The Prices.

The Prices.

I

AT one time, in our early recollection, my Father bought a number of yearlings early one spring, and the highest price he paid was three dollars a head. He kept them until they were over two years old, and I think there were sixteen steers among them, and he sold the steers to Irvin Melton for eight dollars a head. One spring, when I was a small boy, he sold to Wilson Perryman, his cousin, eight cows and calves for eight dollars each—sixty-four dollars for all. He got that all in silver half-dollars, and put it in an old tin bucket and sat it up on the cupboard, and the same year, about September, he sold to John Selby one hundred head of hogs for one hundred dollars, all in silver, and he put it in the same bucket, and when the neighbor’s children would come over, we would get it down and pour it out on the floor, to show them how much money we had. Finally John Hodson borrowed it and entered three forties of land, where New Hope now stands.

The Eggs.

S

SIXTY Years ago, when we were at work in the field, and would hear the cranes, out on the prairie, making a great noise, we knew they were nesting. They would go into the lakes and gather the rushes and pile them up very much like a large shock of hay, so that it would come above the water, then they would make a little flat place on top and deposit two eggs on that flat place; the eggs was a little larger than a goose egg, while they were shaped just like a quail’s egg, they were white in color with small brown specks all over them. When we could get a hat full of prairie hen’s eggs, and we believe no better flavored egg can be found, when they were boiled, then with a dish of fresh butter, a boy was surely fixed.

Good Friends.

T

THE Author feels very proud of having had the good influence of such good friends as Pascal Hinton, James Rhoads, Berry Turner, Jasper L. Douthit, Anthony Thornton, Henry Carpenter, John Kitchell, Sylvester Cosart, and many, very many others. Some of them are gone, but we have not given them up. The influence and friendship of such men has made our pathway brighter, and has made life worth living; and all we are we owe it to the influence of such good friends.

Love.

I

LOVE is the greatest attribute of God and the noblest trait of man.

Love redeemed the world and brings salvation to men.

Love casts out all fear, and purifies the heart.

Love rocks the cradle of virtue, and brings peace to the nations.

Love tunes the song of the lark, and paints the rose.

Love indites the prayer, and speeds the answer.

Love tempers the storm and hallows the calm.

Love smiles in every swelling bud, and whispers in every passing breeze.

Love softens the pillow and sweetens the dream.

No pen can ever write,No mind can ever spanThe length and breadth, the depth and heightOf the love of God to man.

No pen can ever write,No mind can ever spanThe length and breadth, the depth and heightOf the love of God to man.

No pen can ever write,No mind can ever spanThe length and breadth, the depth and heightOf the love of God to man.

No pen can ever write,

No mind can ever span

The length and breadth, the depth and height

Of the love of God to man.

When I and Betsey Married.

WHEN I and Betsey married first,We both was very poor;When work was very scarce, sometimesThe wolf got near the door.And Betsey said: “Let’s buy some hens—“The papers say ‘it will pay’;“I think you had better look around“And buy the kind that lay.”I bought a dozen plymouth hensAnd put them in a pen;When Betsy went and looked, she foundAn egg for every hen.“Whoopee! I know just what to do;“I’ll buy a dozen more—“And when we get that many eggs,“We are not so very poor.”We raised a hundred hens that year;Next year, three hundred more—And Betsy, with a knowing wink,Said, “We have struck it, sure.”We don’t care much what kind we have—There’s not much in a name;If people treat their chickens right,They “shell out” just the same.We have eleven hundred now,Blue, yellow, black and white;And Betsy says: “Old man, I think“They are mixed up now just right.”And late, like in the eveningWe get our baskets off their pegs,And “hike out” in the chicken yardTo gather in the eggs.We ship two cases every day;Oh, my! but aint it funny?I sit around and read the news,And Betsy counts the money.

WHEN I and Betsey married first,We both was very poor;When work was very scarce, sometimesThe wolf got near the door.And Betsey said: “Let’s buy some hens—“The papers say ‘it will pay’;“I think you had better look around“And buy the kind that lay.”I bought a dozen plymouth hensAnd put them in a pen;When Betsy went and looked, she foundAn egg for every hen.“Whoopee! I know just what to do;“I’ll buy a dozen more—“And when we get that many eggs,“We are not so very poor.”We raised a hundred hens that year;Next year, three hundred more—And Betsy, with a knowing wink,Said, “We have struck it, sure.”We don’t care much what kind we have—There’s not much in a name;If people treat their chickens right,They “shell out” just the same.We have eleven hundred now,Blue, yellow, black and white;And Betsy says: “Old man, I think“They are mixed up now just right.”And late, like in the eveningWe get our baskets off their pegs,And “hike out” in the chicken yardTo gather in the eggs.We ship two cases every day;Oh, my! but aint it funny?I sit around and read the news,And Betsy counts the money.

WHEN I and Betsey married first,We both was very poor;When work was very scarce, sometimesThe wolf got near the door.

WHEN I and Betsey married first,

We both was very poor;

When work was very scarce, sometimes

The wolf got near the door.

And Betsey said: “Let’s buy some hens—“The papers say ‘it will pay’;“I think you had better look around“And buy the kind that lay.”

And Betsey said: “Let’s buy some hens—

“The papers say ‘it will pay’;

“I think you had better look around

“And buy the kind that lay.”

I bought a dozen plymouth hensAnd put them in a pen;When Betsy went and looked, she foundAn egg for every hen.

I bought a dozen plymouth hens

And put them in a pen;

When Betsy went and looked, she found

An egg for every hen.

“Whoopee! I know just what to do;“I’ll buy a dozen more—“And when we get that many eggs,“We are not so very poor.”

“Whoopee! I know just what to do;

“I’ll buy a dozen more—

“And when we get that many eggs,

“We are not so very poor.”

We raised a hundred hens that year;Next year, three hundred more—And Betsy, with a knowing wink,Said, “We have struck it, sure.”

We raised a hundred hens that year;

Next year, three hundred more—

And Betsy, with a knowing wink,

Said, “We have struck it, sure.”

We don’t care much what kind we have—There’s not much in a name;If people treat their chickens right,They “shell out” just the same.

We don’t care much what kind we have—

There’s not much in a name;

If people treat their chickens right,

They “shell out” just the same.

We have eleven hundred now,Blue, yellow, black and white;And Betsy says: “Old man, I think“They are mixed up now just right.”

We have eleven hundred now,

Blue, yellow, black and white;

And Betsy says: “Old man, I think

“They are mixed up now just right.”

And late, like in the eveningWe get our baskets off their pegs,And “hike out” in the chicken yardTo gather in the eggs.

And late, like in the evening

We get our baskets off their pegs,

And “hike out” in the chicken yard

To gather in the eggs.

We ship two cases every day;Oh, my! but aint it funny?I sit around and read the news,And Betsy counts the money.

We ship two cases every day;

Oh, my! but aint it funny?

I sit around and read the news,

And Betsy counts the money.

Discontent.

T

THE Human family is restless and discontented; constantly in quest of something, and know not what that something is. There is an aching void in the mind, which men are constantly seeking to satisfy, and very many remedies have been tried and failed. Some have tried great wealth and it has failed; some have tried great learning, and it has failed; some have tried fame, and it has failed; some have resorted to strong drink, and it has failed; also, many other things have been tried to satisfy that void and failed. Man is out of his element, consequently unhappy. Take a fish out of the water and it will perish and die, because it is out of its element. Man was created for peace and harmony with his God. When he had violated the law and was put out of the Garden, he lost his element; hence this restless, unhappy condition. Now, he may be represented as being blind—inutter darkness, in quest of something and knows not what it is. But God, in His Great Mercy, has put a remedy within our reach; an efficient antidote is prepared and brought to your door, and not only so, but It knocks and asks admission; It comes in the person of a gentle, loving Spirit, whispering in accents of pity: “Oh! come to me, and find rest”; ever, ever calling, calling: “Believe, on me, and find peace.” That dear Holy Ghost comes to your pillow at night. “Oh! trust in Me and I will restore you to your proper element; believe in Me and I will drive away all this restless discontent”. Our fathers and mothers, in their day, heard and obeyed this same loving call, and found peace, by being placed in their native element—peace with God.

Out on the mountain, cold and bare,With restless feet we roam;But now, we come with humble prayer:Lord, lead us safely home.

Out on the mountain, cold and bare,With restless feet we roam;But now, we come with humble prayer:Lord, lead us safely home.

Out on the mountain, cold and bare,With restless feet we roam;But now, we come with humble prayer:Lord, lead us safely home.

Out on the mountain, cold and bare,

With restless feet we roam;

But now, we come with humble prayer:

Lord, lead us safely home.

Three Powers.

T

THE Human family owe allegiance to three great powers—their God, their Country, and their Home; and the three are so inseparably connected that a person can hardly be true to one without being true to all; there is a connecting link that binds them together. We owe our allegance to God because He is the author of our existence, and gives us all the untold blessings that we enjoy, and to Him we look for the hope of a blessed immortality beyond this life, and by Him we enjoy the blessings of our Country and our Home. We owe allegiance to our Country because by it we enjoy protection in our life and property; it guarantees to us the right to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and be protected in our Home. And to the Home. Oh! how shall we begin the Home? The most sacred place on earth, around whose hearthstone the foundation is laid for the wealor woe of the Nation. Oh! say not the Home is not a power of all earthly powers; the Home is the nucleus, the Alpha and Omega, the biggest, biggest word pertaining to earthly things, spelled with four letters, the hand is too feeble to write, and the tongue is too feeble to tell, and the brain is too feeble to conceive all the meaning there is in that short word—Home. With its joys and its sorrows, its toils and repose, its smiles and its tears, its births and its deaths, its cradle and its altar, its Bible and its pillow, its bitter and its sweet, its precepts and its examples. When orators and poets undertake to tell all the meaning of that short word, let them pause and think, and think, and think; and when it shall have been declared that Time shall be no more; and when the last trumpet shall have sounded and when Angels shall have tuned their harps anew and shall have struck up the ever new glad song of redemption, through the Blood; and when the pearly gates shall have been thrown wide open, to welcome the redeemed and blood-washed throng from earth: Oh! then, Home, Home. Home forever-more.

The Effect of Influence.

I

DEEP In the heart of every individual is an inclination to be good and to do good, but sometimes that good desire is so counteracted by some evil influence, that the poor individual unfortunately drifts into ruin. The doctrine of total depravity is all a mistake. The poor criminal often becomes so by the influences which are brought to bear upon his mind; and the good people are often, more or less, responsible for his ruin, for their indifference and lack of diligence in trying to win him back to the path of honesty and justice. The people who are good need not take the praise to themselves, for they do not know what they would have done under certain other environments and influences; and often the poor criminal is more to be pitied than blamed; often in an unguarded moment he does things which he had no thought of doing, and he would then give his life to call it back. And when ourneighbor goes to the bad, let us, instead of exulting over his fall, rather shed a tear for him, and think, maybe, I have not done my duty to save him. But, fortunately, in our country, the good is so much greater than the bad, and the good influence so prevails over the bad, that God still deals with us in mercy, and sends the seedtime and harvest, and our people are a prosperous and happy people.

Jesus Cares for Me.

IKNOW that my Redeemer lives,I know He cares for me;I know He full salvation gives,I know He sets me free.Why should I murmer or repine,While on life’s stormy sea;Since God is with me all the time,And Jesus cares for me.Even in a dark and stormy nightThough threatening clouds I see;This thought brings comfort and delightThat Jesus cares for me.Each day I hear His gentle call:Saying, “Believe on me”;And since He notes each sparrow’s fallI know He cares for me.

IKNOW that my Redeemer lives,I know He cares for me;I know He full salvation gives,I know He sets me free.Why should I murmer or repine,While on life’s stormy sea;Since God is with me all the time,And Jesus cares for me.Even in a dark and stormy nightThough threatening clouds I see;This thought brings comfort and delightThat Jesus cares for me.Each day I hear His gentle call:Saying, “Believe on me”;And since He notes each sparrow’s fallI know He cares for me.

IKNOW that my Redeemer lives,I know He cares for me;I know He full salvation gives,I know He sets me free.

IKNOW that my Redeemer lives,

I know He cares for me;

I know He full salvation gives,

I know He sets me free.

Why should I murmer or repine,While on life’s stormy sea;Since God is with me all the time,And Jesus cares for me.

Why should I murmer or repine,

While on life’s stormy sea;

Since God is with me all the time,

And Jesus cares for me.

Even in a dark and stormy nightThough threatening clouds I see;This thought brings comfort and delightThat Jesus cares for me.

Even in a dark and stormy night

Though threatening clouds I see;

This thought brings comfort and delight

That Jesus cares for me.

Each day I hear His gentle call:Saying, “Believe on me”;And since He notes each sparrow’s fallI know He cares for me.

Each day I hear His gentle call:

Saying, “Believe on me”;

And since He notes each sparrow’s fall

I know He cares for me.

Greed for Wealth.

T

THE Extreme greed for wealth comes nearer threatening the overthrow of this Government than any one thing. The disregard for law is the result of greed. The saloon is the child of greed. Money sharks have been very diligent in agitating all the party prejudice they can, for they know that if the voters lay down their love for party name, they will work and vote together intelligently to overthrow the great wrongs, and there will be a leveling up, and that class legislation will have to go, and the liquor traffic will have to go, and equal rights will prevail. The people are intelligent enough to know their wrongs, but they are so completely bound hand and foot by their party name, that they cannot help themselves. They know that the issues, which the leaders of the parties, have kept the voters divided upon for many years, was only “sham” issues, and not the real issues at all. The voters of thiscountry are intelligent on every other question, but almost hopelessly insane on the question of party. There is no question now for which lecturers are needed so much. If you kill the foolish blind party prejudice, the same stroke will kill every public wrong which exists in our land. We think we have some pretty good reasons to hope that the great wrongs will be righted within a few years; but there are no good reasons why they should not be righted within a few months.

Christ will Wipe.

IF traveling through this vale of tears,We saw no better world than this;If looking on through endless yearsWe caught no ray of Heavenly bliss.Where could we go, to comfort find,Or what could then our spirits cheer;Still groping on in darkness, blindWith sin and sorrow, everywhere.But, oh! our destiny is not sealedIn bitter anguish, death and gloom;For God, has in His word revealedA better world, beyond the tomb.This thought, will give us joy and peace,While plodding on, in toils and cares,Knowing well we’ll have a sweet release;And Christ will wipe away our tears.Then goodbye sorrow, goodbye pain,Goodbye to all our doubts and fears,For He, who died and rose againWill smile and wipe away our tears.Let storms arise, and billows roll,We’ll battle on, our three-score years—This thought’s an anchor to our soul,That Christ will wipe away our tears.So glad, our destiny is not sealedIn bitter anguish, death and gloom—For God has, in His word revealedA better world, beyond the tomb.

IF traveling through this vale of tears,We saw no better world than this;If looking on through endless yearsWe caught no ray of Heavenly bliss.Where could we go, to comfort find,Or what could then our spirits cheer;Still groping on in darkness, blindWith sin and sorrow, everywhere.But, oh! our destiny is not sealedIn bitter anguish, death and gloom;For God, has in His word revealedA better world, beyond the tomb.This thought, will give us joy and peace,While plodding on, in toils and cares,Knowing well we’ll have a sweet release;And Christ will wipe away our tears.Then goodbye sorrow, goodbye pain,Goodbye to all our doubts and fears,For He, who died and rose againWill smile and wipe away our tears.Let storms arise, and billows roll,We’ll battle on, our three-score years—This thought’s an anchor to our soul,That Christ will wipe away our tears.So glad, our destiny is not sealedIn bitter anguish, death and gloom—For God has, in His word revealedA better world, beyond the tomb.

IF traveling through this vale of tears,We saw no better world than this;If looking on through endless yearsWe caught no ray of Heavenly bliss.

IF traveling through this vale of tears,

We saw no better world than this;

If looking on through endless years

We caught no ray of Heavenly bliss.

Where could we go, to comfort find,Or what could then our spirits cheer;Still groping on in darkness, blindWith sin and sorrow, everywhere.

Where could we go, to comfort find,

Or what could then our spirits cheer;

Still groping on in darkness, blind

With sin and sorrow, everywhere.

But, oh! our destiny is not sealedIn bitter anguish, death and gloom;For God, has in His word revealedA better world, beyond the tomb.

But, oh! our destiny is not sealed

In bitter anguish, death and gloom;

For God, has in His word revealed

A better world, beyond the tomb.

This thought, will give us joy and peace,While plodding on, in toils and cares,Knowing well we’ll have a sweet release;And Christ will wipe away our tears.

This thought, will give us joy and peace,

While plodding on, in toils and cares,

Knowing well we’ll have a sweet release;

And Christ will wipe away our tears.

Then goodbye sorrow, goodbye pain,Goodbye to all our doubts and fears,For He, who died and rose againWill smile and wipe away our tears.

Then goodbye sorrow, goodbye pain,

Goodbye to all our doubts and fears,

For He, who died and rose again

Will smile and wipe away our tears.

Let storms arise, and billows roll,We’ll battle on, our three-score years—This thought’s an anchor to our soul,That Christ will wipe away our tears.

Let storms arise, and billows roll,

We’ll battle on, our three-score years—

This thought’s an anchor to our soul,

That Christ will wipe away our tears.

So glad, our destiny is not sealedIn bitter anguish, death and gloom—For God has, in His word revealedA better world, beyond the tomb.

So glad, our destiny is not sealed

In bitter anguish, death and gloom—

For God has, in His word revealed

A better world, beyond the tomb.

The Family Altar.

I

GOOD Men and Women study and counsel, what is best to do for the good of our people. And after a good deal of thinking, the writer concludes that there is nothing more potent for the safety of our Nation, than the family altar. Wise men have written on every other subject, and writers have seemed to overlook the family altar. The strength of the Nation is derived from the homes; and if the homes are good, the Nation is good. If the homes are bad, the Nation is bad. It is hard for the homes to be right good without the family altar. So the safety of the Nation depends greatly upon the family altar. It is a guard against the temptations which surround us. It prepares the mind for that which is good, and is an efficient antidote for our sins and our sorrows. The future life of the child depends very greatly upon the family altar. God bless the family altar.

Self Sacrifice.

I

IT WAS one of the characteristics of the early settlers to love one another, and we love to think of the many noble men and women who made great sacrifices for, their fellow-man; but none could ever come up with Jasper L. Douthit. Having been brought to Illinois, by his parents, when a very small boy, one of the first things he seemed to learn was self-sacrifice for others. He caught the Spirit of Love to others, and outstripped any man in Illinois. No man in Illinois has made such self-sacrifice for others as Jasper L. Douthit. He has given his whole life for others. He is a Unitarian preacher, and he is not only Unitarian in name, but if people serve the God whom his mother taught him to serve, whether Methodist or Baptist, or any other denomination, he loves them just the same. So he is a real Unitarian. When he has been persecuted by the people, who did not understand him, he worked on, and hisactions said: “Father forgive them, they know not what they do”; and his great big heart overflowing with love, he sought to do them good. Few men have had better opportunities to know him than we have; and Jasper is as able to cope with the intricate problems of statesmanship as almost any man in the land, and yet simple as a child. If he sees you in trouble, his eyes will fill with tears. Now, in his old age, he is the hardest working man we ever knew. He is no lover of money, and when he makes money it just goes, with the overflowing of his heart, for the good of others.

Party Prejudice.

WE BELIEVE there is no wrong in our good country so potent in perpetuating evil, as the party prejudice of the voters. The prejudice for political party is what makes possible every great wrong which exists in our land. The voters would vote together, intelligently, to correct every wrong were it not for their prejudice for their party. When one political party takes a stand for a good thing, the other party makes it their business to oppose them. The corruption which existed in the state of Missouri, never could have existed only for the party prejudice. The disregard for law, which has given the President so much trouble, and cost so much money, would have been nipped in the bud, only for the party prejudice. The American voter is intelligent on every other subject, but on the subject of political party, he is deplorably insane. They do not vote so much for men and principle, but areblindly governed by party name. You kill the foolish blind party prejudice and the same stroke kills every great political wrong in our land. Each party will go down into the dirt to court the friendship of every low, dirty element who has a vote. Kill the party prejudice and lawlessness and anarchy will have to hide their deformed faces. When it is found that a man is not willing to obey the laws of this good country a committee should wait upon him and tell him that the sooner he packs his trunks the better. We have a class of rich, aristocratic anarchists who want to run this Government; then we have a class of low, ignorant and dirty anarchists at the tail end, and the country would be better off without either. The American people are a country loving people, and they want to do right and vote right; but their love of party has such complete control over them that they cannot always do right; but they must say and do what their party leaders say for them to do. The party leaders give us issues to contend over and keep us divided, which we know are not the issues. So the love for political party is the mother of every great public wrong which exists, and it is the only thing which makes possible every public wrong.

Intemperance.

WE BELIEVE there is no evil in our land so great as the use of intoxicating liquors. No evil is causing so much sorrow, so many tears, blighting so many bright hopes and sunny prospects, breaking up so many happy homes. We punish the robber by the law, and no robber can compare with the Robber Intemperance. He robs the home of its sanctity and its joys; it robs the brain of its power and its intelligence; it robs the heart of its love and its emotions; it robs the man of his manliness and reduces him to a level with the brute; it robs youth of its hopes and its prospects; it robs childhood of everything which makes for comfort and happiness. We furnish the murder by law. No murderer is so cold-blooded as is intemperance. It murders one hundred thousand American citizens annually. If an epidemic were to break out, like smallpox, cholera, or yellow fever, which was destroyinghalf as many lives our authorities would quarantine against it very quickly, and would spend millions of dollars, if need be, to stop the devastation, while that which intemperance is making no great notice is taken, for if we do, we will hurt our party, for the whisky element will vote with the other party. Now, gentle reader, isn’t it better to stand for the right, for God and the home, and for the country? even at the risk of being defeated in the election, than to stand for wrong in order to carry the election. Think of gray heads going to their graves in sorrow, because intemperance has ruined their children, and your vote helped to cause that ruin. Think of the men who are now in the various state prisons, and your vote helped to put them there. Think of the oceans of tears that wives and mothers have shed, and your vote helped to cause those tears. Think of the hunger and cold that little innocent children have suffered, and your vote helped to cause that suffering. Look at that little innocent boy and think that maybethat little boy will fill a drunkard’s grave, and my vote will help to cause it so, because of my love for my beloved party. Look at the little innocent girl, and think maybe, that little girl is to be the wife of a drunkard, and that my vote helped to cause it so, for the sake of my party. Dear reader, let me appeal to you: Why should we rate political party above every other consideration? Oh! the cruel monster, intemperance. No pen can ever write the enormity of his crimes. No orator’s tongue can ever tell the magnitude of his guilt. Like a vile serpent, he tightens his slimy coils around everything that is noble and good, of American institutions and American manhood. No place on earth is too sacred for his poisonous fangs. No hopes or prospects are too bright for his blighting and withering influence. Oh! let us arise in our manhood and bury him so deep that there will be no possibility of his resurrection. How I would like to be one of the pall-bearers and help to bear him to his last resting place. Then a shout of joy would go up; a shout such as was never heard on the earth. A shout from the throats of millions of wronged and oppressed mothers and children. A shout of “peace on earth, good will to men!”

A Sad Sight.

DEAR Wife, I’ve seen the saddest sight,I ever yet have seen;A mother begging at a gate.She looked so pale and lean.She had three children, by her side,Their clothes were old and poor;She said her husband came home drunk,And turned them from the door.The little children had no shoes,And they were nearly froze.She said: “The trouble I have hadThere is nobody knows.”She said: “I work most night and day,”And this, too, is what she said:“Most all my wages go for drink,“And the children cry for bread.”She said: “I don’t know what to do,“We have no place to go;“I know the children can’t live long“Out in this sleet and snow.”“I know they are very hungry,“And, I know they are very cold,”She said: “My man drinks all the time,“And all our things are sold.”“He often cries, and talks to me,“And says it is a shame—“And he tries so hard to quit it,“That I know he is not to blame.”“I never say a word to him,“It would only make things worse—“The men who vote it in his road,“Are the men I blame the worst.”

DEAR Wife, I’ve seen the saddest sight,I ever yet have seen;A mother begging at a gate.She looked so pale and lean.She had three children, by her side,Their clothes were old and poor;She said her husband came home drunk,And turned them from the door.The little children had no shoes,And they were nearly froze.She said: “The trouble I have hadThere is nobody knows.”She said: “I work most night and day,”And this, too, is what she said:“Most all my wages go for drink,“And the children cry for bread.”She said: “I don’t know what to do,“We have no place to go;“I know the children can’t live long“Out in this sleet and snow.”“I know they are very hungry,“And, I know they are very cold,”She said: “My man drinks all the time,“And all our things are sold.”“He often cries, and talks to me,“And says it is a shame—“And he tries so hard to quit it,“That I know he is not to blame.”“I never say a word to him,“It would only make things worse—“The men who vote it in his road,“Are the men I blame the worst.”

DEAR Wife, I’ve seen the saddest sight,I ever yet have seen;A mother begging at a gate.She looked so pale and lean.

DEAR Wife, I’ve seen the saddest sight,

I ever yet have seen;

A mother begging at a gate.

She looked so pale and lean.

She had three children, by her side,Their clothes were old and poor;She said her husband came home drunk,And turned them from the door.

She had three children, by her side,

Their clothes were old and poor;

She said her husband came home drunk,

And turned them from the door.

The little children had no shoes,And they were nearly froze.She said: “The trouble I have hadThere is nobody knows.”

The little children had no shoes,

And they were nearly froze.

She said: “The trouble I have had

There is nobody knows.”

She said: “I work most night and day,”And this, too, is what she said:“Most all my wages go for drink,“And the children cry for bread.”

She said: “I work most night and day,”

And this, too, is what she said:

“Most all my wages go for drink,

“And the children cry for bread.”

She said: “I don’t know what to do,“We have no place to go;“I know the children can’t live long“Out in this sleet and snow.”

She said: “I don’t know what to do,

“We have no place to go;

“I know the children can’t live long

“Out in this sleet and snow.”

“I know they are very hungry,“And, I know they are very cold,”She said: “My man drinks all the time,“And all our things are sold.”

“I know they are very hungry,

“And, I know they are very cold,”

She said: “My man drinks all the time,

“And all our things are sold.”

“He often cries, and talks to me,“And says it is a shame—“And he tries so hard to quit it,“That I know he is not to blame.”

“He often cries, and talks to me,

“And says it is a shame—

“And he tries so hard to quit it,

“That I know he is not to blame.”

“I never say a word to him,“It would only make things worse—“The men who vote it in his road,“Are the men I blame the worst.”

“I never say a word to him,

“It would only make things worse—

“The men who vote it in his road,

“Are the men I blame the worst.”

The Bright Side.

T

THE Author of this little book has had a pretty happy life. We have had the same difficulties to contend with that other people have had, but we knew the bright side of things was the best side to look at, and we believe we have been able to see a brighter side to most things than most of the people have. Most everything that comes in our road has a bright side to it, if we are only able to see that bright side. If we are seeking to do right, that fact, of itself, turns the dark side of the picture to the wall, and beautiful fields, singing birds, and blooming flowers are ours. If the readers of our little book would only cast off their unnecessary gloom and forebodings, the world would be brighter and happier and the people would be healthier and happier, and they would live a great deal longer.

Good-Bye.

N

NOW, Gentle Reader, we bid you good-bye, wishing you much happiness and peace, and hoping you have been interested in reading the little book, and that you have read something in it which will do you good, that you may be the better prepared for the battles of life and for great usefulness to others. That you will pardon whatever mistakes you have found; and that you will retain a kind feeling for the author; that when we meet, we may have a real, warm hand-shake, and that we may thus get better acquainted, and love each other more. Good-bye.

The Author.

Transcriber’s Note:To keep the original flavor of this book, no corrections were made to typos or printing errors. All were all retained as originally printed.“allegance” for “allegiance”“murmer” for “murmur”“scareing” for “scaring”“was” for “were”“ubout” for “about”

Transcriber’s Note:To keep the original flavor of this book, no corrections were made to typos or printing errors. All were all retained as originally printed.

Back to IndexNext