merchant; the printer at the miserable proofsheet; the accountant at the troublesome line of figures;—­swearing in the cellar and in the loft, before the counter and behind the counter, in the shop and on the street, in low saloon and fashionable bar-room.  Children swear, men swear, ladies (!) swear.  Profanity from the lowest haunt calling upon the Almighty, to the fashionable “O Lord!” of the glittering drawing-room.

This whole country is blasted with the evil.  Coming from the West, a gentleman sat behind two persons conversing.  Profanities were so frequent in the conversation of the two persons in front, that the gentleman behind took out his pencil and paper and made a record.  The profanities filled several sheets in the course of two days, at the close of which time the gentleman handed the manuscript to the persons conversing.  The men said:  “Is it possible that we have uttered so many profanities in the course of two days?” The gentleman said:  “Yes.”—­“Then,” said one of the men, “I shall never swear again.”

I make no abstract discussion.  I hate abstractions.  I had rather come right out and have a talk with you about a habit that you admit to be wrong.  This habit has grown from the fact that the young often think it an evidence of manliness.  There are thousands of boys and youth who indulge in it.  I hear children along the street, but just able to walk, practising this iniquity.  They cannot talk straight, but they get enough distinctness to let you know that they are damning their own souls and the souls of others.  Oh! it is horrible to see a little child, the first time it lifts its feet to walk, set them down on the burning pavement of hell!  Between sixteen and twenty years of age there is apt to come a time when a young man is as much ashamed of not being able to deliver an oath as he is of the dizziness that comes from his first cigar.  He has his hat and coat and boots of the right pattern, and there is but one thing more now to bring him into fashion, and that is a capacity to swear.

So there are some of our young men surrounded by an atmosphere of profanities.  Oaths sit on their lips, they roll under their tongues, and nest in the shock of hair.  In elegant drawing-rooms they abstain from such utterances, but fill club-room and street with their immoralities of speech.  You suggest the wrongfulness of the habit, and they thrust their finger in the sleeve of their vest, and swagger, and say:  “Who cares!” They have no regard for God, but great respect for the ladies.  Ah! there is no manliness in that.

The most ungentlemanly thing a man can do is to swear.  This habit is becoming more and more prevalent because of the immorality of parents and employers.  There are very many fathers who indulge in this habit.  They feel moved to utter themselves in this way, but first look around to see if their children are present.  They have no idea that their children know anything about it.  The probability is that if you swear, your children swear.  They were in the next room and heard you, or somebody told them about your habit.  Your child is practising to do just as you do.  He is laughed at, at first, for his awkwardness, but after a while he will swear as well as you.