Mississippi Democrat. (Carrollton, Miss.) 1844-18??, 1845-08-20
THE nRIINKApn


Unhappy man whom sorrow, thus, and rage,
10 different ills alternately engage:
Who drinks, alas! but to FORGET. nor secs
That melancholy sloth, severe dissase.
memory confused and interrupted thought.
Deaths harbingers, lie in the draught.
And IN the flowers that wreath the snarkhnr bowl
Fell adders hiss, and poisonous serpents ron ~
When we contemplate the life Of the
drunkard, il is with feelings of mingled
pity and disgust. A being formed in the
image of his God, and endowed with ia
culhes for high intellectual and social en-
Ioyment, sinking himself below the brute
creation. Man, the noblest work that eY-
err came from the worlds great Architect,
dareS 10 deface the Creators image. and
crush with a suicidal hand heavens pure
attributes. He is a husband?-a iaiherl
Then doubly welghty is his sin, for he has
made miserable that wife whom he swore
to love and protect, and as a parent, Is
setting an example before his children
only calculated 10 poison their minds, and
render miserable those who would look
TO the parent tree for advice and support.
When man, through the process of IN
dulgence in intoxicating beverages, has
become drunkard, he is both physically
and morally changed. He no longer sees
with the same eyes, hears with the same
ears or has the same faculties which he
was master Of All around assumes n
new aspect. The genial warmth Of the
sun-the refreshing breeze-the beauties
OF nature, and all things calculated to in
spire the heart with love and admiration.
are lost 10 him. The pure atmosphere ne
breathes IS tainted with the poison. He
desplses himself, and therefore believes
that those who are his best friends behold
him with the same feelings.
Where are now the manly virtues which
once could win the affections Of confding
friends? Where the mildness of temper,
the principles of benevolence, those traits
which so ennoble the human characterl
Swept away by the fiend intemperance!
Let him be possessed of all that wealth
can brlng-let him recline upon 4 bed OF
down, and be famed by The breath OF aat-
terry, the same worm gnaws AT ms vitals.
and corrodes his soul. 1t is true that If
thus situated, the worlds cold scorn NAV
not be felt, for wealth gathers around Il
tawnlng favorites and rotten.hearted pre-
tenders, but let his power to cater 70 the
enJoymenis aud fashions Of the aav be
lost, and he at once becomes the poor des-
pissed drGnkard-ihose who were friends
while wealth lasted, have deserted him.
and as their adder tongues were once Zip
pant in bis praise, so now they are indus
triously engaged in spreading his faults
aud tall TO the world!
That the drunkard is happy, his whole
appearance denies. He NAV steeD his
soul in the Lelhean drauqht, until forget
tulness creeps over his Supplied senses,
and for lime renders him dead to the aw.
full consequences of his course, but The
spell IS soon broken, and he awakes bat 10
feel the more keenly the gnawing OF the
worm within. There is to The drunkard
no peace, no happiness, no hope. lie feels
the full weight of the curse which, like an
incubus, presses him to the earth, and set
he clings TO his destroyer until, with all the
horrors of death produced by inebrla-
ton, ne sinks to fill an ignominious grave,
unwept and unmourned. His suferings
on earth are ended, but is il so With that
family who have just consigned him to the
tomb? They YET live to feel the bligh.
and mildew of drunkard's heritage.
Ii is a reflection we'll calculated 10 IN
press the free mind with the deepest emo
lions, and The thought is forced home-vhol
would be drunkardl No one surely ey-
err commenced life with the remotest idea /
that such would be his end; yet thousands |
of those who once only partook of the ex-
beverage of fashions shrine,
now feel the full weight of the drunkar6's
drunkard's curse.
Look not upon the wine when il IS red
in the cup, when it moveth itself Alright
at last it biteih like a serpent and sting
eth like an adderr