The ledger. [volume] (Gaffney City, S.C.) 1896-1907, January 17, 1905, Image 2

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

4 I r.: THE LEDGER. Tuesday and Friday, Ed. H. DeCamp, Editor and Publisher, A. W. Griffith, Local Editor. for at The Ledger la not responsible the views of correspondents. Obiturarles will be published live cents a line. Correspondents who do not contri bute regular news letters must fur nish their name, not for publication, The man was but for identification. All correspondence should be ad- dessed to Ed. H. DeCamp, Manager. Sufficient Punishment. With a solmen mien and an air sedate, Si. Peter stood guard at the golden gate, When up to the top of the golden stair Applied for admission. They came and stood Before St. Peter, so great and good. In hopes the City of Peace to win. And asked St. Peter to let them in. The woman, was tall, and big and gaunt, Her corkscrew curls stood up rampant; short, and thick and SELFISHNESS. The following article is from the pen of A. B. Williams, the gifted editor of the Richmond News-Leader. We reproduce it because it pictures so nicely and so truthfully the one great defect in human nature—selfishness; and because it may be the means of causing some, if not many, to study themselves more and resolve to re medy this defect in their own natures instead of “prescribing" so liberally for other people; “It is a familiar, funny and pathet ic fact of human nature that most of us find selfishness everywhere in the world except in ourselves. No one of us has the right to he satisfied with himself nor any special right to he dissatisfied with the world, but we go on from our first consciousness to the final fading away of consciousness sat isfied with ourselves and dissatisfied with our communities and the world in general. All of us are victims of the drug habit. Every day of our lives we distill somewhere within our selves narcotics which we proceed to administer to our own consciences; and we go on living in a fool’s para dise, seeing ourselves in all kinds of beautiful lights and lovely shapes hut with very clear discernment of the de formities and faults of other people. “We begin at school, where the aver age boy and girl accuses the teacher of injustice or inefficiency, attributes the success of school fellows to luck or favoritism and excuses his own or her own failures and shortcomings with an endless variety of plausable explanations. “Probably a majority of employes carrv around with them the general impression that all employers are op pressors and human hogs. The young man beginning business for himself complains bitterly of the hank presi dent who holds his credit within cer tain limitations and who declines to accept his sanguine estimates of his own abilities and prospects. Every community has a certain proportion of active, energetic and hopeful men con stantly intent on doing large things for their town and themselves. These run headlong against the stolid and solid citizen, who represents the ac tual cash to he used, and finding them selves questioned and taken under dubious consideration, go abroad in the thoroughfares and cry out strenu ously against the selfishness and lack of public spirit and enterprise of the moneyed element. “Yet very likely the employe who re sents most deeply the economies and criticisms of his employer is harsh if not brutal to those over whom ho may have authority or power. Probably the business man who complains be cause his creditors urge for their money and his banker declines to ex tend his line of loans, is most particu larly caref.’l m collecting what is due to him ;.nd in his own store or factory, or whatever it may he. consistently de clines to credit anybody, however sore the need may be or however earnest the plea, unless he has a clearly defined idea that payment will he sure and prompt. The harshness, coldness and tin responsive attitudes of others to its awake our indignation to the flaming point and to threats of emigration to some more liberal and appreciative community, we forgetting that in our smaller spheres and places we are more deeply guilty of the same sins. Every day of the world citizens com plain against the selfishness and lack of public spirit and liberality of their fellows while they themselves are shaving things to the smallest fraction of percentage and sending what money they have to spend away from their own community for the purpose of saving a few cents. It is so in social life, into which we go with a vague expectation of getting everything while giving nothing. We undertake to set ourselves up for our own consideration on a kind of pedes tal above the ordinary rules of barter. With a general impression that we have some peculiar transcendent mer its which we cannot quite define to ourselves when we try, we look for consideration, deference, kindness and generosity, while neglecting all of them in our own conduct toward oth ers. We do it even in our churches and even in our secret transactions with the Almighty. We foster within ourselves the unexpressed and tremen dously daring notion that He owes us something and is in fault somehow when He does not go on indefinitely showering payment upon us. We crit icise and carp against the man in the pulpit just as we did with our teachers when wc* were at school. We expect him to take special and tender inter est in us and our affairs and to achieve results impossible to any human be ing, working single-handed, for a mea gre salary, toward which we contrib ute little or nothing at all. When we honor the sanctuary of the Most High with our presence and drop a small coin in the plate we have the com fortable feeling of condescension and duty nobly done and proceed over our dinner tables to lament the selfishness or inertness of the working force of the oongregatiyn for the advancement of which we do not pull a pound and give but a small part of what we use for our own pleasure. If we would study ourselves more and other people less, we would not onlv he more useful, hut infinitely bet- ter and happier. At least half the mis ery we suffer in this world is the re sult of dissatisfaction for which we have no just reason, and resentment because the same measure we give to others when we have the opportu nity is meeded to us. pleasant, and all the —Ask for “Eg Nog" anywhere in town Dealers have all got It. stout, His stomach was built so it rounded out, His face was while He wore a kindly and genial smile. The chons in the distance the echoes woke, And the man kept still while the wo man spoke: “Oh, thou who guardest the gate,” said she, “We two come hither, beseeching thee. To let us enter the heavenly land, And play our harps with the angel band. Of me. St. Peter, there is no doubt— There’s nothing in heaven to bar me out. I've been to meetings three times a week. And almost always I’d rise and speak. I ve told the sinners about the day When they’d repent their evil way; I've told my neighbors, I’ve told them all, About Adam and Eve and the primal fall; I’ve shown them what they’d have to do If they’d pass in with the chosen few; I’vo marked their path of duty clear— Laid out their plan for their whole career— I've talked and talked to ’em loud and long, For my lungs are good and my voice is strong. So, good St. Peter, you’ll clearly see The gate of heaven is open to me; But my old man. I regret to say, Hasn’t walked in exactly the narrow way— He smokes and he swears and grave faults he’s got, And 1 don’t know whether he’ll pass or not. Ho never would pray with an earnest vim. Or go to revival, or join in a fiymn, So I had to leave him in sorrow there While I, with the chosen, united in prayer. He ate what the gantry chanced to afford. While I, in my purity, sang to the I ,ord; And if cucumbers were all that he got. It’s a chance if he merited them or not. But oh, St. Peter. I love him so! To the pleasures of heaven please let him go! I’ve done enough—a saint I’ve been, Won’t that atone? Can’t you let him in? By my grim gospel I know ’tis so That the unrepentant must fry below; But isn’t there some way you can see. That he may enter, who’s dear to me? It’s a narrow gospel by which I pray, But the chosen expect to find some way Of coaxing, or fooling, or bribing you So that their relations acn amble through. And say, St. Peter, it seems to me This gate isn’t kept as it ought to he. You ought to stand by that opening there, And never sit down in that easy chair. And say, St. Peter, my sight is dimmed, But I don’t like the way your whiskers aro trimmed; They’re cut too wide and outward toss They’d look better narrower, cut straight across. So open, Peter, and we’ll pass in!" St. Peter sat quiet and stroked his staff But, spite of his office, he had to laugh: Then said, with a fiery -gleam in his eye: "Who’s tending this gateway—you or I?” ’ And then he arose in his stature tall. And pressed a button upon the wall, And said to the imp who answered the bell, “Escort this lady down to .... !” The man stood still as a piece of stone, Stood sadly, gloomily there alone; A life-long settled idea he had That his wife was good and that he was bad He thought that if the woman went down below, That he would certainly 4iave to go That if she went to the regions dim. There wasn’t a ghost of a show for him. Slowly he turned, by habit bent, To follow wherever the woman went. St. Peter, standing on duty there, Observed that the top of his head was bare. He called the gentleman back and said; “Friend, how long have you been wed?” “Thirty years," (with a weary sigh). And then he thoughtfully added, “Why?" St. Peter was silent. With head bent down. He raised his hand and scratched his crown; Then, seeming a different thought to take, Slowly, half to himself, he spake; "Thirty years with that woman there? No wonder the man hasnt’ any hair; Swearing Is wicked, smoke’s not good. Ho smoked and he swore—I should think he would. Thirty years with that tongue so sharp! Ho! Angel Gabriel! Give him a harp! A jeweled harp with a golden string. Good sir, pass in where the angels sing. Gabriel, give him a seat alone. One with a cushion on—up near the throne Call up some augels to play thob- best. Let him enjoy the music and rest. See that on finest ambrosia he feeds. He’s had about all of the hell he needs; it isn’t Just hardly the thing to do, To roast him on earth and in future too.” So they gave him a harp with golden strings. And a glittering robe with a pair of wings. And he said, as he entered the Realm of Day, “Well, this heats cucumbers, anyway." And so the Scriptures had come to pass: "The last shall be first and the first shall he last.” THE SABBATH. Dfsecration of It is a Serious Crime Against God. The Sabbath is one of God's oldest and best gifts to man. He calls it “My holy day.” Gen. 2:", tells us “God blessed the seventh day and sancti fied it.” put the seal of holiness on it. In formulating the commandments fifteen hundred years later, He wrote it on a table of stone, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” After ward a man was stoned to death by God's command for presuming to dis regard tins holiness. Christ reaf firmed this claim In Matthew xii, 1-1", emphasizing the fact, “The Sabbath was made for man,"—doubtless man the immortal soul—and not man the animal exclusively. To desecrate the Sabbath is to di vest it of its holy nature, to degrade it from a sacred to a common day. Many formidable agencies are at work 'o effect this degredation. Then 1 is much opposition to the holy Sab bath. This arises from three sources: repugnance to its holy nature, the bar it raises to business, and its restraints from worldly pleasure. Prominent among the agencies are the railroads, mails, newspapers and worldly pleasures. Railroads control an army of managers to watch and plan the movement of trains, engin eers, conductors, expressmen, mail bag gage, ticket agents, firemen, telegraph operators and others. These must work on the Sabbath day as on other days. One and all will plead necessity. Still greater numbers are tempted to travel on the Sabbath. It is a day. of leisure and very convenient for visiting home and friends, or making a much desired trip. The young man away from home can work six full days and lose no time by running home on Sun day. The joy at seeing him. coupled with his plausible necessity, quiets all scruples, and often converts others to looser views. Special inducements are offered for Sunday travel luring multitudes to leave home, church, and Bible, and rush into the whirlpool of worldiness. Think, too. of the desecrating influ ences, of the noise and confusion, of the running train all along the line. The Sabbath stillness is broken by the rude screaming of the whistle, and the voices calling souls to Christ’s feet are drowned, while the spirit of de vout worship is disturbed if not dissi pated. The mails are a close second in des ecrating the day. The desire to “go for the mail,” and to see what the let ters contain introduce a train of secu lar thought. The secular paper is es pecially harmful, as it enters the home to tempt old and young to its peru sal. What shall be said of the ‘Sun day Edition?” Enlarged and made as attractive as possible, with a pitiable effort to quiet the conscience with a little religious news, or an insignifi cant article on a religious subject, amid an immense amount of secular matter, the readers accept it readily. How in sidiously it steals the thoughts from holler themes, and poisons the desires for more of the world and less of God and the heavenly. Pleasure seeking, with its manifold and attractive forms, is a giant in Sab bath desecration. The plea is a tak ing one, “the people are busy during the week and need some diversion.” The idea may prevail in many minds that the Sabbath was given for man’s worldly amusement and recreation. Visiting, feasting, picnicking, court ing and other forms of pleasure are much in use. How often men labor to make these all appear as “works of necessity.” How these contrast with Christ’s works of necessity as found in Mat- thew xii. 1-13. Let ns not be deceived. These and other influences are steadily under mining the holiness of the Sabbath. If you don’t fall in line and keep up with this rapid whirl you are called an old fogy, puritan, or behind the times. Is our Sabbath in danger? Have we lost, or are we likely to lose, it as a holy day? Is it today what God in tended and revealed it should be? Where are the old time Christians who used to do all their work during six days and with a sweet spirit of rest fulness enter on the Sabbath feeling ‘This is the day the Lord has given, He calls the hours His own?” Man needs the Sabbath as a day of bodily rest. He needs it more for his soul. It calls from worldly care, anx iety and entanglements. It lifts Ihe creature to communion with the Crea tor. Can we afford to lose this mighty bulwark for truth and righteousness? That would be a calamity! “In the land of deep despair No Sabbath’s heavenly voice is heard.” It seems there is c :cry reason to call for an earnest, determined and united effort on the part of every lover of man to stem the tremendous current for desecrating the Sabbath. We need & I Underwear Bijr line sample goods, men’s and women's, at WHOLESALE COST—too large a stock ami IT MUST GO. All grades from the Lest down, Wright’s Health, double fleeced ail ami wool garments. If you don’t need any now, it will pay you to buy for next winter, as such opportunities are not offered every Jday. : : : : % Gloves! Gloves!! A ou want good Shoes; Shoes to keep your feet dry. Come right to us and you will find what you want. Fourth Shipment Rubbers to Ar rive This Week. Lipscomb Company. iTA'LMV-T.V:' i'Esaur r - ••. v: Ah the clothes are fitted the figure inclines. We have finished taking Stock, and are now ready for business. We thank our friends for the liberal patronage given us in the past. We will carry the largest line Dry Goods this season we have ever carried. We sell for Cash and there fore sell for short profits. We are now receiving lots’ the Bible Sabbath. Let us be jealous 0 f uew goods suitable for pi’CS- for its holy hours and contend for it ° . tit. with all our power, it is God’s gift. 1 cut use, such as dark 1 ercales Let us keep it until the Giver comes Iudig0 Calico, Ginghams and we render account of our steward-, , , & ship. M. R. Kirkpatrick. White Waist Goods, etc. We find wc are overstockhd on Embroideries and are mak ing remarkably low prices to re duce them. Be sure to see the extraordinary bargains we are ottering in this line. “Shetland Floss all colors.” Battenberg Patterns, Laces, etc. : Ask to see our oc Laces. JiiLt opened a beautiful line White Waist Goods. Please ask to see them. Buy your Gingham dresses now and make them up while the weather is cool. Bargains, Bargains in all Winter Goods. J. W. Tolleson Gaffney, S. C Notice! Don’t forget, call on us when you want something nice in fresh Meats and Country Produce. Our meat cutter has fifteen years ex perience and can cut your meat to suit you Give us a trial order and see for yourself. Our prices: All Steak straight loc 11). Pork toe, I2^cand 15c, fat oil. Yours for business, Thank you, Dempsey & Hawkins, Opposite Star Theatre. WANTED! All yom clothes Hint need briirhtenlnK up, brlnu them to us. We will make them look fresh and now. All work done by expert tailors. See us and Join our pressing club. ROBMSOH & JOKES, Tailors. Over W. D. Telegraph Office. Phone No. «. L'irg.* line of m< n’s Working Gloves thrown on the market ;it wholesale cost. This is a sample line, and includes all kinds from lf> < cuts to +2.00. Drop in and inspect thus • good*, and von will certainly find it to y<mr interest to buy. : | J. R. TOLLESON & GO. ^lUiUiUliiiiUiillilUiiUUilhU kWiiliWlilUiiUiilMlUiUiU A Steady Growth Business invest ments often afford opportunities for rap idly increasing your wealth. But they in volve a large ... Element of Risk ... Not so with your money if deposited in the Gaffney Savings Bank. It is absolutely removed from all the uncertainties of other investments. It draws interest at the rate of 4 per cent, from the day you deposit, increases in amount without any effort on your part and is always safe and at hand. The Gaffney Savings Bank. Ofiice in the National Bank of Gaffhey. Bank Closes 3 P. M. Every Day Except Saturday, 5 P. M. SPECIALS! I will offer, until closed out my entire line of Ladies’ and Misses’ Jackets and Ladies’ Coat Suits at greatly reduced prices. Don’t fail to see them if you are looking for bargains. Ladies’ Under Skirts from $1.00 to $5.00, All styles in Rubbers for Men, Ladies and Misses. A few Men’s Youths’ and Boys’ Overcoats left which will be closed out at bargain prices. I can fit all sizes in Clothing, both in quality and price. Men’s all Wool Sweaters $1.00. Blankets GO cents per pair up. Quilts from $1.00 to $2.00 each. Shoes to lit everybody from the wee tot to a 13 size for Men. Corload Barbed Wire and Nails at away down price. See me for anything usually kept in a first-class general store and I will do your pocket book good. Thanking all my friends and customers for the very liberal patronage bestowed upon me and wishing all a happy and prosperous New Year. I am yours for more business, Hie National Bank of Gaffney, S. C. State, County and City Depository* Capital ; $50,000.00 Surplus and Undivided Profits 33,000.00 Stockholders' Liability 50,000.00 Protection to Depositors $133,000.00 Everything of a banking nature entrusted to our care receives our very best attention. We would be glad to have your business. D. C. ROSS, Prest. MAYNARD SMYTH, Cashier. I. G. WARDLAW, Vice-Prest. CHAS. W. HAMES, Ass’t. Cashier Bank Closes Every Day at 3 P. M. Except Saturday, 5 P. M. Rural Mail Boxes. Go to R. M. Wilkins Hardware Co. for your Engine and Steam Fittings; Gandy, Rubber and Leather Belting, Caue Mills and Evapora tors; Wagons and Ruggies; Barb Wire, Wire and Cut Nails. Don’t fail to see us before you buy your hardware—We want your business. R. M. Wilkins Hardware Co.