dancers for their art + of imitating the passions. In a classical Greek song, Apollo, one of the + twelve greater gods, the son of Zeus the chief god, and the god of + medicine, music, and poetry, was called The Dancer. In a Greek line Zeus + himself is represented as dancing. In Sparta, a province of ancient + Greece, the law compelled parents to exercise their children in dancing + from the age of five years. They were led by grown men, and sang hymns and + songs as they danced. In very early times a Greek chorus, consisting of + the whole population of the city, would meet in the market-place to offer + up thanksgivings to the god of the country. Their jubilees were always + attended with hymn-singing and dancing. The Jewish records make frequent + mention of dancing, but always "as a religious ceremony, or as an + expression of gratitude and praise." As a means of entertainment in + private society, dancing was practiced in ancient times, but by + professional dancers, and not by the company themselves. It is true that + the Bible has sanctioned dancing, but let us remember, first, that it was + always a religious rite; second, that it was practiced only on joyful + occasions, at national feasts, and after great victories; third, that + usually it was "performed by maidens in the daytime, in open air, in + highways, fields, or groves;" fourth, that "there are no instances of + dancing sanctioned in the Bible, in which both sexes united in the + exercise, either as an act of worship or as an amusement;" fifth, that any + who perverted the dance from a sacred use to purposes of amusement were + called infamous. The only records in Scripture of dancing as a social + amusement were those of the ungodly families described by Job xxi, 11-13, + who spent their time in luxury and gayety, and who came to a sudden + destruction; and the dancing of Herodias, Matt. Xiv, 6, which led to the + rash vow of King Herod and to the murder of John the Baptist. So much for + the history of dancing. + </p> + <p> + The modern dance in which both sexes freely mingle, irrespective of + character, purely for amusement, at late hours, at which intoxicants, in + some form, are generally used, is, essentially, an institution of vice. + The modern dance is as different from the dancing of ancient times, and + from the dancing sanctioned in the Bible, as daylight is from dark, as + good is from bad. The modern dance imperils health, it poisons the social + nature; it destroys intellectual growth; and it robs men and women of + their virtue. Let us understand one another. To attend one dance may not + accomplish all of this in any person. One may attend many dances, and he + himself not see these results marked in his character, but some one else + will see them. For in the nature of the institution the modern dance + affects in all these particulars those whom it reaches. The tendencies in + a single dance are in these directions. In a way peculiar to itself the + modern dance imperils health. Though detestable and out of date, as are + the modern kissing games, yet no one ever heard of one of those + performances continuing until three and five o'clock in the morning. Young + people do not stay up all night, ride five, ten, and twenty miles to play + authors, or to snap caroms, or to play charades, as interesting in a + social way as these innocent amusements may be. The fact that one will go + to this extreme in keeping late hours to attend the dance, and will not + keep such late hours for any other form of amusement, proves that the + dance, as an institution, is at fault in producing such irregularities. + And then who ever heard of one having to dress in a certain way to attend + a purely social gathering. But let a young lady attend a fashionable ball + or a regular round dance of any note, whatever, and if she wears the civil + gown she will be thought tame and snubbed. She must dress for this + occasion, and thus, from a health point of view, so expose her body that + after the excitement and heat of a prolonged round she takes her place in + a slight draught of air, and a severe cold is contracted. And this + exposure is further increased by the sudden change from a close, hot room + to the damp, chilly air of the early morning, on her journey home. It is + possible to guard against all of this, but are those persons who attend + such exercises likely to be cautious in such practical matters. At least, + this risk of exposure for men and women is peculiar to the dance, and it + is certain that many are physically injured in this way. The modern dance + poisons the social nature. The chief exercise at the modern dance is + dancing. Those who have attended dances, as a social recreation, have + complained that they never have an opportunity to get acquainted with one + another. Such a luxury as a complete conversation on any theme is out of + the question. It is a form of amusement that stultifies the communicative + faculties, and fosters social seclusion. Some one might say this may be a + good thing, since every grade in moral and social standing are + represented. Yes, but this only acknowledges the lack of opportunity for + social fellowship. It is not true that the dance, as an institution, is + not patronized by the most capable in conversation and companionship? + Certainly this is true in the so-called higher society, among those whose + sole ambition is to excel in formal manners and in personal appearance at + the gay function, and at the social ball. To be communicative one must + have something to communicate, and this means a cultivation of the mind + and heart. True social fellowship is one of the sweetest pleasures of life + and always has its source in the culture of the soul. Whatever may be said + for or against the modern dance, it is true that because of the mixed + characters of its attendants, and for want of opportunity to communicate, + the social nature becomes neglected and abused, and may be fatally + poisoned. + </p> + <p> + The modern dance destroys intellectual growth. The person who has the + dance-craze cares no more for mental improvement and growth than a + starving man cares for splendid recipes for fine cooking. The thought of a + problem to be solved, of a book to be read, of an organ exercise to be + practiced, of all things, are most tame to the one who is filled with + dreams of the last dance, and with visions of the one that is to come. To + grow, the mind must be free from excitement. The fault with the dance in + this respect is that it has in it a fascination that does not exist in the + ordinary social amusement. Some persons complain that they can not get an + evening to go off well without dancing. But this is only an open + confession to mental vacuity, to intellectual poverty. For one need know + but little to flourish at the dance. And always, where little is required, + intellectually, little is given. It is the rule that those who are in the + greatest need of mental cultivation and growth are those who make up the + dancing crowd. And the fact that the dance, as an institution, in no way + stimulates intellectual thought, destines those who dance to remain on the + lower intellectual plane. + </p> + <p> + Last, and worst of all, the dance robs men and women of their virtue, and + this often at the first unconsciously. If it is not for health and + physical vigor that one follows up dancing; if it is not the peculiar + social tie that binds dancers together; if it is not the incentive to + intellectual growth and equipment, what is it? A secret lies hid away + somewhere in the institution of the modern dance, that makes it the + chiefest attraction of worldly-minded and often of base-hearted people. + What is that secret? Ah, my friend, it is the appeal to the most sacred + instincts and passions of a man and of a woman! This appeal is peculiar to + the modern dance by the accident of physical contact that men and women + assume in dancing, and also by the circumstances that attend it, namely, + mixed society, late hours, and the customary use of strong drink. No + honest, normally passionate person, who has made it a practice of + attending dances, will deny the truth of this charge. One may never have + thought of it in this way, but when he stops to think he knows that it is + true. It is through ignorance of these circumstances, and of their bad + effects, that many a well-meaning person, presumably to have a good time, + or to acquire heel-grace, goes into the dance, secures a passion for + dancing, and through its seductive influences are led into sin and shame. + The following is an incident out of his own experience related by + Professor T. A. Faulkner, an ex-dancing master. Professor Faulkner is the + author of the little book entitled "From the Ball Room to Hell." A book + which every person who sees no harm in dancing should read. + </p> + <p> + "Here is a girl. The one remaining child of wealthy parents, their idol + and joy. A dancing-school having opened near their home, the daughter, for + accomplishment, was sent to it. She came from her home, modest, and her + innate spirit of purity rebelled against the liberties taken by the + dancing-master, and the men he introduced to her. She became indignant at + the indecent attitudes she was called upon to assume, but noticing a score + of young women, many of them from the best homes in the town, all yielding + to the vulgar embrace, she cast aside that spirit of modesty which had + been the development of years of home-training, and setting her face + against nature's protective warnings, gave herself, as did the others, to + this prolonged embrace set to music. Having learned to dance, its + fascinations led her an enthusiastic captive. Modesty was crucified, + decency outraged, virtue lost its power over her soul, and she spent her + days dreaming of the delights of the sensual whirl of the evening. Hardly + conscious of the change she had now become as bold as any of the women, + and loved the embrace of the charmer. The graduation of the class was, of + course, the occasion of a waltzing reception. To that reception she went, + attended by her father, who looked with a proud heart on the fulsome + greeting his dear one received. After a little the father retired, leaving + his daughter to the care of the many handsome gallants who danced + attendance upon her. The reception did not close until the small hours of + the morning. Each waltz became more voluptuous; intoxicated by sensuality, + the dancers became more bold, and lust was aroused in every breast. How + many sins that reception occasioned, I do not know; this, at least, is + sure, that this girl who entered that dancing-hall three months before, as + pure as an angel, was that night.robbed of her honor and returned to her + home deprived forever of that most precious jewel of womanhood—virtue. + Her first impulse the next morning was self-destruction; then she deluded + herself with the thought of marriage with her dancing companion, but he + still further insulted her by declaring that he wanted a pure woman for + his wife. What was her end? Shunned by the very society which egged her on + to ruin, her self-respect was gone with her lost purity, she went to her + own kind, and in shame is closing her days." "Of two hundred brothel + inmates to whom Professor Faulkner talked, and who were frank enough to + answer his question as to the direct cause of their shame, seven said + poverty and abuse; ten, willful choice; twenty, drink given them by their + parents; and one hundred and sixty-three, dancing and the ball-room." "A + former chief of police of New York City says that three-fourths of the + abandoned girls of this city were ruined by dancing." Of the dance, one + says: "It lays its lecherous hand upon the fair character of innocence, + and converts it into a putrid corrupting thing. It enters the domain of + virtue, and with silent, steady blows takes the foundation from underneath + the pedestal on which it sits enthroned. It lists the gate and lets in a + flood of vice and impurity that sweeps away modesty, chastity, and all + sense of shame. It keeps company with the low, the degraded, and the vile. + It feeds upon the passion it inflames, and fattens on the holiest + sentiments, turned by its touch to filth and rottenness. It loves the + haunts of vice, and is at home in the company of harlots and debauchees." + George T. Lemon says: "No Church in Christendom commends or even excuses + the dance. All unite to condemn it." The late Episcopal bishop of Vermont, + writes: "Dancing is chargeable with waste of time, interruption of useful + study, the indulgence of personal vanity and display, and the premature + incitement of the passions. At the age of maturity it adds to these no + small danger to health by late hours, flimsy dress, heated rooms, and + exposed persons." Episcopal Bishop Meade, of Virginia, declares: "Social + dancing is not among the neutral things which, within certain limits, we + may do at pleasure, and it is not among the things lawful, but not + expedient, but it is in itself wrong, improper, and of bad effect." + Episcopal Bishop McIlvaine, of Ohio, putting the dance and the theater + together, writes: "The only line that I would draw in regard to these is + that of entire exclusion..The question is not what we can imagine them to + be, but what they always have been, will be, and must be, in such a world + as this, to render them pleasurable to those who patronize them. Strip + them bare until they stand in the simple innocence to which their + defenders' arguments would reduce them and the world would not have them." + A Roman Catholic priest testifies that "the confessional revealed the fact + that nineteen out of every twenty women who fall can trace the beginning + of their state to the modern dance." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V. THEATER-GOING. + </h2> + <p> + WITH drunkenness, gambling, and dancing, theater-going dates from the + beginning of history, and with these it is not only questionable in + morals, but it is positively bad. Every one who knows any thing about the + institution of the theater, as such, knows that it always has been + corrupting in its influence. Not only those who attend the theater + pronounce it bad, as a whole, but it is frowned upon by play-writers, and + by actors and actresses themselves. Five hundred years before Christ, Jew, + Pagan, and Christian spoke against the theater. It is stated on good + authority that the dissipations of the theater were the chief cause of the + decadence of ancient Greece. At one time, Augustus, the emperor of Rome, + was asked as a means of public safety, to suppress the theater. The early + Christians held the theater in such bad repute as to rank it with the + heathen temple. And to these two places they would not go, even to preach + the Good News of Jesus Christ. Nor has the moral tone and character of the + theater improved, even in our day. Dr. Theodore Cuyler, for many years an + experienced pastor in Brooklyn, Says: "The American theater is a concrete + institution, to be judged as a totality. It is responsible for what it + tolerates and shelters. We, therefore, hold it responsible for whatever of + sensual impurity and whatever of irreligion, as well as for whatever of + occasional and sporadic benefit there may be bound up in its organic life. + Instead of helping Christ's kingdom, it hinders; instead of saving souls, + it corrupts and destroys." Dr. Buckley gives this testimony: "Being aware + of the fact that the drama, like every thing else which caters to the + taste, has its fashions—rising and falling and undergoing various + changes—now improving, and then degenerating, I have thought it + desirable to institute a careful inquiry into the plays which have been + performed in the principal theaters of New York during the past three + years. Accordingly, I procured the copies used by the performers in + preparing for their parts, and took pains to ascertain wherein, in actual + use, the actors diverged from the printed copies. They number over sixty, + and, with the exception of a few unprinted plays, include all that have + been produced in the prominent theaters of New York during the three years + now about closing..It is a singular fact, that, with three or four + exceptions, those dramatic compositions, among the sixty or more under + discussion, which are morally objectionable, are of a comparatively low + order of literary execution. But if language and sentiments, which would + not be tolerated among respectable people, and would excite indignation if + addressed to the most uncultivated and coarse servant girl, not openly + vicious, by an ordinary young man, and profaneness which would brand him + who uttered it as irreligious, are improper amusements for the young and + for Christians of every age, then at least fifty of these plays are to be + condemned." + </p> + <p> + In the first place the theater leads one into bad company. As a class, the + performers are licentious. How can one be in their company, be moved to + laughter and to tears and not be contaminated by them? One who has studied + the theater tells us that the "fruits of the Spirit and the fruits of the + stage exhibit as pointed a contrast as the human imagination can + conceive." The famous Macready, as he retired from the stage, wrote: "None + of my children, with my consent under any pretense, shall ever enter the + theater, nor shall they have any visiting connection with play actors or + actresses." Dr. Johnson asks the question: "How can they mingle together + as they do, men and women, and make public exhibitions of themselves as + they do, in such circumstances, with such surroundings, with such speech + as much often be on their lips to play the plays that are written, in such + positions as they must sometimes take, affecting such sentiment and + passions—how can they do this without moral contamination?" And we + would ask, how can persons live enrapt with this sort of thing for hours + and hours each week, the year around, and not become equally contaminated, + for to the onlooker all this comes as a reality, while to those who are + performing, it is hired shamming? Therefore, as the pupil becomes the + teacher, so the attendant at the theater becomes like the one who + performs. So that to go to the theater is to "sit in the seat of the + scornful or to stand in the way of sinners." "There you find the man," + says one, "who has lost all love for his home, the careless, the profane, + the spendthrift, the drunkard, and the lowest prostitute of the street. + They are found in all parts of the house; they crowd the gallery, and + together should aloud the applause, greeting that which caricatures + religion, sneers at virtue, or hints at indecency." Not only the actors + and the onlookers of the average theater are vile, but all of the + immediate associations of the playhouse must correspond with it. If not in + the same building with the theater, in adjoining ones, at least, are found + the wine-parlor and the brothel. It is generally conceded that no theater + can be prosperous if it is wholly separated from these adjuncts of evil. + </p> + <p> + The theater, therefore, kills spiritually and degrades the moral life of + the one who attends it. The theater deals with the spectacular. This + appeals to the eye, to the ear, and to all of the outer senses. + Spirituality depends upon a cultivation of the spiritual senses that Grace + has opened up within the soul. Hence, the spectacular is directly opposed + to the spiritual. The deep, contemplative, spiritual soul could find + little or no food in the false, clap-trap representations of the modern + stage. And to find an increased interest here is evidence that one lacks + spiritual life, at least deep-seated spiritual life. This is why so many + professing Christians are so eager to go to the card-party, to the + dancing-party, and to the theater. The inner-sense life of the soul is + dead, and one must have something upon which to feed, hence he feeds upon + the husks of "imprudent and un-Christian amusements." And let one who has + a measure of spiritual life, instead of increasing it, seek to satisfy his + soul-longing by means of the spectacular, of false representations in any + form, soon he will lose the spiritual life that he has. And this loss will + be marked by an increased demand for the spectacular. The surest proof + to-day that the spiritual life of the Church is waning in certain + sections, is not so much that her membership-roll is not on the increase, + but that professing Christian people are running wild after cards and + dancing and the theater. Evangelist Sayles declares: "The people of our + so-called best society, and Christian people, many that have been looked + upon as active workers, sit now and gaze upon scenes in our theaters, + without a blush, that twenty-five years ago would not have been + countenanced..The moral and spiritual life of many a Christian has been + weakened by the eyes gazing upon the scenes of the theater." Says he, "The + Christian, through attendance upon the playhouse, creates a relish for + worldly things, and so spiritual things become distasteful." + </p> + <p> + Then, to go to one theater, sanctions all. To have heard and to have seen + Joe Jefferson in "Rip Van Winkle," Richard Mansfield in "The Merchant of + Venice," or Edwin Booth or Sir Henry Irving, or Maude Adams, or Julia + Marlowe in their best plays, is to have received a deeper insight into + human nature, and a stronger purpose to become sympathetic and true, but + who can afford to sanction all that is base and villainous is the + institution of the modern theater for the sake of learning sympathy and + truth and human nature from a few worthy actors, when he may find all of + this as truthfully, if not as artistically, set forth by the orator, by + the musician, by the painter, and by the author? It is not cant, it is not + pharisaism, it is not a weak claim of Christianity, but it is common + honesty, mighty truth, a cardinal and beautiful teaching of Jesus Christ + to deny one's self for the welfare of the weaker brother. Let one go to + hear Mansfield in Shakespeare, and his neighbor boy will take his friend + and go to the vaudeville, and his only excuse to his parents and to his + half-taught mind and heart will be, "Well, Mr. So-and-So goes to the + theater, he is a member of the Church and superintendent of the + Sunday-school; surely there is no harm for me to go." To the immature mind + what seems right for one person seems lawful for another. This is because + such a person has not learned to discriminate between what is bad and what + is good. Therefore, if the theater as an institution has more in it that + is bad than It has in it that is good, rather if the general tendency of + the theater, as an institution, is bad, the safe thing for one's self and + for those who read one's life as an example, is to discard it entirely. + </p> + <p> + In view of these facts, no person can attend the theater at all without + hurting his influence. The ideal life is that one which gives offense of + stumbling to no one. A successful preacher who had an aversion toward + speaking on the subject of questionable amusements, when asked what he + believed concerning a certain form of amusement, replied: "See what I do, + and know what I believe." It is a glorious life whose actions are an open + epistle of righteousness and peace, read and believed and honored by all + men. + </p> + <p> + "Some time ago a gentleman teaching a large class of young men in a + Chicago Sunday-school, desired to attend a theater for the purpose of + seeing a celebrated actor. He was not a theater-goer, and thought that no + harm could come from it. He had no sooner taken his seat, however, than he + saw in the opposite gallery some of the members of his class. They also + saw him and began commenting on the fact that their teacher was at the + theater. They thought it inconsistent in him, lost their interest in the + class, and he lost his influence over the young men. That teacher tied his + hands by this one act, so that he could not speak out against the gross + sins of the theater." + </p> + <p> + Those who defend theater-going say that if Christian people would + patronize the theater that it would be made more respectable. But over a + thousand years of history proves that this principle fails here as it does + elsewhere. A Christian woman marries an unchristian man with the hope that + he will become a Christian; a steady, sensible woman in all other matters + marries a man who drinks, with the thought of reforming him; one + associates with worldly and sensual companions, expecting to make them + better; but, alas, what blasted hopes, what wretched failures in all of + these instances, at least in the most of them! You can not reform vice; + you may whitewash a sin, but it will be sin, still. To purify a character + or an institution one must not become a part of it by sympathy, nor by + association. This is what the psalmist meant when he said, "Blessed is the + man that walketh not in the counsels of the ungodly, nor standeth in the + way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." And so it is, + that every effort at reforming the theater, thus far has failed. The Rev. + C.W. Winchester says concerning the reforming of the theater: "The facts + are, (1) that the theater in this city and country never had the support + and encouragement of moral and religious people it has now; (2) that the + theater here was never so bad. Clearly, if Christian patronage is going to + reform the theater, the reform ought to begin. But the grade is downward. + The theater is growing worse and worse." Dr. Wilkinson makes this + statement on the question of reforming the theater: "Now the Protestant + Christians of New York number, by recent computation, less than + seventy-five thousand souls, in a population of a million. Supposing a + general agreement among them all that a regular attendance at the theater + was at this juncture the most pressing and most promising method of + evangelical effort, they would not then constitute even one-tenth of the + numerical patronage which the management would study to please." Dr. + Herrick Johnson says: "The ideal stage is out of the question. It is out + of the question just as pure, chaste, human nudity is out of the + question..The nature of theatrical performances, the essential demands of + the stage, the character of the plays, and the constitution of human + nature, make it impossible that the theater should exist, save under a law + of degeneracy. Its trend is downward; its centuries of history tell just + this one story. The actual stage of to-day..is a moral abomination. In + Chicago, at least, it is trampling on the Sabbath with defiant scoff. It + is defiling our youth. It is making crowds familiar with the play of + criminal passions. It is exhibiting women with such approaches to + nakedness as can have no other design than to breed lust behind the + onlooking eyes. It is furnishing candidates for the brothel. It is getting + us used to scenes that rival the voluptuousness and licentious ages of the + past." As never before to-day, has the theater asked for the support of + Church members. And the ideal stage, with virtuous performers, and with + pure dramas, are held up as a sample of what Christian people are invited + to attend. Dr. Cuyler says: "Every person of common sense knows that the + actual average theater is no more an ideal playhouse than the average pope + is like St. Peter, or the average politician is like Abraham Lincoln. A + Puritanic theater would become bankrupt in a twelvemonth. The great mass + of those who frequent the playhouse go there for strong, passionate + excitements..I do not affirm," says Dr. Cuyler, "that every popular play + is immoral, and every attendant is on a scent for sensualities. But the + theater is a concrete institution, it must be judged in the gross and to a + tremendous extent it is only a gilded nastiness. It unsexes womanhood by + putting her publicly in male attire—too often in no attire at all." + </p> + <p> + "So competent an authority as the famous actress, Olga Nethersole, + recently declared that the only kind of play which may hope for success + with English-speaking audiences at the present day is the play which is + sufficiently indicated by calling it immoral. There is no doubt about it + that the theater, as at present conducted, is pulling the stones from the + foundations of public morality, and weakening, and in many quarters + endangering, the whole structure of society. The atmosphere of the modern + theater is lustful and irreverent. It is a good place for Christians to + keep away from. It is a good opportunity for the strong man to deny + himself for the sake of his younger or weaker brother." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_PART2" id="link2H_PART2"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + PART II. WORTHY SUBSTITUTES. + </h1> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Get the spindle and thy distaff ready, and God will send + thee flax." +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI. BOOKS AND READING. + </h2> + <h3> + MANY BOOKS, MUCH READING. + </h3> + <p> + TO-DAY every one reads. Go where you may, you will find the paper, the + magazine, the journal; printed letters, official reports, exhaustive + cyclopedias, universal histories; the ingenuous advertisement, the + voluminous calendar, the decorated symphony; printed ideals, elaborate + gaming rules, flaming bulletins; and latest of all, we have begun to + publish our communications on the waves of the air. In this hurly-burly of + many books and much reading, it is no mean problem to know why one should + read; and what, and how, and when. Especially does this problem of general + reading confront the student, the lover of books, and those of the + professions. Essays are to be read, the historical, the philosophical, and + the scientific; novels, the historical and the religious; books of + devotion, books of biography, of travel, of criticism, and of art. What + principles are to guide one in his choice of reading, that he may select + only the wisest, purest, and helpfulest from all these classes of books? + </p> + <p> + WHY READ. + </p> + <p> + Read to acquire knowledge. Knowledge is the perception of truth. One + arrives at knowledge by the assimilation of facts and principles, or by + the assimilation of truth itself. Three sources of knowledge are + experience, conversation, and reading. Experience leads one slowly to + knowledge, is limited entirely to the path over which one has passed, and + is a "dear teacher." To acquire knowledge by conversation is to put one at + the mercy of his associates, making him dependent upon their good favor, + truthfulness, and learning. But reading places one in direct communication + with the wisest and best persons of all time. To acquire knowledge by + reading is to defy time and space, persons and circumstances, at least, in + our day of many and inexpensive books. Through books facts live, + principles operate, justice acts, the light of philosophy gleams, wit + flashes, God speaks. Every book-lover agrees with Channing: "No matter how + poor I am..if the sacred writers will enter and take up their abode under + my roof, if Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise, and + Shakespeare to open to me the words of imagination and the workings of the + human heart, and Franklin to enrich me with his practical wisdom, I shall + not pine for want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a + cultivated man, though excluded from what is called the best society in + the place where I live." Kingsley says: "Except a living man, there is + nothing more wonderful Than a book!—a message to us from the dead,—from + human souls whom we never saw, who lived, perhaps, thousands of miles + away; and yet these, in those little sheets of paper, speak to us, amuse + us, terrify us, teach us, comfort us, open their hearts to us as + brothers..If they are good and true, whether they are about religion or + politics, farming, trade, or medicine, they are the message of Christ, the + Maker of all things, the Teacher of all truth." The wide range of truth + secured through reading acts in two ways upon the reader. It spiritualizes + his character, and it makes him mighty in action. Knowledge on almost any + subject has a marked tendency to sharpen one's wits, to refine his tastes, + to ennoble his spirit, to improve his judgement, to strengthen his will, + to subdue his baser passions, and to fill his soul with the breath of + life. It is only upon truth that the soul feeds, and by means of knowledge + that the character grows. "It cannot be that people should grow in grace," + writes John Wesley, "unless they give themselves to reading. A reading + people will always be a knowing people." Reading makes one mighty in + action when it gives one knowledge, since "knowledge is power," and since + power has but one way of showing itself, and that is, in action. Knowledge + takes no note of hardships, ignores fatigue, laughs at disappointment, and + frowns upon despair. It delves into the earth, rides upon the air, defies + the cold of the north, the heat of the south; it stands upon the brink of + the spitting volcano, circumnavigates the globe, examines the heavens, and + tries to understand God. With but few exceptions, master-minds and men of + affairs have been incessant readers. Cicero, chief of Roman orators, + whether at home or abroad, in town or in the country, by day or by night, + in youth or in old age, in sorrow or in joy, was not without his books. + "Petrarch, when his friend the bishop, thinking that he was overworked, + took away the key of his library, was restless and miserable the first + day, had a bad headache the second, and was so ill by the third day that + the bishop, in alarm, returned the key and let his friend read as much as + he liked." Writes Frederick the Great, "My latest passion will be for + literature." The poet, Milton, while a child, read and studied until + midnight. John Ruskin read at four years of age, was a book-worm at five, + and wrote numerous poems and dramas before he was ten. Lord Macaulay read + at three and began a compendium of universal history at seven. Although + not a lover of books, George Washington early read Matthew Hale and became + a master in thought. Benjamin Franklin would sit up all night at his + books. Thomas Jefferson read fifteen hour a day. Patrick Henry read for + employment, and kept store for pastime. Daniel Webster was a devouring + reader, and retained all that he read. At the age of fourteen he could + repeat from memory all of Watt's Hymns and Pope's "Essay on Man." When but + a youth, Henry Clay read books of history and science and practiced giving + their contents before the trees, birds, and horses. Says a biographer of + Lincoln, "A book was almost always his inseparable companion." + </p> + <p> + Then, read for enjoyment. Fortunately, a habit so valuable as reading may + grow to become a pleasure. So that as one is gathering useful information + and increasing in knowledge, he may have the keenest enjoyment. Such an + one sings as he works. He has learned to convert drudgery into joy; duty + has become delight. But even for such an one a portion of his reading + should be purely for rest and recreation. If one has taught school all + day, or set type, or managed a home, or read history, or labored in the + field, or been shopping, heavy, solid reading may be out of the question, + while under such circumstances one would really enjoy a striking allegory + or a well-written novel. Or, if one is limited in knowledge, or deficient + in literary taste so that he may find no interest in history, science, + philosophy, or religion, still he may enjoy thrilling books of travel, of + biography, or of entertaining story. In this way all may enjoy reading. + "Of all the amusements which can possibly be imagined for a hard-working + man, after his daily toil, or in its intervals, there is nothing," says + Herschel, "like reading an interesting book. It calls for no bodily + exercise, of which he has had enough or too much. It relieves his home of + its dullness and sameness, which, in nine cases out of ten, is what drives + him out to the alehouse, to his own ruin and his family's. It accompanies + him to his next day's work, and, if the book he has been reading be any + thing above the very idlest and lightest, gives him something to think of + besides the mere mechanical drudgery of his every-day occupation, + something he can enjoy while absent, and look forward with pleasure to + return to." + </p> + <p> + WHAT TO READ. + </p> + <p> + First of all read something. "Southey tells us that, in his walk one + stormy day, he met an old woman, to whom, by way of greeting, he made the + rather obvious remark that it was dreadful weather. She answered, + philosophically, that in her opinion, 'any weather was better than none.'" + And so we would say, excluding corrupt literature, any reading is better + than none! In this day of multiplicity of books who who never reads may + not be an ignoramus nor a fool, but certainly he robs the world of much + that is useful in character, and deprives himself of much that enriches + his own soul. Then one should select his books, as he does his associates, + and not attempt to read everything that comes in his way. No longer may + one know even a little about every thing. It might be a mark of credit + rather than an embarrassment for one to answer, "No," to the question, + "Have you read the latest book?" when the fact is recalled that 30,000 + novels have been published within the past eighty years, and that five new + ones are added to the list daily. + </p> + <p> + READ HISTORY. + </p> + <p> + One has characterized history as both the background and the key to all + knowledge. No other class of reading so much as this helps one to + appreciate his own country, his own age, his own surroundings. Extensive + reading of history is a sure remedy for pessimism, prejudice, and + fanaticism. In so far as history is an accurate account of the past, it is + a true prophecy of the future for the nation and for the individual. Who + reads history knows that men always have displayed folly, Weakness, and + cruelty, and that they always will, even to their own obvious ruin. Also + he knows that every time and place have had their few good men and women + who have honored God, and whom God has honored. Nothing so teaches a + person his own insignificance and the small part that he plays in the + world as does the reading of history. Nor is history to be found only in + the book called history. If you want to know the life of the ancients, as + you know the life of your own community, read Josephus. Do you want a + glimpse of early apostolic times, read "The Life and Times of Jesus," by + Edersheim. Do you want to see the battlefield of Waterloo, visit Paris in + the beginning of the nineteenth century, stop over night with Louis + Philippe, see the English through French spectacles, and the Frenchman + through his own; do you want a glimpse of the political despotism, court + intrigue, and ecclesiastical tyranny in France a hundred years ago; do you + want to hear the crash of the bastile, and see Notre Dame converted into a + horse-stable; do you want a picture of the "bread riots" and mob violence + that terminated in the French revolution of 1848; in short do you want a + tale of French life and character in its brightest, gloomiest, and + intensest period, read "Les Miserables," by Victor Hugo. To-day one must + read current history. It is not enough to plan, work, and economize, one + must make and seize opportunities. And this he can do only as he is alive + to passing events. In a few years one may outgrow his usefulness through + losing touch with advancing ideas and methods of work. To keep abreast of + the times one must read the newspaper and the magazine. The newspaper is + the history of the hour, the magazine is the history of the day. The + magazine corrects the newspaper, and "sums up in clear and noble phrase + those fundamental facts which are only dimly seen in the newspaper." A + serious and growing tendency is that the newspaper and magazine shall take + the place of the best books. A few minutes a day is enough for any + newspaper, and a few hours a month is enough for any magazine. The + greatest part of one's reading should be that of books. Who gormandizes on + current events will pay the price with a morbid mind and with false + conclusions in his reasoning. + </p> + <p> + READ BIOGRAPHY. + </p> + <p> + The life of a great man is a continual inspiration. No other exercise so + fires a soul with noble ambition as the study of a great life. Real life + is not only stranger than fiction, but it is more interesting than + fiction. No boy should be without the life of Washington, of Lincoln, of + Webster, of Franklin. Every girl should know by heart brave Pocahontas, + sympathetic Mrs. Stowe, queenly Frances Willard, and kind-hearted + Victoria. No private library is complete without Plutarch's "Lives," the + "Life of Alfred the Great," of Napoleon, Grant, and Gladstone. + </p> + <p> + READ SCIENCE. + </p> + <p> + The fourteen-year-old child may master the practical principles of natural + philosophy, and yet how many intelligent persons remain ignorant of the + most commonplace truths in this branch of learning! With a little + attention to the natural and mechanical sciences, a new world of beauty + and truth opens up before one. He sees objects that once were hid to him; + he hears sounds that once were silent; he enjoys odors that once retained + their fragrance. His whole being becomes a part of the living musical + world about him, when he has his senses opened to appreciate it and to + become attuned to it. One should read some science throughout his life, in + order to remain at the source of all true knowledge. Here he learns to + appreciate the language of nature. When expressed by man, this is poetry. + </p> + <p> + THEREFORE, READ POETRY. + </p> + <p> + Ten minutes a day with Tennyson, Browning, Emerson, or Lowell, will teach + one a new language, by which he may converse with the wind, talk with the + birds, chat with the brook, speak with the flowers, and hold discourse + with the sun, moon, and stars. The deepest and mightiest thoughts of all + ages have been expressed in poetry, the language of nature. "Poetry," says + Coleridge, "is the blossom and fragrance of all human knowledge, human + thoughts, passions, emotions, languages." + </p> + <p> + READ BOOKS OF RELIGION. + </p> + <p> + "Religion," says Lyman Abbott, "is the life of God in the soul." Every + truly religious book treats of this life. The only purely religious book + is the Bible. It is the source and inspiration of every other religious + book. The Bible is a "letter from God to man, handed down from heaven and + written by inspired men." Its message is free salvation for all men + through Jesus Christ; its spirit is divine love. No wise person is without + this letter, and every thoughtful and devout person reads it daily. One + may never find time to follow a course of study, nor to pursue a plan of + daily reading; he may never know the wealth of Dante, the grandeur of + Milton, nor the genius of Shakespeare, but every one may make the Bible + his daily companion and guide. + </p> + <p> + HOW TO READ. + </p> + <p> + Enter into what you read. No book can thrill and move one unless he gives + himself up to it. Lack of fixed attention is the cause of the + half-informed mind, the faulty reason, and the ever-failing memory. The + cause of this lack of attention may be an historical allusion of which one + is ignorant, or a new word that he fails to look up, or an overtaxed mind, + or unfavorable surroundings. Whatever may be this hindrance it must be + removed or overcome before one can enter into what he reads. A thought is + of no value until it registers itself and takes a room in the mind. This + is why we are told on every hand, that a few books well read are worth + more than many books poorly read. The secret of Abraham Lincoln's power as + a public speaker lay in his clear reasoning, simple statement, and apt + illustration. This secret was secured by Lincoln through his habit of + mastering whatever he heard in conversation or reading. "When a mere + child," says Lincoln, "I used to get irritated when anybody talked to me + in a way I could not understand. I don't think I ever got angry at + anything else in my life. But that always disturbed my temper, and has + ever since. I can remember going to my little bedroom, after hearing the + neighbors talk of an evening with my father, and spending no small part of + the night walking up and down, trying to make out what was the exact + meaning of some of their, to me, dark sayings. I could not sleep, though I + often tried to, when I got on such a hunt after an idea, until I had + caught it, and when I thought I had got it, I was not satisfied until I + had repeated it over and over; until I had put it in language plain + enough, as I thought, for any boy I knew to comprehend. This was a kind of + passion with me, and it has stuck by me; for I am never easy now when I am + handling a thought until I have bounded it north, and bounded it south, + and bounded it east, and bounded it west." And so to enter into what one + reads, means that he will master the thought. The most that a university + can do for one is to teach him to read. Who has learned how to read has + secured a liberal education, however or wherever he may have learned it. + </p> + <p> + Then, one should learn to scan an author. This means to take a rapid + observation of his thoughts. Much of one's common reading matter should be + scanned. All local news, much magazine literature, and many books should + be used in this way. It is mental sloth and waste of time to pore over a + newspaper or a book of light fiction, as one would a philosophy of history + or a work of science. As Bacon aptly puts it, "Some books are to be + tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; + that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but + not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and + attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of + them by others." One's mind is like a horse, it soon learns its master. + Feed it well, groom it well, treat it gently, you may expect much from it. + It is reported of Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis that he has read a book a day + for over twenty years. He has learned to squeeze the thought out of a book + at a grasp, as one of us would squeeze the juice from an orange. Take a + glimpse into his library. Five hundred volumes of sociological literature, + four hundred volumes of history, two hundred of cyclopedias, gazetteers, + books of reference; four hundred volumes of pure science, one hundred + volumes of travels, two hundred and fifty volumes of biography; one + hundred volumes of art and art history; a section on psychology, ethics, + philosophy, and the relation between science and religion, and a thousand + volumes of literature, pure and simple. + </p> + <p> + WHEN TO READ. + </p> + <p> + First, read at regular hours. This is for those who follow literary + pursuits. No professional person should respect himself in his work who + has no special time for reading and study, and who does not + conscientiously adhere to it. The pulpit, the law-office, the doctor's + office, the teacher, and the editor's desk, each clamors for the man, the + woman, who can think. To appreciate God and to sympathize with the human + heart; to know law and the intricate special case; to understand disease + and relief for the suffering patient; to have something to teach and to + know how to teach it even to the dullest pupil; to know human character + and to be able to enlighten the public mind and the public conscience; all + this requires in the one who serves a deep and growing knowledge and + experience which may be realized only in the grasp of truth contained in + the up-to-date and best authorized books. The use of books with this class + of persons is not optional. They must buy and master them, or a few years + at longest will relegate them with their old books and ideas to the dusty + garret where they belong. + </p> + <p> + Then, many must read on economized time. The farmer, the mechanic, the + merchant, the shopkeeper, each may find a little time for daily reading. + Ten minutes saved in the morning, ten minutes in the afternoon, and ten + minutes in the evening, this is half hour a day. In a week this gives one + three hours and a half, in a month fourteen hours of solid reading, and in + a year one will have read seven days of twenty-four hours each. Think of + what may be accomplished in an average lifetime in common reading by the + busiest person, who really wants to read. "Schliemann," the noted German + scholar and author, "as a boy, standing in line at the post-office waiting + his turn for the mail, utilized the time by studying Greek from a little + pocket grammar." "Mary Somerfield, the astronomer, while busy with her + children in the nursery, wrote her 'Mechanism of the Heavens,' without + neglecting her duties as a mother." "Julius Caesar, while a military + officer and politician found time to write his Commentaries known + throughout the world." William Cobbett says: "I learned grammar when I was + a private soldier on a six-pence a day. The edge of my guard-bed was my + seat to study in, my knapsack was my bookcase, and a board lying on my lap + was my desk. I had no moment at that time that I could call my own; and I + had to read and write among the talking, singing, whistling, and bawling + of at least half a score of the most thoughtless of men." Among those whom + we all know who have risen out of obscurity to eminence through a wise + economy of time which they have used in reading and study, are, Patrick + Henry, Benjamin West, Eli Whitney, James Watt, Richard Baxter, Roger + Sherman, Sir Isaac Newton, and Benjamin Franklin. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII. SOCIAL RECREATION. + </h2> + <h3> + DEFINED. + </h3> + <p> + The normal young person who does not dissipate is bursting with life. The + natural child is activity embodied. The healthful old person craves + exercise. Life, activity, exercise, each must have some method of spending + itself. Some normal method, some right method, some attractive method must + be chosen. By normal method we mean that which calls into use the varied + faculties and powers of the entire being, body, mind, and heart. By right + method we mean that which does not crush out a part of one's being, while + another part is being developed. By attractive method in the use of life, + activity, exercise, we mean that which appeals to one's peculiar desires, + tastes, and circumstances, so long as these are normal and right. Some + chosen profession, trade, or work is the rightful heritage of every + person. Each man, woman, and child should know when he gets up of a + morning, what his work is for that day. Consciously, or unconsciously, he + should have some outline of work, some end in view, some goal toward which + he is stretching himself. Dr. J. M. Buckley asks: "Have you a purpose and + a plan?" And answers, "Life is worth nothing till then." The child is in + the hands of his parent, his teacher, his guardian. These must answer to + Destiny for his beginning and growth. "Satan finds something for idle + hands to do." Hence the necessity of vigilance on the part of those who + hold the young. But "all work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy." This + rule is good whether "Jack" be a puny girl, a feeble grandfather, a + hustling, responsible father, a busy mother, or even a mischievous lad. + Every person who rises each morning, dresses himself and goes about his + work as if he knew what he were about; who has some useful work to do, and + does it, sooner or later, needs rest. True, night comes and one may rest. + And sweet is the rest of sleep; a third of one's life is passed in this + way. Sancho Panza has it right when he says: + </p> + <p> + "Now blessing light on him that first invented sleep! It covers a man all + over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; it is meat for the hungry, drink for + the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot." But one craves a + recreation, a rest which work nor sleep can give. Man has a social nature, + a longing to mingle with his acquaintances and friends. Let one be shut in + with work, or sickness, or weather, for whole days at a time, and see how + hungry he gets to see some one. A recreation at a social gathering + literally makes a new being out of him. He is recreated. It is this form + of recreation that we consider here, social recreation. + </p> + <p> + A NECESSITY. + </p> + <p> + Social recreation is a necessity in a well-ordered life. As with many + other common blessings we forget its benefits. Nor are these benefits so + evident until we see the blighting result in the life of the one who, for + any reason whatsoever, has become a social recluse. We have known a few + persons who have once been in society, but who have allowed themselves to + remain away from all sorts of gatherings, for a number of years. In every + case, the result has been openly noticeable. They have become boorish in + manners, unsympathetic in nature, and suspicious in spirit. Thus they have + grown out of harmony with the ideas and ways of those about them, have + come to take distorted and erroneous views of affairs and of men. Man is a + composite being. Many factors enter into his make-up. He lives not only in + the physical and intellectual, in the religious and social, in a local and + limited sense, but his life expands until it touches and molds many other + characters and communities besides his own. In all of these spheres of his + influence and work on needs to be sobered down, corrected, stimulated. In + no other way is this better accomplished than through one's very contact + with his fellows in the religious gathering, among his workmen, in the + political meeting, at the assembly, in the social gathering whenever and + wherever persons may see one another and talk over common interests. + </p> + <p> + A SPECIFIC SENSE. + </p> + <p> + In a specific sense, by social recreation, we mean those pastimes and + pleasures which all persons, except the social recluse, enjoy as they meet + to spend an afternoon or an evening together. Now, how may we get the + largest amount of pleasure, of rest, of recreation from such gatherings? + How may we best benefit ourselves, inspire one another, and in it all, + honor God? It is no small task to accomplish these three ends in all + things, in one's life. We have agreed that some social practices are + positively bad. And we have tried to show why the "tobacco club," the + "social glass," the "card-party," the "dancing-party," and the play-house + reveries should be avoided. We have left these forms of so-called + "questionable amusements" out of our practice and let our of our lives. To + what may we turn? Where may we go? We turn to the social gathering. + </p> + <p> + BUT IT MUST BE PLANNED. + </p> + <p> + No social gathering can successfully run itself. See what forethought and + expenditure are given to make successful the "smoking-club," the + "wine-social," the "card and dancing parties," and the "theater." Not one + of these institutions thrive without thought and cost in their management. + Put the same thought and expense into the gathering for social recreation, + and you will find all of the merits of the questionable institution and + none of its demerits. No company has larger capabilities than the mixed + company at the social gathering. Nor may any purpose be more perfectly + served than the purpose of true social recreation. Here we find those + skilled in music, versed in literature, adept at conversation; we find the + practical joker, the proficient at games, and last, but not least, those + "born to serve" tables. This variety of genius, of wit, of skill, of + willingness to serve, is laid at the altar of pleasure for the worthy + purpose of making new again the weary body, the languishing spirit, the + lonely heart. Let the right management and stimulus be given to this + resourceful company, and the hours will pass as moments, the surest sign + of a good time. + </p> + <p> + SOME ESSENTIALS. DINING, SOCIAL HOUR, GAMES. + </p> + <p> + No social recreation is complete without dining. And yet the least + important part of this meal should be the taking of food. It is a serious + fault with the modern social that too much attention is given to the + variety and quantity of food, and not enough to merriment in taking it. To + be successful, the social company should gather as early as possible; the + first hour-and-a-half should be given to greetings and to social levity of + the brightest and wittiest sort. If one has an ache or a pain, a care or a + loss, let it be forgotten now. It is weakness and folly continually to be + under any burden. Here every one should take a genuine release from + seriousness and earnestness in weighty and responsible affairs. Let all, + except the serving committee for this evening, take part in this strictly + social hour-and-a-half. When the late-comers have arrived and have been + introduced, and the people have moved about and met one another, almost + before the company are aware of it they are invited by the serving + committee to dine. Usually all may not be served at once. Now that the + company has been thinned out, the older persons having gone to the tables, + short, spirited games should be introduced in which every person not at + luncheon, should be given a place and a part. At this juncture it is not + best to introduce sitting-games, such as checkers, authors, caroms, or + flinch, for the contestants might be called to take refreshments at a + critical moment in the contest. With a little attention to it, appropriate + games may be introduced here that need not interfere with luncheon. Fully + half an hour should be spent at each set of tables, where at the close of + the meal, some humorous subject or subjects should be introduced and + responded to be those best fitted for such a task. Almost any person can + say something bright as well as sensible, if he will give a little + attention to it beforehand. While the second and third tables are being + served, let those retiring contest at games of skill, converse, or take up + other appropriate entertainment directed by the everywhere present + entertainment committee. By this time half-past ten or eleven o'clock, + some who are old, or who have pressing duties on the next day may want to + retire. If the serving committee have been skillful in adjusting the time + spent at each table to the number of tables, etc., by eleven o'clock the + serving shall have been completed. Now, the young in spirit, whether old + or young, expect, and should have an hour at the newest, liveliest, and + most recreative games. No part of the evening entertainment should be + allowed to drag. To insure this a frequent change of social games is + needed. + </p> + <p> + AVOID LATE HOURS. + </p> + <p> + As late hours tend to produce irregularity in sleep, in meals, and in + work; and since the object of the social is recreation, the company should + retire about midnight. Oftentimes people stay and stay at such a + gathering, until the hostess, the entertaining committee, and the people + themselves are worn out. And yet, who is at fault? This is a critical + point in the modern popular social. How shall the company disband in due + season? In his "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," Oliver Wendell Holmes + gives a suggestion on this point for the private visitor, who does not + know how to go. Says Holmes: "Do n't you know how hard it is for some + people to get out of a room when their visit is really over? They want to + be off, and you want to have them off, but they do n't know how to manage + it. One would think they had been built in your parlor or study and were + waiting to be launched. I have contrived a sort of ceremonial inclined + plane for such visitors, which being lubricated with certain smooth + phrases, I back them down, metaphorically speaking, stern-foremost, into + their 'native element,' the great ocean of outdoors." There are social + companies as hard to get rid of as this. They want to go, and every one + wants them to go, but just how to make the start, no one seems to know. + Dr. Holmes and his "inclined plane" may have been successful with the + private caller, but who will be the "contriver of a ceremonial," one + sufficient to land the social company into its "native element, the great + ocean of outdoors?" No, this most delicate of the problems involved in a + successful modern social must be left to a tactful hint from the + entertainment committee, and to the wise choice of a few recognized + leaders in the company. + </p> + <p> + NEW COMMITTEES. + </p> + <p> + Special committees should have charge of the serving and of the + entertainment. As far as possible these should vary with each successive + social. It is an erroneous notion, prevalent in nearly every community, + that only "certain ones" can do this or that; the consequence is that + these "certain ones" do all the work, are deprived of the true rest and + relief which the social is meant to give, while others who should take + their turn, grow unappreciative, and weak in their serving and + entertaining ability. + </p> + <p> + THE AVERAGE SOCIAL A FAILURE. + </p> + <p> + As it is conducted to-day, the average social is a failure. Late at + arriving, want of introductions, lack of arranged entertainment, late + hours,—all go to weaken and to dull the average young person in + place of to cultivate his wits, his special genius at music, reading, and + conversation, and to recreate him in body, mind, and spirit. To make a + success of the social gathering some one must keep in mind the personal + convenience and happiness of every person present. When this is done and + the social gathering becomes notable for the real pleasure that it gives, + then we shall be able to drive out the "questionable amusements," because + we have taken nothing from the person, and have given him new life and + interest. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VIII. FRIENDSHIP. + </h2> + <h3> + BONDS OF ATTACHMENT. + </h3> + <p> + Each person is connected with every other person by some bond of + attachment. It may be by the steel bond of brotherhood, by the silvern + chain of religious fellowship, by the golden band of conjugal affection, + by the flaxen cord of parental or filial love, or by the silken tie of + friendship. One or more of these bonds of attachment may encircle each + person, and each bond has its varying strength, and is capable of endless + lengthening and contracting. Brotherhood is a general term, and as it is + used here, comprises the fellow-feeling that one human being has for + another, this is universal brotherhood. Brotherhood comprises the + fellow-feeling that attracts persons of the same race, nation, or + community, this is racial, national, or community brotherhood; also, it + comprises the fellow-feeling that exists between persons of the same + avocation, calling, or work, this is the brotherhood of profession; it + comprises the fellow-feeling that joins persons of the same order or + party, this is the brotherhood of order; it comprises the fellow-feeling + that joins brothers and sisters of the same home, this is the brotherhood + of family. Religious fellowship includes that spiritual intercourse which + is held between persons of the same religious faith and practice. Conjugal + affection comprises that feeling of mind and heart which unites husband + and wife. Filial and parental love exists between parent and child. While + friendship comprises that soul union which exists between persons because + of similar desires, tastes, and sentiments. Each of these bonds of + attachment has its characteristic mark, its essential feature. The + essential feature of universal brotherhood is common origin, present + struggle, and future hope; the essential feature of racial, national, or + community brotherhood is patriotism; the essential feature of brotherhood + of the order is mutual helpfulness; the essential feature in brotherhood + of the profession is common pursuit; in brotherhood of the family, common + parentage; in conjugal affection, attraction for opposite sex; in parental + and filial love, love of offspring and love of parent; while in friendship + the essential feature is harmony of natures. + </p> + <p> + WHAT IS FRIENDSHIP? + </p> + <p> + No human relationship can be more beautiful, nor more abiding than true + friendship. It is a spiritual thing, a communion of souls, virtuously + exercised. How one is impressed and pleased to see another horse just like + his own, to see another dog exactly resembling his own, to meet a person + who speaks, looks, and acts like some one he has known. It is a surprise, + mingled with mystery and delight. But with what increased surprise and + delight does one meet with a "person after his own heart." All men have + recognized the strength and beauty of right self-love. The second great + law of Christ's kingdom is declared in terms of true self-love. "Love thy + neighbor as thyself." Every one loves himself, because one's self is the + truest and best of other lives filtered through his own soul. When one + finds in another that which perfectly answers to his own soul-likings and + longings, he has found another self, he has found a friend. Friendship is + the communion of such souls, although they may be absent from one another. + The highest friendship may grow more perfectly when friends are separated, + then it is unmixed with the alloy of imperfect thought and action. Then it + is nourished by the past, for only the past buries all faults; it is + encouraged by the future, for only the future veils the awkwardness and + shortcomings of the present. The character of friendship is determined by + the character of friends. Negative personalities wanting in taste, + conviction, and virtue produce only a negative friendship. Intense + personalities produce intense friendships; noble personalities, noble + friendships, and spiritual personalities, spiritual friendship. In the + true, spiritual sense, before one can become a friend, he must become an + individual. He must stand for something in thought and purpose. If this is + not true, friendship becomes a flimsy affair. For souls to commune with + one another there must be harmony; unity, agreement of desires, + sentiments, and tastes. Not the harmony of indifference, nor a forced + agreement, but a beautiful and natural response of soul to soul. Such + equipment for friendship finds its basis only in individual character. + Character is conduct become habitual. If one spurns reason, and follows + his impulse and passion, he becomes unreliable, and does not know the + issues of his own heart and life. Who knows what such an one will do next? + To make it soar well or sail well, friendship must have ballast. This + ballast is worthy, individual character. It would be more exact to say + there can be no true friendship without individual character. Although + many elements constitute the character of the true friend, yet two + elements are essential—sincerity and tenderness. Sincerity is the + soul of every virtue, while true words, simple manners, and right actions + make up the body. If the soul of virtue is present one does not always + demand the presence of the body, but if the body of virtue is absent, one + had better take a search after the soul. If sincerity is unquestioned, + words, manners, actions have great liberty; but if words, manners and + actions are lacking in straight-forwardness, it is time to question + sincerity. This is true in all human affairs involving motive and conduct. + Especially is it true in friendship. Sincerity knows its own. By a glance + it penetrates the very heart of its true friend, and leaves translucent + and transparent its own. Sincerity gives steadfastness and constancy to + friendship. Insincerity mars and breaks friendship. Who has not seen a + soul spring into life through the love of a radiant friendship; and then + following a series of hollow pretenses, insincerities, that friendship + fails, and the beautiful creature stifles and dies. As one tells us, "such + a death is frightful, it is the asphyxia of the soul!" Then, tenderness is + an essential element in the character of a friend. Says Emerson: + "Notwithstanding all the selfishness that chills like east winds the + world, the whole human family is bathed with an element of love, like a + fine ether." With Emerson, we believe that every person carries about with + him a certain circle of sympathy within which he, and at least one friend, + may temper and sweeten life. Much of the kindness of the world is simply + breathed, and yet what an aroma of good cheer it sheds in grateful lives. + Tenderness possesses a sensitiveness of sympathy to an extreme degree. It + shrinks from the sight of suffering. It treats others with "gentleness, + delicacy, thought-fulness, and care. It enters into feelings, anticipates + wants, supplies the smallest pleasure, and studies every comfort." Says + one: "It belongs to natures, refined as well as loving, and possesses that + consideration of which finer dispositions only are capable." Tenderness is + a heart quality. It is the luxury of a pure and intense friendship. It + tempers one's entire nature, making his whole being sympathetic with grace + and favor. It is manifest in the relaxing feature, in the penetrating + glance, in the mellowing voice, in the engracing manners, and in the + complete obliteration of time and distance, while with one's friend. We + recall the friendly visits spend with our friend, Lawrence W. Rowell, + during his medical course in Rush College, Chicago, while we were in + attendance at the Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois. Rowell + was intellectual, spirited, gifted in conversation, highly sympathetic, + informed, critical, yet charitable, a close student of human nature, a + love of philosophy, of musical temperament, of noble heart, of exalted + purpose. Our visits were kept up bimonthly throughout one year. We would + spent Saturday evening and Sunday together. Those visits revealed to me + the magnetism, intensity, and tenderness of a friend. Truly, with us time + and distance were almost completely obliterated from our consciousness. I + say distance, for we would walk together. Tenderness suits the amiable and + gentle in disposition, but it comes with a peculiar charm from the austere + nature. It is one of the stalwart virtues, and is often concealed behind a + crusty exterior. Severity and tenderness adorn the greatest lives. + </p> + <p> + THE TEST OF FRIENDSHIP. + </p> + <p> + What is the uncertain mark of a friend? Have I a friend? How many friends + have I? I can invoice my stock, my goods, my land, my money, can I invoice + my friends? One may not always know the actual worth of a friend, but he + knows who are his friends, quite as well as he knows who are his nephews + and cousins. "A friend is one whom you need and who needs you." Has one a + bit of good news, he flies to his friend, he wants to share it. Has one a + sorrow, he seeks his friend who will gladly share that. Does one meet with + a defeat or victory, instantly he thinks of his friend and of how it will + effect him. Friends need one another, as truly as the child needs its + mother, or the mother her child. Is one tempted to commit a wrong in + thought or action, his friend, though absent, appears at his side and begs + him not to do it. If one is in doubt or uncertainty, he summons his + friend, who become a patient reasoner, and an impartial judge. Who does + not find himself, daily, looking through other people's glasses, weighing + on other people's scales, sounding other people's voices? It is a habit + that friends have with one another. You can not deprive friends of one + another, any more than you can lovers. Ah, true friends are lovers of the + heaven-born sort; for their agreement is grounded in nature. They are not + chosen, they are discovered. Or, as Emerson says, they are "self-elected." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Friendship's an abstract of love's noble flame, + 'Tis love refined, and purged from all its dross, + 'Tis next to angel's love, if not the same, + As strong as passion in, though not so gross." +</pre> + <p> + Thus writes Catherine Phillips. + </p> + <p> + FRUITS OF FRIENDSHIP. + </p> + <p> + True friendship gives ease to the heart, light to the mind, and aid to the + carrying out of one's life-purposes. First, ease to the heart. The + presence of a friend is a beam of genial sunshine which lights up the + house by his very appearance. He warms the atmosphere and dispels the + gloom. The presence of a true friend for a day, a night, a week, lifts one + out of himself, links him with new purposes, and immerses him in new joys. + Friends breathe free with one another. They inspire sighs of relief. + Embarrassment disappears; liberty reigns supreme. Hearts are like steam + boilers, occasionally, they must give vent to what is in them, or they + will burst. This is the true mission of friends, to become to one another + reserve reservoirs of "griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, + and whatever lieth upon the heart to oppress it," or elate it. You recall + those familiar lines of Bacon: "This communicating of a man's self to his + friends works two contrary effects; for it redoubles joys and cutteth + griefs in halves; for there is no man that imparteth his joys to his + friend, but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his griefs to + his friends, but he grieveth the less." The following selected lines, + slightly changed, set forth this first fruit of friendship. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "A true friend is an atmosphere + Warm with all inspirations dear, + Wherein we breathe the large free breath + Of life that hath no taint of death. + A true friend's an unconscious part + Of every true beat of our heart; + A strength, a growth, whence we derive + Soul-rest, that keeps the world alive." +</pre> + <p> + Then, friendship sheds light in the mind. "He who has made the acquisition + of a judicious and sympathetic friend," says Robert Hall, "may be said to + have doubled his mental resources." No man is wise enough to be his own + counselor, for he inclineth too much to leniency toward himself. "It is a + well-known rule that flattery is food for the fool." Therefore no man + should be his own counselor since no one is so apt to flatter another as + he is himself. A wise man never flatters himself, neither does a friend + flatter. As a wise man sees his own faults and seeks to correct them, so a + true friend sees the faults of his friend and labors faithfully to banish + them. The one who flatters you despises you, and degrades both you and + himself. An enemy will tell you the whole truth about yourself, especially + your faults, and at times that both weaken and hurt you. A friend will + tell you the whole truth about yourself, especially your neglected + virtues, but at a time to both strengthen and help you. The highest + service a friend can render is that of giving counsel. The highest honor + one can bestow upon his friend is to make him his counselor. It is no mark + of weakness to rely upon counsel. God, Himself, needed a counselor, so he + chose His Son. "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty + God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Isa. ix, 6. Counsel, + says Solomon, is the key to stability. "Every purpose is established by + Counsel." Prov. Xx, 18. Who despiseth counsel shall reap the reward of + folly. A friend is safe in counsel, according to his wisdom, for he never + seeks his own good, but the good of his friend. It is a saying, "If some + one asks you for advice, if you would be followed, first find out what + kind of advice is wanted, then give that." But this is not the way of a + friend. He has in mind the welfare of the friend and the cause his friend + serves. Honor does not require that one shall follow the advise of his + friend, rather liberty in this is a mark of freedom and trust between + friends. + </p> + <p> + A friend aids one in the carrying out of his life purposes. Who is it that + helps one to places of honor and usefulness? It is his friend. Who is it + that recognizes one's true worth, extols his virtues, and gives tone and + quality to the diligent services of months and years? It is his friend. + Who is it, when one ends his life in the midst of an unfinished book, or + with loose ends of continued research in philosophy or science all about + him; who is it that gathers up these loose ends and puts in order the + unfinished work? It is his friend. Who is it that stands by the open tomb + of that fallen saint or hero and relates to the world his deeds of + sacrifice and courage which spurn others on to nobler living and thereby + perpetuates his goodness and valor? Who does this, if it is done? It is + his friend. A friend thus becomes not only a completion of one's soul as + he is by virtue of being a friend, but also he becomes a completion of + one's life. Then, one's relation to his fellowmen is a limited + relationship. He may speak, but upon certain subjects, on certain + occasions, and to certain persons. As Francis Bacon says, "A man can not + speak to his son but as a father; to his wife but as a husband; to his + enemy but upon terms; whereas a friend may speak as the case requires, and + not as it sorteth with the person....I have given the rule," says he, + "where a man can not fitly play his own part, if he have not a friend, he + may quit the stage." + </p> + <p> + HOW TO GET AND KEEP A FRIEND. + </p> + <p> + A real friend is discovered, or made. First, discovered. Two persons + notice an attraction for one another. They see that their desires are + similar, they have the same sentiments, they agree in tastes. A feeling of + attachment becomes conscious with each of them, slight association fosters + this feeling, it increases. New associations but reveal a broader + agreement, a closer union, a perfecter harmony. The signs of friendship + appear. Heart and mind of each respond to the other, they are friends. + This is the noblest friendship. It has its origin in nature. It is, as H. + Clay Trumbull says: "Love without compact or condition; it never pivots on + an equivalent return of service or of affection. Its whole sweep is away + from self and toward the loved one. Its desire is for the friend's + welfare; its joy is in the friend's prosperity; its sorrows and trials are + in the friend's misfortunes and griefs; its pride is in the friend's + attainments and successes; its constant purpose is in doing and enduring + for the friend." + </p> + <p> + Then, friends are made. Two persons do not especially attract one another. + But, through growth of character, modification of nature, or change in + desires, sentiments, and tastes, they become attracted to each other. Or + in spite of natural disagreements or differences, through the force of + circumstances they become welded together in friendship. Montaigne + describes such an attachment, in which the souls mix and work themselves + into one piece with so perfect a mixture that there is no more sign of a + seam by which they were first conjoined. Says Euripedes: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "A friend + Wedded into our life is more to us + Than twice five thousand kinsman one in blood." +</pre> + <p> + Such was the friendship of Ruth and Naomi. Orpha loved Naomi, kissed her, + and returned satisfied to her early home; but Ruth cleaved unto her, + saying: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Entreat me not to leave thee, + And to return from following after thee: + For whither thou goest, I will go; + Where thou lodgest, I will lodge: + Thy people shall be my people, + And thy God my God: + Where thou diest, will I die, + And there will I be buried: + The Lord do so to me, and more also, + If aught but death part thee and me." +</pre> + <p> + The keeping of a friend like the keeping of a fortune, lies in the + getting, although in friendship much depends upon circumstances of + association. However subtle may be the circumstances which bring friends + together, or whatever natural agreement may exist between their natures, + still there is always a conscious choosing of friends. In this choosing + lies the secret of abiding friendship. Young says: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "First on thy friend deliberate with thyself; + Pause, ponder, sift: not eager in the choice, + Nor jealous of the chosen; fixing fix; + Judge before friendship, then confide till death." +</pre> + <p> + Steadfastness and constancy such as this seldom loses a friend. + </p> + <p> + Last of all, abiding friendship is grounded in virtue. Says a famed writer + on Friendship: "There is a pernicious error in those who think that a free + indulgence in all lusts and sins is extended in friendship. Friendship was + given us by nature as the handmaid of virtues and not as the companion of + our vices. It is virtue, virtue I say... that both wins friendship and + preserves it." And closing his remarks on this immortal subject, Cicero + causes Laelius to say: "I exhort you to lay the foundations of virtue, + without which friendship can not exist, in such a manner, that with this + one exception, you may consider that nothing in the world is more + excellent than friendship." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IX. TRAVEL. A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. + </h2> + <p> + We have set in order some facts, incidents, and lessons gathered from a + hasty trip to the old country during the summer of 1899. The journey was + made in company with Rev. C.F. Juvinall, for four years my room-mate and + fellow-student, and my estimable friend. On Wednesday, June 21st, we + sailed from Boston Harbor; reached Liverpool, England, Saturday morning + the 1st of July; visited this second town in the British kingdom; stopped + over at the old town of Chester; took a run out to Hawarden Estate, the + home of Gladstone; changed cars at Stratford-on-Avon and visited the tomb + of Shakespeare; staid a half day and a night in the old university town of + Oxford, and reached London on the evening of July 4th. Having spent a week + in London, we crossed the English Channel to Paris; remained there two + days, then made brief visits to the battlefield of Waterloo, to Brussels, + Amsterdam, Hull, Sheffield, Dublin, and back to Liverpool. We sailed to + Boston and returned to Chicago by way of Montreal and Detroit, having + spent forty-nine days—the intensest and delightfullest of our lives. + At first, we hesitated to treat this subject from a point of view of + personal experience, but since it is our purpose to incite in others the + love for and the right us of all helpful resources of happiness and power, + it seemed to us that we could no better accomplish our purpose with + respect to this subject than to recount our own observations from this one + limited, imperfect journey. + </p> + <p> + AN EYE-OPEN AND EAR-OPEN EXPERIENCE. + </p> + <p> + One is always at a disadvantage in relating the faults of others, for he + seems to himself and to his friends to be telling his own experience. We + were about to speak of the superficial way in which Americans travel. One + who has traveled much says that "the average company of American tourists + goes through the Art Galleries of Europe like a drove of cattle through + the lanes of a stock-market." Nor is it the art gallery and museum alone + that is done superficially. How many persons before entering grand old + Notre Dame, or the British Houses of Parliament, pause to admire the + elaborate and expansive beauty of the great archways and outer walls? It + is possible to live in this world, to travel around it, to touch at every + great port and city, and yet fail to see what is of value or of interest. + A man on our boat going to Liverpool, said that he had traveled over the + world, had been in London many a time, but had not taken the pains to go + into St. Paul's, nor to visit the Tower of London. A wise man, a seer, is + one who sees. It is possible to live in this world, and not to leave one's + own dooryard, and yet to possess the knowledge of the world, and to tell + others how to see. Louis Agassiz, the scientist, was invited by a friend + to spend the summer with him abroad. Mr. Agassiz declined the gracious + offer on the ground that he had just Planned a summer's tour through his + own back yard. What did Agassiz find on that tour? Instruction for the + children of many generations, a treatise on animal life, and later a + text-book of Zoology. Kant, the philosopher, the greatest mind since + Socrates, was never forty miles from his birthplace. On the other hand, + Grant Allen, author, scholar, and traveler, says: "One year in the great + university we call Europe, will teach one more than three at Yale or + Columbia. And what it teaches one will be real, vivid, practical, + abiding... ingrained in the very fiber of one's brain and thought.... He + will read deeper meaning thenceforward in every picture, every building, + every book, every newspaper.... If you want to know the origin of the art + of building, the art of painting, the art of sculpture, as you find them + to-day in contemporary America, you must look them up in the churches, and + the galleries of early Europe. If you want to know the origin of American + institutions, American law, American thought, and American language, you + must go to England; you must go farther still to France, Italy, Hellas, + and the Orient. Our whole life is bound up with Greece and Rome, with + Egypt and Assyria." But whatever advantage travel may afford for broad and + intense study, whatever be its superior processes of refinement and + learning, yet it is well to remember this, that at any place and at any + time one may open his eyes and his ears, his heart and his reason, and + find more than he is able to understand and a heart to feel! You can not + limit God to the land nor to the sea, to one country nor to one + hemisphere. Thus the kind of travel of which we speak is the eye-open and + ear-open sort. + </p> + <p> + Let us note first, then, that travel is a study of history at the spot + where the event took place. The history of a nation is a record of its + great men. You tell a faithful story of Columbus, John Cabot, and Henry + Hudson; of Winthrop, John Smith, and Melendez; of General Wolfe, General + Washington, Patrick Henry, and Franklin; of Jefferson, Adams, Jackson, and + Webster; of Abraham Lincoln, Wendell Phillips, John Brown, and General + Grant; of John Sherman, Grover Cleveland, and William McKinley, and you an + up-to-date history of the young American Republic, acknowledged by every + country to have the greatest future of all nations. So, if one reads with + understanding the inscriptions on the monuments of Gough, O'Connell, and + Parnell, he will get the story of the struggles of the Irish. Enter London + Tower, "the most historical spot in England," and recount the bloody + tragedies of the English people since the time of William the Conqueror, + 1066 A.D. Here we have a "series of equestrian figures in full equipment, + as well as many figures on foot, affording a faithful picture, in + approximate chronological order, of English war-array from the time of + Edward I, 1272, down to that of James II, 1688." In glass cases, and in + forms of trophies on the walls, we find arms and armor of the old Romans, + of the early Greeks, and Britons, and of the Anglo-Saxons. Maces and axes, + long and cross bows and leaden missile weapons and shields, highly adorned + with metal figures, all tend to make more vivid the word-pictures of the + historian. Of the small burial-ground in this Tower, Macaulay writes: "In + truth there is no sadder spot on earth than this little cemetery. Death is + there associated, not, as in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's, with genius + and virtue, with public veneration, and with imperishable renown; not, as + in our humblest churches and church-yards, with every thing that is most + endearing in social and domestic charities; but with whatever is darkest + in human nature and in human destiny, with the savage triumph of + implacable enemies, with the inconstancy, the ingratitude, the cowardice + of friends, with all the miseries of fallen greatness and of blighted + fame." We note a few names chiseled here: Sir Thomas More, beheaded 1535; + Anne Boleyn, beheaded in this tower, 1536; Thomas Cromwell, beheaded, + 1540; Margaret Pole, beheaded here, 1541; Queen Catharine Howard, + beheaded, 1542; Lady Jane Grey and her husband, beheaded here, 1544; Sir + Thomas Overbudy, poisoned in this tower, 1613. Since travel is a study of + history at the spot where the event took place, let us cross the rough and + famed English Channel to visit one of the many noted spots of France. We + select the site of the Hotel de Ville or the town-hall of Paris. "The + construction of the old hall was begun in 1533, and was over seventy years + in its completion. Additions were made, and the building was reconstructed + in 1841. This has been the usual rallying site of the Democratic party for + centuries. Here occurred the tragedy of St. Bartholomew in 1572; here + mob-posts, gallows, and guillotines did the work of a despotic misrule + until 1789. (As we left for Brussels on the evening of the 13th of July, + all Paris was gayly decorated with red, white, and blue bunting, ready to + celebrate the event of July 14, 1789, the fall of the Bastile.) On this + date, 110 years ago, the captors of the Bastile marched into this noted + hall. Three days later Louis XVI came here in procession from Versailles, + followed by a dense mob." Here Robespierre attempted suicide to avoid + arrest, when five battalions under Barras forced entrance to assault the + Commune party, of which Robespierre was head. Here, in 1848, Louis Blanc + proclaimed the institution of the Republic of France. This was a central + spot during the revolution of 1871. The leaders of the Commune party place + in this building barrels of gunpowder, and heaps of combustibles steeped + in petroleum, and on May 25th they succeeded in destroying with it 600 + human lives. A new Hotel de Ville, one of the most magnificent buildings + in Europe, has replaced the old hall. This is open to visitors at all + hours. To study history at the spot where the event took place means work + as well as pleasure, so we took our luncheon and sleep in our car while + the train carried us to Brussels, and out to Braine-l'Alleud, where, on + the beautiful rolling plain of Belgium, June 18, 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte + met his Waterloo, and Wellington became England's idol. + </p> + <p> + A railway baggageman was on our train returning to his home in Cleveland, + Ohio. In conversation, he said: "I have been with this company for + twenty-two years; have drawn two dollars a day, 365 days in the year for + that time, and I haven't a dollar in the world, but one, and I gave it + yesterday for a dog. But," said he, "I have a good woman and the greatest + little girl in the world, so I am happy." This is one of a large class of + persons who receive fair wages all their lives, and yet die paupers, + because they plan to spend all they make as they go along. In conversation + with a gruff, old Dutch conductor between Albany and New York City, I + ventured to ask him if he had ever crossed the ocean. "No," he said, + "nopody eber crosses de ocean, bud emigrants, and beoble vat hab more + muney dan prains." + </p> + <p> + Travel is a study of religious institutions. Among the most interesting in + Europe, that we visited, are Wesley's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, St. + Paul's Cathedral, and Notre Dame. The Church of Notre Dame, situated in + the heart of Paris on the bank of the Seine, was founded 1163 on the site + of a church of the fourth century. The building has been altered a number + of times. In 1793 it was converted into a temple of reason. The statue of + the Virgin Mary was replaced by one of Liberty. Busts of Robespierre, + Voltaire, and Rosseau were erected. This church was closed to worship + 1794, but was reopened by Napoleon 1802. It was desecrated by the + Communards 1811, when the building was used as a military depot. The large + nave, 417 feet long, 156 feet wide, and 110 feet high, is the most + interesting portion of this massive structure. The vaulting of this great + nave is supported by seventy-five huge pillars. The pulpit is a + masterpiece of modern wood-carving. The choir and sanctuary are set off by + costly railings, and are beautifully adorned by reliefs in wood and stone. + The organ, with 6,000 pipes, is one of the finest in Europe. "The choir + has a reputation for plain song." On a small elevation, in the center of + London, stand the Cathedral of St. Paul's, the most prominent building in + the city. From remains found here it is believed that a Christian Church + occupied this spot in the times of the Romans, and that it was rebuilt by + King Ethelbert, 610 A.D. Three hundred years later this building was + burned, but soon it was rebuilt. Again it was destroyed by fire, 1087, and + a new edifice begun which was 200 years in completion. This church, old + St. Paul's, was 590 feet long, and had a leaden-covered, timber spire, 460 + feet high. In 1445 this spire was injured by lightning, and in 1561 the + building was again burned. Says Mr. Baedeker, whose guidebook is + indispensable in the hands of a traveler, "Near the cathedral stood the + celebrated Cross of St. Paul, where sermons were preached, papal bulls + promulgated, heretics made to recant, and witches to confess, and where + the pope's condemnation of Luther was proclaimed in the presence of + Woolsey." Here is the burial place of a long list of noted persons. Here + occurred Wyckiff's citation for heresy, 1337; and here Tyndale's New + Testament was burned, 1527. It was opened for divine services, 1697, and + was completed after thirteen years of steady work, at a cost of three and + a half millions of dollars. This sum was raised by a tax on coal. The + church is in the form of a Latin cross, 500 feet long, with the transept + 250 feet in length. "The inner dome is 225 feet high, the outer, from the + pavement to the top of the cross, is 364 feet. The dome is 102 feet in + diameter, thirty-seven feet less than St. Peter's. St. Paul's is the third + largest church in Christendom, being surpassed only by St. Peter's at + Rome." Three services are held here daily. The religion of Notre Dame is + Roman Catholic, but that of St. Paul's and Westminster is of the Church of + England. What shall we say of Westminster Abbey, the most impressive place + of all our travel! As my friend and I entered here and took our seats for + divine worship, preparatory to visiting her halls, and chapels, and tombs, + I think I was never more deeply impressed. I said to myself, "What does + God mean to allow me to worship here?" and I seemed to realize how little + my past life had been. I felt that circumstances and not I myself had + thrust this new privilege, and thereby new responsibility, upon me. + Westminster Abbey! A church for the living, a burial-place for the honored + dead; a monument to genius, labor, and virtue; England's "temple of fame;" + the most solemn spot in Europe, if not in the world! Here lie authors, + benefactors, and poets; statesmen, heroes, and rulers, the best of English + blood since Edward the Confessor, 1049 A.D. We must now leave this sacred + spot to visit, if possible for us, a more sacred one, the birthplace of + Methodism, or more accurately speaking, in the words of Bishop Warren, the + "cradle of Methodism." + </p> + <p> + On City Road, London, near Liverpool Street Station, is located the house, + chapel, burial-grounds, and tomb of John Wesley. Across the street, in an + old Nonconformist cemetery, are the graves of James Watt, Daniel Defoe, + and John Bunyan. Across the narrow street to the north is the tabernacle + of Whitefield. We learned that Friday, July 7th, was reopening day for + Wesley's Chapel. What a distinguished body of persons we found at this + meeting! Dr. Joseph Parker was the speaker of the day. The Rev. Hugh Price + Hughes, president of the Conference, presided at the memorial services. + Rev. Westerdale, present pastor, successfully managed the program of the + day, especially the collections, for he met the expense of the rebuilding + and past indebtedness with the sum of over fifteen thousand dollars. He + told those discouraged ministers with big audiences to go and take courage + from what the mother-church, with her small number of poor parishioners, + had done. In the evening, Bishop Warren, on his return to America, called + in and gave an interesting talk. He was followed by Fletcher Moulton, + member of Parliament. You may not realize the feeling of gratitude with + which we took part in this eventful service of praise, prayer, and + rededication! On the next day we returned to see the books, furniture, and + apartments of Wesley, himself. We sat at his writing desk, stood in his + death-chamber, and lingered in the little room where he used to retire at + four in the morning for secret prayer. From here he would go directly to + his preaching service at five. Wesley put God first in his life, this is + why men honor him so much now that he is gone. We took a farewell view of + the audience-room from the very pulpit into which Wesley ascended to + preach his Good News of Christ. From the several inscriptions on Wesley's + tomb, we copied the following one: "After having languished a few days, he + at length finished his course and life together. Gloriously triumphing + over death, March the 2nd, Anno Domine, 1791, in the eighty-eight year of + his age." + </p> + <p> + In Liverpool, on the day of our arrival, July 1st, an old, gray-haired man + was shining my shoes. He observed that I was from across the water, and + that an Englishman can readily tell a Yankee. He began to praise America. + He said that Uncle Sam was only a child yet, that America was destined to + be the greatest country in the world; that her trouble with Spain was only + a bickering; that the present engagement was only his maiden warfare, and + that he "walked along like a streak of lightning." + </p> + <p> + Saturday evening, July 8th, witnessed the greatest military parade in + London for thirty years. The Prince of Wales reviewed twenty-seven + thousand London volunteers. Early in the morning citizens from all over + England began to gather in front of the English barracks, and at the east + end of Hyde Park. By two o'clock in the afternoon hundreds of thousands + had packed the streets and dotted the parks and lawns, until, in every + direction one could witness a sea of faces. After the royal and military + procession began, the patient Johnnies, with their sisters, sweethearts, + wives, mothers, grandmothers, and great-grand-mothers, stood for five + hours to see it go by. The Englishman does not tire when he is honoring + his country. At the close of this parade we dropped into a barbershop for + a shave. The gentleman seemed to understand that I was a long ways from + home. "You fellows," I said, "can tell us as far as you can see us." + "Yes," said he, "by your shoes, your hat, your coat, your tongue, and even + by your face. We can tell you by the way you spit. A spittoon here, + pointing about ten feet away, give a Yankee two trials, he will hit it + every time." + </p> + <p> + Travel is a study of the genius of man as shown in architecture, in + sculpture, and in painting. Ninety-seven plans were submitted for the + Houses of Parliament, including Westminster Hall. That of Sir Charles + Barry was selected, and the present imposing structure was built, covering + eight acres, at a cost of $15,000,000. The style is perpendicular + (Gothic), with carvings, intricate in detail and highly picturesque. The + building faces the river with a 940 feet front, but her three magnificent + square-shaped towers rise over her street front. The clock tower at the + northwest corner is 318 feet high, the middle tower is 300 feet, and the + southwest, or Victorian tower, is 340 feet high. The large clock with its + four dials, each twenty-three feet in diameter, requires five hours for + winding the striking parts. The striking bell of the clock tower is one of + the largest known; it weighs thirteen tons, and can be heard, in favorable + weather, over the greater portion of London. One never tires in looking at + this noble building. It is appropriately adorned inside and out with + elaborate carvings, statuary, and paintings. Here are located the Chamber + of Peers, the House of Commons, and numerous royal apartments, lavishly + fitted up to be in keeping with the office and dignity of the building. + </p> + <p> + Crystal Palace, situated about eight miles southeast of St. Paul's, + consists entirely of glass and iron. Its main hall, or nave, is 1,608 feet + long, with great cross sections, two aisles, and numerous lateral + sections. The two water towers at the ends are each 282 feet high. If you + were at the World's Fair in Chicago, and visited the Transportation + Building, you may imagine something of the magnitude and beauty of Crystal + Palace, with her orchestra, concert hall, and opera-house; with her + fountains, library, and school of art; with her museums, gardens, and + arenas; with her parks, panoramas, and her numerous exhibits of nature and + art. Near the center of the palace "is the great Handel Orchestra, which + can accommodate 4,000 persons, and has a diameter twice as great as the + dome of St. Paul's. In the middle is the powerful organ with 4,384 pipes, + built at a cost of $30,000, and worked by hydraulic machinery. An + excellent orchestra plays here daily." The concert-hall on the south side + of the stage can accommodate an audience of 4,000. An excellent orchestra + plays here daily. "On each side of the great nave are rows of courts, + containing in chronological order, copies of the architecture and + sculpture of the most highly civilized nations, from the earliest period + to the present day." The gardens of Crystal Palace cover two hundred + acres, and are beautifully laid out "with flowerbeds, shrubberies, + fountains, cascades, and statuary." "Two of the fountain basins have been + converted into sport arenas, each about eight and one-half acres in + extent." Nine other fountains, with electric light illuminations, play on + fireworks nights and on other special occasions. It is common for 15,000 + visitors to attend these Thursday night firework exhibits. Colored + electric light jets deck the fountains, flower-beds, and halls. Crystal + Palace was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, and cost seven and a half + million of dollars. Well may it be called London's Paradise. + </p> + <p> + Shall we say that the greatest piece of constructive architecture of any + country is that of Eiffel Tower! Situated on the left bank of the Seine + River, it overlooks Paris and the country for fifty miles around. + </p> + <p> + In its construction, iron caissons were sunk to a depth of forty-six feet + on the river side, and twenty-nine and one-half on the other side. When + the water was forced out of these caissons by means of compressed air, + "concrete was poured in to form a bed for four massive foundation piers of + masonry, eighty-five feet thick, arranged in a square of 112 yards. Upon + this base which covers about two and a half acres rises the extraordinary, + yet graceful structure of interlaced ironwork" to a height of 984 feet. + Eight hundred persons may be accommodated on the top platform at once. It + was completed within two years' time, and is the highest monument in the + world. Washington monument ranks second, being 555 feet high. From the + summit of Eiffel Tower one may secure a good view of Paris, her public + buildings, chief hills, parks, and boulevards, monuments, and embankments. + An imitation of Trajan's column in Rome, is 142 feet in height, and + thirteen feet in diameter. It is constructed of masonry, encrusted with + plates of bronze, forming a spiral band nearly 300 yards in length, on + which are represented the "battle scenes of Napoleon during his campaign + of 1805, and down to the battle of Austerlitz. The figures are three feet + in height and many of them are portraits. The metal was obtained by + melting down 1,200 Russian and Austrian cannons. At the top is a statue of + Napoleon in his Imperial robes. This column reflects the political history + of France." The design sculptor is Bergeret. For their antiquity the + mummies and statues in the Egyptian galleries of the British Museum are + very interesting. They embrace the period from 3600 years before Christ to + 350 A.D. "The tomb of Napoleon by Visconte," and "the twelve colossal + victories surrounding the sarcophagus by Pradier," are among the finest + works of Parisian sculpture. The sarcophagus, thirteen feet long, six and + one-half feet high, consists of a single huge block of reddish-brown granite, + weighing upwards of sixty-seven tons, brought as a gift from Finland at a + cost of $700,000. The Louvre, Paris, contains one of the finest art + galleries in Europe, and with the Tuilleries, covers about eight acres, + "forming one of the most magnificent places in the world." + </p> + <p> + In our limited experience at travel we have yet to find a single object of + beauty or utility that is not the product of skill, of genius, of great + labor. Every monument bears testimony of struggle, of bloodshed, of + hard-earned victory; beneath every tomb that honor has erected rests the + body of incarnate intelligence, fidelity, and courage. In the shadow of + every great cathedral lies collected the moth and rust from the coppers of + myriad-handed toilers of five and ten centuries. The towers and domes of + London, and Paris, and Amsterdam, and Dublin are monuments to the genius + of the architect and to the faithfulness of the common toiler. The parks + and gardens tell of centuries of wise and faithful application of the laws + of growth, of symmetry, of design in form and color. The historic chapels + of worship and learning breathe the very incense of devotion and reverence + for truth; while the conservatories of sculpture and painting preserve + what is divinest in human experience. Age alone can produce a great man or + a great nation. Decades for the man and centuries for the nation; these + are the measuring periods for real achievement. But all this is on the + human side. Correggio and Titian in painting; Bacon and Bailey in + sculpture; Raphael and Michael Angelo in sculpture and painting; and Sir + Christopher Wren in architecture,—the works of art of such as these + elevate and purify one's thought and feeling. But the profoundest + impressions that come to one from travel, come alone from the works of + nature. The Crystal Palace in London can not compare in glory with the + crystal ripples of a mid-ocean scene. The botannical gardens of the + Tuilleries in Paris do not stir the soul as does the splendor of the Welsh + mountains. The rockery plants of Phoenix Park, Dublin, are insignificant + compared with growths of ferns and moss On the rock ledges of Bray's Head, + south of Dublin. No panorama that man has painted can equal the scene of + Waterloo battle-field, observed from the earthen mound near the fatal + ravine. So, we shall always find it true, that as the heavens are higher + than the earth, so the thoughts of God are higher than the thoughts of + man, and his ways than man's ways. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + X. HOME AND THE HOME-MAKER. + </h2> + <h3> + WHAT IS HOME? + </h3> + <p> + "RECENTLY a London magazine sent out 1,000 inquiries on the question, + 'What is home?' In selecting the classes to respond to the question it was + particular to see that every one was represented. The poorest and the + richest were given an equal opportunity to express their sentiment. Out of + eight hundred replies received, seven gems were selected as follows: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Home—A world of strife shut out, a world of love shut in. + "Home—The place where the small are great and the great are + small. + "Home—The father's kingdom, the mother's world, and the + child's paradise. + "Home—The place where we grumble the most and are treated + the best. + "Home—The center of our affection, round which our heart's + best wishes twine. + "Home—The place where our stomachs get three square meals + daily and our hearts a thousand. + "Home—The only place on earth where the faults and failings + of humanity are hidden under the sweet mantle of charity." +</pre> + <p> + Dr. Talmage defines home, as "a church within a church, a republic within + a republic, a world within a world." Dr. Banks writes, "It is not granite + walls, or gaudy furniture, or splendid books, or soft carpets, or + delicious viands that can make a home. All of these may be present, and + yet it be only a dungeon, if the great simplicities are not there." Sings + one: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Home's not merely roof and room, + Needs it something to endear it. + Home is where the heart can bloom, + Where there's some kind heart to cheer it. + + Home's not merely four square walls, + Though with pictures hung and gilded, + Home is where affection calls, + Filled with charms the heart hath builded. + + Home! Go watch the faithful dove + Sailing 'neath the heavens above us, + Home is where there's one to love, + Home is where there's one to love us." +</pre> + <p> + We believe the five sweetest words in the English language to the largest + number of persons—words which carry with them intrinsic meaning and + blessing are these: "Jesus," "Mother," "Music," "Heaven," "Home." "Twenty + thousand people gathered in the old Castle Garden, New York, to hear + Jennie Lind sing. After singing some of the old masters, she began to pour + forth 'Home, Sweet Home.' The audience could not stand it. An uproar of + applause stopped the music. Tears gushed from thousands like rain. The + word 'home' touched the fiber of every soul in that immense throng." In an + early spring day, when the warm sun began to invite one to bask in his + rays, my wife, delicate in health, lay drowsing on some boards near the + house. The large garden spot spread out to the rear of her; a beautiful + grassy lawn carpeted round a deserted house, granary, and shop-building in + front of her. She was living over her girlhood days. She thought she was + in the old home orchard, where she used to doze, dream, and play. The + songs of the birds seemed the same; the same gentle breezes played with + her hair; the same passers-by jogged along the roadside; the same family + horse nibbled the tender grass in the barnyard. How sad, and yet how sweet + are the memories of early days! The tender associations of home never + leave one, however roughly the coarse hand of time would tear them away. + It is because home means love that its associations and lessons remain. + </p> + <p> + ESSENTIALS TO A HAPPY HOME. + </p> + <p> + Although home means love, yet love alone may not insure happiness. In + addition to love, without which a true home can not exist, we select four + essential requisites to make home life useful and happy. These are + intelligence, unselfishness, attractiveness, and religion. + </p> + <p> + First, Intelligence. Much of the misery of the world in individual and + family life is due to gross ignorance. Once the father of a family said to + me, "We did not get our mail to-day, I miss my reading." Knowing the man + we were surprised at such a remark, and ventured to ask him what papers he + took. A list of ten or a dozen papers was named. All of them were + newspapers. One was a general daily, two were local dailies, and the rest + were local weekly papers. No intelligent person would have carried over + three of those papers from the post-office. This man spent hours upon a + class of reading that should be finished with a few minutes each day. In + this same family the mother told me that she had never rode on a railway + train, and that she had never been outside of her own county. This is an + exceptional case, but it illustrates how that ignorance makes thrift and + happiness impossible in a home, neither of which belong to this family. + Here every law of health is violated, foresight in providing for the + physical comforts of the home is wanting; little attention is given to the + education of the children; no sacrifices to-day enrich to-morrow; life is + a humdrum, a routine, a dread, with no exuberance, joy, or hope. In time, + such a life leads to failure and gloom, to secret, then to open vice, and + to a final shipwreck of the home and of the individual. In a similar yet + in a less marked way, the career of many a home is ended. No one may be + directly to blame, but want of common knowledge and common wit have set a + limit beyond which such a family may not go. The intelligent family has + some sort of a history which it is their privilege and duty to perpetuate. + Members of the intelligent family are moral sponsors for one another, the + mother for the daughters, the father for the sons, the brothers and + sisters for one another. They find their own best interests in the + interests of one another. The intelligent family is not superstitious. + They act upon the wisdom of the ancient poet, "every one is the architect + of his own fortune." They look to cause and condition for results. They + spell "luck" with a "p" before it. The intelligent farmer plants his crop + in the ground, rather than in the moon, and looks for his harvest to the + seed and the toil. The intelligent merchant locates his business on the + street of largest travel and makes the buying of his goods his best + salesman. The intelligent man of letters thrives at first by making + friends of poverty and want, until one day his genius places his name in + the temple of honor. So it is with the artist, the musician, the inventor, + the architect. To be happy and useful in one's lot, one must know + something of the sphere in which he lives and works, of its practical + wisdom, and must be prepared to live, or glad to die for the cause he + serves. No indolent, superstitious, or ignorant family need look for + abiding happiness nor expect to be permanently useful. + </p> + <p> + Then unselfishness is essential to happy home life. It is a serious matter + for two persons, even when they are naturally mated, to undertake to live + together in peace and harmony. It is a more serious matter when they are + not naturally mated. It is more serious still when children enter the + home, for they bring with them conflicting tendencies, dispositions, and + wills. Often have we wondered how it is that families get on as well + together as they do when we have considered, what natural differences + exist between them, and what little teaching and discipline have been used + to harmonize these differences. An harmonious home is truly begun in the + parental homes of the husband and wife. Two persons may be perfectly + suited to one another, and yet they may be selfish in wanting their own + way. As one grows up, if he is allowed to have his own way regardless of + the rights and privileges of others, he becomes a selfish person, and his + parents are to blame. A selfish person in the home plans for his own + comfort, decides and acts as he wishes, and seeks to satisfy his own + desires. He does not take into consideration the plans, wishes, and + desires of other members of the family. It is understood that his + authority is supreme. Not one member of the family dreams of expressing + dissent to his dominion. A so-called peace of this sort is not uncommon + among families. This supreme authority may be vested in husband, or wife, + or in one or all of the children. A forced peace of this kind is worse + than rebellion and is as bad as open war. How can any persons be so + presumptuous as to think that any person, or a number of persons, exist + solely for his comfort and advantage! Let two such selfish persons get + together, a permanent riot is assured. Unselfishness in the home means + thoughtfulness, discipline, self-control. Each child is taught the rights + and privileges of others as well as his own. When two unselfish persons + join their lives there begins a holy and beautiful rivalry in seeking the + rights and privileges of one another. The very atmosphere of such a home + is deference, respect, and love. As the stranger, the neighbor, the + friend, comes and goes, he catches the spirit of it and carries it with + him into his own and other homes. Children born into such a home early + imbibe its spirit, and, O, the inspiration one receives from going into + that family circle! No home-life can be an inspiration and a blessing + where selfishness is allowed to reign. Nor can it be useful and happy. + </p> + <p> + Ella Wheeler Wilcox describes a selfish, though a kind and loving husband: + </p> + <p> + THEIR HOLIDAY. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + THE WIFE: + + Our house is like a garden— + The children are the flowers, + The gardener should come, methinks, + And walk among his bowers. + So lock the door of worry, + And shut your cares away, + Not time of year, but love and cheer, + Will make a holiday. + + THE HUSBAND: + + Impossible! You women do not know, + The toil it takes to make a business grow: + I can not join you until very late, + So hurry home, nor let the dinner wait. + + THE WIFE: + + The feast will be like Hamlet, + Without the Hamlet part; + The home is but a house, dear, + Till you supply the heart. + The Christmas gift I long for + You need not toil to buy; + O, give me back one thing I lack: + The love-light in your eye. + + THE HUSBAND: + + Of course I love you, and the children, too. + Be sensible, my dear. It is for you + I work so had to make my business pay; + There, now, run home, enjoy your holiday. + + THE WIFE, TURNING AWAY: + + He does not mean to wound me, + I know his heart is kind, + Alas, that men can love us, + And be so blind—so blind! + A little time for pleasure, + A little time for play, + A word to prove the life of love + And frighten care away— + Though poor my lot, in some small cot, + That were a holiday. +</pre> + <p> + To preserve the family circle, the home must be made attractive. No amount + of practical wisdom, of Puritanic piety, nor mere kindly treatment will + hold a family of children together until they are strong enough to resist + the temptations of the world. The home must be made more attractive than + the street or places of amusement. The average boy or girl who loses + interest in home and uses it chiefly as an eating and sleeping place, does + so with good reasons. Home has lost its charm. No provision is made for + his pastime and pleasure. Not finding this at home he will go elsewhere in + search of it. "An unattractive home," says one, "is like the frame of a + harp that stands without strings. In form and outline, it suggests music, + but no melody arises from the empty spaces; and thus it is an unattractive + home, is dreary and dull." How may home be made attractive? We have + presupposed a certain amount of education and culture in the home by + maintaining for it intelligence and unselfishness. Any home that is + intelligent and unselfish is capable of being made attractive. In the + first place, in as far as it is practicable, each member of the family + should have a room of his own and be taught how to make it attractive. + Here, one will hang his first pictures, start his own library, provide a + writing desk, and learn to spend his spare moments. Recently we visited a + home in Chicago. The rooms are few in number and hired. The family + consists of father, mother, and three children, now grown. During our + short stay in the home I was invited into the boys' room. The walls are + literally covered with original pencil designs, queer calendars, odd + pictures; the dresser and stand are lined with books and magazines, with + worn-out musical instruments, art gifts from other members of the family, + and ball-team pictures, while two lines of gorgeous decorations stretch + from wall to wall. This is still these young men's little world, their + interests have centered here. No less than five kinds of musical + instruments were visible in this home. The walls of the living room and + parlor are made beautiful with simple tasteful pictures made by the + daughter, whose natural gift in art was early cultivated. The table, + shelves, and mantelpiece are decorated with china bowls, plates, and + vases, simply, yet elegantly adorned. This work was done by the daughter + and mother. Not a large but a choice collection of flowering plants + relieved the bay window of its emptiness. This is an attractive home. The + children never have cared to spend their evenings on the street nor at + places of amusement. Games of skill, innocent, instructive, and + entertaining, may be used to make home life more attractive. Only let the + amusements of the home be under the direction of father and mother, and be + practiced by them. Here is a chance to teach shrewdness, honor, interest, + and by all means, moderation. To overdo at games and amusements is more + harmful than to overwork. + </p> + <p> + Religion is essential to happy home life. A family may get on for a time + very smoothly without prayer, Bible study, faith in God, and love for + Jesus Christ; but no family life is completed without a storm, many storms + of some sort. Years may pass as on a quiet sea, but one day at high noon, + or, perhaps, in the silent, early hour, a small cloud is seen in the + distance; it comes nearer; the wind begins to blow, the thunders peal, the + lightnings flash, the old home, for so long an ark of safety, is being + tossed on the billowy waves. A testing time is at hand. Mother is gone, or + father has ventured too far and lost all; or son has disgraced the family + name; or daughter is in shame; or the darling of the home is no more! It + makes a vast difference who is at the helm when the storms of home life + rage. It is a mark of highest wisdom to place the family ship under the + world's best Captain, Jesus Christ. He never lost a life. He alone can + arrest the lightning, quiet the waves, inspire confidence, and restore + peace and good will in any storm. But religion is not only useful in + trouble, it is an ornament in peace and prosperity, in the making and + building of the home. Tempers must be controlled, dispositions cultivated, + conduct improved, hearts softened, and minds purified and disciplined. To + accomplish all of this, no substitute can be made for the spirit and faith + of Jesus Christ. + </p> + <p> + "'Dear Moss,' said the thatch on an old ruin, 'I am so worn, so patched, + so ragged, really I am quite unsightly. I wish you would come and cheer me + up a little. You will hide all my infirmities and defects; and, through + your loving sympathy no finger of contempt or dislike will be pointed at + me.' 'I come,' said the moss; and it crept up and around, and in and out, + till every flaw was hidden, and all was smooth and fair. Presently the sun + shone out, and the old thatch looked bright and fair, a picture of rare + beauty, in the golden rays. 'How beautiful the thatch looks!' cried one + who saw it. 'How beautiful the thatch looks!' said another. 'Ah!' said the + old thatch, 'rather let them say, 'How beautiful is the loving moss!'" So + it is with the religion of Christ, it adorns and beautifies the life who + really wears it; so that the plainness of that life is covered, its + ruggedness softened, and its "pain transformed into profit and its loss + into gain." + </p> + <p> + Charles M. Sheldon gives as an essential for a permanent republic, "A true + home life where father, mother, and children spend much time together; + where family worship is preserved; where honesty, purity, and mutual + affection are developed." + </p> + <p> + J.R. Miller beautifully sums up the secret of happy home-making in one + word—"'Christ.' Christ at the marriage altar; Christ on the bridal + journey; Christ when the new home is set up; Christ when the baby is born; + Christ when the baby dies; Christ in the pinching times; Christ in the + days of plenty; Christ in the nursery, in the kitchen, in the parlor; + Christ in the toil and in the rest; Christ all along the years; Christ + when the wedded pair walk toward the sunset gates; Christ in the sad hour + when the farewells are spoken, and one goes on before and the other stays, + bearing the unshared grief. Christ is the secret of happy home life." + </p> + <p> + THE HOME-MAKER. + </p> + <p> + Just as a surly husband, a dissipated father, or a reckless son may blight + a home and destroy its happiness, so may a thoughtful, virtuous, and kind + man in the home change its very atmosphere and help to make it a heaven. + As a home-maker man has the ruggeder part. It is his to provide. The man + who falls short of this in the home does not do his part. No woman can + respect a man much less love him, who places her, her work, her life, her + home, her world under constant embarrassment by a scant and niggardly + provision. She loses her ambition, ceases to make her self and her home + attractive; disorder, filth, unwholesome food, lack of spirit on her part + is the result. She can not be to him, most of all, what he expects her to + be, a companion, a counselor, a comfort—a home-maker. Also, it is + the part of the man in the home to shield the woman from the heavier + burdens and responsibilities. Let him count the cost of his enterprises, + secure himself against hazardous speculations, and give his wife and + children to realize that his shoulders, and not theirs, are to bear the + load of financial obligation and material support. This leaves the woman + with her finer instincts and sensibilities to make the home the dearest + spot on earth to husband, children, and to all who cross her threshold. + The house is her dominion. There she is queen. What a tender and beautiful + one she may become! + </p> + <p> + SOME PRACTICAL HINTS. + </p> + <p> + The true home-maker does not spend all of her time with her ducks, + chickens, pigs, and cows, nor yet with her neighbors, her club, nor her + Church. She finds some time to cultivate her intellectual nature and the + finer feelings of her children. She does not degenerate into a mere + household drudge. She is not the slave of her husband, but his companion. + If she has musical ability, she keeps up the practice of her music; if she + is inclined to literature, she reads some every day. Whether literary or + not, every woman should spend some time each day in reading that she might + keep abreast with the world, at least with her companion, in the movements + and thoughts of every-day life. The true home-maker plans to have a few + minutes each day which she calls her own, in which she may do as she + pleases regardless of call or duty, that she might relax herself, remove + the strain of intense effort, rest, give her nature its free bent and + inclination. It will pay her in every way. She will accomplish more and + better work in the busy hours. A spirit and a force will characterize + every effort. The women of to-day are overworked. They can not do + themselves, their families, not their homes the true spiritual service + that it is their part to do. Plan for a few minutes rest with the daily + routine of care. But how is one to do this with so many demands made upon + her? For she is expected to be seamstress, laundress, maid, cook, hostess, + a companion to her husband, a trainer of her children, a social being, and + a helper in the Church. If it is impossible or impracticable for one to + have a servant, she will find these few minutes for daily recreation and + study only in a wise choice of more important duties, and will allow the + less important ones to go undone. Many housewives could well afford to + keep a helper. It becomes a question which is of greater importance, the + life and health of the wife and mother, or the paltry wages of a servant? + We knew a family in Illinois who were quite able to keep help in the home, + but did not do so. The mother made a slave of herself, in a few years + broke in health, and left a large family of small children to struggle + alone in the world. The stepmother, who soon came into the home, could + afford one servant girl and part of the time two. This is a common + experience in ill-managed homes. Or this question arises, Which is of + greater importance, to make more money or to improve the moral tone of the + home; to seek to gratify the outer senses, or to seek to elevate the + spiritual life of the children and the parents? In pleading for rest and + study for the mother in the home we plead for the highest interests of the + entire family. For how can a wife be a companion to a husband when she is + made irritable and nervous from overwork and worry. How can she be a true + mother to her children and neglect their mental and spiritual growth? + </p> + <p> + Napoleon once said: "What France wants is good mothers, and you may be + sure then that France will have good sons." Thomas McCrie, an eminent + Scotch preacher, used to tell, with great feeling, of how his mother, when + he was starting out for school in the city, accompanied him along the road + a little way, and then leading him into the field where she could be + alone, prayed with him, that he might be kept from sin in the city, and + become a very useful man. That moment was the turning point in his life. A + few minutes a day spent with the eager, susceptible child mind, will bring + everlasting blessing upon the father and mother. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Questionable Amusements and Worthy +Substitutes, by J. M. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes + +Author: J. M. Judy + +Commentator: George H. Trever + +Posting Date: December 22, 2008 [EBook #2603] +Release Date: April, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUESTIONABLE AMUSEMENTS *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +QUESTIONABLE AMUSEMENTS AND WORTHY SUBSTITUTES + +By J. M. Judy + + + + Introduction by George H. Trever, Ph.D., D.D. The manuscript of + This book was not submitted to any publisher, but was put in its + present form by JENNINGS & PYE, for a friend of the author. + Address. Chicago: Western Methodist Book Concern, 1904. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + +By George H. Trever, PH.D., D.D. + +Author of Comparative Theology, etc. + + +A BOOK on "Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes" is timely +to-day. Such a grouping of subject matter is in itself a commendation. +Possibly we have been saying "Don't" quite enough without offering the +positive substitute. The "expulsive power of a new affection" is, after +all, the mightiest agency in reform. "Thou shalt not" is quite easy to +say; but though the house be emptied, swept, and garnished, unless pure +angels hasten to occupy the vacated chambers, other spirits worse than +the first will soon rush in to befoul them again. + +The author of these papers, the Rev. J.M. Judy, writes out of a full, +warm heart. We know him to be a correct, able preacher of the gospel, +and an efficient fisher of men. Having thoroughly prepared himself for +his work by courses in Northwestern University and Garrett Biblical +Institute, by travel in the South and West of our own country, and by a +visitation of the Old World, he has served on the rugged frontier of his +Conference, and among foreign populations grappling successfully with +some of the most difficult problems in modern Church work. + +The following articles aroused much interest when delivered to his own +people, and must do good wherever read. In style they are clear and +vivid; in logical arrangement excellent; glow with sacred fervor, and +pulse with honest, eager conviction. We bespeak for them a wide reading, +and would especially commend them to the young people of our Epworth +Leagues. + +WHITEWATER, WIS., March 2, 1904. + + + + +PREFACE. + +"QUESTIONABLE Amusements and Worthy Substitutes" is a consideration of +the "so-called questionable amusements," and an outlook for those forms +of social, domestic, and personal practices which charm the life, secure +the present, and build for the future. To take away the bad is good; to +give the good is better; but to take away the bad and to give the good +in its stead is best of all. This we have tried to do, not in our own +strength, but with the conscious presence of the Spirit of God. + +The spiritual indifference of Christendom to-day as one meets with it +in all forms of Christian work has led us to send out this message. +"Questionable Amusements," form both a cause and a result of this +widespread indifference. An underlying cause of this indifference among +those who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, is lack of conviction +for sin, want of positive faith in the fundamental truths of the +Scriptures, too little and superficial prayer, and lack of personal, +soul-saving work. Is the class-meeting becoming extinct? Is the +prayer-meeting lifeless? Is the revival spirit decaying? Is family +worship formal, or has it ceased? However some may answer these +questions, still we believe that the Church has a warm heart, and that +signs of her vigorous life are expressed in her tenacious hold for high +moral standards, and in her generous GIVING of money and of men. + +Our point of view has been that of the person, old or young, regardless +of sect, race, party, occupation, or circumstances, who has a life to +live, and who wants to make the most out of it for himself and for his +fellow-men, and who believes that he will find this life disclosed in +nature, in history, and in the Word of God. J.M.J. + +ORFORDVILLE, WIS., March, 1904. + + + +CONTENTS + + PART I. + QUESTIONABLE AMUSEMENTS + + CHAPTER + I TOBACCO + II DRUNKENNESS + III GAMBLING, CARDS + IV DANCING + V THEATER-GOING + + PART II + WORTHY SUBSTITUTES + + VI BOOKS AND READING + VII SOCIAL RECREATION + VIII FRIENDSHIP + IX TRAVEL + X HOME AND THE HOME-MAKER + + + + +PART I. QUESTIONABLE AMUSEMENTS. + + "The excesses of our youth are drafts on our old age, + payable about one hundred years after date without + interest."--JOHN RUSKIN. + + + + +I. TOBACCO. + +Tobacco wastes the body. It is used for the nicotine that is in it. This +peculiar ingredient is a poisonous, oily, colorless liquid, and gives to +tobacco its odor. This odor and the flavor of tobacco are developed by +fermentation in the process of preparation for use. "Poison" is commonly +defined as "any substance that when taken into the system acts in +an injurious manner, tending to cause death or serious detriment +to health." And different poisons are defined as those which act +differently upon the human organism. For example, one class, such as +nicotine in tobacco, is defined as that which acts as a stimulant or +an irritant; while another class, such as opium, acts with a quieting, +soothing influence. But the fact is that poison does not act at all +upon the human system, but the human system acts upon the poison. In +one class of poisons, such as opium, the reason why the system does not +arouse itself and try to cast off the poison, is that the nerves become +paralyzed so that it can not. And in the case of nicotine in tobacco the +nerves are not thus paralyzed, so that they try in every way to cast off +the poison. Let the human body represent the house, and the sensitive +nerves and the delicate blood vessels the sleeping inmates of that +house. Let the Foe Opium come to invade that house and to destroy the +inmates, for every poison is a deadly Foe. At the first appearance of +this subtle Foe terror is struck into the heart of the inmates, so that +they fall back helpless, paralyzed with fear. When the Intruder Tobacco +comes, he comes boisterously, rattling the windows and jostling the +furniture, so that the inmates of the house set up a life-and-death +conflict against him. + +This is just what happens when tobacco is taken into the human system. +Every nerve cries out against it, and every effort is made to resist it. +You ask, Will one's body be healthier and live longer without tobacco +than with it? We answer, by asking, Will one's home be happier and more +prosperous without some deadly Foe continually invading it, or with such +a Foe? When the membranes and tissues of the body, with their host of +nerves and blood vessels, have to be fighting against some deadly poison +in connection with their ordinary work, will they not wear out sooner +than if they could be left to do their ordinary work quietly? To +illustrate: A particle of tobacco dust no sooner comes into contact with +the lining membrane of the nose, than violent sneezing is produced. +This is the effort of the besieged nerves and blood vessels to protect +themselves. A bit of tobacco taken into the mouth causes salivation +because the salivary glands recognize the enemy and yield an increased +flow of their precious fluid to wash him away. Taken into the stomach +unaccustomed to its presence, and it produces violent vomiting. The +whole lining membrane of that much-abused organ rebels against such an +Intruder, and tries to eject him. Tobacco dust and smoke taken into +the lungs at once excretes a mucous-like fluid in the mouth, throat, +windpipe, bronchial tubes, and in the lungs themselves. Excretions such +as this mean a violent wasting away of vitality and power. Taken in +large quantities into the stomach, tobacco not only causes an excretion +of mucus from the mouth, throat, and breathing organs, but it produces +an overtaxing of the liver; that is, this organ overworks in order to +counteract the presence of the poison. But one asks, If tobacco is so +injurious, why is it used with such apparent pleasure? A small quantity +of tobacco received into the system by smoking, chewing, or snuffing is +carried through the circulation to the skin, lungs, liver, kidneys, and +to all the organs of the body, by which it is moderately resisted. The +result is a gentle excitement of all these organs. They are in a state +of morbid activity. And as sensibility depends upon vital action of +the bodily organisms, there is necessarily produced a degree of +sense gratification or pleasure. The reason why these sensations are +pleasurable instead of painful is, in this state of moderate excitement +the circulation is materially increased without being materially +unbalanced. But as with every sense indulgence, when the craving for +increased doses becomes satisfied, when larger doses are taken the +circulation becomes unbalanced, vital resistance centers in one point, +congestion occurs, then the sensation becomes one of pain instead of one +of pleasure. This disturbance or excitement caused by tobacco is nothing +more nor less than disease. For it is abnormal action, and abnormal +action is fever, and fever is disease. It is state on good authority, +"that no one who smokes tobacco before the bodily powers are developed +ever makes a strong, vigorous man." Dr. H. Gibbons says: "Tobacco +impairs digestion, poisons the blood, depresses the vital powers, causes +the limbs to tremble, and weakens and otherwise disorders the heart." It +is conceded by the medical profession that tobacco causes cancer of the +tongue and lips, dimness of vision, deafness, dyspepsia, bronchitis, +consumption, heart palpitation, spinal weakness, chronic tonsillitis, +paralysis, impotency, apoplexy, and insanity. It is held by some men +that tobacco aids digestion. Dr. McAllister, of Utica, New York, says +that it "weakens the organs of Digestion and assimilation, and at length +plunges one into all the horrors of dyspepsia." + +*Tobacco dulls the mind.* It does this not only by wasting the body, +the physical basis of the mind, but it does it through habits of +intellectual idleness, which the user of tobacco naturally forms. +Whoever heard of a first-class loafer who did not e-a-t the weed or burn +it, or both? On the rail train recently we were compelled to ride for +an hour in the smoking-car, which Dr. Talmage has called "the nastiest +place in Christendom." In front of me sat a young man, drawing and +puffing away at a cigar, polluting the entire region about him. In the +short hour enough time was lost by that young man to have carefully read +ten pages of the best standard literature. All this we observed by +an occasional glance from the delightful volume in our own hands. The +ordinary user of tobacco has little taste for reading, little passion +for knowledge, and superficial habits of continued reasoning. His +leisure moments are absorbed in the sense-gratification of the weed. But +if as much attention had been given in acquiring the habit of reading as +had been given in learning the use of tobacco, the most valuable of all +habits would take the place of one of the most useless of all habits. +When we see a person trying to read with a cigar or a pipe in his mouth, +Knowing that nine-tenths of his real consciousness is given to his +smoking, and one-tenth to what he is reading, we are reminded of the +commercial traveler who "wanted to make the show of a library at home, +so he wrote to a book merchant in London, saying: 'Send me six feet of +theology, and about as much metaphysics, and near a yard of civil law in +old folio.'" Not a sentimentalist, a reformer, nor a crank, but Dr. James +Copeland says: "Tobacco weakens the nervous powers, favors a dreamy, +imaginative, and imbecile state of mind, produces indolence and +incapacity for manly or continuous exertion, and sinks its votary into +a state of careless inactivity and selfish enjoyment of vice." Professor +L. H. Gause writes: "The intellect becomes duller and duller, until at +last it is painful to make any intellectual effort, and we sink into a +sensuous or sensual animal. Any one who would retain a clear mind, sound +lungs, undisturbed heart, or healthy stomach, must not smoke or chew the +poisonous plant." It is commonly known that in a number of American and +foreign colleges, by actual testing, the non-user of tobacco is superior +in mental vigor and scholarship to the user of it. In view of this fact, +our Government will not allow the use of tobacco at West Point or +at Annapolis. And in the examinations in the naval academy a large +percentage of those who fail to pass, fail because of the evil effects +of smoking. + +Tobacco drains the pocketbook. "Will you please look through my mouth +and nose?" asked a young man once of a New York physician. The man of +medicine did so, and reported nothing there. "Strange! Look again. Why, +sir, I have blown ten thousand dollars--a great tobacco plantation and a +score of slaves--through that nose." The Partido cigar regularly retails +at from twenty-five to thirty cents each. An ordinary smoker will smoke +four cigars a day. Three hundred and sixty-five dollars a year, besides +his treating. A small fortune every ten years! A neighbor of ours on the +farm used to go to town in the spring and buy enough chewing tobacco +to last him until after harvest, and flour to last the family for two +weeks. Among all classes of people this useless drain of the pocketbook +is increasing. In our country last year more money was spent for tobacco +than was spent for foreign missions, for the Churches, and for public +education, all combined. Our tobacco bill in one year costs our Nation +more than our furniture and our boots and shoes; more than our flour and +our silk goods; one hundred and forty-five million dollars more than all +our printing and publishing; one hundred and thirty-five million dollars +more than the sawed lumber of the Nation. Each year France buys of us +twenty-nine million pounds of tobacco, Great Britain fifty millions, +and Germany sixty-nine million pounds, to say nothing of how much these +nations import from other countries. Never before has the use of tobacco +been so widespread as to-day. "The Turks and Persians are the greatest +smokers in the world. In India all classes and both sexes smoke; in +China the practice--perhaps there more ancient--is universal, and girls +from the age of eight or nine wear as an appendage to their dress a +small silken pocket to hold tobacco and a pipe." Nor can the expense and +widespread use of tobacco be defended on the ground that it is a luxury, +for the abstainer from tobacco counts it the greater luxury not to use +it. The only explanation for its use is, that it is a habit which binds +one hand and foot, and from which no person with ordinary will power in +his own strength can free himself. + +Tobacco blunts the moral nature. It is not certain how long tobacco +has been used as a narcotic. Some authorities hold that the smoking of +tobacco was an ancient custom among the Chinese. But if this is true, we +know that it did not spread among the neighboring nations. When Columbus +came to America he found the natives of the West Indies and the American +Indian smoking the weed. With the Indian its use has always had a +religious and legal significance. Early in the sixteenth century tobacco +was introduced into England, later into Spain, and still later, in 1560, +into Italy. Used for its medicinal properties at first, soon it came +to be used as a luxury. The popes of Italy saw its harm and thundered +against it. The priests and sultans of Turkey declared smoking a crime. +One sultan made it punishable with death. The pipes of smokers were +thrust through their noses in Turkey, and in Russia the noses of smokers +were cut off in the earlier part of the seventeenth century. "King James +I of England issued a counterblast to tobacco, in which he described its +use as a 'custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful +to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fumes +thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is +bottomless.'" As one contrasts this sentiment with the practice of the +present sovereign of England, his breath is almost taken away in his +great fall from the sublime to the ridiculous! + +While we do not believe a moderate use of tobacco for a mature person is +necessarily a sin, yet we do believe that it does blunt the moral sense, +and soon leads to spiritual weakness and indifference, which are sins. +To love God with all one's heart, mind, soul, and strength, and +one's neighbor as himself, means not only a denial of that which is +questionable in morals, but a practice of that which is positively good. +However noble or worthy in character may be some who use tobacco, yet by +common consent it is a "tool of the devil." Every den of gamblers, +every low-down grogshop, every smoking-car, every public resort and +waiting-room departments for men, every rendezvous of rogues, loafers, +villains, and tramps is thoroughly saturated with the vile stench of the +cuspidor and the poisonous odors of the pipe and cigar. "Rev. Dr. Cox +abandoned tobacco after a drunken loafer asked him for a light." Not +until then had he seen and felt the disreputable fraternity that existed +between the users of tobacco. + +Owen Meredith gives us a standard of strength and freedom, which is an +inspiration to every lover of rounded, perfected manhood and womanhood: + + "Strong is that man, he only strong, + To whose well-ordered will belong, + For service and delight, + All powers that in the face of wrong + Establish right. + + And free is he, and only he, + Who, from his tyrant passions free, + By fortune undismayed, + Has power within himself to be, + By self obeyed. + + If such a man there be, where'er + Beneath the sun and moon he fare, + He can not fare amiss; + Great nature hath him in her care. + Her cause is his." + +Only let the "will," the "powers," the "freedom," and the "self" of +which the writer speaks become the "Christ will," the "Christ powers," +the "Christ freedom," and the "Christ self." Then the strongest chains +of bondage must fly into flinters. For "if the Son make you free, ye are +free indeed." (John viii, 36.) + + + + +II. DRUNKENNESS. + + +I. A TEMPERANCE PLATFORM. + + +WE bring to you three words of counsel with respect to this subject. +First, Beware of the Social Glass; second, Study the Drink Evil; third, +Openly oppose it. This is a Temperance Platform upon which every sober, +informed, and conscientious person may stand. Would it be narrow or +uncharitable to assert that not to stand upon this platform argues that +one is not sober, or not informed, or not conscientious? The crying +need of to-day is, that men and women shall be urged into positions of +conviction and activity against this most colossal evil of our time. +In our country the responsibility for drunkenness rests not with the +illiterate, blasphemous, ex-prison convicts who operate the 250,000 +saloons of our Nation, nor yet with the 250,000 finished products of +the saloon who go down into drunkards' graves every year, but with the +sober, respectable, hard-working, voting citizens of our country. +Nor does this exempt women, whose opportunity to shape the moral and +political convictions of the home is far greater than that of the men. +When the women of America say to the saloon, You go! the saloon will +have to go. The moral and political measures of any people are easily +traceable to the sisters and wives and mothers of that people. You and I +and every ordinary citizen of our country had as well try to escape our +own shadow, as to try to escape the responsibility that rests upon us +for the drunkenness of our people. To help us to do our whole duty in +our day and generation in this matter is the purpose of our message. + +II. BEWARE OF THE SOCIAL GLASS. + +The first and least thing that one can do to destroy drunkenness, is +to be a total abstainer. Beware of the social glass! But quickly one +replies, "Why should there be any social glass?" "Why allow sparkling, +attractive springs of refreshing poison to issue forth in all of our +social centers, and then cry to our sons and daughters, to our brothers +and sisters, Beware?" My friend, we must deal with facts as they are. +There should not be a social glass; but what has that to do with +the fact that the social glass is here? You answer, "Why allow these +fountains of death to exist?" while we cry to our loved ones, "Beware!" +We do not advocate the presence of these fountains; but while we seek +to destroy them beseechingly we cry, "Beware!" The social factor in the +liquor traffic is its Gibraltar of defense. Rare is the young man who +has the intellectual stamina and moral courage to resist the invitations +to take a social drink. And in our frontier and foreign towns many of +our bright and respected girls use the social glass. But in its use is +the beginning of a fateful end. The subtlest thing in this world is sin. +Listen! + + "Sin is a monster of so frightful mien; + To be hated needs but to be seen; + But seen too oft, familiar with the face, + We first endure, then pity, then embrace." + +The subtle thing about it is, that the first embracing of any sin seems +to be but a trifling, an occasional affair. For one who lives in an +ordinary city of a thousand inhabitants or upwards, unless he is an +"out-and-out" Christian and selects only associates like himself, it +becomes a real Embarrassment not to indulge in a social drink. It seems +polite, clever, the kindly thing to do. And the sad fact is, that the +majority of unchristian young people and many older ones do not decline. +To prove this we have but to look at the human wrecks along the shore. +Two young men lived near our home. Their parents were well-to-do. The +family grew tired of the farm and moved to town. The boys fell in with +bad company. They did not decline the social glass. Soon they furnished +other young men with drink from their own pocket. This was fifteen years +ago. To-day one of them is a hardened sinner, violent in his passions +and blasphemous against God. The other one, having spent a term in our +Illinois State University at Champaign, married a beautiful neighbor +girl and moved to Missouri. Here he lived off the money of his father's +estate, practicing his early-learned habits of drinking, gambling, and +loafing. He moved from State to State until, finally left in poverty, +he tended bar in a saloon. While visiting with relatives in his old +neighborhood a few years ago he stole a watch and some money from +his own nephew, and was tried in the courts, and sentenced to the +penitentiary for one year. His wife, having carried the burden of +disgrace and want through all these years, with the seven unfortunate +children were released from him to struggle alone. All this we have seen +with our own eyes as the years have come and gone. The downfall and ruin +of this young man, and the unsaved fate of his brother, easily may be +traceable to the "social glass" and the boon companions of the social +glass--tobacco and playing-cards. Last year I met a man who had prided +himself in the fact that he could drink or let it alone, and thought +that it was all right to take a "social glass" occasionally. Election +time came around; he fell in with his friends, and, as one always will +do sooner or later who tampers with it at all, went too far. Before he +knew it he was as low in the gutter as a beast. It was three days before +he was a sober man again. He work had ceased, he had disgusted his +fellow-workmen, disgraced his Christian family, and had humiliated +himself so that he was ashamed to look any man in the face until he had +repented of his sins before God, and had promised Him, by His help, that +he would never drink another glass. What a pleasure it was to hear that +old man, as he is close to sixty years of age, to hear him tell in a +spirited religious service of how he had strayed from his path and had +got lost in the woods, but thanked God that he was out of the woods, and +by His help would remain out. When we become undone in Christ He lifts +us up and starts us on our new way rejoicing in His love. If Christ +Himself were here in body, do you know what He would advise on this +point? He would say: "As it is written;" "Look not thou upon the wine +when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it goeth down +smoothly: at the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an +adder." Beware of the social glass, my friend, for though it promises +pleasure, it gives but pain; it promises joy, it gives but sorrow; it +promises deliverance, it gives but eternal death! + +III. STUDY THE DRINK EVIL. + +We hear it said, "No use to picture the horrors of the drink evil; every +one knows them already." In part, this is true. All of us know more than +we wish it were possible to be true; and yet no one can ever realize +its horrors until caught, and torn, and mangled in its pinching, jagged, +griping meshes. It is one thing to know by a distant glance, it is +another thing to know by the pangs of a broken heart and of a wrecked +life. For those who are not thus caught in its meshes to realize its +horrors so as to seek its destruction but one course is possible; +namely, To study the evil. Let the teacher tell of its ravages; let the +minister proclaim its curses; let the poet sing it; the painter paint +it; the editor report it; the novelist portray it; the scientist +describe it; the philosopher decry it; the sisters and wives and mothers +denounce it--until all shall unite in smiting it to its death! + +We should study the drink evil in its relation to disease. That strong +drink tends to produce disease is no longer questioned. "During the +cholera in New York City in 1832, of two hundred and four cases in the +Park Hospital only six were temperate, and all of these recovered; while +one hundred and twenty-two of the others died. In Great Britain in the +same year five-sixths of all who perished were intemperate. In one +or two villages every drunkard died, while not a single member of a +temperance society lost his life." "In Paisley, England, in 1848, there +were three hundred and thirty-seven cases of cholera, and every case +except one was a dram-drinker. The cases of cholera were one for every +one hundred and eighty-one inhabitants; but among the temperate portion +there was only one case to each two thousand." "Of three hundred and +eighty-six persons connected with the total abstinence societies only +one died, and he was a reformed drunkard" of three months' standing. "In +New Orleans during the last epidemic the order of the Sons of Temperance +appointed a committee to ascertain the number of deaths from cholera +among their members. It was found that there were twelve hundred and +forty-three members in the city and suburbs, and among these only three +deaths had occurred, being only one-sixth the average death-rate." "In +New York, in 1832, only two out of five thousand members of temperance +societies died." The Northwestern Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, +Wisconsin, one of the oldest and most successful Companies in the +Northwest, has lived for nearly forty years next neighbor to lager beer +interests. The shrewd men of this company have studied the influence of +the beer industry upon those who engage in it. The result is, that they +will no longer grant an insurance policy to a beer-brewer, nor to any +one in any way engaged in the business. In their own words their reason +is this: "Our statistics show that our business has been injured by the +short lives of those men who drink lager beer." + +Then, we need to study the drink evil in its relation to society. "A +recent report of the chaplain of the Madalen Society of New York shows +that of eight-nine fallen women in the asylum at one time, all but +two ascribed their fall to the effect of the drink habit." "A lady +missionary makes the statement that of two thousand sinful women known +personally to her, there were only ten cases in which intoxicating +liquors were not largely responsible for their fall." "A leading worker +for reform in New York says that the suppression of the curse of strong +drink would include the destruction of ninety-nine of every one hundred +of the houses of ill-fame." "A missionary on going at the written +request of one of these lost women to rescue her from a den of infamy +remonstrated with her for being even then slightly under the influence +of drink." "Why," was her indignant reply as tears filled her eyes, +"do you suppose we girls are so dead that we have lost our memories of +mother, home, and everything good? No, indeed; and if it were not for +liquor and opium, we would all have to run away from our present life or +go mad by pleadings of our own hearts and home memories." + +Only by a study of the drink evil shall we know its ravages in the home. +Those of us who have lived in the pure air of free, country home-life +can not easily realize the moral plague of drunkenness as it blights the +home in the crowded districts of city slum life. Nor is the home of the +city alone cursed by the drink evil. Three years ago this last holiday +season we were doing some evangelistic work in a neighboring town, a +mere village of a couple hundred inhabitants. I shall never forget +how the mother of a dejected home cried and pleaded for help from the +ravages of her drunken husband. She said that he had spent all of his +wages, and had made no provision for the home, in furniture, in books +for the children, nor in clothing for them nor for her. She had come +almost to despair, and was blaming God for allowing her little ones to +suffer because of a worthless man. O, the world is full of this sort of +thing to-day, if we only knew the sighs and heartaches and blasted hopes +of those who suffer! In a smoking-car one day a commercial traveler +refused to drink with his old comrades, by saying: "No, I won't drink +with you to-day, boys. The fact is, boys, I have sworn off." He was +taunted and laughed at, and urged to tell what had happened to him. They +said: "If you've quit drinking, something's up; tell us what it is." +"Well, boys," he said, "I will, though I know you will laugh at me; but +I will tell you all the same. I have been a drinking man all my life, +and have kept it up since I was married, as you all know. I love whisky; +it's as sweet in my mouth as sugar, and God only knows how I'll quit it. +For seven years not a day has passed over my head that I didn't have +at least one drink. But I am done. Yesterday I was in Chicago. Down on +South Clark Street a customer of mine keeps a pawnshop in connection +with his business. I called on him, and while I was there a young man of +not more than twenty-five, wearing thread-bare clothes, and looking +as hard as if he had not seen a sober day for a month, came in with a +little package in his hand. Tremblingly he unwrapped it, and handed the +articles to the pawnbroker, saying, 'Give me ten cents.' And, boys, what +do you suppose that package was? A pair of baby's shoes; little things +with the buttons only a trifle soiled, as if they had been worn once +or twice. 'Where did you get them?' asked the pawnbroker. 'Got 'em at +home,' replied the man, who had an intelligent face and the manner of a +gentleman, despite his sad condition. 'My wife bought 'em for our baby. +Give me ten cents for 'em. I want a drink.' 'You had better take those +back to your wife; the baby will need them,' said the pawnbroker. 'No, +she won't..She's lying at home now; she died last night.' As he said +this the poor fellow broke down, bowed his head on the showcase, and +cried like a child. 'Boys,' said the drummer, 'you can laugh if you want +to, but I have a baby of my own at home, and by the help of God I'll +never drink another drop.'" The man went into another car, the bottle +had disappeared, and the boys pretended to read some papers that lay +scattered about the car. Ah, this is only one out of hundreds of such +scenes that are being enacted every day in our saloon-cursed cities. + +We should study the drink evil to see how it makes people poor and keeps +them poor. A story is told of a drinking man who related to his family +a dream that he had had the night before. He dreamed that he saw three +cats, a fat one, a lean one, and a blind one; and he was anxious to +know what it meant that he should have such a strange dream. Quickly +his little boy answered, "I can tell what it means. The fat cat is the +saloon-keeper who sells you drink, the lean cat is mother and me, and +the blind cat is yourself." "In one of our large cities," one day, "a +laboring man, leaving a saloon, saw a costly carriage and pair of horses +standing in front, occupied by two ladies elegantly dressed, conversing +with the proprietor. 'Whose establishment is that?' he said to the +saloon-keeper, as the carriage rolled away. 'It is mine,' replied the +dealer, proudly. 'It cost thirty-five hundred dollars. My wife and +daughter couldn't do without that.' The mechanic bowed his head a +moment in deep thought; then, looking up, said with the energy of a man +suddenly aroused by some startling flash, 'I see it!' 'I see it!' 'See +what?' asked the saloonkeeper. 'See where for years my wages have gone. +I helped to pay for that carriage, for those horses and gold-mounted +harnesses, and for the silks and laces for your family. The money I have +earned, that should have given my wife and children a home of their own +and good clothing, I have spent at your bar. By the help of God I will +never spend another dime for drink.'" South Milwaukee has five thousand +inhabitants. Three large mills operate there. A reliable business man, +foreman in one of the mills, told me that the laboring people of South +Milwaukee put $25,000 each month into the tills of the saloons. Dr. J.O. +Peck, one of the most successful pastor evangelists of recent years, +tells of a man who crossed Chelsea Ferry to Boston one morning, and +turned into Commercial Street for his usual glass. As he poured out the +poison, the saloonkeeper's wife came in, and confidently asked for $500 +to purchase an elegant shawl she had seen at the store of Jordan, March +& Co.. He drew from his pocket a well-filled pocketbook, and counted out +the money. The man outside the counter pushed aside his glass untouched, +and laying down ten cents departed in silence. That very morning his +devoted Christian wife had asked him for ten dollars to buy a cloak, so +that she might look presentable at church. He had crossly told her he +had not the money. As he left the saloon he thought, 'Here I am helping +to pay for five-hundred-dollar cashmeres for that man's wife, but my +wife asks in vain for a ten-dollar cloak. I can't stand this. I have +spent my last dime for drink.' When the next pay-day came that meek, +loving wife was surprised with a beautiful cloak from her reformed +husband. She could scarcely believe her own eyes as he laid it on the +table. 'There, Emma, is a present for you. I have been a fool long +enough; forgive me for the past, and I will never touch liquor again.' +She threw her arms around his neck, and the hot tears told her heartfelt +joy as she sobbed out: 'Charley, I thank you a thousand times. I never +expected so nice a cloak. This seems like other days. You are so good, +and I am so happy.'" The drink bill of our Nation for last year was over +a billion of dollars, more money than was spent for missions--home and +foreign--for all of our Churches, for public education, for all the +operations of courts of justice and of public officers, and at least for +two of the staple products of use in our country, such as furniture and +flour. More than for all these was the money that our Nation paid for +drink last year. When the people of our country get their eyes open to +the cost and degradation of the drink evil, something definite will be +done by every one against it. + +The drink evil in its relation to lawlessness and crime, and to +political corruption, reveal still more ghastly aspects of it than we +have yet mentioned. The saloon strikes at the very heart, not only of +law and order, but at personal liberty and justice in securing law and +order. It was in a police court in Cincinnati on Monday morning. Before +the judge stood two stalwart policeman and a woman. She was charged +with disorderly conduct on the street and with disturbing the peace. +The policemen were sworn, and one of them told this story, to which the +other one agreed. He said: "I arrested the woman in front of a saloon +on Broadway on Saturday night. She had raised a great disturbance, was +fighting and brawling with men in the saloon, and the saloonkeeper put +her out. She used the foulest language, and with an awful threat struck +at the saloonkeeper with all her force. I then arrested her, took her to +the detention house, and locked her up." The saloonkeeper was called to +the witness stand, and said: "I know dis voman's vas making disturbance +by my saloon. She comes and she makes troubles, und she fights mit me, +und I put her de door oud. I know her all along. She vas pad vomans." +The judge turned to the trembling woman and said: "This is a pretty +clear case, madam; have you anything to say in your defense?" "Yes, +Judge," she answered, in a strangely calm, though trembling, voice: +"I am not guilty of the charge, and these men standing before you have +perjured their souls to prevent me from telling the truth. It was they, +not I, who violated the law. I was in the saloon last Saturday night, +and I will tell you how it happened. My husband did not come home from +work that evening, and I feared he had gone to the saloon. I knew he +must have drawn his week's wages, and we needed it all so badly. I put +the little ones to bed, and then waited all alone through the weary +hours until after the city clock struck twelve. Then I thought the +saloons will be closed, and he will be put out on to the street. +Probably he will not be able to get home, and the police will arrest him +and lock him up. I must go and find him, and bring him home. I wrapped +a shawl about me and started out, leaving the little ones asleep in bed. +And, Judge, I have not seen them since." She did not give way to tears, +for the worst grief can not weep. She continued: "I went to the saloon, +where I thought most like he would be. It was about twenty minutes +after twelve; but the saloon, that man's saloon"--pointing to the +saloonkeeper, who now wanted to crouch out of sight--"was still open, +and my husband and these two policemen were standing at the bar drinking +together. I stepped up to my husband and asked him to go home with me; +but the men laughed at him, and the saloonkeeper ordered me out. I said, +'No, I want my husband to go home with me.' Then I tried to tell him +how badly we were needing the money that he was spending; and then the +saloon-keeper cursed me, and told me to leave. Then I confess I could +stand no more, and said, 'You ought to be prosecuted for violating the +midnight closing law.' At this the saloonkeeper and policemen rushed +upon me and put me into the street; and one of the policemen, grasping +my arm like a vice, hissed in my ear, 'I'll get you a thirty days' +sentence in the workhouse, and then we'll see what you think about suing +people.' He called a patrol wagon, pushed me in, and drove to jail; and, +Judge, you know the rest. All day yesterday I was locked up, my children +at home alone, with no fire, no food, no mother." The judge dismissed +the woman; but the saloonkeeper, the perjured policemen, nor the corrupt +judge were ever prosecuted for their unlawfulness. The whole affair was +dropped because the saloon power in Cincinnati reigns supreme. +"This case is a matter of record in the Cincinnati courts." It is a +disgraceful fact that the liquor-traffic rules in politics to-day. A +saloonkeeper in Richmond, Virginia, overheard some one talking of +reform in municipal politics, when he scornfully said: "Any bar-room in +Richmond is a bigger man in politics than all the Churches in Richmond +put together." + +IV. THE PRACTICAL QUESTION FOR US HERE AND NOW IS, How may we openly +oppose this drink evil? + +The Churches need not expect a widespread revival of religion until +professing Christians do their duty with respect to the saloon. Mothers +and fathers need not expect their sons to remain sober while the saloon +opens to them day and night. Wives need not expect their husbands to +remain devoted and loyal until the saloon is abolished. What is our +duty? How shall we oppose the evil? How do the American people deal with +evils when they deal with them at all? When Great Britain went a little +too far in "taxation without representation," what course did the +American Colonies adopt in remedying the evil? Their chief men said, +"These Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent +States." The popular voice of the people decided it. When the British +Government unduly impressed American seamen, how was the difficulty +settled? The representatives of the people, their lawmakers, declared +war against the opposing nation, and forced her to cease her oppression. +The popular vote decided it. When Negro slavery darkened the entire sky +of our country, and caused our leading men to realize that we could not +long exist half-slave and half-free, how was the dark cloud dispelled? +The representatives of our people, the lawmakers of the land, in +letters of blood wrote the immortal Thirteenth Amendment to the American +Constitution: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a +punishment for crime, whereof the person shall have been duly convicted, +shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their +jurisdiction." When we wanted to increase our territory in 1803, and in +1845, and in 1867, how did we go about it? The representatives of the +people, the lawmakers of the land, voted to make the purchases, and +they were made. When a Territory is organized, or a State comes into the +Union, what is done? The representatives of the people, the lawmakers +of the land, vote upon it, and it is done. When treaties are to be +made with foreign countries; when immigration of foreigners is to be +regulated; when money is to be borrowed or coined; when post-offices and +post-roads are to be established; when counterfeiting is to be punished, +and public abuses are to be reformed, whose business is it? The +Constitution of the United States says the representatives of the +people, the lawmakers of the land, have this power. When will the drink +evil cease in our country? When our representatives in Congress, or +lawmakers, stand for the abolition of the American saloon, and vote it +out of existence; then, and not until then, will drunkenness cease. When +will we have representatives in Congress, lawmakers who will stand for +the abolition of the saloon, and who will vote it out of existence? Not +until you and I have select them, and place them there with our vote. +To expect Christian temperance in our country from any other source is +absolute folly. + +The abolition of drunkenness by local option is selfish, unpractical, +and unscriptural. You vote the liquor-traffic out of your town; we vote +it in ours. Remember every saloon exists only by vote of the people. +Your young people come over to our town for drink. We have the curse of +God upon us. "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink." (Hab. Ii, +15.) It is unpractical, for so long as intoxicants are made they will +be sold. It is selfish, for to vote against the saloon in your town +election, and to vote for it in your State or National election, is to +drive the mad-dog on past your door to the door of your neighbor, when +you might have killed him. + +The abolition of drunkenness by regulating the traffic through license +is the most gigantic delusion that Satan ever worked upon an intelligent +people. It is a well-known truth that "limitation is the secret of +power." The best way to provoke an early marriage between devoted lovers +is bitterly to oppose them. The stream whose water spreads over its low +banks is without depth and current and power. But confine the waters +between high, narrow banks, the bed of the stream is deepened, and its +mighty current supports animal life and turns the wheels of mill and +factory. The regulation of the liquor-traffic by license makes it a +financial and political power second to none in America to-day. To vote +for any party or man who advocates liquor license, is to give a loyal +support to the American saloon. + +To expect the abolition of drunkenness solely through processes of +education is to preach one thing and to practice another. It is to +perpetuate an evil that costs two hundred and fifty thousand precious +lives every year. It is to leave to the next generation a work that God +expects us to do here and now. Dr. Banks relates an incident witnessed +by Major Hilton on the coast of Scotland. "Just at the break of day the +people of a little hamlet on the coast were awakened by the boom of a +cannon over the stormy waves. They knew what it meant, for frequently +they had heard before the same signal of distress. Some poor souls were +out beyond the breakers perishing on a wrecked vessel, and in their last +extremity calling wildly for help. The people hastened from their houses +to the shore. Out there in the distance was a dismantled vessel pounding +itself to pieces. Perishing fellow-beings were clinging to the rigging, +and every now and then some one was swept off into the sea by the +furious waves. The life-saving crew was soon gathered. 'Man the +life-boat!' cried the man. "Where is Hardy?" But the foreman of the crew +was not there, and the danger was imminent. Aid must be immediate, +or all would be lost. The next in command sprang into the frail boat, +followed by the rest, all taking their lives in their hands in the hope +of saving others. O, how those on the shore watched their brave loved +ones as they dashed on, now over, now almost under the waves! They +reached the wreck. Like angels of deliverance they filled their craft +with almost dying men--men lost but for them. Back again they toiled, +pulling for the shore, bearing their precious freight. The first man +to help them land was Hardy, whose words rang above the roar of the +breakers: "Are you all here? Did you save them all?" With saddened faces +the reply came: "All but one. He couldn't help himself at all. We had +all we could carry. We couldn't save the last one." "Man the life-boat +again!" shouted Hardy. "I will go. What! leave one there to die alone? +A fellow-creature there, and we on shore? Man the life-boat now! +We'll save him yet." But who is this aged woman with worn garments and +disheveled hair, with agonized entreaty falling upon her knees beside +this brave, strong man? It is his mother! "O, my son! your father was +drowned in a storm like this. Your brother Will left me eight years ago, +and I have never seen his face since the day he sailed. No doubt he, +too, has found a watery grave. And now you will be lost, and I am old +and poor. O, stay with me!" "Mother," cried the man, "where one is in +peril, there is my place. If I am lost, God surely will care for you." +The plea of earnest faith prevailed. With a "God bless you, my boy!" +she released him, and speeded him on his way. Once more they watched and +prayed and waited--those on the shore--while every muscle was strained +toward the fast-sinking ship by those in the life-saving boat. At last +it reached the vessel. The clinging figure was lifted and helped to +its place. Back came the boat. How eagerly they looked and called in +encouragement, and cheered as it came nearer! "Did you get him?" was the +cry from the shore. Lifting his hands to his mouth to trumpet the words +on in advance of their landing, Hardy called back above the roar of the +storm, "Tell mother it is brother Will!" + +My friend, simply talking and praying will not save our loved ones from +drunkards' graves. We must man the life-boat of municipal, State, and +National reform, and vote for principle and Christian temperance until +we save the last man. He may be "brother Will." + + + + +III. GAMBLING, CARD-PLAYING + +GAMBLING has become a moral plague of modern society. In one form or +another it has entered the rank and file of every department of life--in +private parlor over cards; in hotel drawing-room over election reports; +in college athletic grounds over brains and brawn; in the counting-room +over the price of stocks; in the racing tournament over jockeying and +speed; in the Board of Trade hall over future prices of the necessaries +of life; in the den of iniquity at dice; in the drinking saloon at +the slot-machine; in the people's fair at the wheel of fortune; in the +gambling den itself at every conceivable form of swindling trick and +game. Gambling has come to be almost an omnipresent evil. In treating +this subject, it is our purpose to point out something of the nature +of its evil, not only that we may be kept from it but that we may save +others whom it threatens to destroy. + +Gambling grows out of a misuse of the natural tendency to take risks. A +social vice is some social right misused. Men have the social right to +congregate to talk over measures of social and economic welfare. But if +they discuss measures which oppose the principles of free Government, +their meeting together becomes a crime against the State. A personal +vice is some personal right misused. As some one has put it, "Vice is +virtue gone mad." It is a personal right and a personal virtue to be +charitable, even beneficent. But since justice comes before mercy, if +one uses for charity that which should be used in payment of debt, his +virtue of beneficence becomes a vice of theft. So it is with gambling. +It is giving the natural tendency to chance, to risk an illegitimate +play. The person who is afraid to risk anything accomplishes but little +in any way, is seldom a speculator, and never a gambler. Usually the +gambler is the man who is naturally full of hazard, who loves to run +risks, to take chances. Nor will one find a more practical and useful +tendency in one's make-up than this. See the discoverer of America and +his brave crew for days and days sailing across an unknown sea toward an +unknown land. But that was the price of a New World. Note the hazard +and risk of our Pilgrim Fathers. But they gave to the world a new +colonization. See the Second greatest American on his knees before +Almighty God, promising him that he would free four million of slaves, +providing General Lee should be driven back out of Maryland. General +Lee was driven back, and that immortal though most hazardous of all +documents, from man's point of view, was read to his Cabinet and signed +by Abraham Lincoln. All great men have taken great risks. Not a section +of the United States has been settled without some risk. No business +enterprise is launched without some risk. To secure an education, to +learn a trade, to marry a wife, all involve some risk, much risk. The +tendency to risk, to hazard, to chance it is a practical and useful +tendency. Only let this tendency be governed always by wisdom +and justice. No person ever became a gambler until consciously or +unconsciously he forfeited wisdom and justice in his chances and risks. + +Gambling takes a variety of forms. First of all is the professional +gambler. He has no other business. His investment is a "pack of cards" +and a box of "dice. See him with his long, slender fingers; with his +shaggy, unkempt hair; with keen eyes, and a sordid countenance. He is +prepared to "rake in" a thousand dollars a night, and would not hesitate +to strip any man of his fortune. The professional is found at county +fairs, on railway trains, in gilded dens, and at public resorts. Being a +professional outlaw, and subject at any time to arrest and imprisonment, +usually he has an accomplice. Sometimes a gang work together, so that +it is with perfect ease they may relieve any unwary novice of his money. +They know human nature on its low, mercenary side, and soon can find +their man in a crowd. But few persons have started out in life having +it for their aim to get something for nothing who, sooner or later, have +not been "taken in" by this gang of swindlers. They know their kind. +The end of the professional gambler is final loss and ruin. He will make +$100, he will make $500, he will make $1,000, he will make $2,000; then +he will lose all. Then he will borrow some money and start anew. And +again he will make $200, he will make $600, he will make $1,200, and he +will lose all. Like the winebibber and the professional murderer, the +professional gambler has his den. Not a large city in the world is +without these haunts of vice. Who is it that feeds and supports them? +The novice at cards and dice, husbands and sons of respectable families, +just as the occasional dram-taker supports the saloon. As one has asked: + + "Could fools to keep their own contrive, + On whom, on what could gamesters thrive?" + --GAY. + +The penny novice seeks the penny gambling den. The aristocratic +speculator seeks the gilded gambling den. The expert trickster of large +luck and large fortune makes his way to Monte Carlo, the gambling Mecca +of the world. Monte Carlo is a famous resort situated in the northwest +part of Italy. It is notorious for its gambling saloon. This city of +nearly four thousand inhabitants is located in Monaco, the smallest +independent country in the world. Monaco is about eight miles square, +and lies on a "barren, rocky ridge between the sea and lofty, almost +inaccessible rocks." The soil is barren, except in small tracts +which are used for fruit-gardens. For centuries the inhabitants, the +Monagasques, lived by marauding expeditions, both by sea and land, and +by slight commerce with Genoa, Marseilles, and Nice. But in the +last century the people have converted their country and city into +a world-wide resort. In 1860, M. Blanc, a famous gambler and saloon +proprietor of two German cities, went to Monaco, and for an immense +sum of money received sole privilege to convert their province into a +gambler's paradise. Soon immense marble buildings arose in the midst +of such beauty as to make it a modern rival of the gardens of ancient +Babylon. Costly statues, gorgeous vases, graceful fountains, elegant +basins, and beautiful terraces, all of which are made alluring by +blooming plants, by light illuminations, and by free concerts of music +day and night,--these are the attractions in this gambler's paradise. +Here fortunes are won and lost in a night. For, as has been sung, + + "Dice will run the contrary way, + As well is known to all who play, + And cards will conspire as in treason." + --HOOD. + +Then we have the speculator in commerce. He is the denizen of the Board +of Trade hall. He speculates on the prices of next week's, of next +month's meat and breadstuffs. And still this sort of gambler may be a +book-keeper in a bank, a farm hand, or a clerk in a grocery store. It +ha become so simple and so common a practice for persons to speculate on +the markets that any person with ten dollars, or twenty-five dollars, +or a hundred dollars may take his chances. Tens of thousands of dollars +to-day are being swept into this silent whirlpool, the gambler's +commerce. + +Also we have the pool gambler. He is actuated by love of excitement. He +is found at the race course, at the baseball diamond, and at all sorts +of contests, where he may find opportunity to be on the outcome. It is +a common thing for young men to steal their employers' money, for young +girls to take their hard-earned wages to stake on games and races. +Recently $175,000 were paid for the exclusive gambling right for one +year at the Washington Park races in Chicago. + +Last of all, we have the society gambler. He is growing numerous to-day. +He is the same person, whether clad in full dress in the drawing-room of +the worldling, or in common dress around the fireside of the unchristian +Church member. Like the professional gambler his instrument is "cards," +and he can shake the "dice." His games are whist, progressive euchre, +and sometimes poker. The stakes now are not money, but the gratification +of excitement and the indulgence of passion. One, two, four hours go by +almost unnoticed. Prizes are offered for the best player. As a Catholic +priest told me after he had won a small sum with cards. Said he: "We +just put up a few dollars, you know, to lend devotions to the game." +So prizes are offered in the social gambling "to lend devotions to the +game." It is under such circumstances as these that young men and +young women receive their first lessons in card-playing. A passion for +card-playing is called forth, developed, and must be satisfied, even +though it takes one in low places among vile associates. "A Christian +gentleman came from England to this country. He brought with him $70,000 +in money. He proposed to invest the money. Part of it was his own; part +of it was his mother's. He went into a Christian Church; was coldly +received, and said to himself: 'Well, if that is the kind of Christian +people they have in America, I don't want to associate with them much.' +So he joined a card-playing party. He went with them from time to +time. He went a little further on, and after a while he was in games of +chance, and lost all of the $70,000. Worse than that, he lost all of his +good morals; and on the night that he blew his brains out he wrote to +the lady to whom he was affianced an apology for the crime he was about +to commit, and saying in so many words, 'My first step to ruin was the +joining of that card party.'" + +In all of its forms gambling is loaded down with evil. In the first +place it destroys the incentive to honest work. Let the average young +man win a hundred dollars at the races, it will so turn his head against +slow and honorable ways of getting money that he will watch for every +opportunity to get it easily and abundantly. The young girl who risks +fifty cents and gets back fifty dollars will no longer be of service as +a quiet, contented worker. The spirit of speculation, the passion to get +something for nothing, is calculated to destroy the incentive to honest +toil and to honorable methods of gain. As one values his character, +as he values his peace of mind, so should he zealously guard himself +against overfascinating games of chance. Once we had a family in our +Church who played cards, and who taught their children to play cards. Of +course these families had no time for prayer-meeting, nor for Christian +work. Card-playing for amusement or for money will create a passion +that must be satisfied, although one must give up home and business +and pleasure. In a town where we once lived a young man and his wife +attended our Church. In every way the husband was kind, and attentive +to business. But he had fallen a victim to playing cards for money. +When that passion would seize him he would leave his business, his hired +help, his home and wife and little one, and would lose himself for days +at a time seeking to satisfy that passion. An enviable husband, father, +citizen, and neighbor but for that evil; but how wretchedly that ruined +all! Dr. Holland, of Springfield, Massachusetts, says: "I have all my +days had a card-playing community open to my observation, and yet I am +unable to believe that that which is the universal resort of starved +soul and intellect, which has never in any way linked to itself tender, +elevating, or beautiful associations, but, the tendency of which is to +unduly absorb the attention from more weighty matters, can recommend +itself to the favor of Christ's disciples. I have this moment," says he, +"ringing in my ears the dying injunction of my father's early friend: +'Keep your son from cards. Over them I have murdered time and lost +heaven.'" + +Gambling is dishonest. It seeks something for nothing. Man possesses no +money, that he might risk giving it to some rogue to waste in sin. All +the property one possesses, he possesses it by stewardship to be used +wisely and honestly for good. Every age has needed a revival of the +Golden Rule in business. Much of the business of to-day is attended to +on the dishonest principle that characterizes gambling, "Get as much as +possible for as little as possible." This spirit is first cousin to the +spirit of gambling. The only difference is, one is called wrong and is +wrong; the other is wrong and is called right. Tell the gambler he is a +thief; he will acknowledge it, and will beat you, if he can, while he is +talking to you. Tell the other man he is a thief, and he will sue you at +court and win his case, although it is just as wrong to steal $100 from +an unbalanced mind, as it is to steal $100 from an unlocked safe or +off of an untrained football team. It will be an easy matter to produce +professional gamblers so long as society upholds dishonest dealers +by another name. What men need in this matter is moral and spiritual +vision, spiritual discernment. Some persons live by taking advantage of +those who are down. + +In all of its forms gambling leads to a long train of crimes. In +addition to his crime of theft the professional gambler, through passion +or drink, becomes a murderer. I knew a professional gambler who killed +a man, with whom he had been playing cards for money, for fifty cents. +After it was all over the man was sorry he had done it, for he had +committed the crime in a passion while he was intoxicated. The one who +speculates on the markets is not counted dishonest by the world, but how +often and how quickly it leads one into crime! In our neighboring town +in Illinois a man of a good family and of good standing in the community +began to speculate on the Chicago Board of Trade. He was as honest a +person, perhaps, as you or I. He thought he was. For years he had been +a trusted, Christian worker, and treasurer of the Sunday-school. But he +made just one venture too many. He had lost all; could not even replace +the Sunday-school fund that he had simply used, no doubt expecting to +replace it with usury; but the loss and disgrace were too much for him +to face, so he deserted home and friends and honor and all, and secretly +ran away. The speculating gambler became a deserting embezzler. The +person who has acquired a passion for betting on races and games is on a +fair way to professional gambling and to speculating on the markets. And +rarely does one ever escape these, if once he gets a start in them. + +The evil of society gambling is most dangerous of all, because it is +most subtle of all. Ah first no one would suspect an innocent game of +cards, played just for fun. You may be the fourth one to make up a game; +you may not know how to play, but you are told you can quickly learn. +You brave it, and go in for a game. The next time a similar circumstance +arises, you can not easily decline, for you must confess you have +played, and so you go in as an old player. This may be as far as the +matter ever goes with you. But here is one who is more impulsive than +you; his surroundings are entirely different. He learns to play, and +comes to revel in it. A passion is created for the game. He is shrewd; +soon learns the tricks, and one evening--purely by chance, as it seems +to him--he wins his first five dollars. Strange possibilities with +cards lay hold upon him. He is consumed by that passion. He plays for +business, for keeps; he has become a professional gambler. Ah! this is +no finespun tale; it is being worked out every year in our country, all +over the world. Among many things for which I have to thank my father +and mother not the least is, that they would allow no gamblers, nor +gambling, nor the instruments of gambling about our home. Better keep +a pet rattlesnake for your child than a deck of cards; for if he +gets poisoned by the snake he may be cured; but if the passion for +card-playing should happen to seize him, there is little chance of a +cure. The inmates of our penitentiaries to-day, almost to a man, testify +that "card-playing threw them into bad company, led them into sin, and +was one of the causes of their downfall." Dr. Talmage was asked if there +could be any harm in a pack of cards. He Said: "Instead of directly +answering your question, I will give you as My opinion that there are +thousands of men with as strong a brain as you have, who have gone +through card-playing into games of chance, and have dropped down into +the gambler's life and into the gambler's hell." A prisoner in a jail +in Michigan wrote a letter to a temperance paper, in which he gives this +advice for young men: "Let cards and liquor alone, and you will never +be behind the gates." Friends, not every one who touches liquor is a +drunkard, but every drunkard touches liquor; so not every one who plays +cards is a professional gambler, but every professional gambler plays +cards. Is there nothing significant about these facts. "A word to the +wise is sufficient." "In a railway train sat four men playing cards. One +was a judge, and two of the others were lawyers. Near them sat a poor +mother, a widow in black. The sight of the men at their game made her +nervous. She kept quiet as long as she could; but finally rising came to +them, and addressing the judge, asked: 'Do you know me?' 'No, madam, +I do not,' said he. 'Well, said the mother, 'you sentenced my son to +State's prison for life.' Turning to one of the lawyers, she said: 'And +you, sir, pleaded against him. He was all I had. He worked hard on the +farm, was a good boy, and took care of me until he began to play cards, +when he took to gambling and was lost.'" Dr. Guthrie writes: "In regard +to the lawfulness of certain pursuits, pleasures, and amusements, it +is impossible to lay down any fixed and general rule; but we may +confidently say that whatever is found to unfit you for religious +duties, or to interfere with the performance of them; whatever +dissipates your mind or cools the fervor of your devotions; whatever +indisposes you to read your Bibles or to engage in prayer, wherever +the thought of a bleeding Savior, or of a holy God, or of the day of +judgment falls like a cold shadow on your enjoyment, the pleasures you +can not thank God for, on which you can not ask His blessing, whose +recollections will haunt a dying bed and plant sharp thorns in its +uneasy pillow,--these are not for you..Never go where you can not ask +God to go with you; never be found where you would not like death to +find you. Never indulge in any pleasure that will not bear the morning's +reflection. Keep yourselves unspotted from the world, not from its spots +only, but even from its suspicions." + + + +IV. DANCING. + + +DANCING is the expression of inward feelings by means of rhythmical +movements of the body. Usually these movements are in measured step, and +are accompanied by music. + +In some form or another dancing is as old as the world, and has been +practiced by rude as well as by civilized peoples. The passion for +amateur dancing always has been strongest among savage nations, who have +made equal use of it in religious rites and in war. With the savages +the dancers work themselves into a perfect frenzy, into a kind of mental +intoxication. But as civilization has advanced dancing has modified its +form, becoming more orderly and rhythmical. The early Greeks made the +art of dancing into a system, expressive of all the different passions. +For example, the dance of the Furies, so represented, would create +complete terror among those who witnessed them. The Greek philosopher, +Aristotle, ranked dancing with poetry, and said that certain dancers, +with rhythm applied to gesture, could express manners, passions, and +actions. The most eminent Greek sculptors studied the attitude of the +dancers for their art of imitating the passions. In a classical Greek +song, Apollo, one of the twelve greater gods, the son of Zeus the chief +god, and the god of medicine, music, and poetry, was called The Dancer. +In a Greek line Zeus himself is represented as dancing. In Sparta, a +province of ancient Greece, the law compelled parents to exercise their +children in dancing from the age of five years. They were led by grown +men, and sang hymns and songs as they danced. In very early times a +Greek chorus, consisting of the whole population of the city, would meet +in the market-place to offer up thanksgivings to the god of the country. +Their jubilees were always attended with hymn-singing and dancing. +The Jewish records make frequent mention of dancing, but always "as a +religious ceremony, or as an expression of gratitude and praise." As +a means of entertainment in private society, dancing was practiced +in ancient times, but by professional dancers, and not by the company +themselves. It is true that the Bible has sanctioned dancing, but let +us remember, first, that it was always a religious rite; second, that +it was practiced only on joyful occasions, at national feasts, and after +great victories; third, that usually it was "performed by maidens in +the daytime, in open air, in highways, fields, or groves;" fourth, that +"there are no instances of dancing sanctioned in the Bible, in which +both sexes united in the exercise, either as an act of worship or as an +amusement;" fifth, that any who perverted the dance from a sacred use +to purposes of amusement were called infamous. The only records in +Scripture of dancing as a social amusement were those of the ungodly +families described by Job xxi, 11-13, who spent their time in luxury +and gayety, and who came to a sudden destruction; and the dancing of +Herodias, Matt. Xiv, 6, which led to the rash vow of King Herod and to +the murder of John the Baptist. So much for the history of dancing. + +The modern dance in which both sexes freely mingle, irrespective of +character, purely for amusement, at late hours, at which intoxicants, in +some form, are generally used, is, essentially, an institution of vice. +The modern dance is as different from the dancing of ancient times, and +from the dancing sanctioned in the Bible, as daylight is from dark, +as good is from bad. The modern dance imperils health, it poisons the +social nature; it destroys intellectual growth; and it robs men and +women of their virtue. Let us understand one another. To attend one +dance may not accomplish all of this in any person. One may attend many +dances, and he himself not see these results marked in his character, +but some one else will see them. For in the nature of the institution +the modern dance affects in all these particulars those whom it reaches. +The tendencies in a single dance are in these directions. In a way +peculiar to itself the modern dance imperils health. Though detestable +and out of date, as are the modern kissing games, yet no one ever heard +of one of those performances continuing until three and five o'clock in +the morning. Young people do not stay up all night, ride five, ten, and +twenty miles to play authors, or to snap caroms, or to play charades, +as interesting in a social way as these innocent amusements may be. The +fact that one will go to this extreme in keeping late hours to attend +the dance, and will not keep such late hours for any other form of +amusement, proves that the dance, as an institution, is at fault in +producing such irregularities. And then who ever heard of one having to +dress in a certain way to attend a purely social gathering. But let a +young lady attend a fashionable ball or a regular round dance of any +note, whatever, and if she wears the civil gown she will be thought tame +and snubbed. She must dress for this occasion, and thus, from a health +point of view, so expose her body that after the excitement and heat of +a prolonged round she takes her place in a slight draught of air, and a +severe cold is contracted. And this exposure is further increased by +the sudden change from a close, hot room to the damp, chilly air of the +early morning, on her journey home. It is possible to guard against all +of this, but are those persons who attend such exercises likely to be +cautious in such practical matters. At least, this risk of exposure for +men and women is peculiar to the dance, and it is certain that many +are physically injured in this way. The modern dance poisons the social +nature. The chief exercise at the modern dance is dancing. Those who +have attended dances, as a social recreation, have complained that they +never have an opportunity to get acquainted with one another. Such a +luxury as a complete conversation on any theme is out of the question. +It is a form of amusement that stultifies the communicative faculties, +and fosters social seclusion. Some one might say this may be a good +thing, since every grade in moral and social standing are represented. +Yes, but this only acknowledges the lack of opportunity for social +fellowship. It is not true that the dance, as an institution, is not +patronized by the most capable in conversation and companionship? +Certainly this is true in the so-called higher society, among those +whose sole ambition is to excel in formal manners and in personal +appearance at the gay function, and at the social ball. To be +communicative one must have something to communicate, and this means a +cultivation of the mind and heart. True social fellowship is one of the +sweetest pleasures of life and always has its source in the culture of +the soul. Whatever may be said for or against the modern dance, it is +true that because of the mixed characters of its attendants, and for +want of opportunity to communicate, the social nature becomes neglected +and abused, and may be fatally poisoned. + +The modern dance destroys intellectual growth. The person who has the +dance-craze cares no more for mental improvement and growth than a +starving man cares for splendid recipes for fine cooking. The thought of +a problem to be solved, of a book to be read, of an organ exercise to +be practiced, of all things, are most tame to the one who is filled with +dreams of the last dance, and with visions of the one that is to come. +To grow, the mind must be free from excitement. The fault with the dance +in this respect is that it has in it a fascination that does not exist +in the ordinary social amusement. Some persons complain that they can +not get an evening to go off well without dancing. But this is only an +open confession to mental vacuity, to intellectual poverty. For one need +know but little to flourish at the dance. And always, where little is +required, intellectually, little is given. It is the rule that those who +are in the greatest need of mental cultivation and growth are those +who make up the dancing crowd. And the fact that the dance, as an +institution, in no way stimulates intellectual thought, destines those +who dance to remain on the lower intellectual plane. + +Last, and worst of all, the dance robs men and women of their virtue, +and this often at the first unconsciously. If it is not for health and +physical vigor that one follows up dancing; if it is not the peculiar +social tie that binds dancers together; if it is not the incentive to +intellectual growth and equipment, what is it? A secret lies hid away +somewhere in the institution of the modern dance, that makes it the +chiefest attraction of worldly-minded and often of base-hearted people. +What is that secret? Ah, my friend, it is the appeal to the most sacred +instincts and passions of a man and of a woman! This appeal is peculiar +to the modern dance by the accident of physical contact that men and +women assume in dancing, and also by the circumstances that attend +it, namely, mixed society, late hours, and the customary use of strong +drink. No honest, normally passionate person, who has made it a practice +of attending dances, will deny the truth of this charge. One may never +have thought of it in this way, but when he stops to think he knows that +it is true. It is through ignorance of these circumstances, and of their +bad effects, that many a well-meaning person, presumably to have a good +time, or to acquire heel-grace, goes into the dance, secures a passion +for dancing, and through its seductive influences are led into sin and +shame. The following is an incident out of his own experience related +by Professor T. A. Faulkner, an ex-dancing master. Professor Faulkner is +the author of the little book entitled "From the Ball Room to Hell." A +book which every person who sees no harm in dancing should read. + +"Here is a girl. The one remaining child of wealthy parents, their idol +and joy. A dancing-school having opened near their home, the daughter, +for accomplishment, was sent to it. She came from her home, modest, and +her innate spirit of purity rebelled against the liberties taken by the +dancing-master, and the men he introduced to her. She became indignant +at the indecent attitudes she was called upon to assume, but noticing a +score of young women, many of them from the best homes in the town, all +yielding to the vulgar embrace, she cast aside that spirit of modesty +which had been the development of years of home-training, and setting +her face against nature's protective warnings, gave herself, as did the +others, to this prolonged embrace set to music. Having learned to dance, +its fascinations led her an enthusiastic captive. Modesty was crucified, +decency outraged, virtue lost its power over her soul, and she spent +her days dreaming of the delights of the sensual whirl of the evening. +Hardly conscious of the change she had now become as bold as any of the +women, and loved the embrace of the charmer. The graduation of the class +was, of course, the occasion of a waltzing reception. To that reception +she went, attended by her father, who looked with a proud heart on +the fulsome greeting his dear one received. After a little the father +retired, leaving his daughter to the care of the many handsome gallants +who danced attendance upon her. The reception did not close until +the small hours of the morning. Each waltz became more voluptuous; +intoxicated by sensuality, the dancers became more bold, and lust was +aroused in every breast. How many sins that reception occasioned, I +do not know; this, at least, is sure, that this girl who entered +that dancing-hall three months before, as pure as an angel, was that +night.robbed of her honor and returned to her home deprived forever of +that most precious jewel of womanhood--virtue. Her first impulse the +next morning was self-destruction; then she deluded herself with the +thought of marriage with her dancing companion, but he still further +insulted her by declaring that he wanted a pure woman for his wife. What +was her end? Shunned by the very society which egged her on to ruin, her +self-respect was gone with her lost purity, she went to her own kind, +and in shame is closing her days." "Of two hundred brothel inmates to +whom Professor Faulkner talked, and who were frank enough to answer his +question as to the direct cause of their shame, seven said poverty and +abuse; ten, willful choice; twenty, drink given them by their parents; +and one hundred and sixty-three, dancing and the ball-room." "A +former chief of police of New York City says that three-fourths of the +abandoned girls of this city were ruined by dancing." Of the dance, one +says: "It lays its lecherous hand upon the fair character of innocence, +and converts it into a putrid corrupting thing. It enters the domain +of virtue, and with silent, steady blows takes the foundation from +underneath the pedestal on which it sits enthroned. It lists the gate +and lets in a flood of vice and impurity that sweeps away modesty, +chastity, and all sense of shame. It keeps company with the low, the +degraded, and the vile. It feeds upon the passion it inflames, and +fattens on the holiest sentiments, turned by its touch to filth and +rottenness. It loves the haunts of vice, and is at home in the company +of harlots and debauchees." George T. Lemon says: "No Church in +Christendom commends or even excuses the dance. All unite to condemn +it." The late Episcopal bishop of Vermont, writes: "Dancing is +chargeable with waste of time, interruption of useful study, the +indulgence of personal vanity and display, and the premature incitement +of the passions. At the age of maturity it adds to these no small +danger to health by late hours, flimsy dress, heated rooms, and exposed +persons." Episcopal Bishop Meade, of Virginia, declares: "Social dancing +is not among the neutral things which, within certain limits, we may do +at pleasure, and it is not among the things lawful, but not expedient, +but it is in itself wrong, improper, and of bad effect." Episcopal +Bishop McIlvaine, of Ohio, putting the dance and the theater together, +writes: "The only line that I would draw in regard to these is that of +entire exclusion..The question is not what we can imagine them to be, +but what they always have been, will be, and must be, in such a world as +this, to render them pleasurable to those who patronize them. Strip them +bare until they stand in the simple innocence to which their defenders' +arguments would reduce them and the world would not have them." A Roman +Catholic priest testifies that "the confessional revealed the fact that +nineteen out of every twenty women who fall can trace the beginning of +their state to the modern dance." + + + + +V. THEATER-GOING. + +WITH drunkenness, gambling, and dancing, theater-going dates from the +beginning of history, and with these it is not only questionable in +morals, but it is positively bad. Every one who knows any thing about +the institution of the theater, as such, knows that it always has been +corrupting in its influence. Not only those who attend the theater +pronounce it bad, as a whole, but it is frowned upon by play-writers, +and by actors and actresses themselves. Five hundred years before +Christ, Jew, Pagan, and Christian spoke against the theater. It is +stated on good authority that the dissipations of the theater were the +chief cause of the decadence of ancient Greece. At one time, Augustus, +the emperor of Rome, was asked as a means of public safety, to suppress +the theater. The early Christians held the theater in such bad repute as +to rank it with the heathen temple. And to these two places they would +not go, even to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ. Nor has the +moral tone and character of the theater improved, even in our day. Dr. +Theodore Cuyler, for many years an experienced pastor in Brooklyn, +Says: "The American theater is a concrete institution, to be judged as +a totality. It is responsible for what it tolerates and shelters. We, +therefore, hold it responsible for whatever of sensual impurity and +whatever of irreligion, as well as for whatever of occasional and +sporadic benefit there may be bound up in its organic life. Instead +of helping Christ's kingdom, it hinders; instead of saving souls, it +corrupts and destroys." Dr. Buckley gives this testimony: "Being aware +of the fact that the drama, like every thing else which caters to the +taste, has its fashions--rising and falling and undergoing various +changes--now improving, and then degenerating, I have thought it +desirable to institute a careful inquiry into the plays which have been +performed in the principal theaters of New York during the past three +years. Accordingly, I procured the copies used by the performers in +preparing for their parts, and took pains to ascertain wherein, in +actual use, the actors diverged from the printed copies. They number +over sixty, and, with the exception of a few unprinted plays, include +all that have been produced in the prominent theaters of New York during +the three years now about closing..It is a singular fact, that, with +three or four exceptions, those dramatic compositions, among the sixty +or more under discussion, which are morally objectionable, are of a +comparatively low order of literary execution. But if language and +sentiments, which would not be tolerated among respectable people, +and would excite indignation if addressed to the most uncultivated and +coarse servant girl, not openly vicious, by an ordinary young man, and +profaneness which would brand him who uttered it as irreligious, are +improper amusements for the young and for Christians of every age, then +at least fifty of these plays are to be condemned." + +In the first place the theater leads one into bad company. As a class, +the performers are licentious. How can one be in their company, be moved +to laughter and to tears and not be contaminated by them? One who has +studied the theater tells us that the "fruits of the Spirit and +the fruits of the stage exhibit as pointed a contrast as the human +imagination can conceive." The famous Macready, as he retired from the +stage, wrote: "None of my children, with my consent under any pretense, +shall ever enter the theater, nor shall they have any visiting +connection with play actors or actresses." Dr. Johnson asks the +question: "How can they mingle together as they do, men and women, and +make public exhibitions of themselves as they do, in such circumstances, +with such surroundings, with such speech as much often be on their +lips to play the plays that are written, in such positions as they must +sometimes take, affecting such sentiment and passions--how can they do +this without moral contamination?" And we would ask, how can persons +live enrapt with this sort of thing for hours and hours each week, the +year around, and not become equally contaminated, for to the onlooker +all this comes as a reality, while to those who are performing, it is +hired shamming? Therefore, as the pupil becomes the teacher, so the +attendant at the theater becomes like the one who performs. So that to +go to the theater is to "sit in the seat of the scornful or to stand in +the way of sinners." "There you find the man," says one, "who has lost +all love for his home, the careless, the profane, the spendthrift, the +drunkard, and the lowest prostitute of the street. They are found in all +parts of the house; they crowd the gallery, and together should aloud +the applause, greeting that which caricatures religion, sneers at +virtue, or hints at indecency." Not only the actors and the onlookers of +the average theater are vile, but all of the immediate associations of +the playhouse must correspond with it. If not in the same building with +the theater, in adjoining ones, at least, are found the wine-parlor and +the brothel. It is generally conceded that no theater can be prosperous +if it is wholly separated from these adjuncts of evil. + +The theater, therefore, kills spiritually and degrades the moral life +of the one who attends it. The theater deals with the spectacular. +This appeals to the eye, to the ear, and to all of the outer senses. +Spirituality depends upon a cultivation of the spiritual senses that +Grace has opened up within the soul. Hence, the spectacular is directly +opposed to the spiritual. The deep, contemplative, spiritual soul could +find little or no food in the false, clap-trap representations of the +modern stage. And to find an increased interest here is evidence that +one lacks spiritual life, at least deep-seated spiritual life. This is +why so many professing Christians are so eager to go to the card-party, +to the dancing-party, and to the theater. The inner-sense life of the +soul is dead, and one must have something upon which to feed, hence he +feeds upon the husks of "imprudent and un-Christian amusements." And let +one who has a measure of spiritual life, instead of increasing it, +seek to satisfy his soul-longing by means of the spectacular, of false +representations in any form, soon he will lose the spiritual life that +he has. And this loss will be marked by an increased demand for the +spectacular. The surest proof to-day that the spiritual life of +the Church is waning in certain sections, is not so much that her +membership-roll is not on the increase, but that professing Christian +people are running wild after cards and dancing and the theater. +Evangelist Sayles declares: "The people of our so-called best society, +and Christian people, many that have been looked upon as active workers, +sit now and gaze upon scenes in our theaters, without a blush, that +twenty-five years ago would not have been countenanced..The moral and +spiritual life of many a Christian has been weakened by the eyes gazing +upon the scenes of the theater." Says he, "The Christian, through +attendance upon the playhouse, creates a relish for worldly things, and +so spiritual things become distasteful." + +Then, to go to one theater, sanctions all. To have heard and to have +seen Joe Jefferson in "Rip Van Winkle," Richard Mansfield in "The +Merchant of Venice," or Edwin Booth or Sir Henry Irving, or Maude Adams, +or Julia Marlowe in their best plays, is to have received a deeper +insight into human nature, and a stronger purpose to become sympathetic +and true, but who can afford to sanction all that is base and villainous +is the institution of the modern theater for the sake of learning +sympathy and truth and human nature from a few worthy actors, when he +may find all of this as truthfully, if not as artistically, set forth +by the orator, by the musician, by the painter, and by the author? It is +not cant, it is not pharisaism, it is not a weak claim of Christianity, +but it is common honesty, mighty truth, a cardinal and beautiful +teaching of Jesus Christ to deny one's self for the welfare of the +weaker brother. Let one go to hear Mansfield in Shakespeare, and his +neighbor boy will take his friend and go to the vaudeville, and his only +excuse to his parents and to his half-taught mind and heart will be, +"Well, Mr. So-and-So goes to the theater, he is a member of the Church +and superintendent of the Sunday-school; surely there is no harm for +me to go." To the immature mind what seems right for one person seems +lawful for another. This is because such a person has not learned to +discriminate between what is bad and what is good. Therefore, if the +theater as an institution has more in it that is bad than It has in +it that is good, rather if the general tendency of the theater, as an +institution, is bad, the safe thing for one's self and for those who +read one's life as an example, is to discard it entirely. + +In view of these facts, no person can attend the theater at all without +hurting his influence. The ideal life is that one which gives offense +of stumbling to no one. A successful preacher who had an aversion toward +speaking on the subject of questionable amusements, when asked what he +believed concerning a certain form of amusement, replied: "See what I +do, and know what I believe." It is a glorious life whose actions are an +open epistle of righteousness and peace, read and believed and honored +by all men. + +"Some time ago a gentleman teaching a large class of young men in a +Chicago Sunday-school, desired to attend a theater for the purpose of +seeing a celebrated actor. He was not a theater-goer, and thought that +no harm could come from it. He had no sooner taken his seat, however, +than he saw in the opposite gallery some of the members of his class. +They also saw him and began commenting on the fact that their teacher +was at the theater. They thought it inconsistent in him, lost their +interest in the class, and he lost his influence over the young men. +That teacher tied his hands by this one act, so that he could not speak +out against the gross sins of the theater." + +Those who defend theater-going say that if Christian people would +patronize the theater that it would be made more respectable. But over +a thousand years of history proves that this principle fails here as it +does elsewhere. A Christian woman marries an unchristian man with the +hope that he will become a Christian; a steady, sensible woman in all +other matters marries a man who drinks, with the thought of reforming +him; one associates with worldly and sensual companions, expecting to +make them better; but, alas, what blasted hopes, what wretched failures +in all of these instances, at least in the most of them! You can not +reform vice; you may whitewash a sin, but it will be sin, still. To +purify a character or an institution one must not become a part of it +by sympathy, nor by association. This is what the psalmist meant when +he said, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsels of the +ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of +the scornful." And so it is, that every effort at reforming the theater, +thus far has failed. The Rev. C.W. Winchester says concerning the +reforming of the theater: "The facts are, (1) that the theater in this +city and country never had the support and encouragement of moral and +religious people it has now; (2) that the theater here was never so +bad. Clearly, if Christian patronage is going to reform the theater, the +reform ought to begin. But the grade is downward. The theater is growing +worse and worse." Dr. Wilkinson makes this statement on the question +of reforming the theater: "Now the Protestant Christians of New York +number, by recent computation, less than seventy-five thousand souls, in +a population of a million. Supposing a general agreement among them all +that a regular attendance at the theater was at this juncture the most +pressing and most promising method of evangelical effort, they would +not then constitute even one-tenth of the numerical patronage which the +management would study to please." Dr. Herrick Johnson says: "The ideal +stage is out of the question. It is out of the question just as pure, +chaste, human nudity is out of the question..The nature of theatrical +performances, the essential demands of the stage, the character of the +plays, and the constitution of human nature, make it impossible that +the theater should exist, save under a law of degeneracy. Its trend is +downward; its centuries of history tell just this one story. The actual +stage of to-day..is a moral abomination. In Chicago, at least, it is +trampling on the Sabbath with defiant scoff. It is defiling our youth. +It is making crowds familiar with the play of criminal passions. It is +exhibiting women with such approaches to nakedness as can have no other +design than to breed lust behind the onlooking eyes. It is furnishing +candidates for the brothel. It is getting us used to scenes that rival +the voluptuousness and licentious ages of the past." As never before +to-day, has the theater asked for the support of Church members. And the +ideal stage, with virtuous performers, and with pure dramas, are held up +as a sample of what Christian people are invited to attend. Dr. Cuyler +says: "Every person of common sense knows that the actual average +theater is no more an ideal playhouse than the average pope is like St. +Peter, or the average politician is like Abraham Lincoln. A Puritanic +theater would become bankrupt in a twelvemonth. The great mass of +those who frequent the playhouse go there for strong, passionate +excitements..I do not affirm," says Dr. Cuyler, "that every popular play +is immoral, and every attendant is on a scent for sensualities. But the +theater is a concrete institution, it must be judged in the gross and to +a tremendous extent it is only a gilded nastiness. It unsexes womanhood +by putting her publicly in male attire--too often in no attire at all." + +"So competent an authority as the famous actress, Olga Nethersole, +recently declared that the only kind of play which may hope for success +with English-speaking audiences at the present day is the play which is +sufficiently indicated by calling it immoral. There is no doubt about +it that the theater, as at present conducted, is pulling the stones from +the foundations of public morality, and weakening, and in many quarters +endangering, the whole structure of society. The atmosphere of the +modern theater is lustful and irreverent. It is a good place for +Christians to keep away from. It is a good opportunity for the strong +man to deny himself for the sake of his younger or weaker brother." + + + + +PART II. WORTHY SUBSTITUTES. + + "Get the spindle and thy distaff ready, and God will send + thee flax." + + + + +VI. BOOKS AND READING. + +MANY BOOKS, MUCH READING. + + +TO-DAY every one reads. Go where you may, you will find the paper, the +magazine, the journal; printed letters, official reports, exhaustive +cyclopedias, universal histories; the ingenuous advertisement, the +voluminous calendar, the decorated symphony; printed ideals, elaborate +gaming rules, flaming bulletins; and latest of all, we have begun to +publish our communications on the waves of the air. In this hurly-burly +of many books and much reading, it is no mean problem to know why one +should read; and what, and how, and when. Especially does this problem +of general reading confront the student, the lover of books, and +those of the professions. Essays are to be read, the historical, the +philosophical, and the scientific; novels, the historical and the +religious; books of devotion, books of biography, of travel, of +criticism, and of art. What principles are to guide one in his choice of +reading, that he may select only the wisest, purest, and helpfulest from +all these classes of books? + + +WHY READ. + +Read to acquire knowledge. Knowledge is the perception of truth. One +arrives at knowledge by the assimilation of facts and principles, or +by the assimilation of truth itself. Three sources of knowledge are +experience, conversation, and reading. Experience leads one slowly to +knowledge, is limited entirely to the path over which one has passed, +and is a "dear teacher." To acquire knowledge by conversation is to put +one at the mercy of his associates, making him dependent upon their +good favor, truthfulness, and learning. But reading places one in direct +communication with the wisest and best persons of all time. To +acquire knowledge by reading is to defy time and space, persons and +circumstances, at least, in our day of many and inexpensive books. +Through books facts live, principles operate, justice acts, the light of +philosophy gleams, wit flashes, God speaks. Every book-lover agrees with +Channing: "No matter how poor I am..if the sacred writers will enter and +take up their abode under my roof, if Milton will cross my threshold +to sing to me of Paradise, and Shakespeare to open to me the words of +imagination and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin to enrich +me with his practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want of intellectual +companionship, and I may become a cultivated man, though excluded from +what is called the best society in the place where I live." Kingsley +says: "Except a living man, there is nothing more wonderful Than a +book!--a message to us from the dead,--from human souls whom we never +saw, who lived, perhaps, thousands of miles away; and yet these, in +those little sheets of paper, speak to us, amuse us, terrify us, teach +us, comfort us, open their hearts to us as brothers..If they are good +and true, whether they are about religion or politics, farming, trade, +or medicine, they are the message of Christ, the Maker of all things, +the Teacher of all truth." The wide range of truth secured through +reading acts in two ways upon the reader. It spiritualizes his +character, and it makes him mighty in action. Knowledge on almost any +subject has a marked tendency to sharpen one's wits, to refine his +tastes, to ennoble his spirit, to improve his judgement, to strengthen +his will, to subdue his baser passions, and to fill his soul with the +breath of life. It is only upon truth that the soul feeds, and by means +of knowledge that the character grows. "It cannot be that people should +grow in grace," writes John Wesley, "unless they give themselves to +reading. A reading people will always be a knowing people." Reading +makes one mighty in action when it gives one knowledge, since "knowledge +is power," and since power has but one way of showing itself, and that +is, in action. Knowledge takes no note of hardships, ignores fatigue, +laughs at disappointment, and frowns upon despair. It delves into the +earth, rides upon the air, defies the cold of the north, the heat of the +south; it stands upon the brink of the spitting volcano, circumnavigates +the globe, examines the heavens, and tries to understand God. With but +few exceptions, master-minds and men of affairs have been incessant +readers. Cicero, chief of Roman orators, whether at home or abroad, in +town or in the country, by day or by night, in youth or in old age, in +sorrow or in joy, was not without his books. "Petrarch, when his friend +the bishop, thinking that he was overworked, took away the key of his +library, was restless and miserable the first day, had a bad headache +the second, and was so ill by the third day that the bishop, in alarm, +returned the key and let his friend read as much as he liked." Writes +Frederick the Great, "My latest passion will be for literature." The +poet, Milton, while a child, read and studied until midnight. John +Ruskin read at four years of age, was a book-worm at five, and wrote +numerous poems and dramas before he was ten. Lord Macaulay read at three +and began a compendium of universal history at seven. Although not a +lover of books, George Washington early read Matthew Hale and became +a master in thought. Benjamin Franklin would sit up all night at his +books. Thomas Jefferson read fifteen hour a day. Patrick Henry read for +employment, and kept store for pastime. Daniel Webster was a devouring +reader, and retained all that he read. At the age of fourteen he could +repeat from memory all of Watt's Hymns and Pope's "Essay on Man." When +but a youth, Henry Clay read books of history and science and practiced +giving their contents before the trees, birds, and horses. Says a +biographer of Lincoln, "A book was almost always his inseparable +companion." + +Then, read for enjoyment. Fortunately, a habit so valuable as reading +may grow to become a pleasure. So that as one is gathering useful +information and increasing in knowledge, he may have the keenest +enjoyment. Such an one sings as he works. He has learned to convert +drudgery into joy; duty has become delight. But even for such an one a +portion of his reading should be purely for rest and recreation. If +one has taught school all day, or set type, or managed a home, or read +history, or labored in the field, or been shopping, heavy, solid reading +may be out of the question, while under such circumstances one would +really enjoy a striking allegory or a well-written novel. Or, if one is +limited in knowledge, or deficient in literary taste so that he may find +no interest in history, science, philosophy, or religion, still he may +enjoy thrilling books of travel, of biography, or of entertaining story. +In this way all may enjoy reading. "Of all the amusements which can +possibly be imagined for a hard-working man, after his daily toil, or +in its intervals, there is nothing," says Herschel, "like reading an +interesting book. It calls for no bodily exercise, of which he has had +enough or too much. It relieves his home of its dullness and sameness, +which, in nine cases out of ten, is what drives him out to the alehouse, +to his own ruin and his family's. It accompanies him to his next day's +work, and, if the book he has been reading be any thing above the very +idlest and lightest, gives him something to think of besides the mere +mechanical drudgery of his every-day occupation, something he can enjoy +while absent, and look forward with pleasure to return to." + + +WHAT TO READ. + +First of all read something. "Southey tells us that, in his walk one +stormy day, he met an old woman, to whom, by way of greeting, he made +the rather obvious remark that it was dreadful weather. She answered, +philosophically, that in her opinion, 'any weather was better than +none.'" And so we would say, excluding corrupt literature, any reading +is better than none! In this day of multiplicity of books who who never +reads may not be an ignoramus nor a fool, but certainly he robs the +world of much that is useful in character, and deprives himself of much +that enriches his own soul. Then one should select his books, as he does +his associates, and not attempt to read everything that comes in his +way. No longer may one know even a little about every thing. It might be +a mark of credit rather than an embarrassment for one to answer, "No," +to the question, "Have you read the latest book?" when the fact is +recalled that 30,000 novels have been published within the past eighty +years, and that five new ones are added to the list daily. + + +READ HISTORY. + +One has characterized history as both the background and the key to +all knowledge. No other class of reading so much as this helps one to +appreciate his own country, his own age, his own surroundings. Extensive +reading of history is a sure remedy for pessimism, prejudice, and +fanaticism. In so far as history is an accurate account of the past, it +is a true prophecy of the future for the nation and for the individual. +Who reads history knows that men always have displayed folly, Weakness, +and cruelty, and that they always will, even to their own obvious ruin. +Also he knows that every time and place have had their few good men and +women who have honored God, and whom God has honored. Nothing so teaches +a person his own insignificance and the small part that he plays in the +world as does the reading of history. Nor is history to be found only in +the book called history. If you want to know the life of the ancients, +as you know the life of your own community, read Josephus. Do you want a +glimpse of early apostolic times, read "The Life and Times of Jesus," by +Edersheim. Do you want to see the battlefield of Waterloo, visit Paris +in the beginning of the nineteenth century, stop over night with Louis +Philippe, see the English through French spectacles, and the Frenchman +through his own; do you want a glimpse of the political despotism, court +intrigue, and ecclesiastical tyranny in France a hundred years ago; do +you want to hear the crash of the bastile, and see Notre Dame converted +into a horse-stable; do you want a picture of the "bread riots" and mob +violence that terminated in the French revolution of 1848; in short +do you want a tale of French life and character in its brightest, +gloomiest, and intensest period, read "Les Miserables," by Victor Hugo. +To-day one must read current history. It is not enough to plan, work, +and economize, one must make and seize opportunities. And this he can +do only as he is alive to passing events. In a few years one may outgrow +his usefulness through losing touch with advancing ideas and methods of +work. To keep abreast of the times one must read the newspaper and the +magazine. The newspaper is the history of the hour, the magazine is the +history of the day. The magazine corrects the newspaper, and "sums up in +clear and noble phrase those fundamental facts which are only dimly seen +in the newspaper." A serious and growing tendency is that the newspaper +and magazine shall take the place of the best books. A few minutes a day +is enough for any newspaper, and a few hours a month is enough for any +magazine. The greatest part of one's reading should be that of books. +Who gormandizes on current events will pay the price with a morbid mind +and with false conclusions in his reasoning. + + +READ BIOGRAPHY. + +The life of a great man is a continual inspiration. No other exercise so +fires a soul with noble ambition as the study of a great life. Real +life is not only stranger than fiction, but it is more interesting than +fiction. No boy should be without the life of Washington, of Lincoln, of +Webster, of Franklin. Every girl should know by heart brave Pocahontas, +sympathetic Mrs. Stowe, queenly Frances Willard, and kind-hearted +Victoria. No private library is complete without Plutarch's "Lives," the +"Life of Alfred the Great," of Napoleon, Grant, and Gladstone. + + +READ SCIENCE. + +The fourteen-year-old child may master the practical principles of +natural philosophy, and yet how many intelligent persons remain ignorant +of the most commonplace truths in this branch of learning! With a little +attention to the natural and mechanical sciences, a new world of beauty +and truth opens up before one. He sees objects that once were hid to +him; he hears sounds that once were silent; he enjoys odors that once +retained their fragrance. His whole being becomes a part of the living +musical world about him, when he has his senses opened to appreciate it +and to become attuned to it. One should read some science throughout his +life, in order to remain at the source of all true knowledge. Here he +learns to appreciate the language of nature. When expressed by man, this +is poetry. + + +THEREFORE, READ POETRY. + +Ten minutes a day with Tennyson, Browning, Emerson, or Lowell, will +teach one a new language, by which he may converse with the wind, talk +with the birds, chat with the brook, speak with the flowers, and hold +discourse with the sun, moon, and stars. The deepest and mightiest +thoughts of all ages have been expressed in poetry, the language of +nature. "Poetry," says Coleridge, "is the blossom and fragrance of all +human knowledge, human thoughts, passions, emotions, languages." + + +READ BOOKS OF RELIGION. + +"Religion," says Lyman Abbott, "is the life of God in the soul." Every +truly religious book treats of this life. The only purely religious book +is the Bible. It is the source and inspiration of every other religious +book. The Bible is a "letter from God to man, handed down from heaven +and written by inspired men." Its message is free salvation for all +men through Jesus Christ; its spirit is divine love. No wise person is +without this letter, and every thoughtful and devout person reads it +daily. One may never find time to follow a course of study, nor to +pursue a plan of daily reading; he may never know the wealth of Dante, +the grandeur of Milton, nor the genius of Shakespeare, but every one may +make the Bible his daily companion and guide. + + +HOW TO READ. + +Enter into what you read. No book can thrill and move one unless he +gives himself up to it. Lack of fixed attention is the cause of the +half-informed mind, the faulty reason, and the ever-failing memory. The +cause of this lack of attention may be an historical allusion of which +one is ignorant, or a new word that he fails to look up, or an overtaxed +mind, or unfavorable surroundings. Whatever may be this hindrance it +must be removed or overcome before one can enter into what he reads. A +thought is of no value until it registers itself and takes a room in the +mind. This is why we are told on every hand, that a few books well +read are worth more than many books poorly read. The secret of Abraham +Lincoln's power as a public speaker lay in his clear reasoning, simple +statement, and apt illustration. This secret was secured by Lincoln +through his habit of mastering whatever he heard in conversation or +reading. "When a mere child," says Lincoln, "I used to get irritated +when anybody talked to me in a way I could not understand. I don't think +I ever got angry at anything else in my life. But that always disturbed +my temper, and has ever since. I can remember going to my little +bedroom, after hearing the neighbors talk of an evening with my father, +and spending no small part of the night walking up and down, trying +to make out what was the exact meaning of some of their, to me, dark +sayings. I could not sleep, though I often tried to, when I got on such +a hunt after an idea, until I had caught it, and when I thought I had +got it, I was not satisfied until I had repeated it over and over; until +I had put it in language plain enough, as I thought, for any boy I knew +to comprehend. This was a kind of passion with me, and it has stuck by +me; for I am never easy now when I am handling a thought until I have +bounded it north, and bounded it south, and bounded it east, and bounded +it west." And so to enter into what one reads, means that he will master +the thought. The most that a university can do for one is to teach him +to read. Who has learned how to read has secured a liberal education, +however or wherever he may have learned it. + +Then, one should learn to scan an author. This means to take a rapid +observation of his thoughts. Much of one's common reading matter should +be scanned. All local news, much magazine literature, and many books +should be used in this way. It is mental sloth and waste of time to pore +over a newspaper or a book of light fiction, as one would a philosophy +of history or a work of science. As Bacon aptly puts it, "Some books +are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and +digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to +be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with +diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and +extracts made of them by others." One's mind is like a horse, it soon +learns its master. Feed it well, groom it well, treat it gently, you may +expect much from it. It is reported of Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis that he +has read a book a day for over twenty years. He has learned to squeeze +the thought out of a book at a grasp, as one of us would squeeze the +juice from an orange. Take a glimpse into his library. Five hundred +volumes of sociological literature, four hundred volumes of history, +two hundred of cyclopedias, gazetteers, books of reference; four hundred +volumes of pure science, one hundred volumes of travels, two hundred and +fifty volumes of biography; one hundred volumes of art and art history; +a section on psychology, ethics, philosophy, and the relation between +science and religion, and a thousand volumes of literature, pure and +simple. + + +WHEN TO READ. + +First, read at regular hours. This is for those who follow literary +pursuits. No professional person should respect himself in his work +who has no special time for reading and study, and who does not +conscientiously adhere to it. The pulpit, the law-office, the doctor's +office, the teacher, and the editor's desk, each clamors for the man, +the woman, who can think. To appreciate God and to sympathize with the +human heart; to know law and the intricate special case; to understand +disease and relief for the suffering patient; to have something to teach +and to know how to teach it even to the dullest pupil; to know human +character and to be able to enlighten the public mind and the public +conscience; all this requires in the one who serves a deep and growing +knowledge and experience which may be realized only in the grasp of +truth contained in the up-to-date and best authorized books. The use +of books with this class of persons is not optional. They must buy and +master them, or a few years at longest will relegate them with their old +books and ideas to the dusty garret where they belong. + +Then, many must read on economized time. The farmer, the mechanic, the +merchant, the shopkeeper, each may find a little time for daily reading. +Ten minutes saved in the morning, ten minutes in the afternoon, and ten +minutes in the evening, this is half hour a day. In a week this gives +one three hours and a half, in a month fourteen hours of solid reading, +and in a year one will have read seven days of twenty-four hours each. +Think of what may be accomplished in an average lifetime in common +reading by the busiest person, who really wants to read. "Schliemann," +the noted German scholar and author, "as a boy, standing in line at the +post-office waiting his turn for the mail, utilized the time by studying +Greek from a little pocket grammar." "Mary Somerfield, the astronomer, +while busy with her children in the nursery, wrote her 'Mechanism of the +Heavens,' without neglecting her duties as a mother." "Julius Caesar, +while a military officer and politician found time to write his +Commentaries known throughout the world." William Cobbett says: "I +learned grammar when I was a private soldier on a six-pence a day. +The edge of my guard-bed was my seat to study in, my knapsack was my +bookcase, and a board lying on my lap was my desk. I had no moment at +that time that I could call my own; and I had to read and write among +the talking, singing, whistling, and bawling of at least half a score +of the most thoughtless of men." Among those whom we all know who have +risen out of obscurity to eminence through a wise economy of time which +they have used in reading and study, are, Patrick Henry, Benjamin +West, Eli Whitney, James Watt, Richard Baxter, Roger Sherman, Sir Isaac +Newton, and Benjamin Franklin. + + + + +VII. SOCIAL RECREATION. + +DEFINED. + + +The normal young person who does not dissipate is bursting with life. +The natural child is activity embodied. The healthful old person craves +exercise. Life, activity, exercise, each must have some method of +spending itself. Some normal method, some right method, some attractive +method must be chosen. By normal method we mean that which calls into +use the varied faculties and powers of the entire being, body, mind, and +heart. By right method we mean that which does not crush out a part of +one's being, while another part is being developed. By attractive method +in the use of life, activity, exercise, we mean that which appeals to +one's peculiar desires, tastes, and circumstances, so long as these are +normal and right. Some chosen profession, trade, or work is the rightful +heritage of every person. Each man, woman, and child should know when +he gets up of a morning, what his work is for that day. Consciously, or +unconsciously, he should have some outline of work, some end in view, +some goal toward which he is stretching himself. Dr. J. M. Buckley asks: +"Have you a purpose and a plan?" And answers, "Life is worth nothing +till then." The child is in the hands of his parent, his teacher, his +guardian. These must answer to Destiny for his beginning and growth. +"Satan finds something for idle hands to do." Hence the necessity of +vigilance on the part of those who hold the young. But "all work and no +play, makes Jack a dull boy." This rule is good whether "Jack" be a +puny girl, a feeble grandfather, a hustling, responsible father, a busy +mother, or even a mischievous lad. Every person who rises each morning, +dresses himself and goes about his work as if he knew what he were +about; who has some useful work to do, and does it, sooner or later, +needs rest. True, night comes and one may rest. And sweet is the rest of +sleep; a third of one's life is passed in this way. Sancho Panza has it +right when he says: + +"Now blessing light on him that first invented sleep! It covers a man +all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; it is meat for the hungry, +drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot." But +one craves a recreation, a rest which work nor sleep can give. Man has +a social nature, a longing to mingle with his acquaintances and friends. +Let one be shut in with work, or sickness, or weather, for whole days +at a time, and see how hungry he gets to see some one. A recreation at +a social gathering literally makes a new being out of him. He is +recreated. It is this form of recreation that we consider here, social +recreation. + + +A NECESSITY. + +Social recreation is a necessity in a well-ordered life. As with many +other common blessings we forget its benefits. Nor are these benefits +so evident until we see the blighting result in the life of the one who, +for any reason whatsoever, has become a social recluse. We have known +a few persons who have once been in society, but who have allowed +themselves to remain away from all sorts of gatherings, for a number of +years. In every case, the result has been openly noticeable. They have +become boorish in manners, unsympathetic in nature, and suspicious in +spirit. Thus they have grown out of harmony with the ideas and ways of +those about them, have come to take distorted and erroneous views of +affairs and of men. Man is a composite being. Many factors enter into +his make-up. He lives not only in the physical and intellectual, in the +religious and social, in a local and limited sense, but his life expands +until it touches and molds many other characters and communities besides +his own. In all of these spheres of his influence and work on needs to +be sobered down, corrected, stimulated. In no other way is this better +accomplished than through one's very contact with his fellows in the +religious gathering, among his workmen, in the political meeting, at the +assembly, in the social gathering whenever and wherever persons may see +one another and talk over common interests. + +A SPECIFIC SENSE. + +In a specific sense, by social recreation, we mean those pastimes and +pleasures which all persons, except the social recluse, enjoy as they +meet to spend an afternoon or an evening together. Now, how may we +get the largest amount of pleasure, of rest, of recreation from such +gatherings? How may we best benefit ourselves, inspire one another, and +in it all, honor God? It is no small task to accomplish these three ends +in all things, in one's life. We have agreed that some social practices +are positively bad. And we have tried to show why the "tobacco club," +the "social glass," the "card-party," the "dancing-party," and the +play-house reveries should be avoided. We have left these forms of +so-called "questionable amusements" out of our practice and let our of +our lives. To what may we turn? Where may we go? We turn to the social +gathering. + + +BUT IT MUST BE PLANNED. + +No social gathering can successfully run itself. See what forethought +and expenditure are given to make successful the "smoking-club," the +"wine-social," the "card and dancing parties," and the "theater." Not +one of these institutions thrive without thought and cost in their +management. Put the same thought and expense into the gathering +for social recreation, and you will find all of the merits of the +questionable institution and none of its demerits. No company has larger +capabilities than the mixed company at the social gathering. Nor may +any purpose be more perfectly served than the purpose of true social +recreation. Here we find those skilled in music, versed in literature, +adept at conversation; we find the practical joker, the proficient +at games, and last, but not least, those "born to serve" tables. This +variety of genius, of wit, of skill, of willingness to serve, is laid +at the altar of pleasure for the worthy purpose of making new again +the weary body, the languishing spirit, the lonely heart. Let the right +management and stimulus be given to this resourceful company, and the +hours will pass as moments, the surest sign of a good time. + + +SOME ESSENTIALS. + +DINING, SOCIAL HOUR, GAMES. + +No social recreation is complete without dining. And yet the least +important part of this meal should be the taking of food. It is a +serious fault with the modern social that too much attention is given to +the variety and quantity of food, and not enough to merriment in taking +it. To be successful, the social company should gather as early as +possible; the first hour-and-a-half should be given to greetings and to +social levity of the brightest and wittiest sort. If one has an ache or +a pain, a care or a loss, let it be forgotten now. It is weakness and +folly continually to be under any burden. Here every one should take +a genuine release from seriousness and earnestness in weighty and +responsible affairs. Let all, except the serving committee for this +evening, take part in this strictly social hour-and-a-half. When the +late-comers have arrived and have been introduced, and the people have +moved about and met one another, almost before the company are aware of +it they are invited by the serving committee to dine. Usually all may +not be served at once. Now that the company has been thinned out, the +older persons having gone to the tables, short, spirited games should +be introduced in which every person not at luncheon, should be given +a place and a part. At this juncture it is not best to introduce +sitting-games, such as checkers, authors, caroms, or flinch, for the +contestants might be called to take refreshments at a critical moment +in the contest. With a little attention to it, appropriate games may +be introduced here that need not interfere with luncheon. Fully half an +hour should be spent at each set of tables, where at the close of +the meal, some humorous subject or subjects should be introduced and +responded to be those best fitted for such a task. Almost any person +can say something bright as well as sensible, if he will give a little +attention to it beforehand. While the second and third tables are being +served, let those retiring contest at games of skill, converse, or take +up other appropriate entertainment directed by the everywhere present +entertainment committee. By this time half-past ten or eleven o'clock, +some who are old, or who have pressing duties on the next day may want +to retire. If the serving committee have been skillful in adjusting +the time spent at each table to the number of tables, etc., by eleven +o'clock the serving shall have been completed. Now, the young in spirit, +whether old or young, expect, and should have an hour at the +newest, liveliest, and most recreative games. No part of the evening +entertainment should be allowed to drag. To insure this a frequent +change of social games is needed. + + +AVOID LATE HOURS. + +As late hours tend to produce irregularity in sleep, in meals, and in +work; and since the object of the social is recreation, the company +should retire about midnight. Oftentimes people stay and stay at such a +gathering, until the hostess, the entertaining committee, and the people +themselves are worn out. And yet, who is at fault? This is a critical +point in the modern popular social. How shall the company disband in due +season? In his "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," Oliver Wendell Holmes +gives a suggestion on this point for the private visitor, who does not +know how to go. Says Holmes: "Do n't you know how hard it is for some +people to get out of a room when their visit is really over? They want +to be off, and you want to have them off, but they do n't know how to +manage it. One would think they had been built in your parlor or study +and were waiting to be launched. I have contrived a sort of ceremonial +inclined plane for such visitors, which being lubricated with +certain smooth phrases, I back them down, metaphorically speaking, +stern-foremost, into their 'native element,' the great ocean of +outdoors." There are social companies as hard to get rid of as this. +They want to go, and every one wants them to go, but just how to make +the start, no one seems to know. Dr. Holmes and his "inclined plane" +may have been successful with the private caller, but who will be the +"contriver of a ceremonial," one sufficient to land the social company +into its "native element, the great ocean of outdoors?" No, this most +delicate of the problems involved in a successful modern social must be +left to a tactful hint from the entertainment committee, and to the wise +choice of a few recognized leaders in the company. + + +NEW COMMITTEES. + +Special committees should have charge of the serving and of the +entertainment. As far as possible these should vary with each successive +social. It is an erroneous notion, prevalent in nearly every community, +that only "certain ones" can do this or that; the consequence is that +these "certain ones" do all the work, are deprived of the true rest and +relief which the social is meant to give, while others who should +take their turn, grow unappreciative, and weak in their serving and +entertaining ability. + + +THE AVERAGE SOCIAL A FAILURE. + +As it is conducted to-day, the average social is a failure. Late at +arriving, want of introductions, lack of arranged entertainment, late +hours,--all go to weaken and to dull the average young person in place +of to cultivate his wits, his special genius at music, reading, and +conversation, and to recreate him in body, mind, and spirit. To make a +success of the social gathering some one must keep in mind the personal +convenience and happiness of every person present. When this is done +and the social gathering becomes notable for the real pleasure that it +gives, then we shall be able to drive out the "questionable amusements," +because we have taken nothing from the person, and have given him new +life and interest. + + + + +VIII. FRIENDSHIP. + +BONDS OF ATTACHMENT. + + +Each person is connected with every other person by some bond of +attachment. It may be by the steel bond of brotherhood, by the silvern +chain of religious fellowship, by the golden band of conjugal affection, +by the flaxen cord of parental or filial love, or by the silken tie of +friendship. One or more of these bonds of attachment may encircle +each person, and each bond has its varying strength, and is capable of +endless lengthening and contracting. Brotherhood is a general term, and +as it is used here, comprises the fellow-feeling that one human being +has for another, this is universal brotherhood. Brotherhood comprises +the fellow-feeling that attracts persons of the same race, nation, or +community, this is racial, national, or community brotherhood; also, +it comprises the fellow-feeling that exists between persons of the same +avocation, calling, or work, this is the brotherhood of profession; it +comprises the fellow-feeling that joins persons of the same order or +party, this is the brotherhood of order; it comprises the fellow-feeling +that joins brothers and sisters of the same home, this is the +brotherhood of family. Religious fellowship includes that spiritual +intercourse which is held between persons of the same religious faith +and practice. Conjugal affection comprises that feeling of mind and +heart which unites husband and wife. Filial and parental love exists +between parent and child. While friendship comprises that soul union +which exists between persons because of similar desires, tastes, and +sentiments. Each of these bonds of attachment has its characteristic +mark, its essential feature. The essential feature of universal +brotherhood is common origin, present struggle, and future hope; the +essential feature of racial, national, or community brotherhood is +patriotism; the essential feature of brotherhood of the order is mutual +helpfulness; the essential feature in brotherhood of the profession +is common pursuit; in brotherhood of the family, common parentage; in +conjugal affection, attraction for opposite sex; in parental and filial +love, love of offspring and love of parent; while in friendship the +essential feature is harmony of natures. + + +WHAT IS FRIENDSHIP? + +No human relationship can be more beautiful, nor more abiding than true +friendship. It is a spiritual thing, a communion of souls, virtuously +exercised. How one is impressed and pleased to see another horse just +like his own, to see another dog exactly resembling his own, to meet a +person who speaks, looks, and acts like some one he has known. It is +a surprise, mingled with mystery and delight. But with what increased +surprise and delight does one meet with a "person after his own heart." +All men have recognized the strength and beauty of right self-love. +The second great law of Christ's kingdom is declared in terms of true +self-love. "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Every one loves himself, +because one's self is the truest and best of other lives filtered +through his own soul. When one finds in another that which perfectly +answers to his own soul-likings and longings, he has found another +self, he has found a friend. Friendship is the communion of such souls, +although they may be absent from one another. The highest friendship may +grow more perfectly when friends are separated, then it is unmixed with +the alloy of imperfect thought and action. Then it is nourished by +the past, for only the past buries all faults; it is encouraged by the +future, for only the future veils the awkwardness and shortcomings of +the present. The character of friendship is determined by the character +of friends. Negative personalities wanting in taste, conviction, and +virtue produce only a negative friendship. Intense personalities +produce intense friendships; noble personalities, noble friendships, and +spiritual personalities, spiritual friendship. In the true, spiritual +sense, before one can become a friend, he must become an individual. He +must stand for something in thought and purpose. If this is not true, +friendship becomes a flimsy affair. For souls to commune with one +another there must be harmony; unity, agreement of desires, sentiments, +and tastes. Not the harmony of indifference, nor a forced agreement, +but a beautiful and natural response of soul to soul. Such equipment for +friendship finds its basis only in individual character. Character is +conduct become habitual. If one spurns reason, and follows his impulse +and passion, he becomes unreliable, and does not know the issues of his +own heart and life. Who knows what such an one will do next? To make it +soar well or sail well, friendship must have ballast. This ballast is +worthy, individual character. It would be more exact to say there can be +no true friendship without individual character. Although many elements +constitute the character of the true friend, yet two elements are +essential--sincerity and tenderness. Sincerity is the soul of every +virtue, while true words, simple manners, and right actions make up the +body. If the soul of virtue is present one does not always demand the +presence of the body, but if the body of virtue is absent, one had +better take a search after the soul. If sincerity is unquestioned, +words, manners, actions have great liberty; but if words, manners and +actions are lacking in straight-forwardness, it is time to question +sincerity. This is true in all human affairs involving motive and +conduct. Especially is it true in friendship. Sincerity knows its own. +By a glance it penetrates the very heart of its true friend, and leaves +translucent and transparent its own. Sincerity gives steadfastness and +constancy to friendship. Insincerity mars and breaks friendship. Who +has not seen a soul spring into life through the love of a radiant +friendship; and then following a series of hollow pretenses, +insincerities, that friendship fails, and the beautiful creature +stifles and dies. As one tells us, "such a death is frightful, it is the +asphyxia of the soul!" Then, tenderness is an essential element in +the character of a friend. Says Emerson: "Notwithstanding all the +selfishness that chills like east winds the world, the whole human +family is bathed with an element of love, like a fine ether." With +Emerson, we believe that every person carries about with him a certain +circle of sympathy within which he, and at least one friend, may temper +and sweeten life. Much of the kindness of the world is simply breathed, +and yet what an aroma of good cheer it sheds in grateful lives. +Tenderness possesses a sensitiveness of sympathy to an extreme +degree. It shrinks from the sight of suffering. It treats others +with "gentleness, delicacy, thought-fulness, and care. It enters into +feelings, anticipates wants, supplies the smallest pleasure, and studies +every comfort." Says one: "It belongs to natures, refined as well as +loving, and possesses that consideration of which finer dispositions +only are capable." Tenderness is a heart quality. It is the luxury of a +pure and intense friendship. It tempers one's entire nature, making +his whole being sympathetic with grace and favor. It is manifest in the +relaxing feature, in the penetrating glance, in the mellowing voice, +in the engracing manners, and in the complete obliteration of time and +distance, while with one's friend. We recall the friendly visits spend +with our friend, Lawrence W. Rowell, during his medical course in +Rush College, Chicago, while we were in attendance at the Northwestern +University, in Evanston, Illinois. Rowell was intellectual, spirited, +gifted in conversation, highly sympathetic, informed, critical, yet +charitable, a close student of human nature, a love of philosophy, of +musical temperament, of noble heart, of exalted purpose. Our visits were +kept up bimonthly throughout one year. We would spent Saturday evening +and Sunday together. Those visits revealed to me the magnetism, +intensity, and tenderness of a friend. Truly, with us time and distance +were almost completely obliterated from our consciousness. I say +distance, for we would walk together. Tenderness suits the amiable +and gentle in disposition, but it comes with a peculiar charm from +the austere nature. It is one of the stalwart virtues, and is often +concealed behind a crusty exterior. Severity and tenderness adorn the +greatest lives. + + +THE TEST OF FRIENDSHIP. + +What is the uncertain mark of a friend? Have I a friend? How many +friends have I? I can invoice my stock, my goods, my land, my money, +can I invoice my friends? One may not always know the actual worth of a +friend, but he knows who are his friends, quite as well as he knows +who are his nephews and cousins. "A friend is one whom you need and who +needs you." Has one a bit of good news, he flies to his friend, he wants +to share it. Has one a sorrow, he seeks his friend who will gladly share +that. Does one meet with a defeat or victory, instantly he thinks of his +friend and of how it will effect him. Friends need one another, as truly +as the child needs its mother, or the mother her child. Is one tempted +to commit a wrong in thought or action, his friend, though absent, +appears at his side and begs him not to do it. If one is in doubt or +uncertainty, he summons his friend, who become a patient reasoner, and +an impartial judge. Who does not find himself, daily, looking through +other people's glasses, weighing on other people's scales, sounding +other people's voices? It is a habit that friends have with one another. +You can not deprive friends of one another, any more than you can +lovers. Ah, true friends are lovers of the heaven-born sort; for +their agreement is grounded in nature. They are not chosen, they are +discovered. Or, as Emerson says, they are "self-elected." + + "Friendship's an abstract of love's noble flame, + 'Tis love refined, and purged from all its dross, + 'Tis next to angel's love, if not the same, + As strong as passion in, though not so gross." + +Thus writes Catherine Phillips. + + +FRUITS OF FRIENDSHIP. + +True friendship gives ease to the heart, light to the mind, and aid to +the carrying out of one's life-purposes. First, ease to the heart. The +presence of a friend is a beam of genial sunshine which lights up the +house by his very appearance. He warms the atmosphere and dispels the +gloom. The presence of a true friend for a day, a night, a week, lifts +one out of himself, links him with new purposes, and immerses him in +new joys. Friends breathe free with one another. They inspire sighs of +relief. Embarrassment disappears; liberty reigns supreme. Hearts are +like steam boilers, occasionally, they must give vent to what is in +them, or they will burst. This is the true mission of friends, to +become to one another reserve reservoirs of "griefs, joys, fears, hopes, +suspicions, counsels, and whatever lieth upon the heart to oppress +it," or elate it. You recall those familiar lines of Bacon: "This +communicating of a man's self to his friends works two contrary effects; +for it redoubles joys and cutteth griefs in halves; for there is no man +that imparteth his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the more; and no +man that imparteth his griefs to his friends, but he grieveth the less." +The following selected lines, slightly changed, set forth this first +fruit of friendship. + + "A true friend is an atmosphere + Warm with all inspirations dear, + Wherein we breathe the large free breath + Of life that hath no taint of death. + A true friend's an unconscious part + Of every true beat of our heart; + A strength, a growth, whence we derive + Soul-rest, that keeps the world alive." + +Then, friendship sheds light in the mind. "He who has made the +acquisition of a judicious and sympathetic friend," says Robert Hall, +"may be said to have doubled his mental resources." No man is wise +enough to be his own counselor, for he inclineth too much to leniency +toward himself. "It is a well-known rule that flattery is food for the +fool." Therefore no man should be his own counselor since no one is +so apt to flatter another as he is himself. A wise man never flatters +himself, neither does a friend flatter. As a wise man sees his own +faults and seeks to correct them, so a true friend sees the faults of +his friend and labors faithfully to banish them. The one who flatters +you despises you, and degrades both you and himself. An enemy will tell +you the whole truth about yourself, especially your faults, and at times +that both weaken and hurt you. A friend will tell you the whole truth +about yourself, especially your neglected virtues, but at a time to both +strengthen and help you. The highest service a friend can render is that +of giving counsel. The highest honor one can bestow upon his friend +is to make him his counselor. It is no mark of weakness to rely upon +counsel. God, Himself, needed a counselor, so he chose His Son. +"His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the +Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Isa. ix, 6. Counsel, says +Solomon, is the key to stability. "Every purpose is established by +Counsel." Prov. Xx, 18. Who despiseth counsel shall reap the reward +of folly. A friend is safe in counsel, according to his wisdom, for he +never seeks his own good, but the good of his friend. It is a saying, +"If some one asks you for advice, if you would be followed, first find +out what kind of advice is wanted, then give that." But this is not the +way of a friend. He has in mind the welfare of the friend and the cause +his friend serves. Honor does not require that one shall follow the +advise of his friend, rather liberty in this is a mark of freedom and +trust between friends. + +A friend aids one in the carrying out of his life purposes. Who is it +that helps one to places of honor and usefulness? It is his friend. Who +is it that recognizes one's true worth, extols his virtues, and gives +tone and quality to the diligent services of months and years? It is his +friend. Who is it, when one ends his life in the midst of an unfinished +book, or with loose ends of continued research in philosophy or science +all about him; who is it that gathers up these loose ends and puts in +order the unfinished work? It is his friend. Who is it that stands by +the open tomb of that fallen saint or hero and relates to the world his +deeds of sacrifice and courage which spurn others on to nobler living +and thereby perpetuates his goodness and valor? Who does this, if it is +done? It is his friend. A friend thus becomes not only a completion of +one's soul as he is by virtue of being a friend, but also he becomes +a completion of one's life. Then, one's relation to his fellowmen is +a limited relationship. He may speak, but upon certain subjects, on +certain occasions, and to certain persons. As Francis Bacon says, "A man +can not speak to his son but as a father; to his wife but as a husband; +to his enemy but upon terms; whereas a friend may speak as the case +requires, and not as it sorteth with the person....I have given the +rule," says he, "where a man can not fitly play his own part, if he have +not a friend, he may quit the stage." + + +HOW TO GET AND KEEP A FRIEND. + +A real friend is discovered, or made. First, discovered. Two persons +notice an attraction for one another. They see that their desires are +similar, they have the same sentiments, they agree in tastes. A feeling +of attachment becomes conscious with each of them, slight association +fosters this feeling, it increases. New associations but reveal a +broader agreement, a closer union, a perfecter harmony. The signs of +friendship appear. Heart and mind of each respond to the other, they are +friends. This is the noblest friendship. It has its origin in nature. +It is, as H. Clay Trumbull says: "Love without compact or condition; +it never pivots on an equivalent return of service or of affection. Its +whole sweep is away from self and toward the loved one. Its desire is +for the friend's welfare; its joy is in the friend's prosperity; its +sorrows and trials are in the friend's misfortunes and griefs; its pride +is in the friend's attainments and successes; its constant purpose is in +doing and enduring for the friend." + +Then, friends are made. Two persons do not especially attract one +another. But, through growth of character, modification of nature, or +change in desires, sentiments, and tastes, they become attracted to each +other. Or in spite of natural disagreements or differences, through +the force of circumstances they become welded together in friendship. +Montaigne describes such an attachment, in which the souls mix and work +themselves into one piece with so perfect a mixture that there is no +more sign of a seam by which they were first conjoined. Says Euripedes: + + "A friend + Wedded into our life is more to us + Than twice five thousand kinsman one in blood." + +Such was the friendship of Ruth and Naomi. Orpha loved Naomi, kissed +her, and returned satisfied to her early home; but Ruth cleaved unto +her, saying: + + "Entreat me not to leave thee, + And to return from following after thee: + For whither thou goest, I will go; + Where thou lodgest, I will lodge: + Thy people shall be my people, + And thy God my God: + Where thou diest, will I die, + And there will I be buried: + The Lord do so to me, and more also, + If aught but death part thee and me." + +The keeping of a friend like the keeping of a fortune, lies in the +getting, although in friendship much depends upon circumstances of +association. However subtle may be the circumstances which bring friends +together, or whatever natural agreement may exist between their natures, +still there is always a conscious choosing of friends. In this choosing +lies the secret of abiding friendship. Young says: + + "First on thy friend deliberate with thyself; + Pause, ponder, sift: not eager in the choice, + Nor jealous of the chosen; fixing fix; + Judge before friendship, then confide till death." + +Steadfastness and constancy such as this seldom loses a friend. + +Last of all, abiding friendship is grounded in virtue. Says a famed +writer on Friendship: "There is a pernicious error in those who think +that a free indulgence in all lusts and sins is extended in friendship. +Friendship was given us by nature as the handmaid of virtues and not as +the companion of our vices. It is virtue, virtue I say... that both wins +friendship and preserves it." And closing his remarks on this immortal +subject, Cicero causes Laelius to say: "I exhort you to lay the +foundations of virtue, without which friendship can not exist, in such +a manner, that with this one exception, you may consider that nothing in +the world is more excellent than friendship." + + + + +IX. TRAVEL. A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. + + +We have set in order some facts, incidents, and lessons gathered from a +hasty trip to the old country during the summer of 1899. The journey was +made in company with Rev. C.F. Juvinall, for four years my room-mate +and fellow-student, and my estimable friend. On Wednesday, June 21st, we +sailed from Boston Harbor; reached Liverpool, England, Saturday morning +the 1st of July; visited this second town in the British kingdom; +stopped over at the old town of Chester; took a run out to Hawarden +Estate, the home of Gladstone; changed cars at Stratford-on-Avon and +visited the tomb of Shakespeare; staid a half day and a night in the +old university town of Oxford, and reached London on the evening of July +4th. Having spent a week in London, we crossed the English Channel +to Paris; remained there two days, then made brief visits to the +battlefield of Waterloo, to Brussels, Amsterdam, Hull, Sheffield, +Dublin, and back to Liverpool. We sailed to Boston and returned +to Chicago by way of Montreal and Detroit, having spent forty-nine +days--the intensest and delightfullest of our lives. At first, we +hesitated to treat this subject from a point of view of personal +experience, but since it is our purpose to incite in others the love +for and the right us of all helpful resources of happiness and power, it +seemed to us that we could no better accomplish our purpose with respect +to this subject than to recount our own observations from this one +limited, imperfect journey. + + +AN EYE-OPEN AND EAR-OPEN EXPERIENCE. + +One is always at a disadvantage in relating the faults of others, for he +seems to himself and to his friends to be telling his own experience. +We were about to speak of the superficial way in which Americans travel. +One who has traveled much says that "the average company of American +tourists goes through the Art Galleries of Europe like a drove of cattle +through the lanes of a stock-market." Nor is it the art gallery and +museum alone that is done superficially. How many persons before +entering grand old Notre Dame, or the British Houses of Parliament, +pause to admire the elaborate and expansive beauty of the great archways +and outer walls? It is possible to live in this world, to travel around +it, to touch at every great port and city, and yet fail to see what is +of value or of interest. A man on our boat going to Liverpool, said that +he had traveled over the world, had been in London many a time, but had +not taken the pains to go into St. Paul's, nor to visit the Tower of +London. A wise man, a seer, is one who sees. It is possible to live in +this world, and not to leave one's own dooryard, and yet to possess the +knowledge of the world, and to tell others how to see. Louis Agassiz, +the scientist, was invited by a friend to spend the summer with him +abroad. Mr. Agassiz declined the gracious offer on the ground that he +had just Planned a summer's tour through his own back yard. What +did Agassiz find on that tour? Instruction for the children of many +generations, a treatise on animal life, and later a text-book of +Zoology. Kant, the philosopher, the greatest mind since Socrates, was +never forty miles from his birthplace. On the other hand, Grant Allen, +author, scholar, and traveler, says: "One year in the great university +we call Europe, will teach one more than three at Yale or Columbia. And +what it teaches one will be real, vivid, practical, abiding... ingrained +in the very fiber of one's brain and thought.... He will read deeper +meaning thenceforward in every picture, every building, every book, +every newspaper.... If you want to know the origin of the art of +building, the art of painting, the art of sculpture, as you find them +to-day in contemporary America, you must look them up in the churches, +and the galleries of early Europe. If you want to know the origin of +American institutions, American law, American thought, and American +language, you must go to England; you must go farther still to France, +Italy, Hellas, and the Orient. Our whole life is bound up with Greece +and Rome, with Egypt and Assyria." But whatever advantage travel may +afford for broad and intense study, whatever be its superior processes +of refinement and learning, yet it is well to remember this, that at any +place and at any time one may open his eyes and his ears, his heart and +his reason, and find more than he is able to understand and a heart to +feel! You can not limit God to the land nor to the sea, to one country +nor to one hemisphere. Thus the kind of travel of which we speak is the +eye-open and ear-open sort. + +Let us note first, then, that travel is a study of history at the spot +where the event took place. The history of a nation is a record of its +great men. You tell a faithful story of Columbus, John Cabot, and Henry +Hudson; of Winthrop, John Smith, and Melendez; of General Wolfe, General +Washington, Patrick Henry, and Franklin; of Jefferson, Adams, Jackson, +and Webster; of Abraham Lincoln, Wendell Phillips, John Brown, and +General Grant; of John Sherman, Grover Cleveland, and William +McKinley, and you an up-to-date history of the young American Republic, +acknowledged by every country to have the greatest future of all +nations. So, if one reads with understanding the inscriptions on the +monuments of Gough, O'Connell, and Parnell, he will get the story of the +struggles of the Irish. Enter London Tower, "the most historical spot in +England," and recount the bloody tragedies of the English people since +the time of William the Conqueror, 1066 A.D. Here we have a "series of +equestrian figures in full equipment, as well as many figures on foot, +affording a faithful picture, in approximate chronological order, of +English war-array from the time of Edward I, 1272, down to that of James +II, 1688." In glass cases, and in forms of trophies on the walls, we +find arms and armor of the old Romans, of the early Greeks, and Britons, +and of the Anglo-Saxons. Maces and axes, long and cross bows and leaden +missile weapons and shields, highly adorned with metal figures, all tend +to make more vivid the word-pictures of the historian. Of the small +burial-ground in this Tower, Macaulay writes: "In truth there is +no sadder spot on earth than this little cemetery. Death is there +associated, not, as in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's, with genius and +virtue, with public veneration, and with imperishable renown; not, as +in our humblest churches and church-yards, with every thing that is most +endearing in social and domestic charities; but with whatever is +darkest in human nature and in human destiny, with the savage triumph of +implacable enemies, with the inconstancy, the ingratitude, the cowardice +of friends, with all the miseries of fallen greatness and of blighted +fame." We note a few names chiseled here: Sir Thomas More, beheaded +1535; Anne Boleyn, beheaded in this tower, 1536; Thomas Cromwell, +beheaded, 1540; Margaret Pole, beheaded here, 1541; Queen Catharine +Howard, beheaded, 1542; Lady Jane Grey and her husband, beheaded here, +1544; Sir Thomas Overbudy, poisoned in this tower, 1613. Since travel is +a study of history at the spot where the event took place, let us cross +the rough and famed English Channel to visit one of the many noted spots +of France. We select the site of the Hotel de Ville or the town-hall of +Paris. "The construction of the old hall was begun in 1533, and was over +seventy years in its completion. Additions were made, and the building +was reconstructed in 1841. This has been the usual rallying site of +the Democratic party for centuries. Here occurred the tragedy of St. +Bartholomew in 1572; here mob-posts, gallows, and guillotines did the +work of a despotic misrule until 1789. (As we left for Brussels on the +evening of the 13th of July, all Paris was gayly decorated with red, +white, and blue bunting, ready to celebrate the event of July 14, 1789, +the fall of the Bastile.) On this date, 110 years ago, the captors of +the Bastile marched into this noted hall. Three days later Louis XVI +came here in procession from Versailles, followed by a dense mob." Here +Robespierre attempted suicide to avoid arrest, when five battalions +under Barras forced entrance to assault the Commune party, of which +Robespierre was head. Here, in 1848, Louis Blanc proclaimed the +institution of the Republic of France. This was a central spot during +the revolution of 1871. The leaders of the Commune party place in this +building barrels of gunpowder, and heaps of combustibles steeped in +petroleum, and on May 25th they succeeded in destroying with it 600 +human lives. A new Hotel de Ville, one of the most magnificent buildings +in Europe, has replaced the old hall. This is open to visitors at all +hours. To study history at the spot where the event took place means +work as well as pleasure, so we took our luncheon and sleep in our car +while the train carried us to Brussels, and out to Braine-l'Alleud, +where, on the beautiful rolling plain of Belgium, June 18, 1805, +Napoleon Bonaparte met his Waterloo, and Wellington became England's +idol. + +A railway baggageman was on our train returning to his home in +Cleveland, Ohio. In conversation, he said: "I have been with this +company for twenty-two years; have drawn two dollars a day, 365 days in +the year for that time, and I haven't a dollar in the world, but one, +and I gave it yesterday for a dog. But," said he, "I have a good woman +and the greatest little girl in the world, so I am happy." This is one +of a large class of persons who receive fair wages all their lives, and +yet die paupers, because they plan to spend all they make as they go +along. In conversation with a gruff, old Dutch conductor between Albany +and New York City, I ventured to ask him if he had ever crossed the +ocean. "No," he said, "nopody eber crosses de ocean, bud emigrants, and +beoble vat hab more muney dan prains." + +Travel is a study of religious institutions. Among the most interesting +in Europe, that we visited, are Wesley's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, St. +Paul's Cathedral, and Notre Dame. The Church of Notre Dame, situated +in the heart of Paris on the bank of the Seine, was founded 1163 on the +site of a church of the fourth century. The building has been altered a +number of times. In 1793 it was converted into a temple of reason. +The statue of the Virgin Mary was replaced by one of Liberty. Busts of +Robespierre, Voltaire, and Rosseau were erected. This church was closed +to worship 1794, but was reopened by Napoleon 1802. It was desecrated by +the Communards 1811, when the building was used as a military depot. The +large nave, 417 feet long, 156 feet wide, and 110 feet high, is the +most interesting portion of this massive structure. The vaulting of this +great nave is supported by seventy-five huge pillars. The pulpit is a +masterpiece of modern wood-carving. The choir and sanctuary are set off +by costly railings, and are beautifully adorned by reliefs in wood and +stone. The organ, with 6,000 pipes, is one of the finest in Europe. "The +choir has a reputation for plain song." On a small elevation, in the +center of London, stand the Cathedral of St. Paul's, the most prominent +building in the city. From remains found here it is believed that a +Christian Church occupied this spot in the times of the Romans, and that +it was rebuilt by King Ethelbert, 610 A.D. Three hundred years later +this building was burned, but soon it was rebuilt. Again it was +destroyed by fire, 1087, and a new edifice begun which was 200 years in +completion. This church, old St. Paul's, was 590 feet long, and had +a leaden-covered, timber spire, 460 feet high. In 1445 this spire was +injured by lightning, and in 1561 the building was again burned. +Says Mr. Baedeker, whose guidebook is indispensable in the hands of a +traveler, "Near the cathedral stood the celebrated Cross of St. Paul, +where sermons were preached, papal bulls promulgated, heretics made to +recant, and witches to confess, and where the pope's condemnation of +Luther was proclaimed in the presence of Woolsey." Here is the burial +place of a long list of noted persons. Here occurred Wyckiff's citation +for heresy, 1337; and here Tyndale's New Testament was burned, 1527. It +was opened for divine services, 1697, and was completed after thirteen +years of steady work, at a cost of three and a half millions of dollars. +This sum was raised by a tax on coal. The church is in the form of a +Latin cross, 500 feet long, with the transept 250 feet in length. "The +inner dome is 225 feet high, the outer, from the pavement to the top of +the cross, is 364 feet. The dome is 102 feet in diameter, thirty-seven +feet less than St. Peter's. St. Paul's is the third largest church +in Christendom, being surpassed only by St. Peter's at Rome." Three +services are held here daily. The religion of Notre Dame is Roman +Catholic, but that of St. Paul's and Westminster is of the Church of +England. What shall we say of Westminster Abbey, the most impressive +place of all our travel! As my friend and I entered here and took +our seats for divine worship, preparatory to visiting her halls, and +chapels, and tombs, I think I was never more deeply impressed. I said to +myself, "What does God mean to allow me to worship here?" and I seemed +to realize how little my past life had been. I felt that circumstances +and not I myself had thrust this new privilege, and thereby new +responsibility, upon me. Westminster Abbey! A church for the living, +a burial-place for the honored dead; a monument to genius, labor, and +virtue; England's "temple of fame;" the most solemn spot in Europe, if +not in the world! Here lie authors, benefactors, and poets; statesmen, +heroes, and rulers, the best of English blood since Edward the +Confessor, 1049 A.D. We must now leave this sacred spot to visit, if +possible for us, a more sacred one, the birthplace of Methodism, or +more accurately speaking, in the words of Bishop Warren, the "cradle of +Methodism." + +On City Road, London, near Liverpool Street Station, is located the +house, chapel, burial-grounds, and tomb of John Wesley. Across the +street, in an old Nonconformist cemetery, are the graves of James Watt, +Daniel Defoe, and John Bunyan. Across the narrow street to the north +is the tabernacle of Whitefield. We learned that Friday, July 7th, was +reopening day for Wesley's Chapel. What a distinguished body of persons +we found at this meeting! Dr. Joseph Parker was the speaker of the day. +The Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, president of the Conference, presided at the +memorial services. Rev. Westerdale, present pastor, successfully managed +the program of the day, especially the collections, for he met the +expense of the rebuilding and past indebtedness with the sum of over +fifteen thousand dollars. He told those discouraged ministers with big +audiences to go and take courage from what the mother-church, with her +small number of poor parishioners, had done. In the evening, Bishop +Warren, on his return to America, called in and gave an interesting +talk. He was followed by Fletcher Moulton, member of Parliament. You +may not realize the feeling of gratitude with which we took part in this +eventful service of praise, prayer, and rededication! On the next day we +returned to see the books, furniture, and apartments of Wesley, himself. +We sat at his writing desk, stood in his death-chamber, and lingered +in the little room where he used to retire at four in the morning for +secret prayer. From here he would go directly to his preaching service +at five. Wesley put God first in his life, this is why men honor him so +much now that he is gone. We took a farewell view of the audience-room +from the very pulpit into which Wesley ascended to preach his Good News +of Christ. From the several inscriptions on Wesley's tomb, we copied +the following one: "After having languished a few days, he at length +finished his course and life together. Gloriously triumphing over death, +March the 2nd, Anno Domine, 1791, in the eighty-eight year of his age." + +In Liverpool, on the day of our arrival, July 1st, an old, gray-haired +man was shining my shoes. He observed that I was from across the water, +and that an Englishman can readily tell a Yankee. He began to praise +America. He said that Uncle Sam was only a child yet, that America was +destined to be the greatest country in the world; that her trouble with +Spain was only a bickering; that the present engagement was only his +maiden warfare, and that he "walked along like a streak of lightning." + +Saturday evening, July 8th, witnessed the greatest military parade +in London for thirty years. The Prince of Wales reviewed twenty-seven +thousand London volunteers. Early in the morning citizens from all over +England began to gather in front of the English barracks, and at the +east end of Hyde Park. By two o'clock in the afternoon hundreds of +thousands had packed the streets and dotted the parks and lawns, until, +in every direction one could witness a sea of faces. After the royal +and military procession began, the patient Johnnies, with their sisters, +sweethearts, wives, mothers, grandmothers, and great-grand-mothers, +stood for five hours to see it go by. The Englishman does not tire when +he is honoring his country. At the close of this parade we dropped into +a barbershop for a shave. The gentleman seemed to understand that I was +a long ways from home. "You fellows," I said, "can tell us as far as you +can see us." "Yes," said he, "by your shoes, your hat, your coat, your +tongue, and even by your face. We can tell you by the way you spit. A +spittoon here, pointing about ten feet away, give a Yankee two trials, +he will hit it every time." + +Travel is a study of the genius of man as shown in architecture, in +sculpture, and in painting. Ninety-seven plans were submitted for the +Houses of Parliament, including Westminster Hall. That of Sir Charles +Barry was selected, and the present imposing structure was built, +covering eight acres, at a cost of $15,000,000. The style is +perpendicular (Gothic), with carvings, intricate in detail and highly +picturesque. The building faces the river with a 940 feet front, but her +three magnificent square-shaped towers rise over her street front. The +clock tower at the northwest corner is 318 feet high, the middle tower +is 300 feet, and the southwest, or Victorian tower, is 340 feet high. +The large clock with its four dials, each twenty-three feet in diameter, +requires five hours for winding the striking parts. The striking bell +of the clock tower is one of the largest known; it weighs thirteen tons, +and can be heard, in favorable weather, over the greater portion +of London. One never tires in looking at this noble building. It is +appropriately adorned inside and out with elaborate carvings, statuary, +and paintings. Here are located the Chamber of Peers, the House of +Commons, and numerous royal apartments, lavishly fitted up to be in +keeping with the office and dignity of the building. + +Crystal Palace, situated about eight miles southeast of St. Paul's, +consists entirely of glass and iron. Its main hall, or nave, is 1,608 +feet long, with great cross sections, two aisles, and numerous lateral +sections. The two water towers at the ends are each 282 feet high. If +you were at the World's Fair in Chicago, and visited the Transportation +Building, you may imagine something of the magnitude and beauty of +Crystal Palace, with her orchestra, concert hall, and opera-house; with +her fountains, library, and school of art; with her museums, gardens, +and arenas; with her parks, panoramas, and her numerous exhibits of +nature and art. Near the center of the palace "is the great Handel +Orchestra, which can accommodate 4,000 persons, and has a diameter twice +as great as the dome of St. Paul's. In the middle is the powerful organ +with 4,384 pipes, built at a cost of $30,000, and worked by hydraulic +machinery. An excellent orchestra plays here daily." The concert-hall +on the south side of the stage can accommodate an audience of 4,000. An +excellent orchestra plays here daily. "On each side of the great nave +are rows of courts, containing in chronological order, copies of the +architecture and sculpture of the most highly civilized nations, from +the earliest period to the present day." The gardens of Crystal Palace +cover two hundred acres, and are beautifully laid out "with flowerbeds, +shrubberies, fountains, cascades, and statuary." "Two of the fountain +basins have been converted into sport arenas, each about eight and +one-half acres in extent." Nine other fountains, with electric light +illuminations, play on fireworks nights and on other special occasions. +It is common for 15,000 visitors to attend these Thursday night firework +exhibits. Colored electric light jets deck the fountains, flower-beds, +and halls. Crystal Palace was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, and cost +seven and a half million of dollars. Well may it be called London's +Paradise. + +Shall we say that the greatest piece of constructive architecture of any +country is that of Eiffel Tower! Situated on the left bank of the Seine +River, it overlooks Paris and the country for fifty miles around. + +In its construction, iron caissons were sunk to a depth of forty-six +feet on the river side, and twenty-nine and one-half on the other side. +When the water was forced out of these caissons by means of compressed +air, "concrete was poured in to form a bed for four massive foundation +piers of masonry, eighty-five feet thick, arranged in a square of 112 +yards. Upon this base which covers about two and a half acres rises +the extraordinary, yet graceful structure of interlaced ironwork" to a +height of 984 feet. Eight hundred persons may be accommodated on the top +platform at once. It was completed within two years' time, and is the +highest monument in the world. Washington monument ranks second, being +555 feet high. From the summit of Eiffel Tower one may secure a good +view of Paris, her public buildings, chief hills, parks, and boulevards, +monuments, and embankments. An imitation of Trajan's column in Rome, is +142 feet in height, and thirteen feet in diameter. It is constructed of +masonry, encrusted with plates of bronze, forming a spiral band nearly +300 yards in length, on which are represented the "battle scenes +of Napoleon during his campaign of 1805, and down to the battle of +Austerlitz. The figures are three feet in height and many of them are +portraits. The metal was obtained by melting down 1,200 Russian and +Austrian cannons. At the top is a statue of Napoleon in his Imperial +robes. This column reflects the political history of France." The design +sculptor is Bergeret. For their antiquity the mummies and statues in +the Egyptian galleries of the British Museum are very interesting. They +embrace the period from 3600 years before Christ to 350 A.D. "The tomb +of Napoleon by Visconte," and "the twelve colossal victories surrounding +the sarcophagus by Pradier," are among the finest works of Parisian +sculpture. The sarcophagus, thirteen feet long, six and one-half feet +high, consists of a single huge block of reddish-brown granite, weighing +upwards of sixty-seven tons, brought as a gift from Finland at a cost of +$700,000. The Louvre, Paris, contains one of the finest art galleries in +Europe, and with the Tuilleries, covers about eight acres, "forming one +of the most magnificent places in the world." + +In our limited experience at travel we have yet to find a single object +of beauty or utility that is not the product of skill, of genius, of +great labor. Every monument bears testimony of struggle, of bloodshed, +of hard-earned victory; beneath every tomb that honor has erected rests +the body of incarnate intelligence, fidelity, and courage. In the shadow +of every great cathedral lies collected the moth and rust from the +coppers of myriad-handed toilers of five and ten centuries. The towers +and domes of London, and Paris, and Amsterdam, and Dublin are monuments +to the genius of the architect and to the faithfulness of the common +toiler. The parks and gardens tell of centuries of wise and faithful +application of the laws of growth, of symmetry, of design in form and +color. The historic chapels of worship and learning breathe the very +incense of devotion and reverence for truth; while the conservatories +of sculpture and painting preserve what is divinest in human experience. +Age alone can produce a great man or a great nation. Decades for the man +and centuries for the nation; these are the measuring periods for real +achievement. But all this is on the human side. Correggio and Titian in +painting; Bacon and Bailey in sculpture; Raphael and Michael Angelo in +sculpture and painting; and Sir Christopher Wren in architecture,--the +works of art of such as these elevate and purify one's thought and +feeling. But the profoundest impressions that come to one from travel, +come alone from the works of nature. The Crystal Palace in London can +not compare in glory with the crystal ripples of a mid-ocean scene. The +botannical gardens of the Tuilleries in Paris do not stir the soul as +does the splendor of the Welsh mountains. The rockery plants of Phoenix +Park, Dublin, are insignificant compared with growths of ferns and moss +On the rock ledges of Bray's Head, south of Dublin. No panorama that man +has painted can equal the scene of Waterloo battle-field, observed from +the earthen mound near the fatal ravine. So, we shall always find it +true, that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so the thoughts of +God are higher than the thoughts of man, and his ways than man's ways. + + + + +X. HOME AND THE HOME-MAKER. + +WHAT IS HOME? + + +"RECENTLY a London magazine sent out 1,000 inquiries on the question, +'What is home?' In selecting the classes to respond to the question it +was particular to see that every one was represented. The poorest and +the richest were given an equal opportunity to express their sentiment. +Out of eight hundred replies received, seven gems were selected as +follows: + + "Home--A world of strife shut out, a world of love shut in. + "Home--The place where the small are great and the great are + small. + "Home--The father's kingdom, the mother's world, and the + child's paradise. + "Home--The place where we grumble the most and are treated + the best. + "Home--The center of our affection, round which our heart's + best wishes twine. + "Home--The place where our stomachs get three square meals + daily and our hearts a thousand. + "Home--The only place on earth where the faults and failings + of humanity are hidden under the sweet mantle of charity." + +Dr. Talmage defines home, as "a church within a church, a republic +within a republic, a world within a world." Dr. Banks writes, "It is not +granite walls, or gaudy furniture, or splendid books, or soft carpets, +or delicious viands that can make a home. All of these may be present, +and yet it be only a dungeon, if the great simplicities are not there." +Sings one: + + "Home's not merely roof and room, + Needs it something to endear it. + Home is where the heart can bloom, + Where there's some kind heart to cheer it. + + Home's not merely four square walls, + Though with pictures hung and gilded, + Home is where affection calls, + Filled with charms the heart hath builded. + + Home! Go watch the faithful dove + Sailing 'neath the heavens above us, + Home is where there's one to love, + Home is where there's one to love us." + +We believe the five sweetest words in the English language to the +largest number of persons--words which carry with them intrinsic meaning +and blessing are these: "Jesus," "Mother," "Music," "Heaven," "Home." +"Twenty thousand people gathered in the old Castle Garden, New York, to +hear Jennie Lind sing. After singing some of the old masters, she began +to pour forth 'Home, Sweet Home.' The audience could not stand it. An +uproar of applause stopped the music. Tears gushed from thousands like +rain. The word 'home' touched the fiber of every soul in that immense +throng." In an early spring day, when the warm sun began to invite one +to bask in his rays, my wife, delicate in health, lay drowsing on some +boards near the house. The large garden spot spread out to the rear of +her; a beautiful grassy lawn carpeted round a deserted house, granary, +and shop-building in front of her. She was living over her girlhood +days. She thought she was in the old home orchard, where she used to +doze, dream, and play. The songs of the birds seemed the same; the same +gentle breezes played with her hair; the same passers-by jogged along +the roadside; the same family horse nibbled the tender grass in the +barnyard. How sad, and yet how sweet are the memories of early days! The +tender associations of home never leave one, however roughly the coarse +hand of time would tear them away. It is because home means love that +its associations and lessons remain. + + +ESSENTIALS TO A HAPPY HOME. + +Although home means love, yet love alone may not insure happiness. In +addition to love, without which a true home can not exist, we select +four essential requisites to make home life useful and happy. These are +intelligence, unselfishness, attractiveness, and religion. + +First, Intelligence. Much of the misery of the world in individual and +family life is due to gross ignorance. Once the father of a family said +to me, "We did not get our mail to-day, I miss my reading." Knowing the +man we were surprised at such a remark, and ventured to ask him what +papers he took. A list of ten or a dozen papers was named. All of them +were newspapers. One was a general daily, two were local dailies, and +the rest were local weekly papers. No intelligent person would have +carried over three of those papers from the post-office. This man spent +hours upon a class of reading that should be finished with a few minutes +each day. In this same family the mother told me that she had never +rode on a railway train, and that she had never been outside of her +own county. This is an exceptional case, but it illustrates how that +ignorance makes thrift and happiness impossible in a home, neither +of which belong to this family. Here every law of health is violated, +foresight in providing for the physical comforts of the home is +wanting; little attention is given to the education of the children; +no sacrifices to-day enrich to-morrow; life is a humdrum, a routine, a +dread, with no exuberance, joy, or hope. In time, such a life leads +to failure and gloom, to secret, then to open vice, and to a final +shipwreck of the home and of the individual. In a similar yet in a less +marked way, the career of many a home is ended. No one may be directly +to blame, but want of common knowledge and common wit have set a limit +beyond which such a family may not go. The intelligent family has some +sort of a history which it is their privilege and duty to perpetuate. +Members of the intelligent family are moral sponsors for one another, +the mother for the daughters, the father for the sons, the brothers +and sisters for one another. They find their own best interests in the +interests of one another. The intelligent family is not superstitious. +They act upon the wisdom of the ancient poet, "every one is the +architect of his own fortune." They look to cause and condition for +results. They spell "luck" with a "p" before it. The intelligent farmer +plants his crop in the ground, rather than in the moon, and looks for +his harvest to the seed and the toil. The intelligent merchant locates +his business on the street of largest travel and makes the buying of his +goods his best salesman. The intelligent man of letters thrives at first +by making friends of poverty and want, until one day his genius places +his name in the temple of honor. So it is with the artist, the musician, +the inventor, the architect. To be happy and useful in one's lot, one +must know something of the sphere in which he lives and works, of its +practical wisdom, and must be prepared to live, or glad to die for the +cause he serves. No indolent, superstitious, or ignorant family need +look for abiding happiness nor expect to be permanently useful. + +Then unselfishness is essential to happy home life. It is a serious +matter for two persons, even when they are naturally mated, to undertake +to live together in peace and harmony. It is a more serious matter when +they are not naturally mated. It is more serious still when children +enter the home, for they bring with them conflicting tendencies, +dispositions, and wills. Often have we wondered how it is that families +get on as well together as they do when we have considered, what natural +differences exist between them, and what little teaching and discipline +have been used to harmonize these differences. An harmonious home is +truly begun in the parental homes of the husband and wife. Two persons +may be perfectly suited to one another, and yet they may be selfish in +wanting their own way. As one grows up, if he is allowed to have his +own way regardless of the rights and privileges of others, he becomes +a selfish person, and his parents are to blame. A selfish person in the +home plans for his own comfort, decides and acts as he wishes, and seeks +to satisfy his own desires. He does not take into consideration the +plans, wishes, and desires of other members of the family. It is +understood that his authority is supreme. Not one member of the family +dreams of expressing dissent to his dominion. A so-called peace of +this sort is not uncommon among families. This supreme authority may be +vested in husband, or wife, or in one or all of the children. A forced +peace of this kind is worse than rebellion and is as bad as open war. +How can any persons be so presumptuous as to think that any person, or +a number of persons, exist solely for his comfort and advantage! Let +two such selfish persons get together, a permanent riot is assured. +Unselfishness in the home means thoughtfulness, discipline, +self-control. Each child is taught the rights and privileges of others +as well as his own. When two unselfish persons join their lives there +begins a holy and beautiful rivalry in seeking the rights and privileges +of one another. The very atmosphere of such a home is deference, +respect, and love. As the stranger, the neighbor, the friend, comes and +goes, he catches the spirit of it and carries it with him into his own +and other homes. Children born into such a home early imbibe its spirit, +and, O, the inspiration one receives from going into that family circle! +No home-life can be an inspiration and a blessing where selfishness is +allowed to reign. Nor can it be useful and happy. + +Ella Wheeler Wilcox describes a selfish, though a kind and loving +husband: + + +THEIR HOLIDAY. + + THE WIFE: + + Our house is like a garden-- + The children are the flowers, + The gardener should come, methinks, + And walk among his bowers. + So lock the door of worry, + And shut your cares away, + Not time of year, but love and cheer, + Will make a holiday. + + THE HUSBAND: + + Impossible! You women do not know, + The toil it takes to make a business grow: + I can not join you until very late, + So hurry home, nor let the dinner wait. + + THE WIFE: + + The feast will be like Hamlet, + Without the Hamlet part; + The home is but a house, dear, + Till you supply the heart. + The Christmas gift I long for + You need not toil to buy; + O, give me back one thing I lack: + The love-light in your eye. + + THE HUSBAND: + + Of course I love you, and the children, too. + Be sensible, my dear. It is for you + I work so had to make my business pay; + There, now, run home, enjoy your holiday. + + THE WIFE, TURNING AWAY: + + He does not mean to wound me, + I know his heart is kind, + Alas, that men can love us, + And be so blind--so blind! + A little time for pleasure, + A little time for play, + A word to prove the life of love + And frighten care away-- + Though poor my lot, in some small cot, + That were a holiday. + + +To preserve the family circle, the home must be made attractive. +No amount of practical wisdom, of Puritanic piety, nor mere kindly +treatment will hold a family of children together until they are strong +enough to resist the temptations of the world. The home must be made +more attractive than the street or places of amusement. The average boy +or girl who loses interest in home and uses it chiefly as an eating and +sleeping place, does so with good reasons. Home has lost its charm. No +provision is made for his pastime and pleasure. Not finding this at home +he will go elsewhere in search of it. "An unattractive home," says one, +"is like the frame of a harp that stands without strings. In form and +outline, it suggests music, but no melody arises from the empty spaces; +and thus it is an unattractive home, is dreary and dull." How may home +be made attractive? We have presupposed a certain amount of education +and culture in the home by maintaining for it intelligence and +unselfishness. Any home that is intelligent and unselfish is capable +of being made attractive. In the first place, in as far as it is +practicable, each member of the family should have a room of his own +and be taught how to make it attractive. Here, one will hang his first +pictures, start his own library, provide a writing desk, and learn to +spend his spare moments. Recently we visited a home in Chicago. The +rooms are few in number and hired. The family consists of father, +mother, and three children, now grown. During our short stay in the home +I was invited into the boys' room. The walls are literally covered with +original pencil designs, queer calendars, odd pictures; the dresser +and stand are lined with books and magazines, with worn-out musical +instruments, art gifts from other members of the family, and ball-team +pictures, while two lines of gorgeous decorations stretch from wall to +wall. This is still these young men's little world, their interests +have centered here. No less than five kinds of musical instruments were +visible in this home. The walls of the living room and parlor are made +beautiful with simple tasteful pictures made by the daughter, whose +natural gift in art was early cultivated. The table, shelves, and +mantelpiece are decorated with china bowls, plates, and vases, simply, +yet elegantly adorned. This work was done by the daughter and mother. +Not a large but a choice collection of flowering plants relieved the bay +window of its emptiness. This is an attractive home. The children +never have cared to spend their evenings on the street nor at places of +amusement. Games of skill, innocent, instructive, and entertaining, may +be used to make home life more attractive. Only let the amusements of +the home be under the direction of father and mother, and be practiced +by them. Here is a chance to teach shrewdness, honor, interest, and by +all means, moderation. To overdo at games and amusements is more harmful +than to overwork. + +Religion is essential to happy home life. A family may get on for a time +very smoothly without prayer, Bible study, faith in God, and love for +Jesus Christ; but no family life is completed without a storm, many +storms of some sort. Years may pass as on a quiet sea, but one day at +high noon, or, perhaps, in the silent, early hour, a small cloud is seen +in the distance; it comes nearer; the wind begins to blow, the thunders +peal, the lightnings flash, the old home, for so long an ark of safety, +is being tossed on the billowy waves. A testing time is at hand. +Mother is gone, or father has ventured too far and lost all; or son has +disgraced the family name; or daughter is in shame; or the darling of +the home is no more! It makes a vast difference who is at the helm when +the storms of home life rage. It is a mark of highest wisdom to place +the family ship under the world's best Captain, Jesus Christ. He never +lost a life. He alone can arrest the lightning, quiet the waves, inspire +confidence, and restore peace and good will in any storm. But +religion is not only useful in trouble, it is an ornament in peace and +prosperity, in the making and building of the home. Tempers must be +controlled, dispositions cultivated, conduct improved, hearts softened, +and minds purified and disciplined. To accomplish all of this, no +substitute can be made for the spirit and faith of Jesus Christ. + +"'Dear Moss,' said the thatch on an old ruin, 'I am so worn, so patched, +so ragged, really I am quite unsightly. I wish you would come and cheer +me up a little. You will hide all my infirmities and defects; and, +through your loving sympathy no finger of contempt or dislike will be +pointed at me.' 'I come,' said the moss; and it crept up and around, +and in and out, till every flaw was hidden, and all was smooth and fair. +Presently the sun shone out, and the old thatch looked bright and fair, +a picture of rare beauty, in the golden rays. 'How beautiful the thatch +looks!' cried one who saw it. 'How beautiful the thatch looks!' said +another. 'Ah!' said the old thatch, 'rather let them say, 'How beautiful +is the loving moss!'" So it is with the religion of Christ, it adorns +and beautifies the life who really wears it; so that the plainness of +that life is covered, its ruggedness softened, and its "pain transformed +into profit and its loss into gain." + +Charles M. Sheldon gives as an essential for a permanent republic, +"A true home life where father, mother, and children spend much time +together; where family worship is preserved; where honesty, purity, and +mutual affection are developed." + +J.R. Miller beautifully sums up the secret of happy home-making in +one word--"'Christ.' Christ at the marriage altar; Christ on the bridal +journey; Christ when the new home is set up; Christ when the baby is +born; Christ when the baby dies; Christ in the pinching times; Christ +in the days of plenty; Christ in the nursery, in the kitchen, in the +parlor; Christ in the toil and in the rest; Christ all along the years; +Christ when the wedded pair walk toward the sunset gates; Christ in the +sad hour when the farewells are spoken, and one goes on before and the +other stays, bearing the unshared grief. Christ is the secret of happy +home life." + + +THE HOME-MAKER. + +Just as a surly husband, a dissipated father, or a reckless son may +blight a home and destroy its happiness, so may a thoughtful, virtuous, +and kind man in the home change its very atmosphere and help to make +it a heaven. As a home-maker man has the ruggeder part. It is his to +provide. The man who falls short of this in the home does not do his +part. No woman can respect a man much less love him, who places her, her +work, her life, her home, her world under constant embarrassment by a +scant and niggardly provision. She loses her ambition, ceases to make +her self and her home attractive; disorder, filth, unwholesome food, +lack of spirit on her part is the result. She can not be to him, most of +all, what he expects her to be, a companion, a counselor, a comfort--a +home-maker. Also, it is the part of the man in the home to shield the +woman from the heavier burdens and responsibilities. Let him count the +cost of his enterprises, secure himself against hazardous speculations, +and give his wife and children to realize that his shoulders, and +not theirs, are to bear the load of financial obligation and +material support. This leaves the woman with her finer instincts and +sensibilities to make the home the dearest spot on earth to husband, +children, and to all who cross her threshold. The house is her dominion. +There she is queen. What a tender and beautiful one she may become! + + +SOME PRACTICAL HINTS. + +The true home-maker does not spend all of her time with her ducks, +chickens, pigs, and cows, nor yet with her neighbors, her club, nor her +Church. She finds some time to cultivate her intellectual nature and +the finer feelings of her children. She does not degenerate into a +mere household drudge. She is not the slave of her husband, but his +companion. If she has musical ability, she keeps up the practice of +her music; if she is inclined to literature, she reads some every day. +Whether literary or not, every woman should spend some time each day in +reading that she might keep abreast with the world, at least with her +companion, in the movements and thoughts of every-day life. The true +home-maker plans to have a few minutes each day which she calls her own, +in which she may do as she pleases regardless of call or duty, that she +might relax herself, remove the strain of intense effort, rest, give her +nature its free bent and inclination. It will pay her in every way. She +will accomplish more and better work in the busy hours. A spirit and +a force will characterize every effort. The women of to-day are +overworked. They can not do themselves, their families, not their homes +the true spiritual service that it is their part to do. Plan for a few +minutes rest with the daily routine of care. But how is one to do +this with so many demands made upon her? For she is expected to be +seamstress, laundress, maid, cook, hostess, a companion to her husband, +a trainer of her children, a social being, and a helper in the Church. +If it is impossible or impracticable for one to have a servant, she will +find these few minutes for daily recreation and study only in a wise +choice of more important duties, and will allow the less important ones +to go undone. Many housewives could well afford to keep a helper. It +becomes a question which is of greater importance, the life and health +of the wife and mother, or the paltry wages of a servant? We knew a +family in Illinois who were quite able to keep help in the home, but did +not do so. The mother made a slave of herself, in a few years broke in +health, and left a large family of small children to struggle alone in +the world. The stepmother, who soon came into the home, could afford one +servant girl and part of the time two. This is a common experience +in ill-managed homes. Or this question arises, Which is of greater +importance, to make more money or to improve the moral tone of the home; +to seek to gratify the outer senses, or to seek to elevate the spiritual +life of the children and the parents? In pleading for rest and study for +the mother in the home we plead for the highest interests of the entire +family. For how can a wife be a companion to a husband when she is made +irritable and nervous from overwork and worry. How can she be a true +mother to her children and neglect their mental and spiritual growth? + +Napoleon once said: "What France wants is good mothers, and you may be +sure then that France will have good sons." Thomas McCrie, an eminent +Scotch preacher, used to tell, with great feeling, of how his mother, +when he was starting out for school in the city, accompanied him along +the road a little way, and then leading him into the field where she +could be alone, prayed with him, that he might be kept from sin in the +city, and become a very useful man. That moment was the turning point +in his life. A few minutes a day spent with the eager, susceptible child +mind, will bring everlasting blessing upon the father and mother. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Questionable Amusements and Worthy +Substitutes, by J. M. 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The manuscript of +This book was not submitted to any publisher, but was put in its +present form by JENNINGS & PYE, for a friend of the author. +Address. Chicago: Western Methodist Book Concern, 1904. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + +BY GEORGE H. TREVER, PH.D., D.D. +Author of Comparative Theology, etc. + + +A BOOK on "Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes" +is timely to-day. Such a grouping of subject matter is in itself a +commendation. Possibly we have been saying "Don't" quite enough +without offering the positive substitute. The "expulsive power of a +new affection" is, after all, the mightiest agency in reform. "Thou +shalt not" is quite easy to say; but though the house be emptied, swept, +and garnished, unless pure angels hasten to occupy the vacated +chambers, other spirits worse than the first will soon rush in to befoul +them again. + +The author of these papers, the Rev. J.M. Judy, writes out of a full, +warm heart. We know him to be a correct, able preacher of the gospel, +and an efficient fisher of men. Having thoroughly prepared himself +for his work by courses in Northwestern University and Garrett Biblical +Institute, by travel in the South and West of our own country, and by a +visitation of the Old World, he has served on the rugged frontier of his +Conference, and among foreign populations grappling successfully with +some of the most difficult problems in modern Church work. + +The following articles aroused much interest when delivered to his own +people, and must do good wherever read. In style they are clear and +vivid; in logical arrangement excellent; glow with sacred fervor, and +pulse with honest, eager conviction. We bespeak for them a wide +reading, and would especially commend them to the young people of +our Epworth Leagues. + +WHITEWATER, WIS., March 2, 1904. + + +PREFACE. + +"QUESTIONABLE Amusements and Worthy Substitutes" is a +consideration of the "so-called questionable amusements," and an +outlook for those forms of social, domestic, and personal practices +which charm the life, secure the present, and build for the future. To +take away the bad is good; to give the good is better; but to take away +the bad and to give the good in its stead is best of all. This we have +tried to do, not in our own strength, but with the conscious presence +of the Spirit of God. + +The spiritual indifference of Christendom to-day as one meets with it +in all forms of Christian work has led us to send out this message. +"Questionable Amusements," form both a cause and a result of this +widespread indifference. An underlying cause of this indifference +among those who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, is lack of +conviction for sin, want of positive faith in the fundamental truths of +the Scriptures, too little and superficial prayer, and lack of personal, +soul-saving work. Is the class-meeting becoming extinct? Is the +prayer-meeting lifeless? Is the revival spirit decaying? Is family +worship formal, or has it ceased? However some may answer these +questions, still we believe that the Church has a warm heart, and that +signs of her vigorous life are expressed in her tenacious hold for high +moral standards, and in her generous GIVING of money and of men. + +Our point of view has been that of the person, old or young, regardless +of sect, race, party, occupation, or circumstances, who has a life to live, +and who wants to make the most out of it for himself and for his fellow- +men, and who believes that he will find this life disclosed in nature, in +history, and in the Word of God. J.M.J. + +ORFORDVILLE, WIS., March, 1904. + + +CONTENTS + +PART I. +QUESTIONABLE AMUSEMENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE +I. TOBACCO,.................13 +II. DRUNKENNESS,................26 +III. GAMBLING, CARDS,...............53 +IV. DANCING,...................70 +V. THEATER-GOING,..............84 + +PART II +WORTHY SUBSTITUTES + +VI. BOOKS AND READING,.............99 +VII. SOCIAL RECREATION,............118 +VIII. FRIENDSHIP,.................130 +IX. TRAVEL,...................147 +X. HOME AND THE HOME-MAKER,.........170 + + + +PART I. +QUESTIONABLE AMUSEMENTS. + +"The excesses of our youth are drafts on our old age, payable about +one hundred years after date without interest."--JOHN RUSKIN. + + +I. +TOBACCO. + +Tobacco wastes the body. It is used for the nicotine that is in it. +This peculiar ingredient is a poisonous, oily, colorless liquid, and +gives to tobacco its odor. This odor and the flavor of tobacco are +developed by fermentation in the process of preparation for use. +"Poison" is commonly defined as "any substance that when taken +into the system acts in an injurious manner, tending to cause death +or serious detriment to health." And different poisons are defined +as those which act differently upon the human organism. For example, +one class, such as nicotine in tobacco, is defined as that which acts as +a stimulant or an irritant; while another class, such as opium, acts with +a quieting, soothing influence. But the fact is that poison does not act +at all upon the human system, but the human system acts upon the +poison. In one class of poisons, such as opium, the reason why the +system does not arouse itself and try to cast off the poison, is that the +nerves become paralyzed so that it can not. And in the case of nicotine +in tobacco the nerves are not thus paralyzed, so that they try in every +way to cast off the poison. Let the human body represent the house, +and the sensitive nerves and the delicate blood vessels the sleeping +inmates of that house. Let the Foe Opium come to invade that house +and to destroy the inmates, for every poison is a deadly Foe. At the +first appearance of this subtle Foe terror is struck into the heart of the +inmates, so that they fall back helpless, paralyzed with fear. When +the Intruder Tobacco comes, he comes boisterously, rattling the +windows and jostling the furniture, so that the inmates of the house +set up a life-and-death conflict against him. + +This is just what happens when tobacco is taken into the human system. +Every nerve cries out against it, and every effort is made to resist it. +You ask, Will one's body be healthier and live longer without tobacco +than with it? We answer, by asking, Will one's home be happier and +more prosperous without some deadly Foe continually invading it, or +with such a Foe? When the membranes and tissues of the body, with +their host of nerves and blood vessels, have to be fighting against some +deadly poison in connection with their ordinary work, will they not +wear out sooner than if they could be left to do their ordinary work +quietly? To illustrate: A particle of tobacco dust no sooner comes +into contact with the lining membrane of the nose, than violent +sneezing is produced. This is the effort of the besieged nerves and +blood vessels to protect themselves. A bit of tobacco taken into the +mouth causes salivation because the salivary glands recognize the +enemy and yield an increased flow of their precious fluid to wash him +away. Taken into the stomach unaccustomed to its presence, and it +produces violent vomiting. The whole lining membrane of that much- +abused organ rebels against such an Intruder, and tries to eject him. +Tobacco dust and smoke taken into the lungs at once excretes a mucous- +like fluid in the mouth, throat, windpipe, bronchial tubes, and in the +lungs themselves. Excretions such as this mean a violent wasting away +of vitality and power. Taken in large quantities into the stomach, +tobacco not only causes an excretion of mucus from the mouth, throat, +and breathing organs, but it produces an overtaxing of the liver; that is, +this organ overworks in order to counteract the presence of the poison. +But one asks, If tobacco is so injurious, why is it used with such +apparent pleasure? A small quantity of tobacco received into the +system by smoking, chewing, or snuffing is carried through the +circulation to the skin, lungs, liver, kidneys, and to all the organs of +the body, by which it is moderately resisted. The result is a gentle +excitement of all these organs. They are in a state of morbid activity. +And as sensibility depends upon vital action of the bodily organisms, +there is necessarily produced a degree of sense gratification or pleasure. +The reason why these sensations are pleasurable instead of painful is, +in this state of moderate excitement the circulation is materially increased +without being materially unbalanced. But as with every sense indulgence, +when the craving for increased doses becomes satisfied, when larger doses +are taken the circulation becomes unbalanced, vital resistance centers in +one point, congestion occurs, then the sensation becomes one of pain +instead of one of pleasure. This disturbance or excitement caused by +tobacco is nothing more nor less than disease. For it is abnormal action, +and abnormal action is fever, and fever is disease. It is state on good +authority, "that no one who smokes tobacco before the bodily powers +are developed ever makes a strong, vigorous man." Dr. H. Gibbons +says: "Tobacco impairs digestion, poisons the blood, depresses the +vital powers, causes the limbs to tremble, and weakens and otherwise +disorders the heart." It is conceded by the medical profession that +tobacco causes cancer of the tongue and lips, dimness of vision, +deafness, dyspepsia, bronchitis, consumption, heart palpitation, spinal +weakness, chronic tonsilitis, paralysis, impotency, apoplexy, and +insanity. It is held by some men that tobacco aids digestion. Dr. +McAllister, of Utica, New York, says that it "weakens the organs of +Digestion and assimilation, and at length plunges one into all the +horrors of dyspepsia." + +*Tobacco dulls the mind.* It does this not only by wasting the body, the +physical basis of the mind, but it does it through habits of intellectual +idleness, which the user of tobacco naturally forms. Whoever heard of +a first-class loafer who did not e-a-t the weed or burn it, or both? On +the rail train recently we were compelled to ride for an hour in the +smoking-car, which Dr. Talmage has called "the nastiest place in +Christendom." In front of me sat a young man, drawing and puffing +away at a cigar, polluting the entire region about him. In the short +hour enough time was lost by that young man to have carefully read ten +pages of the best standard literature. All this we observed by an +occasional glance from the delightful volume in our own hands. The +ordinary user of tobacco has little taste for reading, little passion for +knowledge, and superficial habits of continued reasoning. His leisure +moments are absorbed in the sense-gratification of the weed. But if as +much attention had been given in acquiring the habit of reading as had +been given in learning the use of tobacco, the most valuable of all +habits would take the place of one of the most useless of all habits. +When we see a person trying to read with a cigar or a pipe in his mouth, +Knowing that nine-tenths of his real consciousness is given to his +smoking, and one-tenth to what he is reading, we are reminded of the +commercial traveler who "wanted to make the show of a library at +home, so he wrote to a book merchant in London, saying: "Send me +six feet of theology, and about as much metaphysics, and near a yard +of civil law in old folio." Not a sentimentalist, a reformer, nor a crank, +but Dr. James Copeland says: "Tobacco weakens the nervous powers, +favors a dreamy, imaginative, and imbecile state of mind, produces +indolence and incapacity for manly or continuous exertion, and sinks +its votary into a state of careless inactivity and selfish enjoyment of vice." +Professor L. H. Gause writes: "The intellect becomes duller and duller, +until at last it is painful to make any intellectual effort, and we sink into +a sensuous or sensual animal. Any one who would retain a clear mind, +sound lungs, undisturbed heart, or healthy stomach, must not smoke or +chew the poisonous plant." It is commonly known that in a number of +American and foreign colleges, by actual testing, the non-user of +tobacco is superior in mental vigor and scholarship to the user of it. In +view of this fact, our Government will not allow the use of tobacco at +West Point or at Annapolis. And in the examinations in the naval +academy a large percentage of those who fail to pass, fail because of the +evil effects of smoking. + +Tobacco drains the pocketbook. "Will you please look through my +mouth and nose?" asked a young man once of a New York physician. +The man of medicine did so, and reported nothing there. "Strange! Look +again. Why, sir, I have blown ten thousand dollars--a great tobacco +plantation and a score of slaves--through that nose." The Partido cigar +regularly retails at from twenty-five to thirty cents each. An ordinary +smoker will smoke four cigars a day. Three hundred and sixty-five +dollars a year, besides his treating. A small fortune every ten years! A +neighbor of ours on the farm used to go to town in the spring and buy +enough chewing tobacco to last him until after harvest, and flour to last +the family for two weeks. Among all classes of people this useless drain +of the pocketbook is increasing. In our country last year more money was +spent for tobacco than was spent for foreign missions, for the Churches, +and for public education, all combined. Our tobacco bill in one year +costs our Nation more than our furniture and our boots and shoes; more +than our flour and our silk goods; one hundred and forty-five million +dollars more than all our printing and publishing; one hundred and +thirty-five million dollars more than the sawed lumber of the Nation. +Each year France buys of us twenty-nine million pounds of tobacco, +Great Britain fifty millions, and Germany sixty-nine million pounds, to +say nothing of how much these nations import from other countries. +Never before has the use of tobacco been so widespread as to-day. "The +Turks and Persians are the greatest smokers in the world. In India all +classes and both sexes smoke; in China the practice--perhaps there more +ancient--is universal, and girls from the age of eight or nine wear as an +appendage to their dress a small silken pocket to hold tobacco and a +pipe." Nor can the expense and widespread use of tobacco be defended on +the ground that it is a luxury, for the abstainer from tobacco counts it the +greater luxury not to use it. The only explanation for its use is, that it is a +habit which binds one hand and foot, and from which no person with +ordinary will power in his own strength can free himself. + +Tobacco blunts the moral nature. It is not certain how long tobacco has +been used as a narcotic. Some authorities hold that the smoking of tobacco +was an ancient custom among the Chinese. But if this is true, we know +that it did not spread among the neighboring nations. When Columbus +came to America he found the natives of the West Indies and the American +Indian smoking the weed. With the Indian its use has always had a +religious and legal significance. Early in the sixteenth century tobacco +was introduced into England, later into Spain, and still later, in 1560, into +Italy. Used for its medicinal properties at first, soon it came to be used +as a luxury. The popes of Italy saw its harm and thundered against it. +The priests and sultans of Turkey declared smoking a crime. One sultan +made it punishable with death. The pipes of smokers were thrust through +their noses in Turkey, and in Russia the noses of smokers were cut off in +the earlier part of the seventeenth century. "King James I of England +issued a counterblast to tobacco, in which he described its use as a +'custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, +dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fumes thereof nearest +resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.'" As +one contrasts this sentiment with the practice of the present sovereign of +England, his breath is almost taken away in his great fall from the +sublime to the ridiculous! + +While we do not believe a moderate use of tobacco for a mature person +is necessarily a sin, yet we do believe that it does blunt the moral sense, +and soon leads to spiritual weakness and indifference, which are sins. +To love God with all one's heart, mind, soul, and strength, and one's +neighbor as himself, means not only a denial of that which is questionable +in morals, but a practice of that which is positively good. However noble +or worthy in character may be some who use tobacco, yet by common +consent it is a "tool of the devil." Every den of gamblers, every low-down +grogshop, every smoking-car, every public resort and waiting-room +departments for men, every rendezvous of rogues, loafers, villains, and +tramps is thoroughly saturated with the vile stench of the cuspidor and +the poisonous odors of the pipe and cigar. "Rev. Dr. Cox abandoned +tobacco after a drunken loafer asked him for a light." Not until then had +he seen and felt the disreputable fraternity that existed between the users +of tobacco. + +Owen Meredith gives us a standard of strength and freedom, which is +an inspiration to every lover of rounded, perfected manhood and +womanhood: + + "Strong is that man, he only strong, + To whose well-ordered will belong, + For service and delight, + All powers that in the face of wrong + Establish right. + + And free is he, and only he, + Who, from his tyrant passions free, + By fortune undismayed, + Has power within himself to be, + By self obeyed. + + If such a man there be, where'er + Beneath the sun and moon he fare, + He can not fare amiss; + Great nature hath him in her care. + Her cause is his." + +Only let the "will," the "powers," the "freedom," and the "self" +of which the writer speaks become the "Christ will," the "Christ +powers," the "Christ freedom," and the "Christ self." Then the +strongest chains of bondage must fly into flinters. For "if the +Son make you free, ye are free indeed." (John viii, 36.) + + + + +II. +DRUNKENNESS. + +I. A TEMPERANCE PLATFORM. + + +WE bring to you three words of counsel with respect to this subject. +First, Beware of the Social Glass; second, Study the Drink Evil; third, +Openly oppose it. This is a Temperance Platform upon which every +sober, informed, and conscientious person may stand. Would it be +narrow or uncharitable to assert that not to stand upon this platform +argues that one is not sober, or not informed, or not conscientious? +The crying need of to-day is, that men and women shall be urged into +positions of conviction and activity against this most colossal evil of +our time. In our country the responsibility for drunkenness rests not +with the illiterate, blasphemous, ex-prison convicts who operate the +250,000 saloons of our Nation, nor yet with the 250,000 finished +products of the saloon who go down into drunkards' graves every +year, but with the sober, respectable, hard-working, voting citizens +of our country. Nor does this exempt women, whose opportunity to +shape the moral and political convictions of the home is far greater +than that of the men. When the women of America say to the saloon, +You go! the saloon will have to go. The moral and political measures +of any people are easily traceable to the sisters and wives and mothers +of that people. You and I and every ordinary citizen of our country had +as well try to escape our own shadow, as to try to escape the responsibility +that rests upon us for the drunkenness of our people. To help us to do our +whole duty in our day and generation in this matter is the purpose of our +message. + +II. BEWARE OF THE SOCIAL GLASS. + +The first and least thing that one can do to destroy drunkenness, is to be +a total abstainer. Beware of the social glass! But quickly one replies, +"Why should there be any social glass?" "Why allow sparkling, attractive +springs of refreshing poison to issue forth in all of our social centers, and +then cry to our sons and daughters, to our brothers and sisters, Beware?" +My friend, we must deal with facts as they are. There should not be a +social glass; but what has that to do with the fact that the social glass is +here? You answer, "Why allow these fountains of death to exist?" while +we cry to our loved ones, "Beware!" We do not advocate the presence +of these fountains; but while we seek to destroy them beseechingly we +cry, "Beware!" The social factor in the liquor traffic is its Gibraltar of +defense. Rare is the young man who has the intellectual stamina and +moral courage to resist the invitations to take a social drink. And in our +frontier and foreign towns many of our bright and respected girls use the +social glass. But in its use is the beginning of a fateful end. The subtlest +thing in this world is sin. Listen! + + "Sin is a monster of so frightful mien; + To be hated needs but to be seen; + But seen too oft, familiar with the face, + We first endure, then pity, then embrace." + +The subtle thing about it is, that the first embracing of any sin seems to be +but a trifling, an occasional affair. For one who lives in an ordinary city +of a thousand inhabitants or upwards, unless he is an "out-and-out" +Christian and selects only associates like himself, it becomes a real +Embarrassment not to indulge in a social drink. It seems polite, clever, +the kindly thing to do. And the sad fact is, that the majority of unchristian +young people and many older ones do not decline. To prove this we have +but to look at the human wrecks along the shore. Two young men lived +near our home. Their parents were well-to-do. The family grew tired of +the farm and moved to town. The boys fell in with bad company. They +did not decline the social glass. Soon they furnished other young men with +drink from their own pocket. This was fifteen years ago. To-day one of +them is a hardened sinner, violent in his passions and blasphemous against +God. The other one, having spent a term in our Illinois State University at +Champaign, married a beautiful neighbor girl and moved to Missouri. Here +he lived off the money of his father's estate, practicing his early-learned +habits of drinking, gambling, and loafing. He moved from State to State +until, finally left in poverty, he tended bar in a saloon. While visiting with +relatives in his old neighborhood a few years ago he stole a watch and some +money from his own nephew, and was tried in the courts, and sentenced to +the penitentiary for one year. His wife, having carried the burden of +disgrace and want through all these years, with the seven unfortunate +children were released from him to struggle alone. All this we have seen +with our own eyes as the years have come and gone. The downfall and +ruin of this young man, and the unsaved fate of his brother, easily may be +traceable to the "social glass" and the boon companions of the social +glass--tobacco and playing-cards. Last year I met a man who had prided +himself in the fact that he could drink or let it alone, and thought that it +was all right to take a "social glass" occasionally. Election time came +around; he fell in with his friends, and, as one always will do sooner or +later who tampers with it at all, went too far. Before he knew it he was as +low in the gutter as a beast. It was three days before he was a sober man +again. He work had ceased, he had disgusted his fellow-workmen, +disgraced his Christian family, and had humiliated himself so that he was +ashamed to look any man in the face until he had repented of his sins +before God, and had promised Him, by His help, that he would never +drink another glass. What a pleasure it was to hear that old man, as he +is close to sixty years of age, to hear him tell in a spirited religious +service of how he had strayed from his path and had got lost in the woods, +but thanked God that he was out of the woods, and by His help would +remain out. When we become undone in Christ He lifts us up and starts +us on our new way rejoicing in His love. If Christ Himself were here in +body, do you know what He would advise on this point? He would say: +"As it is written;" "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it +giveth its color in the cup, when it goeth down smoothly: at the last it +biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." Beware of the social +glass, my friend, for though it promises pleasure, it gives but pain; it +promises joy, it gives but sorrow; it promises deliverance, it gives but +eternal death! + +III. STUDY THE DRINK EVIL. + +We hear it said, "No use to picture the horrors of the drink evil; +every one knows them already." In part, this is true. All of us +know more than we wish it were possible to be true; and yet no +one can ever realize its horrors until caught, and torn, and mangled +in its pinching, jagged, griping meshes. It is one thing to know by +a distant glance, it is another thing to know by the pangs of a +broken heart and of a wrecked life. For those who are not thus +caught in its meshes to realize its horrors so as to seek its destruction +but one course is possible; namely, To study the evil. Let the +teacher tell of its ravages; let the minister proclaim its curses; let +the poet sing it; the painter paint it; the editor report it; the novelist +portray it; the scientist describe it; the philosopher decry it; the +sisters and wives and mothers denounce it--until all shall unite in +smiting it to its death! + +We should study the drink evil in its relation to disease. That strong +drink tends to produce disease is no longer questioned. "During the +cholera in New York City in 1832, of two hundred and four cases +in the Park Hospital only six were temperate, and all of these +recovered; while one hundred and twenty-two of the others died. +In Great Britain in the same year five-sixths of all who perished +were intemperate. In one or two villages every drunkard died, while +not a single member of a temperance society lost his life." "In Paisley, +England, in 1848, there were three hundred and thirty-seven cases of +cholera, and every case except one was a dram-drinker. The cases +of cholera were one for every one hundred and eighty-one inhabitants; +but among the temperate portion there was only one case to each two +thousand." "Of three hundred and eighty-six persons connected with +the total abstinence societies only one died, and he was a reformed +drunkard" of three months' standing. "In New Orleans during the last +epidemic the order of the Sons of Temperance appointed a committee +to ascertain the number of deaths from cholera among their members. +It was found that there were twelve hundred and forty-three members +in the city and suburbs, and among these only three deaths had +occurred, being only one-sixth the average death-rate." "In New York, +in 1832, only two out of five thousand members of temperance +societies died." The Northwestern Life Insurance Company of +Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one of the oldest and most successful +Companies in the Northwest, has lived for nearly forty years next +neighbor to lager beer interests. The shrewd men of this company +have studied the influence of the beer industry upon those who engage +in it. The result is, that they will no longer grant an insurance policy +to a beer-brewer, nor to any one in any way engaged in the business. +In their own words their reason is this: "Our statistics show that our +business has been injured by the short lives of those men who drink +lager beer." + +Then, we need to study the drink evil in its relation to society. "A +recent report of the chaplain of the Madalen Society of New York +shows that of eight-nine fallen women in the asylum at one time, +all but two ascribed their fall to the effect of the drink habit." "A +lady missionary makes the statement that of two thousand sinful +women known personally to her, there were only ten cases in which +intoxicating liquors were not largely responsible for their fall." "A +leading worker for reform in New York says that the suppression of +the curse of strong drink would include the destruction of ninety-nine +of every one hundred of the houses of ill-fame." "A missionary on +going at the written request of one of these lost women to rescue her +from a den of infamy remonstrated with her for being even then +slightly under the influence of drink." "Why," was her indignant +reply as tears filled her eyes, "do you suppose we girls are so dead +that we have lost our memories of mother, home, and everything +good? No, indeed; and if it were not for liquor and opium, we +would all have to run away from our present life or go mad by +pleadings of our own hearts and home memories." + +Only by a study of the drink evil shall we know its ravages in the +home. Those of us who have lived in the pure air of free, country +home-life can not easily realize the moral plague of drunkenness +as it blights the home in the crowded districts of city slum life. +Nor is the home of the city alone cursed by the drink evil. Three +years ago this last holiday season we were doing some evangelistic +work in a neighboring town, a mere village of a couple hundred +inhabitants. I shall never forget how the mother of a dejected home +cried and pleaded for help from the ravages of her drunken husband. +She said that he had spent all of his wages, and had made no +provision for the home, in furniture, in books for the children, nor +in clothing for them nor for her. She had come almost to despair, +and was blaming God for allowing her little ones to suffer because +of a worthless man. O, the world is full of this sort of thing to-day, +if we only knew the sighs and heartaches and blasted hopes of those +who suffer! In a smoking-car one day a commercial traveler refused +to drink with his old comrades, by saying: "No, I won't drink with +you to-day, boys. The fact is, boys, I have sworn off." He was +taunted and laughed at, and urged to tell what had happened to him. +They said: "If you've quit drinking, something's up; tell us what it +is." "Well, boys," he said, "I will, though I know you will laugh at +me; but I will tell you all the same. I have been a drinking man all +my life, and have kept it up since I was married, as you all know. I +love whisky; it's as sweet in my mouth as sugar, and God only knows +how I'll quit it. For seven years not a day has passed over my head +that I didn't have at least one drink. But I am done. Yesterday I was +in Chicago. Down on South Clark Street a customer of mine keeps +a pawnshop in connection with his business. I called on him, and +while I was there a young man of not more than twenty-five, wearing +thread-bare clothes, and looking as hard as if he had not seen a sober +day for a month, came in with a little package in his hand. Tremblingly +he unwrapped it, and handed the articles to the pawnbroker, saying, +'Give me ten cents.' And, boys, what do you suppose that package was? +A pair of baby's shoes; little things with the buttons only a trifle soiled, +as if they had been worn once or twice. 'Where did you get them?' +asked the pawnbroker. 'Got 'em at home,' replied the man, who had +an intelligent face and the manner of a gentleman, despite his sad +condition. 'My wife bought 'em for our baby. Give me ten cents for +'em. I want a drink.' 'You had better take those back to your wife; the +baby will need them,' said the pawnbroker. 'No, she won't..She's +lying at home now; she died last night.' As he said this the poor +fellow broke down, bowed his head on the showcase, and cried +like a child. 'Boys,' said the drummer, 'you can laugh if you want +to, but I have a baby of my own at home, and by the help of God +I'll never drink another drop.'" The man went into another car, the +bottle had disappeared, and the boys pretended to read some papers +that lay scattered about the car. Ah, this is only one out of hundreds +of such scenes that are being enacted every day in our saloon-cursed +cities. + +We should study the drink evil to see how it makes people poor and +keeps them poor. A story is told of a drinking man who related to +his family a dream that he had had the night before. He dreamed +that he saw three cats, a fat one, a lean one, and a blind one; and he +was anxious to know what it meant that he should have such a +strange dream. Quickly his little boy answered, "I can tell what it +means. The fat cat is the saloon-keeper who sells you drink, the +lean cat is mother and me, and the blind cat is yourself." "In one +of our large cities," one day, "a laboring man, leaving a saloon, +saw a costly carriage and pair of horses standing in front, occupied +by two ladies elegantly dressed, conversing with the proprietor. +'Whose establishment is that?' he said to the saloon-keeper, as the +carriage rolled away. 'It is mine,' replied the dealer, proudly. 'It +cost thirty-five hundred dollars. My wife and daughter couldn't do +without that.' The mechanic bowed his head a moment in deep +thought; then, looking up, said with the energy of a man suddenly +aroused by some startling flash, 'I see it!' 'I see it!' 'See what?" +asked the saloonkeeper. 'See where for years my wages have gone. +I helped to pay for that carriage, for those horses and gold-mounted +harnesses, and for the silks and laces for your family. The money I +have earned, that should have given my wife and children a home of +their own and good clothing, I have spent at your bar. By the help +of God I will never spend another dime for drink.'" South Milwaukee +has five thousand inhabitants. Three large mills operate there. A +reliable business man, foreman in one of the mills, told me that the +laboring people of South Milwaukee put $25,000 each month into +the tills of the saloons. Dr. J.O. Peck, one of the most successful +pastor evangelists of recent years, tells of a man "who crossed Chelsea +Ferry to Boston one morning, and turned into Commercial Street for +his usual glass. As he poured out the poison, the saloonkeeper's wife +came in, and confidently asked for $500 to purchase an elegant shawl +she had seen at the store of Jordan, March & Co.. He drew from his +pocket a well-filled pocketbook, and counted out the money. The man +outside the counter pushed aside his glass untouched, and laying down +ten cents departed in silence. That very morning his devoted Christian +wife had asked him for ten dollars to buy a cloak, so that she might +look presentable at church. He had crossly told her he had not the +money. As he left the saloon he thought, 'Here I am helping to pay +for five-hundred-dollar cashmeres for that man's wife, but my wife +asks in vain for a ten-dollar cloak. I can't stand this. I have spent my +last dime for drink.' When the next pay-day came that meek, loving +wife was surprised with a beautiful cloak from her reformed husband. +She could scarcely believe her own eyes as he laid it on the table. +'There, Emma, is a present for you. I have been a fool long enough; +forgive me for the past, and I will never touch liquor again.' She +threw her arms around his neck, and the hot tears told her heartfelt +joy as she sobbed out: 'Charley, I thank you a thousand times. I +never expected so nice a cloak. This seems like other days. You are +so good, and I am so happy.'" The drink bill of our Nation for last +year was over a billion of dollars, more money than was spent for +missions--home and foreign--for all of our Churches, for public +education, for all the operations of courts of justice and of public +officers, and at least for two of the staple products of use in our +country, such as furniture and flour. More than for all these was the +money that our Nation paid for drink last year. When the people of +our country get their eyes open to the cost and degradation of the +drink evil, something definite will be done by every one against it. + +The drink evil in its relation to lawlessness and crime, and to political +corruption, reveal still more ghastly aspects of it than we have yet +mentioned. The saloon strikes at the very heart, not only of law and +order, but at personal liberty and justice in securing law and order. It +was in a police court in Cincinnati on Monday morning. Before the +judge stood two stalwart policeman and a woman. She was charged +with disorderly conduct on the street and with disturbing the peace. +The policemen were sworn, and one of them told this story, to which +the other one agreed. He said: "I arrested the woman in front of a +saloon on Broadway on Saturday night. She had raised a great +disturbance, was fighting and brawling with men in the saloon, and +the saloonkeeper put her out. She used the foulest language, and with +an awful threat struck at the saloonkeeper with all her force. I then +arrested her, took her to the detention house, and locked her up." The +saloonkeeper was called to the witness stand, and said: "I know dis +voman's vas making disturbance by my saloon. She comes and she +makes troubles, und she fights mit me, und I put her de door oud. I +know her all along. She vas pad vomans." The judge turned to the +trembling woman and said: "This is a pretty clear case, madam; have +you anything to say in your defense?" "Yes, Judge," she answered, +in a strangely calm, though trembling, voice: "I am not guilty of the +charge, and these men standing before you have perjured their souls +to prevent me from telling the truth. It was they, not I, who violated +the law. I was in the saloon last Saturday night, and I will tell you +how it happened. My husband did not come home from work that +evening, and I feared he had gone to the saloon. I knew he must +have drawn his week's wages, and we needed it all so badly. I put +the little ones to bed, and then waited all alone through the weary +hours until after the city clock struck twelve. Then I thought the +saloons will be closed, and he will be put out on to the street. +Probably he will not be able to get home, and the police will arrest +him and lock him up. I must go and find him, and bring him home. +I wrapped a shawl about me and started out, leaving the little ones +asleep in bed. And, Judge, I have not seen them since." She did +not give way to tears, for the worst grief can not weep. She +continued: "I went to the saloon, where I thought most like he would +be. It was about twenty minutes after twelve; but the saloon, that +man's saloon"--pointing to the saloonkeeper, who now wanted to +crouch out of sight--"was still open, and my husband and these two +policemen were standing at the bar drinking together. I stepped up +to my husband and asked him to go home with me; but the men laughed +at him, and the saloonkeeper ordered me out. I said, 'No, I want my +husband to go home with me.' Then I tried to tell him how badly we +were needing the money that he was spending; and then the saloon- +keeper cursed me, and told me to leave. Then I confess I could stand +no more, and said, 'You ought to be prosecuted for violating the +midnight closing law.' At this the saloonkeeper and policemen rushed +upon me and put me into the street; and one of the policemen, grasping +my arm like a vice, hissed in my ear, 'I'll get you a thirty days' sentence +in the workhouse, and then we'll see what you think about suing people.' +He called a patrol wagon, pushed me in, and drove to jail; and, Judge, +you know the rest. All day yesterday I was locked up, my children at +home alone, with no fire, no food, no mother." The judge dismissed +the woman; but the saloonkeeper, the perjured policemen, nor the +corrupt judge were ever prosecuted for their unlawfulness. The whole +affair was dropped because the saloon power in Cincinnati reigns +supreme. "This case is a matter of record in the Cincinnati courts." +It is a disgraceful fact that the liquor-traffic rules in politics to-day. A +saloonkeeper in Richmond, Virginia, overheard some one talking of +reform in municipal politics, when he scornfully said: "Any bar-room +in Richmond is a bigger man in politics than all the Churches in Richmond +put together." + +IV. THE PRACTICAL QUESTION FOR US HERE AND NOW IS, +How may we openly oppose this drink evil? + +The Churches need not expect a widespread revival of religion until +professing Christians do their duty with respect to the saloon. Mothers +and fathers need not expect their sons to remain sober while the saloon +opens to them day and night. Wives need not expect their husbands to +remain devoted and loyal until the saloon is abolished. What is our +duty? How shall we oppose the evil? How do the American people +deal with evils when they deal with them at all? When Great Britain +went a little too far in "taxation without representation," what course +did the American Colonies adopt in remedying the evil? Their chief +men said, "These Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and +independent States." The popular voice of the people decided it. +When the British Government unduly impressed American seamen, +how was the difficulty settled? The representatives of the people, +their lawmakers, declared war against the opposing nation, and +forced her to cease her oppression. The popular vote decided it. When +Negro slavery darkened the entire sky of our country, and caused our +leading men to realize that we could not long exist half-slave and +half-free, how was the dark cloud dispelled? The representatives of +our people, the lawmakers of the land, in letters of blood wrote the +immortal Thirteenth Amendment to the American Constitution: +"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment +for crime, whereof the person shall have been duly convicted, shall +exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." +When we wanted to increase our territory in 1803, and in 1845, and in +1867, how did we go about it? The representatives of the people, the +lawmakers of the land, voted to make the purchases, and they were +made. When a Territory is organized, or a State comes into the Union, +what is done? The representatives of the people, the lawmakers of the +land, vote upon it, and it is done. When treaties are to be made with +foreign countries; when immigration of foreigners is to be regulated; +when money is to be borrowed or coined; when post-offices and +post-roads are to be established; when counterfeiting is to be punished, +and public abuses are to be reformed, whose business is it? The +Constitution of the United States says the representatives of the people, +the lawmakers of the land, have this power. When will the drink evil +cease in our country? When our representatives in Congress, or +lawmakers, stand for the abolition of the American saloon, and vote +it out of existence; then, and not until then, will drunkenness cease. +When will we have representatives in Congress, lawmakers who will +stand for the abolition of the saloon, and who will vote it out of +existence? Not until you and I have select them, and place them there +with our vote. To expect Christian temperance in our country from +any other source is absolute folly. + +The abolition of drunkenness by local option is selfish, unpractical, +and unscriptural. You vote the liquor-traffic out of your town; we +vote it in ours. Remember every saloon exists only by vote of the +people. Your young people come over to our town for drink. We have +the curse of God upon us. "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor +drink." (Hab. Ii, 15.) It is unpractical, for so long as intoxicants are +made they will be sold. It is selfish, for to vote against the saloon in +your town election, and to vote for it in your State or National election, +is to drive the mad-dog on past your door to the door of your neighbor, +when you might have killed him. + +The abolition of drunkenness by regulating the traffic through license +is the most gigantic delusion that Satan ever worked upon an intelligent +people. It is a well-known truth that "limitation is the secret of power." +The best way to provoke an early marriage between devoted lovers is +bitterly to oppose them. The stream whose water spreads over its low +banks is without depth and current and power. But confine the waters +between high, narrow banks, the bed of the stream is deepened, and +its mighty current supports animal life and turns the wheels of mill +and factory. The regulation of the liquor-traffic by license makes it +a financial and political power second to none in America to-day. To +vote for any party or man who advocates liquor license, is to give a +loyal support to the American saloon. + +To expect the abolition of drunkenness solely through processes of +education is to preach one thing and to practice another. It is to +perpetuate an evil that costs two hundred and fifty thousand precious +lives every year. It is to leave to the next generation a work that God +expects us to do here and now. Dr. Banks relates an incident +witnessed by Major Hilton on the coast of Scotland. "Just at the break +of day the people of a little hamlet on the coast were awakened by the +boom of a cannon over the stormy waves. They knew what it meant, +for frequently they had heard before the same signal of distress. Some +poor souls were out beyond the breakers perishing on a wrecked vessel, +and in their last extremity calling wildly for help. The people hastened +from their houses to the shore. Out there in the distance was a dismantled +vessel pounding itself to pieces. Perishing fellow-beings were clinging +to the rigging, and every now and then some one was swept off into the +sea by the furious waves. The life-saving crew was soon gathered. "Man +the life-boat!" cried the man. "Where is Hardy?" But the foreman of +the crew was not there, and the danger was imminent. Aid must be +immediate, or all would be lost. The next in command sprang into the +frail boat, followed by the rest, all taking their lives in their hands in the +hope of saving others. O, how those on the shore watched their brave +loved ones as they dashed on, now over, now almost under the waves! +They reached the wreck. Like angels of deliverance they filled their +craft with almost dying men--men lost but for them. Back again they +toiled, pulling for the shore, bearing their precious freight. The first man +to help them land was Hardy, whose words rang above the roar of the +breakers: "Are you all here? Did you save them all?" With saddened +faces the reply came: "All but one. He couldn't help himself at all. +We had all we could carry. We couldn't save the last one." "Man the +life-boat again!" shouted Hardy. "I will go. What! leave one there to die +alone? A fellow-creature there, and we on shore? Man the life-boat +now! We'll save him yet." But who is this aged woman with worn +garments and disheveled hair, with agonized entreaty falling upon her +knees beside this brave, strong man? It is his mother! "O, my son! +your father was drowned in a storm like this. Your brother Will left +me eight years ago, and I have never seen his face since the day he +sailed. No doubt he, too, has found a watery grave. And now you will +be lost, and I am old and poor. O, stay with me!" "Mother," cried the +man, "where one is in peril, there is my place. If I am lost, God surely +will care for you." The plea of earnest faith prevailed. With a "God +bless you, my boy!" she released him, and speeded him on his way. +Once more they watched and prayed and waited--those on the shore-- +while every muscle was strained toward the fast-sinking ship by those +in the life-saving boat. At last it reached the vessel. The clinging +figure was lifted and helped to its place. Back came the boat. How +eagerly they looked and called in encouragement, and cheered as it +came nearer! "Did you get him?" was the cry from the shore. Lifting +his hands to his mouth to trumpet the words on in advance of their +landing, Hardy called back above the roar of the storm, "Tell mother +it is brother Will!" + +My friend, simply talking and praying will not save our loved ones +from drunkards' graves. We must man the life-boat of municipal, State, +and National reform, and vote for principle and Christian temperance +until we save the last man. He may be "brother Will." + + + +III. +GAMBLING. + +CARD-PLAYING + +GAMBLING has become a moral plague of modern society. In one +form or another it has entered the rank and file of every department +of life--in private parlor over cards; in hotel drawing-room over +election reports; in college athletic grounds over brains and brawn; in +the counting-room over the price of stocks; in the racing tournament +over jockeying and speed; in the Board of Trade hall over future prices +of the necessaries of life; in the den of iniquity at dice; in the drinking +saloon at the slot-machine; in the people's fair at the wheel of fortune; +in the gambling den itself at every conceivable form of swindling trick +and game. Gambling has come to be almost an omnipresent evil. In +treating this subject, it is our purpose to point out something of the +nature of its evil, not only that we may be kept from it but that we may +save others whom it threatens to destroy. + +Gambling grows out of a misuse of the natural tendency to take risks. +A social vice is some social right misused. Men have the social right +to congregate to talk over measures of social and economic welfare. +But if they discuss measures which oppose the principles of free +Government, their meeting together becomes a crime against the +State. A personal vice is some personal right misused. As some one +has put it, "Vice is virtue gone mad." It is a personal right and a +personal virtue to be charitable, even beneficent. But since justice +comes before mercy, if one uses for charity that which should be +used in payment of debt, his virtue of beneficence becomes a vice +of theft. So it is with gambling. It is giving the natural tendency +to chance, to risk an illegitimate play. The person who is afraid to +risk anything accomplishes but little in any way, is seldom a +speculator, and never a gambler. Usually the gambler is the man +who is naturally full of hazard, who loves to run risks, to take chances. +Nor will one find a more practical and useful tendency in one's make- +up than this. See the discoverer of America and his brave crew for +days and days sailing across an unknown sea toward an unknown +land. But that was the price of a New World. Note the hazard and +risk of our Pilgrim Fathers. But they gave to the world a new +colonization. See the Second greatest American on his knees before +Almighty God, promising him that he would free four million of +slaves, providing General Lee should be driven back out of Maryland. +General Lee was driven back, and that immortal though most +hazardous of all documents, from man's point of view, was read to +his Cabinet and signed by Abraham Lincoln. All great men have +taken great risks. Not a section of the United States has been settled +without some risk. No business enterprise is launched without some +risk. To secure an education, to learn a trade, to marry a wife, all +involve some risk, much risk. The tendency to risk, to hazard, to +chance it is a practical and useful tendency. Only let this tendency +be governed always by wisdom and justice. No person ever became +a gambler until consciously or unconsciously he forfeited wisdom +and justice in his chances and risks. + +Gambling takes a variety of forms. First of all is the professional +gambler. He has no other business. His investment is a "pack of +cards" and a box of "dice. See him with his long, slender fingers; +with his shaggy, unkempt hair; with keen eyes, and a sordid +countenance. He is prepared to "rake in" a thousand dollars a night, +and would not hesitate to strip any man of his fortune. The professional +is found at county fairs, on railway trains, in gilded dens, and at public +resorts. Being a professional outlaw, and subject at any time to arrest +and imprisonment, usually he has an accomplice. Sometimes a gang +work together, so that it is with perfect ease they may relieve any +unwary novice of his money. They know human nature on its low, +mercenary side, and soon can find their man in a crowd. But few +persons have started out in life having it for their aim to get something +for nothing who, sooner or later, have not been "taken in" by this gang +of swindlers. They know their kind. The end of the professional +gambler is final loss and ruin. He will make $100, he will make $500, +he will make $1,000, he will make $2,000; then he will lose all. Then +he will borrow some money and start anew. And again he will make +$200, he will make $600, he will make $1,200, and he will lose all. +Like the winebibber and the professional murderer, the professional +gambler has his den. Not a large city in the world is without these +haunts of vice. Who is it that feeds and supports them? The novice +at cards and dice, husbands and sons of respectable families, just as +the occasional dram-taker supports the saloon. As one has asked: + + "Could fools to keep their own contrive, + On whom, on what could gamesters thrive?" + --GAY. + +The penny novice seeks the penny gambling den. The aristocratic +speculator seeks the gilded gambling den. The expert trickster of +large luck and large fortune makes his way to Monte Carlo, the +gambling Mecca of the world. Monte Carlo is a famous resort +situated in the northwest part of Italy. It is notorious for its gambling +saloon. This city of nearly four thousand inhabitants is located in +Monaco, the smallest independent country in the world. Monaco is +about eight miles square, and lies on a "barren, rocky ridge between +the sea and lofty, almost inaccessible rocks." The soil is barren, +except in small tracts which are used for fruit-gardens. For centuries +the inhabitants, the Monagasques, lived by marauding expeditions, +both by sea and land, and by slight commerce with Genoa, Marseilles, +and Nice. But in the last century the people have converted their +country and city into a world-wide resort. In 1860, M. Blanc, a famous +gambler and saloon proprietor of two German cities, went to Monaco, +and for an immense sum of money received sole privilege to convert +their province into a gambler's paradise. Soon immense marble +buildings arose in the midst of such beauty as to make it a modern +rival of the gardens of ancient Babylon. Costly statues, gorgeous vases, +graceful fountains, elegant basins, and beautiful terraces, all of which +are made alluring by blooming plants, by light illuminations, and by +free concerts of music day and night,--these are the attractions in this +gambler's paradise. Here fortunes are won and lost in a night. For, as +has been sung, + + "Dice will run the contrary way, + As well is known to all who play, + And cards will conspire as in treason." + --HOOD. + +Then we have the speculator in commerce. He is the denizen of +the Board of Trade hall. He speculates on the prices of next week's, +of next month's meat and breadstuffs. And still this sort of gambler +may be a book-keeper in a bank, a farm hand, or a clerk in a +grocery store. It ha become so simple and so common a practice +for persons to speculate on the markets that any person with ten +dollars, or twenty-five dollars, or a hundred dollars may take his +chances. Tens of thousands of dollars to-day are being swept into +this silent whirlpool, the gambler's commerce. + +Also we have the pool gambler. He is actuated by love of excitement. +He is found at the race course, at the baseball diamond, and at all +sorts of contests, where he may find opportunity to be on the outcome. +It is a common thing for young men to steal their employers' money, +for young girls to take their hard-earned wages to stake on games and +races. Recently $175,000 were paid for the exclusive gambling right +for one year at the Washington Park races in Chicago. + +Last of all, we have the society gambler. He is growing numerous +to-day. He is the same person, whether clad in full dress in the drawing- +room of the worldling, or in common dress around the fireside of the +unchristian Church member. Like the professional gambler his +instrument is "cards," and he can shake the "dice." His games are +whist, progressive euchre, and sometimes poker. The stakes now are +not money, but the gratification of excitement and the indulgence of +passion. One, two, four hours go by almost unnoticed. Prizes are +offered for the best player. As a Catholic priest told me after he had +won a small sum with cards. Said he: "We just put up a few dollars, +you know, to lend devotions to the game." So prizes are offered in +the social gambling "to lend devotions to the game." It is under such +circumstances as these that young men and young women receive their +first lessons in card-playing. A passion for card-playing is called forth, +developed, and must be satisfied, even though it takes one in low places +among vile associates. "A Christian gentleman came from England to +this country. He brought with him $70,000 in money. He proposed to +invest the money. Part of it was his own; part of it was his mother's. +He went into a Christian Church; was coldly received, and said to +himself: 'Well, if that is the kind of Christian people they have in +America, I don't want to associate with them much.' So he joined a +card-playing party. He went with them from time to time. He went a +little further on, and after a while he was in games of chance, and lost +all of the $70,000. Worse than that, he lost all of his good morals; and +on the night that he blew his brains out he wrote to the lady to whom he +was affianced an apology for the crime he was about to commit, and +saying in so many words, 'My first step to ruin was the joining of that +card party.'" + +In all of its forms gambling is loaded down with evil. In the first place +it destroys the incentive to honest work. Let the average young man +win a hundred dollars at the races, it will so turn his head against slow +and honorable ways of getting money that he will watch for every +opportunity to get it easily and abundantly. The young girl who risks +fifty cents and gets back fifty dollars will no longer be of service as a +quiet, contented worker. The spirit of speculation, the passion to get +something for nothing, is calculated to destroy the incentive to honest +toil and to honorable methods of gain. As one values his character, as +he values his peace of mind, so should he zealously guard himself +against overfascinating games of chance. Once we had a family in our +Church who played cards, and who taught their children to play cards. +Of course these families had no time for prayer-meeting, nor for +Christian work. Card-playing for amusement or for money will +create a passion that must be satisfied, although one must give up home +and business and pleasure. In a town where we once lived a young man +and his wife attended our Church. In every way the husband was kind, +and attentive to business. But he had fallen a victim to playing cards +for money. When that passion would seize him he would leave his +business, his hired help, his home and wife and little one, and would +lose himself for days at a time seeking to satisfy that passion. An +enviable husband, father, citizen, and neighbor but for that evil; but how +wretchedly that ruined all! Dr. Holland, of Springfield, Massachusetts, +says: "I have all my days had a card-playing community open to my +observation, and yet I am unable to believe that that which is the +universal resort of starved soul and intellect, which has never in any +way linked to itself tender, elevating, or beautiful associations, but, +the tendency of which is to unduly absorb the attention from more +weighty matters, can recommend itself to the favor of Christ's +disciples. I have this moment," says he, "ringing in my ears the dying +injunction of my father's early friend: 'Keep your son from cards. Over +them I have murdered time and lost heaven.'" + +Gambling is dishonest. It seeks something for nothing. Man possesses +no money, that he might risk giving it to some rogue to waste in sin. +All the property one possesses, he possesses it by stewardship to be +used wisely and honestly for good. Every age has needed a revival of +the Golden Rule in business. Much of the business of to-day is attended +to on the dishonest principle that characterizes gambling, "Get as much +as possible for as little as possible." This spirit is first cousin to the +spirit of gambling. The only difference is, one is called wrong and is +wrong; the other is wrong and is called right. Tell the gambler he is a +thief; he will acknowledge it, and will beat you, if he can, while he is +talking to you. Tell the other man he is a thief, and he will sue you at +court and win his case, although it is just as wrong to steal $100 from +an unbalanced mind, as it is to steal $100 from an unlocked safe or +off of an untrained football team. It will be an easy matter to produce +professional gamblers so long as society upholds dishonest dealers by +another name. What men need in this matter is moral and spiritual +vision, spiritual discernment. Some persons live by taking advantage +of those who are down. + +In all of its forms gambling leads to a long train of crimes. In addition +to his crime of theft the professional gambler, through passion or drink, +becomes a murderer. I knew a professional gambler who killed a man, +with whom he had been playing cards for money, for fifty cents. After +it was all over the man was sorry he had done it, for he had committed +the crime in a passion while he was intoxicated. The one who speculates +on the markets is not counted dishonest by the world, but how often and +how quickly it leads one into crime! In our neighboring town in Illinois +a man of a good family and of good standing in the community began to +speculate on the Chicago Board of Trade. He was as honest a person, +perhaps, as you or I. He thought he was. For years he had been a +trusted, Christian worker, and treasurer of the Sunday-school. But he +made just one venture too many. He had lost all; could not even +replace the Sunday-school fund that he had simply used, no doubt +expecting to replace it with usury; but the loss and disgrace were too +much for him to face, so he deserted home and friends and honor and +all, and secretly ran away. The speculating gambler became a deserting +embezzler. The person who has acquired a passion for betting on races +and games is on a fair way to professional gambling and to speculating +on the markets. And rarely does one ever escape these, if once he gets +a start in them. + +The evil of society gambling is most dangerous of all, because it is +most subtle of all. Ah first no one would suspect an innocent game of +cards, played just for fun. You may be the fourth one to make up a +game; you may not know how to play, but you are told you can quickly +learn. You brave it, and go in for a game. The next time a similar +circumstance arises, you can not easily decline, for you must confess +you have played, and so you go in as an old player. This may be as +far as the matter ever goes with you. But here is one who is more +impulsive than you; his surroundings are entirely different. He learns +to play, and comes to revel in it. A passion is created for the game. +He is shrewd; soon learns the tricks, and one evening--purely by +chance, as it seems to him--he wins his first five dollars. Strange +possibilities with cards lay hold upon him. He is consumed by that +passion. He plays for business, for keeps; he has become a professional +gambler. Ah! this is no finespun tale; it is being worked out every +year in our country, all over the world. Among many things for which +I have to thank my father and mother not the least is, that they would +allow no gamblers, nor gambling, nor the instruments of gambling +about our home. Better keep a pet rattlesnake for your child than a +deck of cards; for if he gets poisoned by the snake he may be cured; +but if the passion for card-playing should happen to seize him, there +is little chance of a cure. The inmates of our penitentiaries to-day, +almost to a man, testify that "card-playing threw them into bad company, +led them into sin, and was one of the causes of their downfall." Dr. +Talmage was asked if there could be any harm in a pack of cards. He +Said: "Instead of directly answering your question, I will give you as +My opinion that there are thousands of men with as strong a brain as +you have, who have gone through card-playing into games of chance, +and have dropped down into the gambler's life and into the gambler's +hell." A prisoner in a jail in Michigan wrote a letter to a temperance +paper, in which he gives this advice for young men: "Let cards and +liquor alone, and you will never be behind the gates." Friends, not +every one who touches liquor is a drunkard, but every drunkard +touches liquor; so not every one who plays cards is a professional +gambler, but every professional gambler plays cards. Is there nothing +significant about these facts. "A word to the wise is sufficient." "In +a railway train sat four men playing cards. One was a judge, and two +of the others were lawyers. Near them sat a poor mother, a widow in +black. The sight of the men at their game made her nervous. She +kept quiet as long as she could; but finally rising came to them, and +addressing the judge, asked: 'Do you know me?' 'No, madam, I do +not,' said he. 'Well, said the mother, 'you sentenced my son to State's +prison for life.' Turning to one of the lawyers, she said: 'And you, +sir, pleaded against him. He was all I had. He worked hard on the +farm, was a good boy, and took care of me until he began to play +cards, when he took to gambling and was lost.'" Dr. Guthrie writes: +"In regard to the lawfulness of certain pursuits, pleasures, and +amusements, it is impossible to lay down any fixed and general rule; +but we may confidently say that whatever is found to unfit you for +religious duties, or to interfere with the performance of them; whatever +dissipates your mind or cools the fervor of your devotions; whatever +indisposes you to read your Bibles or to engage in prayer, wherever +the thought of a bleeding Savior, or of a holy God, or of the day of +judgment falls like a cold shadow on your enjoyment, the pleasures +you can not thank God for, on which you can not ask His blessing, +whose recollections will haunt a dying bed and plant sharp thorns in +its uneasy pillow,--these are not for you..Never go where you can +not ask God to go with you; never be found where you would not like +death to find you. Never indulge in any pleasure that will not bear +the morning's reflection. Keep yourselves unspotted from the world, +not from its spots only, but even from its suspicions." + + + +IV. +DANCING. + + +DANCING is the expression of inward feelings by means of +rhythmical movements of the body. Usually these movements are +in measured step, and are accompanied by music. + +In some form or another dancing is as old as the world, and has been +practiced by rude as well as by civilized peoples. The passion for +amateur dancing always has been strongest among savage nations, +who have made equal use of it in religious rites and in war. With +the savages the dancers work themselves into a perfect frenzy, into +a kind of mental intoxication. But as civilization has advanced +dancing has modified its form, becoming more orderly and +rhythmical. The early Greeks made the art of dancing into a system, +expressive of all the different passions. For example, the dance of +the Furies, so represented, would create complete terror among +those who witnessed them. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, ranked +dancing with poetry, and said that certain dancers, with rhythm applied +to gesture, could express manners, passions, and actions. The most +eminent Greek sculptors studied the attitude of the dancers for their +art of imitating the passions. In a classical Greek song, Apollo, one +of the twelve greater gods, the son of Zeus the chief god, and the god +of medicine, music, and poetry, was called The Dancer. In a Greek +line Zeus himself is represented as dancing. In Sparta, a province of +ancient Greece, the law compelled parents to exercise their children +in dancing from the age of five years. They were led by grown men, +and sang hymns and songs as they danced. In very early times a +Greek chorus, consisting of the whole population of the city, would +meet in the market-place to offer up thanksgivings to the god of the +country. Their jubilees were always attended with hymn-singing and +dancing. The Jewish records make frequent mention of dancing, but +always "as a religious ceremony, or as an expression of gratitude and +praise." As a means of entertainment in private society, dancing was +practiced in ancient times, but by professional dancers, and not by the +company themselves. It is true that the Bible has sanctioned dancing, +but let us remember, first, that it was always a religious rite; second, +that it was practiced only on joyful occasions, at national feasts, and +after great victories; third, that usually it was "performed by maidens +in the daytime, in open air, in highways, fields, or groves;" fourth, +that "there are no instances of dancing sanctioned in the Bible, in +which both sexes united in the exercise, either as an act of worship +or as an amusement;" fifth, that any who perverted the dance from a +sacred use to purposes of amusement were called infamous. The only +records in Scripture of dancing as a social amusement were those of +the ungodly families described by Job xxi, 11-13, who spent their +time in luxury and gayety, and who came to a sudden destruction; +and the dancing of Herodias, Matt. Xiv, 6, which led to the rash vow +of King Herod and to the murder of John the Baptist. So much for +the history of dancing. + +The modern dance in which both sexes freely mingle, irrespective +of character, purely for amusement, at late hours, at which intoxicants, +in some form, are generally used, is, essentially, an institution of vice. +The modern dance is as different from the dancing of ancient times, +and from the dancing sanctioned in the Bible, as daylight is from dark, +as good is from bad. The modern dance imperils health, it poisons the +social nature; it destroys intellectual growth; and it robs men and women +of their virtue. Let us understand one another. To attend one dance may +not accomplish all of this in any person. One may attend many dances, +and he himself not see these results marked in his character, but some +one else will see them. For in the nature of the institution the modern +dance affects in all these particulars those whom it reaches. The +tendencies in a single dance are in these directions. In a way peculiar +to itself the modern dance imperils health. Though detestable and out +of date, as are the modern kissing games, yet no one ever heard of one +of those performances continuing until three and five o'clock in the +morning. Young people do not stay up all night, ride five, ten, and +twenty miles to play authors, or to snap caroms, or to play charades, as +interesting in a social way as these innocent amusements may be. The +fact that one will go to this extreme in keeping late hours to attend the +dance, and will not keep such late hours for any other form of amusement, +proves that the dance, as an institution, is at fault in producing such +irregularities. And then who ever heard of one having to dress in a +certain way to attend a purely social gathering. But let a young lady +attend a fashionable ball or a regular round dance of any note, whatever, +and if she wears the civil gown she will be thought tame and snubbed. +She must dress for this occasion, and thus, from a health point of view, +so expose her body that after the excitement and heat of a prolonged +round she takes her place in a slight draught of air, and a severe cold is +contracted. And this exposure is further increased by the sudden change +from a close, hot room to the damp, chilly air of the early morning, on her +journey home. It is possible to guard against all of this, but are those +persons who attend such exercises likely to be cautious in such practical +matters. At least, this risk of exposure for men and women is peculiar +to the dance, and it is certain that many are physically injured in this +way. The modern dance poisons the social nature. The chief exercise +at the modern dance is dancing. Those who have attended dances, as a +social recreation, have complained that they never have an opportunity +to get acquainted with one another. Such a luxury as a complete +conversation on any theme is out of the question. It is a form of +amusement that stultifies the communicative faculties, and fosters +social seclusion. Some one might say this may be a good thing, since +every grade in moral and social standing are represented. Yes, but this +only acknowledges the lack of opportunity for social fellowship. It is +not true that the dance, as an institution, is not patronized by the most +capable in conversation and companionship? Certainly this is true in +the so-called higher society, among those whose sole ambition is to +excel in formal manners and in personal appearance at the gay function, +and at the social ball. To be communicative one must have something +to communicate, and this means a cultivation of the mind and heart. +True social fellowship is one of the sweetest pleasures of life and always +has its source in the culture of the soul. Whatever may be said for or +against the modern dance, it is true that because of the mixed characters +of its attendants, and for want of opportunity to communicate, the social +nature becomes neglected and abused, and may be fatally poisoned. + +The modern dance destroys intellectual growth. The person who has +the dance-craze cares no more for mental improvement and growth than +a starving man cares for splendid recipes for fine cooking. The thought +of a problem to be solved, of a book to be read, of an organ exercise to +be practiced, of all things, are most tame to the one who is filled with +dreams of the last dance, and with visions of the one that is to come. To +grow, the mind must be free from excitement. The fault with the dance +in this respect is that it has in it a fascination that does not exist in the +ordinary social amusement. Some persons complain that they can not +get an evening to go off well without dancing. But this is only an open +confession to mental vacuity, to intellectual poverty. For one need know +but little to flourish at the dance. And always, where little is required, +intellectually, little is given. It is the rule that those who are in the +greatest need of mental cultivation and growth are those who make up +the dancing crowd. And the fact that the dance, as an institution, in no +way stimulates intellectual thought, destines those who dance to remain +on the lower intellectual plane. + +Last, and worst of all, the dance robs men and women of their virtue, +and this often at the first unconsciously. If it is not for health and +physical vigor that one follows up dancing; if it is not the peculiar +social tie that binds dancers together; if it is not the incentive to +intellectual growth and equipment, what is it? A secret lies hid away +somewhere in the institution of the modern dance, that makes it the +chiefest attraction of worldly-minded and often of base-hearted people. +What is that secret? Ah, my friend, it is the appeal to the most sacred +instincts and passions of a man and of a woman! This appeal is peculiar +to the modern dance by the accident of physical contact that men and +women assume in dancing, and also by the circumstances that attend it, +namely, mixed society, late hours, and the customary use of strong +drink. No honest, normally passionate person, who has made it a +practice of attending dances, will deny the truth of this charge. One +may never have thought of it in this way, but when he stops to think he +knows that it is true. It is through ignorance of these circumstances, and +of their bad effects, that many a well-meaning person, presumably to +have a good time, or to acquire heel-grace, goes into the dance, secures +a passion for dancing, and through its seductive influences are led into +sin and shame. The following is an incident out of his own experience +related by Professor T. A. Faulkner, an ex-dancing master. Professor +Faulkner is the author of the little book entitled "From the Ball Room to +Hell." A book which every person who sees no harm in dancing should +read. + +"Here is a girl.The one remaining child of wealthy parents, their idol +and joy. A dancing-school having opened near their home, the daughter, +for accomplishment, was sent to it. She came from her home, modest, +and her innate spirit of purity rebelled against the liberties taken by the +dancing-master, and the men he introduced to her. She became indignant +at the indecent attitudes she was called upon to assume, but noticing a +score of young women, many of them from the best homes in the town, +all yielding to the vulgar embrace, she cast aside that spirit of modesty +which had been the development of years of home-training, and setting +her face against nature's protective warnings, gave herself, as did the +others, to this prolonged embrace set to music. Having learned to dance, +its fascinations led her an enthusiastic captive. Modesty was crucified, +decency outraged, virtue lost its power over her soul, and she spent her +days dreaming of the delights of the sensual whirl of the evening. Hardly +conscious of the change she had now become as bold as any of the women, +and loved the embrace of the charmer. The graduation of the class was, +of course, the occasion of a waltzing reception. To that reception she went, +attended by her father, who looked with a proud heart on the fulsome +greeting his dear one received. After a little the father retired, leaving his +daughter to the care of the many handsome gallants who danced attendance +upon her. The reception did not close until the small hours of the morning. +Each waltz became more voluptuous; intoxicated by sensuality, the +dancers became more bold, and lust was aroused in every breast. How +many sins that reception occasioned, I do not know; this, at least, is sure, +that this girl who entered that dancing-hall three months before, as pure as +an angel, was that night.robbed of her honor and returned to her home +deprived forever of that most precious jewel of womanhood--virtue. Her +first impulse the next morning was self-destruction; then she deluded +herself with the thought of marriage with her dancing companion, but +he still further insulted her by declaring that he wanted a pure woman +for his wife. What was her end? Shunned by the very society which +egged her on to ruin, her self-respect was gone with her lost purity, she +went to her own kind, and in shame is closing her days." "Of two +hundred brothel inmates to whom Professor Faulkner talked, and who +were frank enough to answer his question as to the direct cause of their +shame, seven said poverty and abuse; ten, willful choice; twenty, drink +given them by their parents; and one hundred and sixty-three, dancing +and the ball-room." "A former chief of police of New York City says +that three-fourths of the abandoned girls of this city were ruined by +dancing." Of the dance, one says: "It lays its lecherous hand upon the +fair character of innocence, and converts it into a putrid corrupting +thing. It enters the domain of virtue, and with silent, steady blows takes +the foundation from underneath the pedestal on which it sits enthroned. +It lists the gate and lets in a flood of vice and impurity that sweeps away +modesty, chastity, and all sense of shame. It keeps company with the +low, the degraded, and the vile. It feeds upon the passion it inflames, +and fattens on the holiest sentiments, turned by its touch to filth and +rottenness. It loves the haunts of vice, and is at home in the company of +harlots and debauchees." George T. Lemon says: "No Church in +Christendom commends or even excuses the dance. All unite to condemn +it." The late Episcopal bishop of Vermont, writes: "Dancing is chargeable +with waste of time, interruption of useful study, the indulgence of personal +vanity and display, and the premature incitement of the passions. At the +age of maturity it adds to these no small danger to health by late hours, +flimsy dress, heated rooms, and exposed persons." Episcopal Bishop +Meade, of Virginia, declares: "Social dancing is not among the neutral +things which, within certain limits, we may do at pleasure, and it is not +among the things lawful, but not expedient, but it is in itself wrong, +improper, and of bad effect." Episcopal Bishop McIlvaine, of Ohio, +putting the dance and the theater together, writes: "The only line that I +would draw in regard to these is that of entire exclusion..The question +is not what we can imagine them to be, but what they always have been, +will be, and must be, in such a world as this, to render them pleasurable +to those who patronize them. Strip them bare until they stand in the +simple innocence to which their defenders' arguments would reduce them +and the world would not have them." A Roman Catholic priest testifies +that "the confessional revealed the fact that nineteen out of every twenty +women who fall can trace the beginning of their state to the modern dance." + + + +V. +THEATER-GOING. + +WITH drunkenness, gambling, and dancing, theater-going dates from +the beginning of history, and with these it is not only questionable in +morals, but it is positively bad. Every one who knows any thing about +the institution of the theater, as such, knows that it always has been +corrupting in its influence. Not only those who attend the theater +pronounce it bad, as a whole, but it is frowned upon by play-writers, +and by actors and actresses themselves. Five hundred years before +Christ, Jew, Pagan, and Christian spoke against the theater. It is +stated on good authority that the dissipations of the theater were +the chief cause of the decadence of ancient Greece. At one time, +Augustus, the emperor of Rome, was asked as a means of public +safety, to suppress the theater. The early Christians held the theater +in such bad repute as to rank it with the heathen temple. And to +these two places they would not go, even to preach the Good News +of Jesus Christ. Nor has the moral tone and character of the theater +improved, even in our day. Dr. Theodore Cuyler, for many years +an experienced pastor in Brooklyn, Says: "The American theater +is a concrete institution, to be judged as a totality. It is responsible +for what it tolerates and shelters. We, therefore, hold it responsible +for whatever of sensual impurity and whatever of irreligion, as well +as for whatever of occasional and sporadic benefit there may be bound +up in its organic life. Instead of helping Christ's kingdom, it hinders; +instead of saving souls, it corrupts and destroys." Dr. Buckley gives +this testimony: "Being aware of the fact that the drama, like every +thing else which caters to the taste, has its fashions--rising and falling +and undergoing various changes--now improving, and then degenerating, +I have thought it desirable to institute a careful inquiry into the plays +which have been performed in the principal theaters of New York during +the past three years. Accordingly, I procured the copies used by the +performers in preparing for their parts, and took pains to ascertain +wherein, in actual use, the actors diverged from the printed copies. +They number over sixty, and, with the exception of a few unprinted +plays, include all that have been produced in the prominent theaters +of New York during the three years now about closing..It is a singular +fact, that, with three or four exceptions, those dramatic compositions, +among the sixty or more under discussion, which are morally objectionable, +are of a comparatively low order of literary execution. But if language +and sentiments, which would not be tolerated among respectable people, +and would excite indignation if addressed to the most uncultivated and +coarse servant girl, not openly vicious, by an ordinary young man, and +profaneness which would brand him who uttered it as irreligious, are +improper amusements for the young and for Christians of every age, then +at least fifty of these plays are to be condemned." + +In the first place the theater leads one into bad company. As a class, +the performers are licentious. How can one be in their company, be +moved to laughter and to tears and not be contaminated by them? +One who has studied the theater tells us that the "fruits of the Spirit +and the fruits of the stage exhibit as pointed a contrast as the human +imagination can conceive." The famous Macready, as he retired from +the stage, wrote: "None of my children, with my consent under any +pretense, shall ever enter the theater, nor shall they have any visiting +connection with play actors or actresses." Dr. Johnson asks the question: +"How can they mingle together as they do, men and women, and make +public exhibitions of themselves as they do, in such circumstances, +with such surroundings, with such speech as much often be on their +lips to play the plays that are written, in such positions as they must +sometimes take, affecting such sentiment and passions--how can they do +this without moral contamination?" And we would ask, how can persons +live enrapt with this sort of thing for hours and hours each week, the year +around, and not become equally contaminated, for to the onlooker all this +comes as a reality, while to those who are performing, it is hired shamming? +Therefore, as the pupil becomes the teacher, so the attendant at the theater +becomes like the one who performs. So that to go to the theater is to "sit in +the seat of the scornful or to stand in the way of sinners." "There you find +the man," says one, "who has lost all love for his home, the careless, the +profane, the spendthrift, the drunkard, and the lowest prostitute of the street. +They are found in all parts of the house; they crowd the gallery, and +together should aloud the applause, greeting that which caricatures religion, +sneers at virtue, or hints at indecency." Not only the actors and the onlookers +of the average theater are vile, but all of the immediate associations of the +playhouse must correspond with it. If not in the same building with the +theater, in adjoining ones, at least, are found the wine-parlor and the +brothel. It is generally conceded that no theater can be prosperous if it is +wholly separated from these adjuncts of evil. + +The theater, therefore, kills spiritually and degrades the moral life +of the one who attends it. The theater deals with the spectacular. +This appeals to the eye, to the ear, and to all of the outer senses. +Spirituality depends upon a cultivation of the spiritual senses that +Grace has opened up within the soul. Hence, the spectacular is +directly opposed to the spiritual. The deep, contemplative, spiritual +soul could find little or no food in the false, clap-trap representations +of the modern stage. And to find an increased interest here is +evidence that one lacks spiritual life, at least deep-seated spiritual +life. This is why so many professing Christians are so eager to go to +the card-party, to the dancing-party, and to the theater. The inner- +sense life of the soul is dead, and one must have something upon +which to feed, hence he feeds upon the husks of "imprudent and +un-Christian amusements." And let one who has a measure of +spiritual life, instead of increasing it, seek to satisfy his soul- +longing by means of the spectacular, of false representations in +any form, soon he will lose the spiritual life that he has. And this +loss will be marked by an increased demand for the spectacular. +The surest proof to-day that the spiritual life of the Church is waning +in certain sections, is not so much that her membership-roll is not +on the increase, but that professing Christian people are running +wild after cards and dancing and the theater. Evangelist Sayles +declares: "The people of our so-called best society, and Christian +people, many that have been looked upon as active workers, sit +now and gaze upon scenes in our theaters, without a blush, that +twenty-five years ago would not have been countenanced..The +moral and spiritual life of many a Christian has been weakened by +the eyes gazing upon the scenes of the theater." Says he, "The +Christian, through attendance upon the playhouse, creates a relish +for worldly things, and so spiritual things become distasteful." + +Then, to go to one theater, sanctions all. To have heard and to have +seen Joe Jefferson in "Rip Van Winkle," Richard Mansfield in "The +Merchant of Venice," or Edwin Booth or Sir Henry Irving, or Maude +Adams, or Julia Marlowe in their best plays, is to have received a +deeper insight into human nature, and a stronger purpose to become +sympathetic and true, but who can afford to sanction all that is base +and villainous is the institution of the modern theater for the sake of +learning sympathy and truth and human nature from a few worthy +actors, when he may find all of this as truthfully, if not as artistically, +set forth by the orator, by the musician, by the painter, and by the +author? It is not cant, it is not pharisaism, it is not a weak claim of +Christianity, but it is common honesty, mighty truth, a cardinal and +beautiful teaching of Jesus Christ to deny one's self for the welfare +of the weaker brother. Let one go to hear Mansfield in Shakespeare, +and his neighbor boy will take his friend and go to the vaudeville, and +his only excuse to his parents and to his half-taught mind and heart +will be, "Well, Mr. So-and-So goes to the theater, he is a member of +the Church and superintendent of the Sunday-school; surely there is +no harm for me to go." To the immature mind what seems right for +one person seems lawful for another. This is because such a person +has not learned to discriminate between what is bad and what is good. +Therefore, if the theater as an institution has more in it that is bad than +It has in it that is good, rather if the general tendency of the theater, as +an institution, is bad, the safe thing for one's self and for those who +read one's life as an example, is to discard it entirely. + +In view of these facts, no person can attend the theater at all without +hurting his influence. The ideal life is that one which gives offense +of stumbling to no one. A successful preacher who had an aversion +toward speaking on the subject of questionable amusements, when +asked what he believed concerning a certain form of amusement, +replied: "See what I do, and know what I believe." It is a glorious +life whose actions are an open epistle of righteousness and peace, +read and believed and honored by all men. + +"Some time ago a gentleman teaching a large class of young men +in a Chicago Sunday-school, desired to attend a theater for the +purpose of seeing a celebrated actor. He was not a theater-goer, +and thought that no harm could come from it. He had no sooner +taken his seat, however, than he saw in the opposite gallery some +of the members of his class. They also saw him and began commenting +on the fact that their teacher was at the theater. They thought it +inconsistent in him, lost their interest in the class, and he lost his +influence over the young men. That teacher tied his hands by this +one act, so that he could not speak out against the gross sins of the +theater." + +Those who defend theater-going say that if Christian people would +patronize the theater that it would be made more respectable. But +over a thousand years of history proves that this principle fails here +as it does elsewhere. A Christian woman marries an unchristian man +with the hope that he will become a Christian; a steady, sensible +woman in all other matters marries a man who drinks, with the +thought of reforming him; one associates with worldly and sensual +companions, expecting to make them better; but, alas, what blasted +hopes, what wretched failures in all of these instances, at least in the +most of them! You can not reform vice; you may whitewash a sin, +but it will be sin, still. To purify a character or an institution one +must not become a part of it by sympathy, nor by association. This +is what the psalmist meant when he said, "Blessed is the man that +walketh not in the counsels of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way +of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." And so it is, that +every effort at reforming the theater, thus far has failed. The Rev. +C.W. Winchester says concerning the reforming of the theater: "The +facts are, (1) that the theater in this city and country never had the +support and encouragement of moral and religious people it has now; +(2) that the theater here was never so bad. Clearly, if Christian patronage +is going to reform the theater, the reform ought to begin. But the grade +is downward. The theater is growing worse and worse." Dr. Wilkinson +makes this statement on the question of reforming the theater: "Now +the Protestant Christians of New York number, by recent computation, +less than seventy-five thousand souls, in a population of a million. +Supposing a general agreement among them all that a regular attendance +at the theater was at this juncture the most pressing and most promising +method of evangelical effort, they would not then constitute even one- +tenth of the numerical patronage which the management would study +to please." Dr. Herrick Johnson says: "The ideal stage is out of the +question. It is out of the question just as pure, chaste, human nudity +is out of the question..The nature of theatrical performances, the +essential demands of the stage, the character of the plays, and the +constitution of human nature, make it impossible that the theater +should exist, save under a law of degeneracy. Its trend is downward; +its centuries of history tell just this one story. The actual stage of to- +day..is a moral abomination. In Chicago, at least, it is trampling +on the Sabbath with defiant scoff. It is defiling our youth. It is making +crowds familiar with the play of criminal passions. It is exhibiting +women with such approaches to nakedness as can have no other +design than to breed lust behind the onlooking eyes. It is furnishing +candidates for the brothel. It is getting us used to scenes that rival the +voluptuousness and licentious ages of the past." As never before to- +day, has the theater asked for the support of Church members. And +the ideal stage, with virtuous performers, and with pure dramas, are +held up as a sample of what Christian people are invited to attend. Dr. +Cuyler says: "Every person of common sense knows that the actual +average theater is no more an ideal playhouse than the average pope +is like St. Peter, or the average politician is like Abraham Lincoln. A +Puritanic theater would become bankrupt in a twelvemonth. The great +mass of those who frequent the playhouse go there for strong, passionate +excitements..I do not affirm," says Dr. Cuyler, "that every popular play +is immoral, and every attendant is on a scent for sensualities. But the +theater is a concrete institution, it must be judged in the gross and to a +tremendous extent it is only a gilded nastiness. It unsexes womanhood +by putting her publicly in male attire--too often in no attire at all." + +"So competent an authority as the famous actress, Olga Nethersole, +recently declared that the only kind of play which may hope for success +with English-speaking audiences at the present day is the play which is +sufficiently indicated by calling it immoral. There is no doubt about it +that the theater, as at present conducted, is pulling the stones from the +foundations of public morality, and weakening, and in many quarters +endangering, the whole structure of society. The atmosphere of the +modern theater is lustful and irreverent. It is a good place for Christians +to keep away from. It is a good opportunity for the strong man to deny +himself for the sake of his younger or weaker brother." + + + +PART II. + +WORTHY SUBSTITUTES. + +"Get the spindle and thy distaff ready, and God will send thee flax." + + +VI. +BOOKS AND READING. + +MANY BOOKS, MUCH READING. + + +TO-DAY every one reads. Go where you may, you will find the +paper, the magazine, the journal; printed letters, official reports, +exhaustive cyclopedias, universal histories; the ingenuous advertise- +ment, the voluminous calendar, the decorated symphony; printed +ideals, elaborate gaming rules, flaming bulletins; and latest of all, +we have begun to publish our communications on the waves of the +air. In this hurly-burly of many books and much reading, it is no +mean problem to know why one should read; and what, and how, +and when. Especially does this problem of general reading confront +the student, the lover of books, and those of the professions. Essays +are to be read, the historical, the philosophical, and the scientific; +novels, the historical and the religious; books of devotion, books of +biography, of travel, of criticism, and of art. What principles are to +guide one in his choice of reading, that he may select only the wisest, +purest, and helpfulest from all these classes of books? + + +WHY READ. + +Read to acquire knowledge. Knowledge is the perception of truth. +One arrives at knowledge by the assimilation of facts and principles, +or by the assimilation of truth itself. Three sources of knowledge are +experience, conversation, and reading. Experience leads one slowly +to knowledge, is limited entirely to the path over which one has passed, +and is a "dear teacher." To acquire knowledge by conversation is to +put one at the mercy of his associates, making him dependent upon +their good favor, truthfulness, and learning. But reading places one +in direct communication with the wisest and best persons of all time. +To acquire knowledge by reading is to defy time and space, persons +and circumstances, at least, in our day of many and inexpensive books. +Through books facts live, principles operate, justice acts, the light of +philosophy gleams, wit flashes, God speaks. Every book-lover agrees +with Channing: "No matter how poor I am..if the sacred writers will +enter and take up their abode under my roof, if Milton will cross my +threshold to sing to me of Paradise, and Shakespeare to open to me the +words of imagination and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin +to enrich me with his practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want of +intellectual companionship, and I may become a cultivated man, though +excluded from what is called the best society in the place where I live." +Kingsley says: "Except a living man, there is nothing more wonderful +Than a book!--a message to us from the dead,--from human souls whom +we never saw, who lived, perhaps, thousands of miles away; and yet +these, in those little sheets of paper, speak to us, amuse us, terrify us, +teach us, comfort us, open their hearts to us as brothers..If they are +good and true, whether they are about religion or politics, farming, +trade, or medicine, they are the message of Christ, the Maker of all +things, the Teacher of all truth." The wide range of truth secured through +reading acts in two ways upon the reader. It spiritualizes his character, +and it makes him mighty in action. Knowledge on almost any subject +has a marked tendency to sharpen one's wits, to refine his tastes, to +ennoble his spirit, to improve his judgement, to strengthen his will, to +subdue his baser passions, and to fill his soul with the breath of life. +It is only upon truth that the soul feeds, and by means of knowledge that +the character grows. "It cannot be that people should grow in grace," +writes John Wesley, "unless they give themselves to reading. A reading +people will always be a knowing people." Reading makes one mighty +in action when it gives one knowledge, since "knowledge is power," and +since power has but one way of showing itself, and that is, in action. +Knowledge takes no note of hardships, ignores fatigue, laughs at +disappointment, and frowns upon despair. It delves into the earth, +rides upon the air, defies the cold of the north, the heat of the south; it +stands upon the brink of the spitting volcano, circumnavigates the globe, +examines the heavens, and tries to understand God. With but few +exceptions, master-minds and men of affairs have been incessant +readers. Cicero, chief of Roman orators, whether at home or abroad, +in town or in the country, by day or by night, in youth or in old age, in +sorrow or in joy, was not without his books. "Petrarch, when his friend +the bishop, thinking that he was overworked, took away the key of his +library, was restless and miserable the first day, had a bad headache the +second, and was so ill by the third day that the bishop, in alarm, returned +the key and let his friend read as much as he liked." Writes Frederick the +Great, "My latest passion will be for literature." The poet, Milton, while +a child, read and studied until midnight. John Ruskin read at four years +of age, was a book-worm at five, and wrote numerous poems and dramas +before he was ten. Lord Macaulay read at three and began a compendium +of universal history at seven. Although not a lover of books, George +Washington early read Matthew Hale and became a master in thought. +Benjamin Franklin would sit up all night at his books. Thomas Jefferson +read fifteen hour a day. Patrick Henry read for employment, and kept +store for pastime. Daniel Webster was a devouring reader, and retained +all that he read. At the age of fourteen he could repeat from memory all +of Watt's Hymns and Pope's "Essay on Man." When but a youth, Henry +Clay read books of history and science and practiced giving their contents +before the trees, birds, and horses. Says a biographer of Lincoln, "A book +was almost always his inseparable companion." + +Then, read for enjoyment. Fortunately, a habit so valuable as reading +may grow to become a pleasure. So that as one is gathering useful +information and increasing in knowledge, he may have the keenest +enjoyment. Such an one sings as he works. He has learned to +convert drudgery into joy; duty has become delight. But even for +such an one a portion of his reading should be purely for rest and +recreation. If one has taught school all day, or set type, or managed +a home, or read history, or labored in the field, or been shopping, +heavy, solid reading may be out of the question, while under such +circumstances one would really enjoy a striking allegory or a well- +written novel. Or, if one is limited in knowledge, or deficient in +literary taste so that he may find no interest in history, science, +philosophy, or religion, still he may enjoy thrilling books of travel, +of biography, or of entertaining story. In this way all may enjoy +reading. "Of all the amusements which can possibly be imagined +for a hard-working man, after his daily toil, or in its intervals, there +is nothing," says Herschel, "like reading an interesting book. It +calls for no bodily exercise, of which he has had enough or too much. +It relieves his home of its dullness and sameness, which, in nine cases +out of ten, is what drives him out to the alehouse, to his own ruin and +his family's. It accompanies him to his next day's work, and, if the +book he has been reading be any thing above the very idlest and +lightest, gives him something to think of besides the mere mechanical +drudgery of his every-day occupation, something he can enjoy while +absent, and look forward with pleasure to return to." + + +WHAT TO READ. + +First of all read something. "Southey tells us that, in his walk one +stormy day, he met an old woman, to whom, by way of greeting, he +made the rather obvious remark that it was dreadful weather. She +answered, philosophically, that in her opinion, 'any weather was better +than none.'" And so we would say, excluding corrupt literature, any +reading is better than none! In this day of multiplicity of books who +who never reads may not be an ignoramus nor a fool, but certainly he +robs the world of much that is useful in character, and deprives himself +of much that enriches his own soul. Then one should select his books, +as he does his associates, and not attempt to read everything that comes +in his way. No longer may one know even a little about every thing. +It might be a mark of credit rather than an embarrassment for one to +answer, "No," to the question, "Have you read the latest book?" when +the fact is recalled that 30,000 novels have been published within the +past eighty years, and that five new ones are added to the list daily. + + +READ HISTORY. + +One has characterized history as both the background and the key to +all knowledge. No other class of reading so much as this helps one +to appreciate his own country, his own age, his own surroundings. +Extensive reading of history is a sure remedy for pessimism, prejudice, +and fanaticism. In so far as history is an accurate account of the past, +it is a true prophecy of the future for the nation and for the individual. +Who reads history knows that men always have displayed folly, +Weakness, and cruelty, and that they always will, even to their own +obvious ruin. Also he knows that every time and place have had their +few good men and women who have honored God, and whom God has +honored. Nothing so teaches a person his own insignificance and the +small part that he plays in the world as does the reading of history. Nor +is history to be found only in the book called history. If you want to +know the life of the ancients, as you know the life of your own +community, read Josephus. Do you want a glimpse of early apostolic +times, read "The Life and Times of Jesus," by Edersheim. Do you want +to see the battlefield of Waterloo, visit Paris in the beginning of the +nineteenth century, stop over night with Louis Philippe, see the English +through French spectacles, and the Frenchman through his own; do you +want a glimpse of the political despotism, court intrigue, and ecclesiastical +tyranny in France a hundred years ago; do you want to hear the crash of +the bastile, and see Notre Dame converted into a horse-stable; do you +want a picture of the "bread riots" and mob violence that terminated in +the French revolution of 1848; in short do you want a tale of French life +and character in its brightest, gloomiest, and intensest period, read "Les +Miserables," by Victor Hugo. To-day one must read current history. It +is not enough to plan, work, and economize, one must make and seize +opportunities. And this he can do only as he is alive to passing events. +In a few years one may outgrow his usefulness through losing touch +with advancing ideas and methods of work. To keep abreast of the +times one must read the newspaper and the magazine. The newspaper +is the history of the hour, the magazine is the history of the day. The +magazine corrects the newspaper, and "sums up in clear and noble +phrase those fundamental facts which are only dimly seen in the newspaper." +A serious and growing tendency is that the newspaper and magazine shall +take the place of the best books. A few minutes a day is enough for any +newspaper, and a few hours a month is enough for any magazine. The +greatest part of one's reading should be that of books. Who gormandizes +on current events will pay the price with a morbid mind and with false +conclusions in his reasoning. + + +READ BIOGRAPHY. + +The life of a great man is a continual inspiration. No other exercise +so fires a soul with noble ambition as the study of a great life. Real +life is not only stranger than fiction, but it is more interesting than +fiction. No boy should be without the life of Washington, of Lincoln, +of Webster, of Franklin. Every girl should know by heart brave +Pocahontas, sympathetic Mrs. Stowe, queenly Frances Willard, and +kind-hearted Victoria. No private library is complete without +Plutarch's "Lives," the "Life of Alfred the Great," of Napoleon, Grant, +and Gladstone. + + +READ SCIENCE. + +The fourteen-year-old child may master the practical principles of +natural philosophy, and yet how many intelligent persons remain +ignorant of the most commonplace truths in this branch of learning! +With a little attention to the natural and mechanical sciences, a new +world of beauty and truth opens up before one. He sees objects that +once were hid to him; he hears sounds that once were silent; he enjoys +odors that once retained their fragrance. His whole being becomes a +part of the living musical world about him, when he has his senses +opened to appreciate it and to become attuned to it. One should read +some science throughout his life, in order to remain at the source of +all true knowledge. Here he learns to appreciate the language of +nature. When expressed by man, this is poetry. + + +THEREFORE, READ POETRY. + +Ten minutes a day with Tennyson, Browning, Emerson, or Lowell, +will teach one a new language, by which he may converse with the +wind, talk with the birds, chat with the brook, speak with the flowers, +and hold discourse with the sun, moon, and stars. The deepest and +mightiest thoughts of all ages have been expressed in poetry, the +language of nature. "Poetry," says Coleridge, "is the blossom and +fragrance of all human knowledge, human thoughts, passions, +emotions, languages." + + +READ BOOKS OF RELIGION. + +"Religion," says Lyman Abbott, "is the life of God in the soul." +Every truly religious book treats of this life. The only purely +religious book is the Bible. It is the source and inspiration of every +other religious book. The Bible is a "letter from God to man, handed +down from heaven and written by inspired men." Its message is free +salvation for all men through Jesus Christ; its spirit is divine love. No +wise person is without this letter, and every thoughtful and devout +person reads it daily. One may never find time to follow a course of +study, nor to pursue a plan of daily reading; he may never know the +wealth of Dante, the grandeur of Milton, nor the genius of Shakespeare, +but every one may make the Bible his daily companion and guide. + + +HOW TO READ. + +Enter into what you read. No book can thrill and move one unless he +gives himself up to it. Lack of fixed attention is the cause of the +half-informed mind, the faulty reason, and the ever-failing memory. +The cause of this lack of attention may be an historical allusion of +which one is ignorant, or a new word that he fails to look up, or an +overtaxed mind, or unfavorable surroundings. Whatever may be this +hindrance it must be removed or overcome before one can enter into +what he reads. A thought is of no value until it registers itself and +takes a room in the mind. This is why we are told on every hand, +that a few books well read are worth more than many books poorly +read. The secret of Abraham Lincoln's power as a public speaker +lay in his clear reasoning, simple statement, and apt illustration. This +secret was secured by Lincoln through his habit of mastering whatever +he heard in conversation or reading. "When a mere child," says +Lincoln, "I used to get irritated when anybody talked to me in a way +I could not understand. I don't think I ever got angry at anything else +in my life. But that always disturbed my temper, and has ever since. +I can remember going to my little bedroom, after hearing the neighbors +talk of an evening with my father, and spending no small part of the +night walking up and down, trying to make out what was the exact +meaning of some of their, to me, dark sayings. I could not sleep, +though I often tried to, when I got on such a hunt after an idea, until +I had caught it, and when I thought I had got it, I was not satisfied +until I had repeated it over and over; until I had put it in language +plain enough, as I thought, for any boy I knew to comprehend. This +was a kind of passion with me, and it has stuck by me; for I am never +easy now when I am handling a thought until I have bounded it north, +and bounded it south, and bounded it east, and bounded it west." And +so to enter into what one reads, means that he will master the thought. +The most that a university can do for one is to teach him to read. Who +has learned how to read has secured a liberal education, however or +wherever he may have learned it. + +Then, one should learn to scan an author. This means to take a rapid +observation of his thoughts. Much of one's common reading matter +should be scanned. All local news, much magazine literature, and +many books should be used in this way. It is mental sloth and waste +of time to pore over a newspaper or a book of light fiction, as one +would a philosophy of history or a work of science. As Bacon aptly +puts it, "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and +some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be +read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few +to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also +may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others." One's +mind is like a horse, it soon learns its master. Feed it well, groom it +well, treat it gently, you may expect much from it. It is reported of +Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis that he has read a book a day for over +twenty years. He has learned to squeeze the thought out of a book at +a grasp, as one of us would squeeze the juice from an orange. Take +a glimpse into his library. Five hundred volumes of sociological +literature, four hundred volumes of history, two hundred of cyclopedias, +gazetteers, books of reference; four hundred volumes of pure science, +one hundred volumes of travels, two hundred and fifty volumes of +biography; one hundred volumes of art and art history; a section on +psychology, ethics, philosophy, and the relation between science and +religion, and a thousand volumes of literature, pure and simple. + + +WHEN TO READ. + +First, read at regular hours. This is for those who follow literary +pursuits. No professional person should respect himself in his work +who has no special time for reading and study, and who does not +conscientiously adhere to it. The pulpit, the law-office, the doctor's +office, the teacher, and the editor's desk, each clamors for the man, the +woman, who can think. To appreciate God and to sympathize with +the human heart; to know law and the intricate special case; to understand +disease and relief for the suffering patient; to have something to teach +and to know how to teach it even to the dullest pupil; to know human +character and to be able to enlighten the public mind and the public +conscience; all this requires in the one who serves a deep and growing +knowledge and experience which may be realized only in the grasp of +truth contained in the up-to-date and best authorized books. The use +of books with this class of persons is not optional. They must buy and +master them, or a few years at longest will relegate them with their old +books and ideas to the dusty garret where they belong. + +Then, many must read on economized time. The farmer, the mechanic, +the merchant, the shopkeeper, each may find a little time for daily reading. +Ten minutes saved in the morning, ten minutes in the afternoon, and ten +minutes in the evening, this is half hour a day. In a week this gives one +three hours and a half, in a month fourteen hours of solid reading, and +in a year one will have read seven days of twenty-four hours each. Think +of what may be accomplished in an average lifetime in common reading +by the busiest person, who really wants to read. "Schliemann," the +noted German scholar and author, "as a boy, standing in line at the +post-office waiting his turn for the mail, utilized the time by studying +Greek from a little pocket grammar." "Mary Somerfield, the astronomer, +while busy with her children in the nursery, wrote her 'Mechanism of +the Heavens,' without neglecting her duties as a mother." "Julius Caesar, +while a military officer and politician found time to write his Commentaries +known throughout the world." William Cobbett says: "I learned grammar +when I was a private soldier on a six-pence a day. The edge of my guard- +bed was my seat to study in, my knapsack was my bookcase, and a board +lying on my lap was my desk. I had no moment at that time that I could +call my own; and I had to read and write among the talking, singing, +whistling, and bawling of at least half a score of the most thoughtless of +men." Among those whom we all know who have risen out of obscurity +to eminence through a wise economy of time which they have used in +reading and study, are, Patrick Henry, Benjamin West, Eli Whitney, James +Watt, Richard Baxter, Roger Sherman, Sir Isaac Newton, and Benjamin +Franklin. + + + +VII. + +SOCIAL RECREATION. + +DEFINED. + + +The normal young person who does not dissipate is bursting with +life. The natural child is activity embodied. The healthful old person +craves exercise. Life, activity, exercise, each must have some method +of spending itself. Some normal method, some right method, some +attractive method must be chosen. By normal method we mean that +which calls into use the varied faculties and powers of the entire +being, body, mind, and heart. By right method we mean that which +does not crush out a part of one's being, while another part is being +developed. By attractive method in the use of life, activity, exercise, +we mean that which appeals to one's peculiar desires, tastes, and +circumstances, so long as these are normal and right. Some chosen +profession, trade, or work is the rightful heritage of every person. +Each man, woman, and child should know when he gets up of a +morning, what his work is for that day. Consciously, or unconsciously, +he should have some outline of work, some end in view, some goal +toward which he is stretching himself. Dr. J. M. Buckley asks: "Have +you a purpose and a plan?" And answers, "Life is worth nothing till +then." The child is in the hands of his parent, his teacher, his guardian. +These must answer to Destiny for his beginning and growth. "Satan +finds something for idle hands to do." Hence the necessity of +vigilance on the part of those who hold the young. But "all work and +no play, makes Jack a dull boy." This rule is good whether "Jack" be +a puny girl, a feeble grandfather, a hustling, responsible father, a busy +mother, or even a mischievous lad. Every person who rises each +morning, dresses himself and goes about his work as if he knew what +he were about; who has some useful work to do, and does it, sooner +or later, needs rest. True, night comes and one may rest. And sweet +is the rest of sleep; a third of one's life is passed in this way. Sancho +Panza has it right when he says: + +"Now blessing light on him that first invented sleep! It covers a man +all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; it is meat for the hungry, drink +for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot." But one craves +a recreation, a rest which work nor sleep can give. Man has a social +nature, a longing to mingle with his acquaintances and friends. Let +one be shut in with work, or sickness, or weather, for whole days at a +time, and see how hungry he gets to see some one. A recreation at a +social gathering literally makes a new being out of him. He is +recreated. It is this form of recreation that we consider here, social +recreation. + + +A NECESSITY. + +Social recreation is a necessity in a well-ordered life. As with many +other common blessings we forget its benefits. Nor are these benefits +so evident until we see the blighting result in the life of the one who, +for any reason whatsoever, has become a social recluse. We have +known a few persons who have once been in society, but who have +allowed themselves to remain away from all sorts of gatherings, for +a number of years. In every case, the result has been openly +noticeable. They have become boorish in manners, unsympathetic +in nature, and suspicious in spirit. Thus they have grown out of +harmony with the ideas and ways of those about them, have come +to take distorted and erroneous views of affairs and of men. Man is +a composite being. Many factors enter into his make-up. He lives +not only in the physical and intellectual, in the religious and social, +in a local and limited sense, but his life expands until it touches and +molds many other characters and communities besides his own. In +all of these spheres of his influence and work on needs to be sobered +down, corrected, stimulated. In no other way is this better accomplished +than through one's very contact with his fellows in the religious +gathering, among his workmen, in the political meeting, at the assembly, +in the social gathering whenever and wherever persons may see one +another and talk over common interests. + +A SPECIFIC SENSE. + +In a specific sense, by social recreation, we mean those pastimes and +pleasures which all persons, except the social recluse, enjoy as they +meet to spend an afternoon or an evening together. Now, how may +we get the largest amount of pleasure, of rest, of recreation from such +gatherings? How may we best benefit ourselves, inspire one another, +and in it all, honor God? It is no small task to accomplish these three +ends in all things, in one's life. We have agreed that some social +practices are positively bad. And we have tried to show why the +"tobacco club," the "social glass," the "card-party," the "dancing-party," +and the play-house reveries should be avoided. We have left these +forms of so-called "questionable amusements" out of our practice and +let our of our lives. To what may we turn? Where may we go? We +turn to the social gathering. + + +BUT IT MUST BE PLANNED. + +No social gathering can successfully run itself. See what forethought +and expenditure are given to make successful the "smoking-club," the +"wine-social," the "card and dancing parties," and the "theater." Not +one of these institutions thrive without thought and cost in their +management. Put the same thought and expense into the gathering +for social recreation, and you will find all of the merits of the +questionable institution and none of its demerits. No company has +larger capabilities than the mixed company at the social gathering. +Nor may any purpose be more perfectly served than the purpose of +true social recreation. Here we find those skilled in music, versed +in literature, adept at conversation; we find the practical joker, the +proficient at games, and last, but not least, those "born to serve" +tables. This variety of genius, of wit, of skill, of willingness to +serve, is laid at the altar of pleasure for the worthy purpose of making +new again the weary body, the languishing spirit, the lonely heart. +Let the right management and stimulus be given to this resourceful +company, and the hours will pass as moments, the surest sign of a +good time. + + +SOME ESSENTIALS. + +DINING, SOCIAL HOUR, GAMES. + +No social recreation is complete without dining. And yet the least +important part of this meal should be the taking of food. It is a +serious fault with the modern social that too much attention is given +to the variety and quantity of food, and not enough to merriment in +taking it. To be successful, the social company should gather as +early as possible; the first hour-and-a-half should be given to greetings +and to social levity of the brightest and wittiest sort. If one has an +ache or a pain, a care or a loss, let it be forgotten now. It is weakness +and folly continually to be under any burden. Here every one should +take a genuine release from seriousness and earnestness in weighty +and responsible affairs. Let all, except the serving committee for +this evening, take part in this strictly social hour-and-a-half. When +the late-comers have arrived and have been introduced, and the people +have moved about and met one another, almost before the company +are aware of it they are invited by the serving committee to dine. +Usually all may not be served at once. Now that the company has +been thinned out, the older persons having gone to the tables, short, +spirited games should be introduced in which every person not at +luncheon, should be given a place and a part. At this juncture it is +not best to introduce sitting-games, such as checkers, authors, caroms, +or flinch, for the contestants might be called to take refreshments at +a critical moment in the contest. With a little attention to it, appropriate +games may be introduced here that need not interfere with luncheon. +Fully half an hour should be spent at each set of tables, where at the +close of the meal, some humorous subject or subjects should be +introduced and responded to be those best fitted for such a task. +Almost any person can say something bright as well as sensible, if he +will give a little attention to it beforehand. While the second and third +tables are being served, let those retiring contest at games of skill, +converse, or take up other appropriate entertainment directed by the +everywhere present entertainment committee. By this time half-past +ten or eleven o'clock, some who are old, or who have pressing duties +on the next day may want to retire. If the serving committee have been +skillful in adjusting the time spent at each table to the number of +tables, etc., by eleven o'clock the serving shall have been completed. +Now, the young in spirit, whether old or young, expect, and should have +an hour at the newest, liveliest, and most recreative games. No part of +the evening entertainment should be allowed to drag. To insure this a +frequent change of social games is needed. + + +AVOID LATE HOURS. + +As late hours tend to produce irregularity in sleep, in meals, and in +work; and since the object of the social is recreation, the company +should retire about midnight. Oftentimes people stay and stay at +such a gathering, until the hostess, the entertaining committee, and +the people themselves are worn out. And yet, who is at fault? This +is a critical point in the modern popular social. How shall the company +disband in due season? In his "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," +Oliver Wendell Holmes gives a suggestion on this point for the +private visitor, who does not know how to go. Says Holmes: "Do +n't you know how hard it is for some people to get out of a room +when their visit is really over? They want to be off, and you want +to have them off, but they do n't know how to manage it. One would +think they had been built in your parlor or study and were waiting to +be launched. I have contrived a sort of ceremonial inclined plane for +such visitors, which being lubricated with certain smooth phrases, I +back them down, metaphorically speaking, stern-foremost, into their +'native element,' the great ocean of outdoors." There are social companies +as hard to get rid of as this. They want to go, and every one wants them +to go, but just how to make the start, no one seems to know. Dr. Holmes +and his "inclined plane" may have been successful with the private caller, +but who will be the "contriver of a ceremonial," one sufficient to land the +social company into its "native element, the great ocean of outdoors?" +No, this most delicate of the problems involved in a successful modern +social must be left to a tactful hint from the entertainment committee, +and to the wise choice of a few recognized leaders in the company. + + +NEW COMMITTEES. + +Special committees should have charge of the serving and of the +entertainment. As far as possible these should vary with each +successive social. It is an erroneous notion, prevalent in nearly +every community, that only "certain ones" can do this or that; the +consequence is that these "certain ones" do all the work, are deprived +of the true rest and relief which the social is meant to give, while +others who should take their turn, grow unappreciative, and weak in +their serving and entertaining ability. + + +THE AVERAGE SOCIAL A FAILURE. + +As it is conducted to-day, the average social is a failure. Late at +arriving, want of introductions, lack of arranged entertainment, late +hours,--all go to weaken and to dull the average young person in +place of to cultivate his wits, his special genius at music, reading, +and conversation, and to recreate him in body, mind, and spirit. To +make a success of the social gathering some one must keep in mind +the personal convenience and happiness of every person present. +When this is done and the social gathering becomes notable for the +real pleasure that it gives, then we shall be able to drive out the +"questionable amusements," because we have taken nothing from +the person, and have given him new life and interest. + + + +VIII. + +FRIENDSHIP. + +BONDS OF ATTACHMENT. + + +Each person is connected with every other person by some bond of +attachment. It may be by the steel bond of brotherhood, by the +silvern chain of religious fellowship, by the golden band of conjugal +affection, by the flaxen cord of parental or filial love, or by the silken +tie of friendship. One or more of these bonds of attachment may +encircle each person, and each bond has its varying strength, and is +capable of endless lengthening and contracting. Brotherhood is a +general term, and as it is used here, comprises the fellow-feeling that +one human being has for another, this is universal brotherhood. +Brotherhood comprises the fellow-feeling that attracts persons of the +same race, nation, or community, this is racial, national, or community +brotherhood; also, it comprises the fellow-feeling that exists between +persons of the same avocation, calling, or work, this is the brotherhood +of profession; it comprises the fellow-feeling that joins persons of the +same order or party, this is the brotherhood of order; it comprises the +fellow-feeling that joins brothers and sisters of the same home, this is +the brotherhood of family. Religious fellowship includes that spiritual +intercourse which is held between persons of the same religious faith +and practice. Conjugal affection comprises that feeling of mind and +heart which unites husband and wife. Filial and parental love exists +between parent and child. While friendship comprises that soul union +which exists between persons because of similar desires, tastes, and +sentiments. Each of these bonds of attachment has its characteristic +mark, its essential feature. The essential feature of universal brotherhood +is common origin, present struggle, and future hope; the essential feature +of racial, national, or community brotherhood is patriotism; the essential +feature of brotherhood of the order is mutual helpfulness; the essential +feature in brotherhood of the profession is common pursuit; in brotherhood +of the family, common parentage; in conjugal affection, attraction for +opposite sex; in parental and filial love, love of offspring and love of +parent; while in friendship the essential feature is harmony of natures. + + +WHAT IS FRIENDSHIP? + +No human relationship can be more beautiful, nor more abiding than +true friendship. It is a spiritual thing, a communion of souls, virtuously +exercised. How one is impressed and pleased to see another horse just +like his own, to see another dog exactly resembling his own, to meet a +person who speaks, looks, and acts like some one he has known. It is +a surprise, mingled with mystery and delight. But with what increased +surprise and delight does one meet with a "person after his own heart." +All men have recognized the strength and beauty of right self-love. +The second great law of Christ's kingdom is declared in terms of true +self-love. "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Every one loves himself, +because one's self is the truest and best of other lives filtered through +his own soul. When one finds in another that which perfectly answers +to his own soul-likings and longings, he has found another self, he has +found a friend. Friendship is the communion of such souls, although +they may be absent from one another. The highest friendship may grow +more perfectly when friends are separated, then it is unmixed with the +alloy of imperfect thought and action. Then it is nourished by the past, +for only the past buries all faults; it is encouraged by the future, for +only the future veils the awkwardness and shortcomings of the present. +The character of friendship is determined by the character of friends. +Negative personalities wanting in taste, conviction, and virtue produce +only a negative friendship. Intense personalities produce intense +friendships; noble personalities, noble friendships, and spiritual +personalities, spiritual friendship. In the true, spiritual sense, before +one can become a friend, he must become an individual. He must +stand for something in thought and purpose. If this is not true, +friendship becomes a flimsy affair. For souls to commune with one +another there must be harmony; unity, agreement of desires, sentiments, +and tastes. Not the harmony of indifference, nor a forced agreement, but +a beautiful and natural response of soul to soul. Such equipment for +friendship finds its basis only in individual character. Character is +conduct become habitual. If one spurns reason, and follows his impulse +and passion, he becomes unreliable, and does not know the issues of +his own heart and life. Who knows what such an one will do next? To +make it soar well or sail well, friendship must have ballast. This ballast +is worthy, individual character. It would be more exact to say there can +be no true friendship without individual character. Although many +elements constitute the character of the true friend, yet two elements are +essential--sincerity and tenderness. Sincerity is the soul of every virtue, +while true words, simple manners, and right actions make up the body. +If the soul of virtue is present one does not always demand the presence +of the body, but if the body of virtue is absent, one had better take a +search after the soul. If sincerity is unquestioned, words, manners, +actions have great liberty; but if words, manners and actions are +lacking in straight-forwardness, it is time to question sincerity. This +is true in all human affairs involving motive and conduct. Especially +is it true in friendship. Sincerity knows its own. By a glance it +penetrates the very heart of its true friend, and leaves translucent and +transparent its own. Sincerity gives steadfastness and constancy to +friendship. Insincerity mars and breaks friendship. Who has not +seen a soul spring into life through the love of a radiant friendship; +and then following a series of hollow pretenses, insincerities, that +friendship fails, and the beautiful creature stifles and dies. As one +tells us, "such a death is frightful, it is the asphyxia of the soul!" Then, +tenderness is an essential element in the character of a friend. Says +Emerson: "Notwithstanding all the selfishness that chills like east +winds the world, the whole human family is bathed with an element +of love, like a fine ether." With Emerson, we believe that every +person carries about with him a certain circle of sympathy within +which he, and at least one friend, may temper and sweeten life. Much +of the kindness of the world is simply breathed, and yet what an aroma +of good cheer it sheds in grateful lives. Tenderness possesses a +sensitiveness of sympathy to an extreme degree. It shrinks from the +sight of suffering. It treats others with "gentleness, delicacy, thought- +fulness, and care. It enters into feelings, anticipates wants, supplies the +smallest pleasure, and studies every comfort." Says one: "It belongs +to natures, refined as well as loving, and possesses that consideration of +which finer dispositions only are capable." Tenderness is a heart +quality. It is the luxury of a pure and intense friendship. It tempers one's +entire nature, making his whole being sympathetic with grace and favor. +It is manifest in the relaxing feature, in the penetrating glance, in the +mellowing voice, in the engracing manners, and in the complete +obliteration of time and distance, while with one's friend. We recall the +friendly visits spend with our friend, Lawrence W. Rowell, during his +medical course in Rush College, Chicago, while we were in attendance +at the Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois. Rowell was +intellectual, spirited, gifted in conversation, highly sympathetic, informed, +critical, yet charitable, a close student of human nature, a love of +philosophy, of musical temperament, of noble heart, of exalted purpose. +Our visits were kept up bimonthly throughout one year. We would spent +Saturday evening and Sunday together. Those visits revealed to me the +magnetism, intensity, and tenderness of a friend. Truly, with us time and +distance were almost completely obliterated from our consciousness. I +say distance, for we would walk together. Tenderness suits the amiable +and gentle in disposition, but it comes with a peculiar charm from the +austere nature. It is one of the stalwart virtues, and is often concealed +behind a crusty exterior. Severity and tenderness adorn the greatest lives. + + +THE TEST OF FRIENDSHIP. + +What is the uncertain mark of a friend? Have I a friend? How many +friends have I? I can invoice my stock, my goods, my land, my money, +can I invoice my friends? One may not always know the actual worth +of a friend, but he knows who are his friends, quite as well as he knows +who are his nephews and cousins. "A friend is one whom you need and +who needs you." Has one a bit of good news, he flies to his friend, he +wants to share it. Has one a sorrow, he seeks his friend who will gladly +share that. Does one meet with a defeat or victory, instantly he thinks +of his friend and of how it will effect him. Friends need one another, +as truly as the child needs its mother, or the mother her child. Is one +tempted to commit a wrong in thought or action, his friend, though +absent, appears at his side and begs him not to do it. If one is in doubt +or uncertainty, he summons his friend, who become a patient reasoner, +and an impartial judge. Who does not find himself, daily, looking +through other people's glasses, weighing on other people's scales, +sounding other people's voices? It is a habit that friends have with +one another. You can not deprive friends of one another, any more +than you can lovers. Ah, true friends are lovers of the heaven-born +sort; for their agreement is grounded in nature. They are not chosen, +they are discovered. Or, as Emerson says, they are "self-elected." + + "Friendship's an abstract of love's noble flame, + 'Tis love refined, and purged from all its dross, + 'Tis next to angel's love, if not the same, + As strong as passion in, though not so gross." + +Thus writes Catherine Phillips. + + +FRUITS OF FRIENDSHIP. + +True friendship gives ease to the heart, light to the mind, and aid to the +carrying out of one's life-purposes. First, ease to the heart. The presence +of a friend is a beam of genial sunshine which lights up the house by his +very appearance. He warms the atmosphere and dispels the gloom. The +presence of a true friend for a day, a night, a week, lifts one out of +himself, links him with new purposes, and immerses him in new joys. +Friends breathe free with one another. They inspire sighs of relief. +Embarrassment disappears; liberty reigns supreme. Hearts are like steam +boilers, occasionally, they must give vent to what is in them, or they will +burst. This is the true mission of friends, to become to one another +reserve reservoirs of "griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and +whatever lieth upon the heart to oppress it," or elate it. You recall those +familiar lines of Bacon: "This communicating of a man's self to his +friends works two contrary effects; for it redoubles joys and cutteth +griefs in halves; for there is no man that imparteth his joys to his friend, +but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his griefs to his +friends, but he grieveth the less." The following selected lines, slightly +changed, set forth this first fruit of friendship. + + "A true friend is an atmosphere + Warm with all inspirations dear, + Wherein we breathe the large free breath + Of life that hath no taint of death. + A true friend's an unconscious part + Of every true beat of our heart; + A strength, a growth, whence we derive + Soul-rest, that keeps the world alive." + +Then, friendship sheds light in the mind. "He who has made the +acquisition of a judicious and sympathetic friend," says Robert Hall, +"may be said to have doubled his mental resources." No man is wise +enough to be his own counselor, for he inclineth too much to leniency +toward himself. "It is a well-known rule that flattery is food for the +fool." Therefore no man should be his own counselor since no one is +so apt to flatter another as he is himself. A wise man never flatters +himself, neither does a friend flatter. As a wise man sees his own +faults and seeks to correct them, so a true friend sees the faults of his +friend and labors faithfully to banish them. The one who flatters you +despises you, and degrades both you and himself. An enemy will tell +you the whole truth about yourself, especially your faults, and at times +that both weaken and hurt you. A friend will tell you the whole truth +about yourself, especially your neglected virtues, but at a time to both +strengthen and help you. The highest service a friend can render is +that of giving counsel. The highest honor one can bestow upon his +friend is to make him his counselor. It is no mark of weakness to rely +upon counsel. God, Himself, needed a counselor, so he chose His Son. +"His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the +Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Isa. ix, 6. Counsel, says +Solomon, is the key to stability. "Every purpose is established by +Counsel." Prov. Xx, 18. Who despiseth counsel shall reap the reward +of folly. A friend is safe in counsel, according to his wisdom, for he +never seeks his own good, but the good of his friend. It is a saying, "If +some one asks you for advice, if you would be followed, first find out +what kind of advice is wanted, then give that." But this is not the way +of a friend. He has in mind the welfare of the friend and the cause his +friend serves. Honor does not require that one shall follow the advise +of his friend, rather liberty in this is a mark of freedom and trust +between friends. + +A friend aids one in the carrying out of his life purposes. Who is it +that helps one to places of honor and usefulness? It is his friend. Who +is it that recognizes one's true worth, extols his virtues, and gives tone +and quality to the diligent services of months and years? It is his +friend. Who is it, when one ends his life in the midst of an unfinished +book, or with loose ends of continued research in philosophy or science +all about him; who is it that gathers up these loose ends and puts in order +the unfinished work? It is his friend. Who is it that stands by the open +tomb of that fallen saint or hero and relates to the world his deeds of +sacrifice and courage which spurn others on to nobler living and thereby +perpetuates his goodness and valor? Who does this, if it is done? It is +his friend. A friend thus becomes not only a completion of one's soul +as he is by virtue of being a friend, but also he becomes a completion +of one's life. Then, one's relation to his fellowmen is a limited +relationship. He may speak, but upon certain subjects, on certain +occasions, and to certain persons. As Francis Bacon says, "A man can +not speak to his son but as a father; to his wife but as a husband; to his +enemy but upon terms; whereas a friend may speak as the case requires, +and not as it sorteth with the person....I have given the rule," says he, +"where a man can not fitly play his own part, if he have not a friend, he +may quit the stage." + + +HOW TO GET AND KEEP A FRIEND. + +A real friend is discovered, or made. First, discovered. Two persons +notice an attraction for one another. They see that their desires are +similar, they have the same sentiments, they agree in tastes. A feeling +of attachment becomes conscious with each of them, slight association +fosters this feeling, it increases. New associations but reveal a broader +agreement, a closer union, a perfecter harmony. The signs of friendship +appear. Heart and mind of each respond to the other, they are friends. +This is the noblest friendship. It has its origin in nature. It is, as H. Clay +Trumbull says: "Love without compact or condition; it never pivots on +an equivalent return of service or of affection. Its whole sweep is away +from self and toward the loved one. Its desire is for the friend's welfare; +its joy is in the friend's prosperity; its sorrows and trials are in the +friend's misfortunes and griefs; its pride is in the friend's attainments +and successes; its constant purpose is in doing and enduring for the +friend." + +Then, friends are made. Two persons do not especially attract one +another. But, through growth of character, modification of nature, or +change in desires, sentiments, and tastes, they become attracted to each +other. Or in spite of natural disagreements or differences, through the +force of circumstances they become welded together in friendship. +Montaigne describes such an attachment, in which the souls mix and +work themselves into one piece with so perfect a mixture that there is +no more sign of a seam by which they were first conjoined. Says +Euripedes: + + "A friend + Wedded into our life is more to us + Than twice five thousand kinsman one in blood." + +Such was the friendship of Ruth and Naomi. Orpha loved Naomi, kissed +her, and returned satisfied to her early home; but Ruth cleaved unto her, +saying: + + "Entreat me not to leave thee, + And to return from following after thee: + For whither thou goest, I will go; + Where thou lodgest, I will lodge: + Thy people shall be my people, + And thy God my God: + Where thou diest, will I die, + And there will I be buried: + The Lord do so to me, and more also, + If aught but death part thee and me." + +The keeping of a friend like the keeping of a fortune, lies in the getting, +although in friendship much depends upon circumstances of association. +However subtle may be the circumstances which bring friends together, +or whatever natural agreement may exist between their natures, still +there is always a conscious choosing of friends. In this choosing lies the +secret of abiding friendship. Young says: + + "First on thy friend deliberate with thyself; + Pause, ponder, sift: not eager in the choice, + Nor jealous of the chosen; fixing fix; + Judge before friendship, then confide till death." + +Steadfastness and constancy such as this seldom loses a friend. + +Last of all, abiding friendship is grounded in virtue. Says a famed +writer on Friendship: "There is a pernicious error in those who think +that a free indulgence in all lusts and sins is extended in friendship. +Friendship was given us by nature as the handmaid of virtues and not +as the companion of our vices. It is virtue, virtue I say . . . that both +wins friendship and preserves it." And closing his remarks on this +immortal subject, Cicero causes Laelius to say: "I exhort you to lay +the foundations of virtue, without which friendship can not exist, in +such a manner, that with this one exception, you may consider that +nothing in the world is more excellent than friendship." + + + +IX. + +TRAVEL. + +A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. + + +We have set in order some facts, incidents, and lessons gathered from +a hasty trip to the old country during the summer of 1899. The journey +was made in company with Rev. C.F. Juvinall, for four years my room- +mate and fellow-student, and my estimable friend. On Wednesday, +June 21st, we sailed from Boston Harbor; reached Liverpool, England, +Saturday morning the 1st of July; visited this second town in the British +kingdom; stopped over at the old town of Chester; took a run out to +Hawarden Estate, the home of Gladstone; changed cars at Stratford-on- +Avon and visited the tomb of Shakespeare; staid a half day and a night +in the old university town of Oxford, and reached London on the evening +of July 4th. Having spent a week in London, we crossed the English +Channel to Paris; remained there two days, then made brief visits to the +battlefield of Waterloo, to Brussels, Amsterdam, Hull, Sheffield, Dublin, +and back to Liverpool. We sailed to Boston and returned to Chicago by +way of Montreal and Detroit, having spent forty-nine days--the +intensest and delightfullest of our lives. At first, we hesitated to treat +this subject from a point of view of personal experience, but since it +is our purpose to incite in others the love for and the right us of all +helpful resources of happiness and power, it seemed to us that we could +no better accomplish our purpose with respect to this subject than to +recount our own observations from this one limited, imperfect journey. + + +AN EYE-OPEN AND EAR-OPEN EXPERIENCE. + +One is always at a disadvantage in relating the faults of others, for he +seems to himself and to his friends to be telling his own experience. We +were about to speak of the superficial way in which Americans travel. +One who has traveled much says that "the average company of American +tourists goes through the Art Galleries of Europe like a drove of cattle +through the lanes of a stock-market." Nor is it the art gallery and museum +alone that is done superficially. How many persons before entering +grand old Notre Dame, or the British Houses of Parliament, pause to +admire the elaborate and expansive beauty of the great archways and +outer walls? It is possible to live in this world, to travel around it, to +touch at every great port and city, and yet fail to see what is of value +or of interest. A man on our boat going to Liverpool, said that he had +traveled over the world, had been in London many a time, but had not +taken the pains to go into St. Paul's, nor to visit the Tower of London. +A wise man, a seer, is one who sees. It is possible to live in this world, +and not to leave one's own dooryard, and yet to possess the knowledge +of the world, and to tell others how to see. Louis Agassiz, the scientist, +was invited by a friend to spend the summer with him abroad. Mr. +Agassiz declined the gracious offer on the ground that he had just +Planned a summer's tour through his own back yard. What did Agassiz +find on that tour? Instruction for the children of many generations, a +treatise on animal life, and later a text-book of Zoology. Kant, the +philosopher, the greatest mind since Socrates, was never forty miles +from his birthplace. On the other hand, Grant Allen, author, scholar, +and traveler, says: "One year in the great university we call Europe, +will teach one more than three at Yale or Columbia. And what it +teaches one will be real, vivid, practical, abiding . . . ingrained in +the very fiber of one's brain and thought. . . . He will read deeper +meaning thenceforward in every picture, every building, every book, +every newspaper. . . . If you want to know the origin of the art of +building, the art of painting, the art of sculpture, as you find them +to-day in contemporary America, you must look them up in the +churches, and the galleries of early Europe. If you want to know +the origin of American institutions, American law, American thought, +and American language, you must go to England; you must go farther +still to France, Italy, Hellas, and the Orient. Our whole life is bound +up with Greece and Rome, with Egypt and Assyria." But whatever +advantage travel may afford for broad and intense study, whatever +be its superior processes of refinement and learning, yet it is well +to remember this, that at any place and at any time one may open +his eyes and his ears, his heart and his reason, and find more than +he is able to understand and a heart to feel! You can not limit God +to the land nor to the sea, to one country nor to one hemisphere. +Thus the kind of travel of which we speak is the eye-open and ear- +open sort. + +Let us note first, then, that travel is a study of history at the spot +where the event took place. The history of a nation is a record of +its great men. You tell a faithful story of Columbus, John Cabot, +and Henry Hudson; of Winthrop, John Smith, and Melendez; of +General Wolfe, General Washington, Patrick Henry, and Franklin; +of Jefferson, Adams, Jackson, and Webster; of Abraham Lincoln, +Wendell Phillips, John Brown, and General Grant; of John Sherman, +Grover Cleveland, and William McKinley, and you an up-to-date +history of the young American Republic, acknowledged by every +country to have the greatest future of all nations. So, if one reads +with understanding the inscriptions on the monuments of Gough, +O'Connell, and Parnell, he will get the story of the struggles of the +Irish. Enter London Tower, "the most historical spot in England," +and recount the bloody tragedies of the English people since the +time of William the Conqueror, 1066 A.D. Here we have a "series +of equestrian figures in full equipment, as well as many figures on +foot, affording a faithful picture, in approximate chronological +order, of English war-array from the time of Edward I, 1272, down +to that of James II, 1688." In glass cases, and in forms of trophies +on the walls, we find arms and armor of the old Romans, of the +early Greeks, and Britons, and of the Anglo-Saxons. Maces and +axes, long and cross bows and leaden missile weapons and shields, +highly adorned with metal figures, all tend to make more vivid the +word-pictures of the historian." Of the small burial-ground in this +Tower, Macaulay writes: "In truth there is no sadder spot on earth +than this little cemetery. Death is there associated, not, as in +Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's, with genius and virtue, with +public veneration, and with imperishable renown; not, as in our +humblest churches and church-yards, with every thing that is most +endearing in social and domestic charities; but with whatever is +darkest in human nature and in human destiny, with the savage +triumph of implacable enemies, with the inconstancy, the ingratitude, +the cowardice of friends, with all the miseries of fallen greatness and +of blighted fame." We note a few names chiseled here: Sir Thomas +More, beheaded 1535; Anne Boleyn, beheaded in this tower, 1536; +Thomas Cromwell, beheaded, 1540; Margaret Pole, beheaded here, +1541; Queen Catharine Howard, beheaded, 1542; Lady Jane Grey +and her husband, beheaded here, 1544; Sir Thomas Overbudy, +poisoned in this tower, 1613. Since travel is a study of history at +the spot where the event took place, let us cross the rough and famed +English Channel to visit one of the many noted spots of France. We +select the site of the Hotel de Ville or the town-hall of Paris. "The +construction of the old hall was begun in 1533, and was over seventy +years in its completion. Additions were made, and the building was +reconstructed in 1841. This has been the usual rallying site of the +Democratic party for centuries. Here occurred the tragedy of St. +Bartholomew in 1572; here mob-posts, gallows, and guillotines +did the work of a despotic misrule until 1789. (As we left for +Brussels on the evening of the 13th of July, all Paris was gayly +decorated with red, white, and blue bunting, ready to celebrate the +event of July 14, 1789, the fall of the Bastile.) On this date, 110 +years ago, the captors of the Bastile marched into this noted hall. +Three days later Louis XVI came here in procession from Versailles, +followed by a dense mob." Here Robespierre attempted suicide to +avoid arrest, when five battalions under Barras forced entrance to +assault the Commune party, of which Robespierre was head. Here, +in 1848, Louis Blanc proclaimed the institution of the Republic of +France. This was a central spot during the revolution of 1871. The +leaders of the Commune party place in this building barrels of +gunpowder, and heaps of combustibles steeped in petroleum, and on +May 25th they succeeded in destroying with it 600 human lives. A +new Hotel de Ville, one of the most magnificent buildings in Europe, +has replaced the old hall. This is open to visitors at all hours. To +study history at the spot where the event took place means work as +well as pleasure, so we took our luncheon and sleep in our car while +the train carried us to Brussels, and out to Braine-l'Alleud, where, on +the beautiful rolling plain of Belgium, June 18, 1805, Napoleon +Bonaparte met his Waterloo, and Wellington became England's idol. + +A railway baggageman was on our train returning to his home in +Cleveland, Ohio. In conversation, he said: "I have been with this +company for twenty-two years; have drawn two dollars a day, 365 +days in the year for that time, and I haven't a dollar in the world, but +one, and I gave it yesterday for a dog. But," said he, "I have a good +woman and the greatest little girl in the world, so I am happy." This +is one of a large class of persons who receive fair wages all their lives, +and yet die paupers, because they plan to spend all they make as they +go along. In conversation with a gruff, old Dutch conductor between +Albany and New York City, I ventured to ask him if he had ever +crossed the ocean. "No," he said, "nopody eber crosses de ocean, bud +emigrants, and beoble vat hab more muney dan prains." + +Travel is a study of religious institutions. Among the most interesting +in Europe, that we visited, are Wesley's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, +St. Paul's Cathedral, and Notre Dame. The Church of Notre Dame, +situated in the heart of Paris on the bank of the Seine, was founded +1163 on the site of a church of the fourth century. The building has +been altered a number of times. In 1793 it was converted into a temple +of reason. The statue of the Virgin Mary was replaced by one of +Liberty. Busts of Robespierre, Voltaire, and Rosseau were erected. +This church was closed to worship 1794, but was reopened by Napoleon +1802. It was desecrated by the Communards 1811, when the building +was used as a military depot. The large nave, 417 feet long, 156 feet +wide, and 110 feet high, is the most interesting portion of this massive +structure. The vaulting of this great nave is supported by seventy-five +huge pillars. The pulpit is a masterpiece of modern wood-carving. The +choir and sanctuary are set off by costly railings, and are beautifully +adorned by reliefs in wood and stone. The organ, with 6,000 pipes, is +one of the finest in Europe. "The choir has a reputation for plain song." +On a small elevation, in the center of London, stand the Cathedral of +St. Paul's, the most prominent building in the city. From remains found +here it is believed that a Christian Church occupied this spot in the times +of the Romans, and that it was rebuilt by King Ethelbert, 610 A.D. Three +hundred years later this building was burned, but soon it was rebuilt. +Again it was destroyed by fire, 1087, and a new edifice begun which was +200 years in completion. This church, old St. Paul's, was 590 feet long, +and had a leaden-covered, timber spire, 460 feet high. In 1445 this +spire was injured by lightning, and in 1561 the building was again burned. +Says Mr. Baedeker, whose guidebook is indispensable in the hands of a +traveler, "Near the cathedral stood the celebrated Cross of St. Paul, where +sermons were preached, papal bulls promulgated, heretics made to recant, +and witches to confess, and where the pope's condemnation of Luther was +proclaimed in the presence of Woolsey." Here is the burial place of a +long list of noted persons. Here occurred Wyckiff's citation for heresy, +1337; and here Tyndale's New Testament was burned, 1527. It was +opened for divine services, 1697, and was completed after thirteen years +of steady work, at a cost of three and a half millions of dollars. This sum +was raised by a tax on coal. The church is in the form of a Latin cross, +500 feet long, with the transept 250 feet in length. "The inner dome is +225 feet high, the outer, from the pavement to the top of the cross, is 364 +feet. The dome is 102 feet in diameter, thirty-seven feet less than St. +Peter's. St. Paul's is the third largest church in Christendom, being +surpassed only by St. Peter's at Rome." Three services are held here +daily. The religion of Notre Dame is Roman Catholic, but that of St. +Paul's and Westminster is of the Church of England. What shall we say +of Westminster Abbey, the most impressive place of all our travel! As +my friend and I entered here and took our seats for divine worship, +preparatory to visiting her halls, and chapels, and tombs, I think I was +never more deeply impressed. I said to myself, "What does God mean +to allow me to worship here?" and I seemed to realize how little my +past life had been. I felt that circumstances and not I myself had +thrust this new privilege, and thereby new responsibility, upon me. +Westminster Abbey! A church for the living, a burial-place for the +honored dead; a monument to genius, labor, and virtue; England's +"temple of fame;" the most solemn spot in Europe, if not in the world! +Here lie authors, benefactors, and poets; statesmen, heroes, and rulers, +the best of English blood since Edward the Confessor, 1049 A.D. We +must now leave this sacred spot to visit, if possible for us, a more +sacred one, the birthplace of Methodism, or more accurately speaking, +in the words of Bishop Warren, the "cradle of Methodism." + +On City Road, London, near Liverpool Street Station, is located the +house, chapel, burial-grounds, and tomb of John Wesley. Across the +street, in an old Nonconformist cemetery, are the graves of James +Watt, Daniel Defoe, and John Bunyan. Across the narrow street to +the north is the tabernacle of Whitefield. We learned that Friday, +July 7th, was reopening day for Wesley's Chapel. What a distinguished +body of persons we found at this meeting! Dr. Joseph Parker was the +speaker of the day. The Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, president of the +Conference, presided at the memorial services. Rev. Westerdale, +present pastor, successfully managed the program of the day, especially +the collections, for he met the expense of the rebuilding and past +indebtedness with the sum of over fifteen thousand dollars. He told +those discouraged ministers with big audiences to go and take courage +from what the mother-church, with her small number of poor +parishioners, had done. In the evening, Bishop Warren, on his return +to America, called in and gave an interesting talk. He was followed +by Fletcher Moulton, member of Parliament. You may not realize the +feeling of gratitude with which we took part in this eventful service of +praise, prayer, and rededication! On the next day we returned to see +the books, furniture, and apartments of Wesley, himself. We sat at his +writing desk, stood in his death-chamber, and lingered in the little room +where he used to retire at four in the morning for secret prayer. From +here he would go directly to his preaching service at five. Wesley put +God first in his life, this is why men honor him so much now that he +is gone. We took a farewell view of the audience-room from the very +pulpit into which Wesley ascended to preach his Good News of Christ. +From the several inscriptions on Wesley's tomb, we copied the following +one: "After having languished a few days, he at length finished his +course and life together. Gloriously triumphing over death, March the +2nd, Anno Domine, 1791, in the eighty-eight year of his age." + +In Liverpool, on the day of our arrival, July 1st, an old, gray-haired man +was shining my shoes. He observed that I was from across the water, +and that an Englishman can readily tell a Yankee. He began to praise +America. He said that Uncle Sam was only a child yet, that America +was destined to be the greatest country in the world; that her trouble +with Spain was only a bickering; that the present engagement was only +his maiden warfare, and that he "walked along like a streak of lightning." + +Saturday evening, July 8th, witnessed the greatest military parade in +London for thirty years. The Prince of Wales reviewed twenty-seven +thousand London volunteers. Early in the morning citizens from all +over England began to gather in front of the English barracks, and at +the east end of Hyde Park. By two o'clock in the afternoon hundreds +of thousands had packed the streets and dotted the parks and lawns, +until, in every direction one could witness a sea of faces. After the +royal and military procession began, the patient Johnnies, with their +sisters, sweethearts, wives, mothers, grandmothers, and great-grand- +mothers, stood for five hours to see it go by. The Englishman does +not tire when he is honoring his country. At the close of this parade +we dropped into a barbershop for a shave. The gentleman seemed to +understand that I was a long ways from home. "You fellows," I said, +"can tell us as far as you can see us." "Yes," said he, "by your shoes, +your hat, your coat, your tongue, and even by your face. We can tell +you by the way you spit. A spittoon here, pointing about ten feet away, +give a Yankee two trials, he will hit it every time." + +Travel is a study of the genius of man as shown in architecture, in +sculpture, and in painting. Ninety-seven plans were submitted for +the Houses of Parliament, including Westminster Hall. That of Sir +Charles Barry was selected, and the present imposing structure was +built, covering eight acres, at a cost of $15,000,000. The style is +perpendicular (Gothic), with carvings, intricate in detail and highly +picturesque. The building faces the river with a 940 feet front, but +her three magnificent square-shaped towers rise over her street front. +The clock tower at the northwest corner is 318 feet high, the middle +tower is 300 feet, and the southwest, or Victorian tower, is 340 feet +high. The large clock with its four dials, each twenty-three feet in +diameter, requires five hours for winding the striking parts. The +striking bell of the clock tower is one of the largest known; it weighs +thirteen tons, and can be heard, in favorable weather, over the greater +portion of London. One never tires in looking at this noble building. +It is appropriately adorned inside and out with elaborate carvings, +statuary, and paintings. Here are located the Chamber of Peers, the +House of Commons, and numerous royal apartments, lavishly fitted +up to be in keeping with the office and dignity of the building. + +Crystal Palace, situated about eight miles southeast of St. Paul's, +consists entirely of glass and iron. Its main hall, or nave, is 1,608 +feet long, with great cross sections, two aisles, and numerous lateral +sections. The two water towers at the ends are each 282 feet high. +If you were at the World's Fair in Chicago, and visited the Transportation +Building, you may imagine something of the magnitude and beauty of +Crystal Palace, with her orchestra, concert hall, and opera-house; with +her fountains, library, and school of art; with her museums, gardens, +and arenas; with her parks, panoramas, and her numerous exhibits of +nature and art. Near the center of the palace "is the great Handel +Orchestra, which can accommodate 4,000 persons, and has a diameter +twice as great as the dome of St. Paul's. In the middle is the powerful +organ with 4,384 pipes, built at a cost of $30,000, and worked by +hydraulic machinery. An excellent orchestra plays here daily." The +concert-hall on the south side of the stage can accommodate an +audience of 4,000. An excellent orchestra plays here daily. "On each +side of the great nave are rows of courts, containing in chronological +order, copies of the architecture and sculpture of the most highly +civilized nations, from the earliest period to the present day." The +gardens of Crystal Palace cover two hundred acres, and are beautifully +laid out "with flowerbeds, shrubberies, fountains, cascades, and +statuary." "Two of the fountain basins have been converted into sport +arenas, each about eight and one-half acres in extent." Nine other +fountains, with electric light illuminations, play on fireworks nights +and on other special occasions. It is common for 15,000 visitors to +attend these Thursday night firework exhibits. Colored electric light +jets deck the fountains, flower-beds, and halls. Crystal Palace was +designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, and cost seven and a half million of +dollars. Well may it be called London's Paradise. + +Shall we say that the greatest piece of constructive architecture of any +country is that of Eiffel Tower! Situated on the left bank of the Seine +River, it overlooks Paris and the country for fifty miles around. + +In its construction, iron caissons were sunk to a depth of forty-six feet +on the river side, and twenty-nine and one-half on the other side. When +the water was forced out of these caissons by means of compressed air, +"concrete was poured in to form a bed for four massive foundation +piers of masonry, eighty-five feet thick, arranged in a square of 112 +yards. Upon this base which covers about two and a half acres rises +the extraordinary, yet graceful structure of interlaced ironwork" to a +height of 984 feet. Eight hundred persons may be accommodated on +the top platform at once. It was completed within two years' time, +and is the highest monument in the world. Washington monument +ranks second, being 555 feet high. From the summit of Eiffel Tower +one may secure a good view of Paris, her public buildings, chief hills, +parks, and boulevards, monuments, and embankments. An imitation +of Trajan's column in Rome, is 142 feet in height, and thirteen feet in +diameter. It is constructed of masonry, encrusted with plates of bronze, +forming a spiral band nearly 300 yards in length, on which are represented +the "battle scenes of Napoleon during his campaign of 1805, and down to +the battle of Austerlitz. The figures are three feet in height and many of +them are portraits. The metal was obtained by melting down 1,200 +Russian and Austrian cannons. At the top is a statue of Napoleon in his +Imperial robes. This column reflects the political history of France." +The design sculptor is Bergeret. For their antiquity the mummies and +statues in the Egyptian galleries of the British Museum are very +interesting. They embrace the period from 3600 years before Christ to +350 A.D. "The tomb of Napoleon by Visconte," and "the twelve colossal +victories surrounding the sarcophagus by Pradier," are among the finest +works of Parisian sculpture. The sarcophagus, thirteen feet long, six +and one-half feet high, consists of a single huge block of reddish-brown +granite, weighing upwards of sixty-seven tons, brought as a gift from +Finland at a cost of $700,000. The Louvre, Paris, contains one of the +finest art galleries in Europe, and with the Tuilleries, covers about eight +acres, "forming one of the most magnificent places in the world." + +In our limited experience at travel we have yet to find a single object of +beauty or utility that is not the product of skill, of genius, of great labor. +Every monument bears testimony of struggle, of bloodshed, of hard- +earned victory; beneath every tomb that honor has erected rests the body +of incarnate intelligence, fidelity, and courage. In the shadow of every +great cathedral lies collected the moth and rust from the coppers of +myriad-handed toilers of five and ten centuries. The towers and domes +of London, and Paris, and Amsterdam, and Dublin are monuments to +the genius of the architect and to the faithfulness of the common toiler. +The parks and gardens tell of centuries of wise and faithful application +of the laws of growth, of symmetry, of design in form and color. The +historic chapels of worship and learning breathe the very incense of +devotion and reverence for truth; while the conservatories of sculpture +and painting preserve what is divinest in human experience. Age alone +can produce a great man or a great nation. Decades for the man and +centuries for the nation; these are the measuring periods for real +achievement. But all this is on the human side. Correggio and Titian +in painting; Bacon and Bailey in sculpture; Raphael and Michael Angelo +in sculpture and painting; and Sir Christopher Wren in architecture,-- +the works of art of such as these elevate and purify one's thought and +feeling. But the profoundest impressions that come to one from travel, +come alone from the works of nature. The Crystal Palace in London +can not compare in glory with the crystal ripples of a mid-ocean scene. +The botannical gardens of the Tuilleries in Paris do not stir the soul as +does the splendor of the Welsh mountains. The rockery plants of Phoenix +Park, Dublin, are insignificant compared with growths of ferns and moss +On the rock ledges of Bray's Head, south of Dublin. No panorama that +man has painted can equal the scene of Waterloo battle-field, observed +from the earthen mound near the fatal ravine. So, we shall always find +it true, that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so the thoughts of +God are higher than the thoughts of man, and his ways than man's ways. + + +X. + +HOME AND THE HOME-MAKER. + +WHAT IS HOME? + + +"RECENTLY a London magazine sent out 1,000 inquiries on the +question, "What is home?" In selecting the classes to respond to the +question it was particular to see that every one was represented. The +poorest and the richest were given an equal opportunity to express +their sentiment. Out of eight hundred replies received, seven gems +were selected as follows: + + "Home--A world of strife shut out, a world of love shut in. + "Home--The place where the small are great and the great are +small. + "Home--The father's kingdom, the mother's world, and the +child's paradise. + "Home--The place where we grumble the most and are treated +the best. + "Home--The center of our affection, round which our heart's +best wishes twine. + "Home--The place where our stomachs get three square meals +daily and our hearts a thousand. + "Home--The only place on earth where the faults and failings +of humanity are hidden under the sweet mantle of charity." + +Dr. Talmage defines home, as "a church within a church, a republic +within a republic, a world within a world." Dr. Banks writes, "It is +not granite walls, or gaudy furniture, or splendid books, or soft carpets, +or delicious viands that can make a home. All of these may be present, +and yet it be only a dungeon, if the great simplicities are not there." +Sings one: + + "Home's not merely roof and room, + Needs it something to endear it. + Home is where the heart can bloom, + Where there's some kind heart to cheer it. + + Home's not merely four square walls, + Though with pictures hung and gilded, + Home is where affection calls, + Filled with charms the heart hath builded. + + Home! Go watch the faithful dove + Sailing 'neath the heavens above us, + Home is where there's one to love, + Home is where there's one to love us." + +We believe the five sweetest words in the English language to the +largest number of persons--words which carry with them intrinsic +meaning and blessing are these: "Jesus," "Mother," "Music," "Heaven," +"Home." "Twenty thousand people gathered in the old Castle Garden, +New York, to hear Jennie Lind sing. After singing some of the old +masters, she began to pour forth 'Home, Sweet Home.' The audience +could not stand it. An uproar of applause stopped the music. Tears +gushed from thousands like rain. The word 'home' touched the fiber +of every soul in that immense throng." In an early spring day, when +the warm sun began to invite one to bask in his rays, my wife, delicate +in health, lay drowsing on some boards near the house. The large +garden spot spread out to the rear of her; a beautiful grassy lawn +carpeted round a deserted house, granary, and shop-building in front of +her. She was living over her girlhood days. She thought she was in the +old home orchard, where she used to doze, dream, and play. The songs +of the birds seemed the same; the same gentle breezes played with her +hair; the same passers-by jogged along the roadside; the same family +horse nibbled the tender grass in the barnyard. How sad, and yet how +sweet are the memories of early days! The tender associations of home +never leave one, however roughly the coarse hand of time would tear +them away. It is because home means love that its associations and +lessons remain. + + +ESSENTIALS TO A HAPPY HOME. + +Although home means love, yet love alone may not insure happiness. +In addition to love, without which a true home can not exist, we select +four essential requisites to make home life useful and happy. These +are intelligence, unselfishness, attractiveness, and religion. + +First, Intelligence. Much of the misery of the world in individual and +family life is due to gross ignorance. Once the father of a family said +to me, "We did not get our mail to-day, I miss my reading." Knowing +the man we were surprised at such a remark, and ventured to ask him +what papers he took. A list of ten or a dozen papers was named. All +of them were newspapers. One was a general daily, two were local +dailies, and the rest were local weekly papers. No intelligent person +would have carried over three of those papers from the post-office. +This man spent hours upon a class of reading that should be finished +with a few minutes each day. In this same family the mother told me +that she had never rode on a railway train, and that she had never been +outside of her own county. This is an exceptional case, but it illustrates +how that ignorance makes thrift and happiness impossible in a home, +neither of which belong to this family. Here every law of health is +violated, foresight in providing for the physical comforts of the home +is wanting; little attention is given to the education of the children; no +sacrifices to-day enrich to-morrow; life is a humdrum, a routine, a +dread, with no exuberance, joy, or hope. In time, such a life leads to +failure and gloom, to secret, then to open vice, and to a final shipwreck +of the home and of the individual. In a similar yet in a less marked way, +the career of many a home is ended. No one may be directly to blame, +but want of common knowledge and common wit have set a limit +beyond which such a family may not go. The intelligent family has +some sort of a history which it is their privilege and duty to perpetuate. +Members of the intelligent family are moral sponsors for one another, +the mother for the daughters, the father for the sons, the brothers and +sisters for one another. They find their own best interests in the interests +of one another. The intelligent family is not superstitious. They act upon +the wisdom of the ancient poet, "every one is the architect of his own +fortune." They look to cause and condition for results. They spell "luck" +with a "p" before it. The intelligent farmer plants his crop in the ground, +rather than in the moon, and looks for his harvest to the seed and the +toil. The intelligent merchant locates his business on the street of largest +travel and makes the buying of his goods his best salesman. The intelligent +man of letters thrives at first by making friends of poverty and want, until +one day his genius places his name in the temple of honor. So it is with the +artist, the musician, the inventor, the architect. To be happy and useful +in one's lot, one must know something of the sphere in which he lives and +works, of its practical wisdom, and must be prepared to live, or glad to +die for the cause he serves. No indolent, superstitious, or ignorant family +need look for abiding happiness nor expect to be permanently useful. + +Then unselfishness is essential to happy home life. It is a serious +matter for two persons, even when they are naturally mated, to +undertake to live together in peace and harmony. It is a more serious +matter when they are not naturally mated. It is more serious still +when children enter the home, for they bring with them conflicting +tendencies, dispositions, and wills. Often have we wondered how it +is that families get on as well together as they do when we have +considered, what natural differences exist between them, and what +little teaching and discipline have been used to harmonize these +differences. An harmonious home is truly begun in the parental +homes of the husband and wife. Two persons may be perfectly +suited to one another, and yet they may be selfish in wanting their +own way. As one grows up, if he is allowed to have his own way +regardless of the rights and privileges of others, he becomes a +selfish person, and his parents are to blame. A selfish person in the +home plans for his own comfort, decides and acts as he wishes, and +seeks to satisfy his own desires. He does not take into consideration +the plans, wishes, and desires of other members of the family. It is +understood that his authority is supreme. Not one member of the +family dreams of expressing dissent to his dominion. A so-called +peace of this sort is not uncommon among families. This supreme +authority may be vested in husband, or wife, or in one or all of the +children. A forced peace of this kind is worse than rebellion and is +as bad as open war. How can any persons be so presumptuous as to +think that any person, or a number of persons, exist solely for his +comfort and advantage! Let two such selfish persons get together, +a permanent riot is assured. Unselfishness in the home means +thoughtfulness, discipline, self-control. Each child is taught the +rights and privileges of others as well as his own. When two +unselfish persons join their lives there begins a holy and beautiful +rivalry in seeking the rights and privileges of one another. The very +atmosphere of such a home is deference, respect, and love. As the +stranger, the neighbor, the friend, comes and goes, he catches the +spirit of it and carries it with him into his own and other homes. +Children born into such a home early imbibe its spirit, and, O, the +inspiration one receives from going into that family circle! No +home-life can be an inspiration and a blessing where selfishness is +allowed to reign. Nor can it be useful and happy. + +Ella Wheeler Wilcox describes a selfish, though a kind and loving +husband: + + +THEIR HOLIDAY. + +THE WIFE: + +Our house is like a garden-- + The children are the flowers, +The gardener should come, methinks, + And walk among his bowers. +So lock the door of worry, + And shut your cares away, +Not time of year, but love and cheer, + Will make a holiday. + +THE HUSBAND: + +Impossible! You women do not know, +The toil it takes to make a business grow: +I can not join you until very late, +So hurry home, nor let the dinner wait. + +THE WIFE: + +The feast will be like Hamlet, + Without the Hamlet part; +The home is but a house, dear, + Till you supply the heart. +The Christmas gift I long for + You need not toil to buy; +O, give me back one thing I lack: + The love-light in your eye. + +THE HUSBAND: + +Of course I love you, and the children, too. +Be sensible, my dear. It is for you +I work so had to make my business pay; +There, now, run home, enjoy your holiday. + +THE WIFE, TURNING AWAY: + +He does not mean to wound me, + I know his heart is kind, +Alas, that men can love us, + And be so blind--so blind! +A little time for pleasure, + A little time for play, +A word to prove the life of love + And frighten care away-- +Though poor my lot, in some small cot, + That were a holiday. + + +To preserve the family circle, the home must be made attractive. No +amount of practical wisdom, of Puritanic piety, nor mere kindly +treatment will hold a family of children together until they are strong +enough to resist the temptations of the world. The home must be made +more attractive than the street or places of amusement. The average +boy or girl who loses interest in home and uses it chiefly as an eating +and sleeping place, does so with good reasons. Home has lost its +charm. No provision is made for his pastime and pleasure. Not +finding this at home he will go elsewhere in search of it. "An +unattractive home," says one, "is like the frame of a harp that stands +without strings. In form and outline, it suggests music, but no melody +arises from the empty spaces; and thus it is an unattractive home, is +dreary and dull." How may home be made attractive? We have +presupposed a certain amount of education and culture in the home +by maintaining for it intelligence and unselfishness. Any home that +is intelligent and unselfish is capable of being made attractive. In +the first place, in as far as it is practicable, each member of the family +should have a room of his own and be taught how to make it attractive. +Here, one will hang his first pictures, start his own library, provide a +writing desk, and learn to spend his spare moments. Recently we +visited a home in Chicago. The rooms are few in number and hired. +The family consists of father, mother, and three children, now grown. +During our short stay in the home I was invited into the boys' room. +The walls are literally covered with original pencil designs, queer +calendars, odd pictures; the dresser and stand are lined with books +and magazines, with worn-out musical instruments, art gifts from +other members of the family, and ball-team pictures, while two lines +of gorgeous decorations stretch from wall to wall. This is still these +young men's little world, their interests have centered here. No less +than five kinds of musical instruments were visible in this home. The +walls of the living room and parlor are made beautiful with simple +tasteful pictures made by the daughter, whose natural gift in art was +early cultivated. The table, shelves, and mantelpiece are decorated +with china bowls, plates, and vases, simply, yet elegantly adorned. +This work was done by the daughter and mother. Not a large but a +choice collection of flowering plants relieved the bay window of its +emptiness. This is an attractive home. The children never have cared +to spend their evenings on the street nor at places of amusement. Games +of skill, innocent, instructive, and entertaining, may be used to make +home life more attractive. Only let the amusements of the home be +under the direction of father and mother, and be practiced by them. +Here is a chance to teach shrewdness, honor, interest, and by all means, +moderation. To overdo at games and amusements is more harmful +than to overwork. + +Religion is essential to happy home life. A family may get on for a +time very smoothly without prayer, Bible study, faith in God, and +love for Jesus Christ; but no family life is completed without a storm, +many storms of some sort. Years may pass as on a quiet sea, but one +day at high noon, or, perhaps, in the silent, early hour, a small cloud +is seen in the distance; it comes nearer; the wind begins to blow, the +thunders peal, the lightnings flash, the old home, for so long an ark +of safety, is being tossed on the billowy waves. A testing time is at +hand. Mother is gone, or father has ventured too far and lost all; or +son has disgraced the family name; or daughter is in shame; or the +darling of the home is no more! It makes a vast difference who is at +the helm when the storms of home life rage. It is a mark of highest +wisdom to place the family ship under the world's best Captain, Jesus +Christ. He never lost a life. He alone can arrest the lightning, quiet +the waves, inspire confidence, and restore peace and good will in any +storm. But religion is not only useful in trouble, it is an ornament in +peace and prosperity, in the making and building of the home. Tempers +must be controlled, dispositions cultivated, conduct improved, hearts +softened, and minds purified and disciplined. To accomplish all of +this, no substitute can be made for the spirit and faith of Jesus Christ. + +"'Dear Moss,' said the thatch on an old ruin, 'I am so worn, so patched, +so ragged, really I am quite unsightly. I wish you would come and +cheer me up a little. You will hide all my infirmities and defects; and, +through your loving sympathy no finger of contempt or dislike will be +pointed at me.' 'I come,' said the moss; and it crept up and around, and +in and out, till every flaw was hidden, and all was smooth and fair. +Presently the sun shone out, and the old thatch looked bright and fair, +a picture of rare beauty, in the golden rays. 'How beautiful the thatch +looks!' cried one who saw it. 'How beautiful the thatch looks!' said +another. 'Ah!' said the old thatch, 'rather let them say, 'How beautiful +is the loving moss!'" So it is with the religion of Christ, it adorns and +beautifies the life who really wears it; so that the plainness of that life +is covered, its ruggedness softened, and its "pain transformed into +profit and its loss into gain." + +Charles M. Sheldon gives as an essential for a permanent republic, "A +true home life where father, mother, and children spend much time +together; where family worship is preserved; where honesty, purity, +and mutual affection are developed." + +J.R. Miller beautifully sums up the secret of happy home-making in +one word--"Christ." Christ at the marriage altar; Christ on the bridal +journey; Christ when the new home is set up; Christ when the baby is +born; Christ when the baby dies; Christ in the pinching times; Christ +in the days of plenty; Christ in the nursery, in the kitchen, in the parlor; +Christ in the toil and in the rest; Christ all along the years; Christ when +the wedded pair walk toward the sunset gates; Christ in the sad hour +when the farewells are spoken, and one goes on before and the other +stays, bearing the unshared grief. Christ is the secret of happy home +life." + + +THE HOME-MAKER. + +Just as a surly husband, a dissipated father, or a reckless son may blight +a home and destroy its happiness, so may a thoughtful, virtuous, and +kind man in the home change its very atmosphere and help to make it +a heaven. As a home-maker man has the ruggeder part. It is his to +provide. The man who falls short of this in the home does not do his +part. No woman can respect a man much less love him, who places +her, her work, her life, her home, her world under constant embarrassment +by a scant and niggardly provision. She loses her ambition, ceases to +make her self and her home attractive; disorder, filth, unwholesome +food, lack of spirit on her part is the result. She can not be to him, most +of all, what he expects her to be, a companion, a counselor, a comfort--a +home-maker. Also, it is the part of the man in the home to shield the +woman from the heavier burdens and responsibilities. Let him count the +cost of his enterprises, secure himself against hazardous speculations, +and give his wife and children to realize that his shoulders, and not theirs, +are to bear the load of financial obligation and material support. This +leaves the woman with her finer instincts and sensibilities to make the +home the dearest spot on earth to husband, children, and to all who cross +her threshold. The house is her dominion. There she is queen. What a +tender and beautiful one she may become! + + +SOME PRACTICAL HINTS. + +The true home-maker does not spend all of her time with her ducks, +chickens, pigs, and cows, nor yet with her neighbors, her club, nor her +Church. She finds some time to cultivate her intellectual nature and the +finer feelings of her children. She does not degenerate into a mere +household drudge. She is not the slave of her husband, but his companion. +If she has musical ability, she keeps up the practice of her music; if she +is inclined to literature, she reads some every day. Whether literary or +not, every woman should spend some time each day in reading that she +might keep abreast with the world, at least with her companion, in the +movements and thoughts of every-day life. The true home-maker plans +to have a few minutes each day which she calls her own, in which she +may do as she pleases regardless of call or duty, that she might relax +herself, remove the strain of intense effort, rest, give her nature its free +bent and inclination. It will pay her in every way. She will accomplish +more and better work in the busy hours. A spirit and a force will +characterize every effort. The women of to-day are overworked. They +can not do themselves, their families, not their homes the true spiritual +service that it is their part to do. Plan for a few minutes rest with the +daily routine of care. But how is one to do this with so many demands +made upon her? For she is expected to be seamstress, laundress, maid, +cook, hostess, a companion to her husband, a trainer of her children, a +social being, and a helper in the Church. If it is impossible or impracticable +for one to have a servant, she will find these few minutes for daily recreation +and study only in a wise choice of more important duties, and will allow the +less important ones to go undone. Many housewives could well afford +to keep a helper. It becomes a question which is of greater importance, +the life and health of the wife and mother, or the paltry wages of a servant? +We knew a family in Illinois who were quite able to keep help in the home, +but did not do so. The mother made a slave of herself, in a few years +broke in health, and left a large family of small children to struggle alone +in the world. The stepmother, who soon came into the home, could afford +one servant girl and part of the time two. This is a common experience in +ill-managed homes. Or this question arises, Which is of greater importance, +to make more money or to improve the moral tone of the home; to seek +to gratify the outer senses, or to seek to elevate the spiritual life of the +children and the parents? In pleading for rest and study for the mother in +the home we plead for the highest interests of the entire family. For how +can a wife be a companion to a husband when she is made irritable and +nervous from overwork and worry. How can she be a true mother to her +children and neglect their mental and spiritual growth? + +Napoleon once said: "What France wants is good mothers, and you may +be sure then that France will have good sons." Thomas McCrie, an +eminent Scotch preacher, used to tell, with great feeling, of how his +mother, when he was starting out for school in the city, accompanied +him along the road a little way, and then leading him into the field where +she could be alone, prayed with him, that he might be kept from sin in +the city, and become a very useful man. That moment was the turning +point in his life. A few minutes a day spent with the eager, susceptible +child mind, will bring everlasting blessing upon the father and mother. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes + diff --git a/old/jmjdy10.zip b/old/jmjdy10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7aec6e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/jmjdy10.zip |