Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1851-03-14
VAIN GRE

How often do we hear those who are reap
the sure and painful fruits Of intemperance g
and dissipation, bewail their folly, and vainly p
wish they had their time to pass over again. ?
Excess, they affirm, would never again be v
in their indulgence; but prudence and S
should be the characteristics of their l
life. Bitter as has been their experience, they i
seem not yet fully to have realized the truth
that total abstinence is the only path of safety. I
The syren song of the charmer has so bewitch-
ed its unhappy victim. that he yields to the
deceptive and ruinous infatuation, that it is to
the " abuse and not the " use of i~ntoxira-
ting drinks, that he should attribute all his woe
and suffering. We have in our minds eye
an instance which may serve to /" point this
moral if not " adorn a tale"
Several years ago We resided in the sunny
cline of Florida. 1t was the universal custom
there Gas almost every where) to visit the SPLEEN
did drinking and gaming saloons and partake
freely and often of the insidious draught. In
that land of flowers and evergreen, every side
board groaned beneath its heavy c~ut-gIass de-
%canters and tumblers, costly wines and foreign
brandies. No one was so rude and inhospita-
bic as to fail placing before their %visiters, in all
their tempting elegance and profnsion, the
glowing Bordeaux and Cognac. In the beau
tiful City of St. Josephs, we formed the ac-
q~uaintance of a young man, who, though not
out of his teens, had imbibed a strong attach
ment for the insidious foe, and but for the
large fortune which he was TO inherit on his
arriving at majority, would perhaps have even
in those days have been considered a drunk
ard. We accepted of an invitation to visit
7" with him his maternal mansion" for he was
an only son, and his mother was a widow =
During our briefstay at the plantation on the
. beautiful waters of the St. Mary's, we saw
e him often in a state of inehriation ! We shall
n not attempt to describe the anxiety and care
e depicted on that youthful mothers brow for the
welfare of her darling boy, for our purpose is
e to be brief. Suffice it to say, that before two
years had rolled away, she passed prematurely
and b~roken-hearted to the grave.
Coming now into unrestrained possession Of
a large fortune, a very few years suficed to re-
d duce himself to penury and disease, through
rapid course of profigacy and dissipation
Remorse, with her enyenomed fangs and scor
pion lash, took hold upon him, and he bewailet
in great anguish of spirit the %ruinous course hi
had pursued. But he still adhered to stron.
drink and sought to +" drown his SORROWS in thu
bowl " The sudden and unexpected death of
wealthy bachelor uncle, again placed hin
in a~fluence and surrounded by wealth ant
J. luxury, the fawning vampires which had ono,
,e lured him on to destruction, swarmed arount
him again. He was soon in the giddy whirl
poo, and before thirty summers had passe'
over his head, he found himself deserted by hi
guilty fatterers, houseless, homeless and with
V out a friend, save a few who pitied him for hi
er mothers sake. We have seen the noble, gener
We GUS Henry Lee rolling cotton bales on the LIE
e. wee at New Orleans, a poor, degraded, bloate
in wreck of humanity ! We have no idea tina
Of he is living at the present day, unless he b
We one of the many thousands who have bee
if rescued from the west depths of degradation
it through the influence of the great Temperance
us reform. If, unhappily, be he not, we fear h
has gone down into the unenviable depths of
drunkards grave.
But how strongly does this simple and trutl
full narrative demonstrate the hypocrisy
those regrets we hear so often from those wi
have been. stranded on the coast of intempe
ance, but who still continue to tamper with Il
on false lights that have led them on to destru
Iy ton! Had he gathered wisdom from the dal
The waters of experience which had been presst
an so hardly to his lips, this unfortunate your
has man might still have become a useful and i
len fuential member of society but he huge
to the delusive traitor to his bosom, and amid
lac his regrets drank but the deeper of its daI
- ming rotations.
Reader! would you shun a like fate +?
y &c Touch not, taste not, handle not" the pe
ge' fdious destroyer. By your respect for yol
rel self and friends-by your love for virtue a
but hatred of vice-bv your hopes OF heaven a
ted fears of hell, we c%onjure you to take the Oh
pom path of safety, which is TOTAL ABsTINEN
will from all that can intoxicate.
lur- -N<~~5 '"
ION INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE-TRY
ime Is there a Son of Temperance in the wo
said who has not influence enough to save one
-iIor bo;no f-or, ar-or's patL . Wo haIiavo r