ts there first he waits for Bill, and then they wait for Jack,
Bob, Ben, Charlie and the balance of the club. When they are all in, one
or two of the older ones propose to go across the way and take a drink
at the corner saloon, which is still in blast; yes, running at a full
head of steam, or rather mean whiskey. Now here is a very strange thing.
I have never heard of but one first-class saloon closing until after the
ball closed, and in this case the owner was very sick and the bar-tender
had skipped with the cash balance. Some of these boys have been taught
by their old-fogy fathers and mothers that such things are not to be
found on the straight and narrow road, because there is no _room_ for
them along this road, _and no use for them either_.

I have carefully examined my way-bill to heaven, and it was made out by
one who knows every foot of the way, but I find no mention made of
drinking saloons, ball rooms, theaters, operas, houses of ill-fame, and
_such like_ places as being on or near this road. The same one has
furnished me a way-bill to hell, and I find all these places mentioned
as being on the line of this road. Whenever you find yourself, dear
reader, at one of these places, you may know beyond the shadow of a
doubt that you are not in the narrow road; and with equal certainty you
may know you are in the broad road. Now these boys are evidently on the
broad road, because the devil's sutler-shops are not to be found
anywhere else, for the very good reason that he cannot get a permit to
put them up on the narrow road. He would put them in the very center of
heaven if he possibly could. His impudence and daring is only equaled by
his fathomless corruption. The man or woman who will dare to say that
these places are found on the road to heaven, certainly has a very poor
idea of heaven and its inhabitants. If they are to be found along the
straight and narrow way, and the travelers along this way are to enter
and participate in the things therein going on, then they are certainly
designed of God to _aid in the salvation of immortal souls_. If this be
true, on entering the narrow way the first refreshments we shall get are
to be found in one of these places, having this sign over the door;
"FIRST CHANCE," and the last thing we pass in this life, just before we
enter heaven, will be another one of these houses with this inscription
over the door: "LAST CHANCE." Some of these boys don't understand it
this way; they