. Platform echoes: or, Living truths for head and heart . I positively possess, but I have no will to exercise thepower, and the train comes thundering on and cuts me intwo. What am I ? I am a self-murderer. I had the power ;I had the warning; I refused to exercise this power; and,when swift destruction came,the power was talEvery man thatdies a drunkard,dies a had the pow-er to escape, andhe had the warn-ing ; there is nota man who daresto say, I havehad no warn-ing. Stop onemoment; stopand listen; youcan hear the get up, get up, the train is that come up from the vo
. Platform echoes: or, Living truths for head and heart . I positively possess, but I have no will to exercise thepower, and the train comes thundering on and cuts me intwo. What am I ? I am a self-murderer. I had the power ;I had the warning; I refused to exercise this power; and,when swift destruction came,the power was talEvery man thatdies a drunkard,dies a had the pow-er to escape, andhe had the warn-ing ; there is nota man who daresto say, I havehad no warn-ing. Stop onemoment; stopand listen; youcan hear the get up, get up, the train is that come up from the vortex, — shrieks, piercingshrieks of despair from those who are sinking to rise nomore. Your whole way is lined with spectres that are point-ing to the future of those who heedlessly argue their waydown the fatal sliding scale. Therefore every man who diesa drunkard, dies a suicide. I heard a gentleman dispute that once. He said, A manthat is a suicide is one that destroys his life at once. I saidto him, Dont you consider a man a suicide if he shortens. 102 A PAINFUL SCENE. his life ten minutes? No, said he ; I dont. At thattime there was a man under sentence of death. Now, saidI, suppose, ten minutes before that man is to be hung, hecuts liis throat, what is he? He is a suicide, certainly. But he has only shortened his life ten minutes. 1 believethat every man who shortens his existence by the pursuit ofgratification that is injurious to him is in a degree a destroyerof his own life. I can, but I wont. You rememberSamson was bound three times, and each time Delilah said tohim, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson, and three timeshe burst the thongs that bound him, and stood up again he told her all his heart, and laid his head on herlap, and she called a man of her people, who sheared hislocks. Then she said to him, The Philistines be upon thee,Samson. What did he say? I will go out and shake my-self, as at other times. He went out, but the power wasgone, and i
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecttempera, bookyear1890
