The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1830-09-01
A TRUE SKETCH

| A TRUE SKETCH.
Inc depopulating pestence that walketh az
MONDAY, the carnage of cruel and DEVASTATING
war, can scarcely exhibit their victims in mora
terrible array, than exterminatinr Drunkenness
nave seen promising family spring from the
( parent trunk, and stretching ab-aad its nonr
Ious limbs like towering tree, covered with a
green and healthy foliage have seen the nm
natural decay beginning upon the yet tender
ieaf, and gnawing like worm in the unopened
oud' while they dropped off, one by one, and
the scathed and ruined shaft stood alone, until
the winds and rains of many a sorrow laid that
I too In the dust. On one of those holy DAYS
when the patriarch, rich in virtue as in years
gathered about him the great and the little ones
OF his fock-his sons with their sons, and his
daughters with their daughters, /, too, sat at
the festive board. |, too, pledged them in the
( social WINE cup, and rejoiced with them around
me hoSpitable hearth; and expatiated with de-
| light upon The eVentful future while the good
old man warmed in genial glow of youthful en-.
thuslasm, wiped the tear Of Joy from his glis-
tening eye. He was happy. l met with them
again as the rolling year brought the festive
season round. And they were not all there.
The kind ole man sighed as his suffused eve
dwelt upon the then unoccupied seat But ioy
yet came to his relief, and he was happy A
parents love knows diminution-time dis
lance, poverty, but give intensity and strength
to that passion before which all others but dis.
solve and melt away Another year elapsed.
l ne board was spread. But the guests camc
not. The old man cried, Where are my chill
dTen" And echo answered, lohereP His heart
protector they were not. Could not heaven
have spared his gray hairs this afficton Alas!
The demon of drunkenness had been there, and
they had fallen victims of his spell. And one
short month sufficed to cast the veil of oblivion
over the old mans sorrow and the young ones
shame-they are all dead ~ Y 4merican.
BAD SYMPTOMS. Some newspaper paragraph
ranks among evil symptoms, the following com
mon things-"to laugh without ioke,' " to
cough without cold" and ito sigh, vet feel
no pam There are great many others, that
may be placed among bad signs-such as to
get learning without wisdom, preferment with
out capacity, and wealth without honesty
IL is no good sign TO spend two thousand
dollars, on salary of but ono thousand 20
run away from the face of an old benefactor in
want, as If his presence were a rep.oach to in
gratitude: TO striVe for mica without merit
out shame. 1t is no good sign to a fertile
country overgrown with weeds, and one fami-
lily IN ten suffering from want and it is worse
to behold a strapping fellow, six feet high, and
formed like Hercules across the shoulders with
tin box in each hand "a pedlar of esse2ces.
Jewels are becoming; especially in the ear,
out tHcy 90 not snow so well IN the nose vet
when ftteen mon are together, there will be at
least one, whose nose is studded with carbun-
cles, like cornelian set in warts.
A good color or complexion is not to be des.
pissed, yet we prefer the hue of the peach to
that of the beet
There is thermometer to measure heat, and
there is another way, by which we may ssti-
mate the life and habits of a man as correctly
as we can learn the heat of his blood An in
famed nose or face is indeed often found with
the most abstemious, but the " clusters and con-
stellations, that sparkle on the bottle nose, are
stronger evidences of the spirit that burns
within. This saamander, as Fdistaff, who kept
one great while, informs us, is not to be sup
piled with fire for nothing 1t costs too much for
fuel, where honor, and conscience and body, and
soul, must feed The furnace.
1t is bad sign to see so many laborous in
ventions TO save labor. They show a too gem
cral desire to live in idleness. We speak not
of spinning jenneys, but chiefly Of the new
railways to a language science. There
but three ways to be gent-study, study,
study. To acquire may be little easier, by
some appliances and aids TO boot" but sue
cess depends solely upon perseverance,. Self
taught men are often the most thoroughly edu-
Gated. A man at first will walk better in shoes,
but if obliged to go bare footed, he will get
along very well.
But column would not hold 1.-THE of the
bad signs of the times and symptoms OF the body
politc.-BOston Courier.