THE COMMONPLACE.
Great is the god Commonplace, and his prophets of the accredited order of the "Common, ornary Kusses" are legion. They are of both sexes and of every race, age and condition. Consent to render homage to their Deity by confessing by word and deed that every man is as good as another and better too, and they will continue to smile openly; but, in secret, they will prey upon you. Their capable emissaries go around with measuring line and shears, alert to discover, and ready to reduce to the proper dimensions anyone who shall dare to outgrow their prescribed proportions. You can never know when you are safe from their incursions.
The dignified old man who sits next you at your hotel table seeming to be entirely preoccupied by the discussion of his dinner, may only be biding his time, waiting an excuse to deliver you over to their insatiable maw, to be dealt with according to the rules of their society. Or, perhaps the lady who in the first flush of your acquaintance quite dazzles you with her fluent chat upon multitudinous topics, suddenly, upon finding you unguardedly expressing opinions not approved by the high priests of mediocrity, lets fall her mask, and shows herself to your astonished gaze a secret emissary, a determined servant of their most ancient and established order. "Thus far," so far as we can accompany you, "shalt thou go and no farther" at your peril. Woe to the soul that yields a ready obedience to the master's voice, that is ever calling to all who can hear: "Come up higher." The sash with which he would gird up his loins, "the latchet" with which he tightens his sandals that he may run more swiftly the race set before him, the staff upon which he would lean shall all be turned by these demon worshippers into scourges. He shall be "beaten with many stripes," for so it hath been ordained from long time, until the pain of his wounded heart and hurt brain shall deaden his sensibilities so that he can no more hear the voice nor see the helping hand.
Defy, resist, and the limp, sprawling, accommodating God becomes a sinuous, hydracrested, overpowering dragon, stopping at nothing to "put you where you belong"—his favorite battle cry—himself judge, jury and executioner. This he has not the power to do unless he can prove to you that you "belong" where he seeks to place you, for his veins are full of mud. He is of the "earth earthy," and in the rarified atmosphere of noble ambition and great achievements, he is utterly blind and of no account. Take heart, then, O aspiring soul! "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." Render unto every true principle that which is its due; but beware how you worship or lean upon teachers, leaders who, beneath their proudly-worn garb, and insignia of leadership, may be all the time wearing the robes of the high priests of the god Commonplace.
PETROLEUM.
"'Pears like" the affairs of life on this planet are dreadfully "higgledy-piggledy"; but in reality, there is a divine purpose, a use in it all. It is the soul's kindergarten. It is interesting to observe the curious and round-about ways Nature takes to insure the greatest good to the greatest number of her needy children. Long before the first nitro-glycerine "go-devil" was sent down, down, to the uttermost depths, to shatter the oil-bearing rock, and set free the wonderful deposit that was destined to mark a new era in the affairs of men, rang out the Biblical mandate: "Let there be light," and in due time the whole world was illuminated.
The sorcerers, who have abstracted vast wealth from this earth product have fancied it was for their special benefit and use, that nature had garnered up her stores to be thus liberated, and chemicalized into a thousand forms, by their sagacious work. Not so! Quite indeed, not so!
Came—at last—the kerosene lamp. How marvelous the light of its clear flame, after "tallow dips" and "pine knots"! How the little lamp of the first experiment grew, and grew into gorgeous centers of sun-like radiance, shining everywhere, illuminating hitherto darkened, impenetrable places, carrying the torch of civilization round the entire world. Alike in slum and palace, in homes of poverty, and set to shine in the gilded resorts of the noble and wealthy; blessing the student, and the vast army of enforced workers; lighting the paths of men, and the ways of the multitude; making vice and crime more difficult, by dispersing the darkness from hidden purlieus. Through primeval depths and mountain fastnesses, wherever the footsteps of men have wandered, the magic lamp has pioneered the way.
All war is horrible. Through what agonies of loss, and orgies of death, and tortures of the weak driven to the wall by unscrupulous men the war against material darkness on this planet has been carried on is utterly unimaginable and impossible ever to be known. The end has been reached, the great needs of humanity at large have been and are being served, and while superior sources of light have largely taken the place of the oil lamp, it still shines calmly on in the homes of the poor, and will, for ages yet to come.
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