The Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?, 1852-03-04

a master, Professor Wilson,) tbst is wort
a thousand sermons or lectures against th
sin Of drunkenness:
], "Look at that gray-headcd-man Of three
score aud upwards, sitting by the waysde
He was once an elder Of the kirk; and
pious man he was. il ever piety adorned ih
ltemples-'ths lyart haffcis, wearing thiI
and bare'-of Scottish peasant. Wha
Ieye beheId the many hundred steps that
one by one, with imperceptible graduation
led him down, down, down, TO the loves
depths Of shame, suffering, and ruin? Fo
years before il was bruiied about that Ga
briel Mason was addicted to drink, bis wife
used 10 sit weeping in the spence, wher
her sons and daughters were at work in The
fields; and the infatuated man, fierce in .ht
excitement of raw spirits, kept causelessly
raging and storming through every nooI
Of that once 80 peaceful tenement, which
for many happy years, had never been dis
turbed By loud voices Of anger or reproach
His eyes we're seldom turned on his un
happy wife, except with sullen scowl OF
fiery wrath: but, when they did look On her
with kindness, there was also a rueful self
upbraiding in their expression, on account
Of bis cruelty; and, at sight Of such iransi
tory tenderness, ser heart would overflow
with iorgiving affection. and her eyes with
unendurable tears. But neither domestic
sin nor domestic sorrow will conceal from
the ewes and ears Of men; and at last Ga
brIel Mason's name was q by-word in the
mouth Of the scofFsr. One Sabbath he en-.
tered the kirk in a state Of miserable aban
donment, and from that day he was nc
longer an elder. To regain his character.
seemed 10 him, in bis desperation, beg
the power Of man, and agains, the decree
Of God. So he delivered himself up, like
a slave, to that one appetite; and in few
years his whole household had gone to des-
truc,ion. His wife was matron, almost
in the prime of life, when she died; but at
she kept wearing away to the other world.
her face told that she felt her years had
been too many in this. Her eldest sor,
unable, in pride and shame, to lifi up Ii
eyes at kirk or market, wen; away to the
city, and enlisted into regiment about 10
embark on foreign service. His two sis.
ters went TO take farewell Of him, but new
er returned, and it is said, having died Of a
fever in the in6rmarv, just as il she had
been pauper; and the other--for the
thought Of sin and sorrow, and shame, and
suffering is ruinous to the soul-gave her
self up, in her beauty, an easy prey to a
destroyer, and doubtless has run her course
Of agony, and is now a, peace. The rest
Of A,e family dropped down, one By one,
out Of sight, into inferior situations in Ear
off places; but there was curse, il was
thought, hanging over the family, and of
none of them did favorable report ever
come TO their native parish; while be. the
infatuated sinner, whose vice seemed 10
bave worked all the wo, remained ia the
chains Of bis tyrannical passion, nor seem
ed ever, for more than the short term Of a
day, 10 cease hugging them to his hearl.
Semblance Of all that is mos, venerable in
the character Of Scotland's peasnntry; i'm
age Of q perfect patriarch, walking out to
mediate at eveniide! What noble fore
head! Features how high, dignified, com.
posed! There, sitting in the shade Of that
old wayside treo, be seems some religious
missionary, travelling to and fro over the
face Of the earth, seeking out sin and scr-
row, that he may tame them under the
word Of God, and change their very being
into piety and peace. Call him not hoa-
ry hypocrite; for he cannot help that noble,
that venerable, that apostolic aspect, that
digniied figure, as if bent gently by time,
loath to touch it with too heavy a hand;
that holy sprinkling over his furrowed tom
pies Of the silyer-sott and the snow white
hair-these are the gifts Of gracious Ma
ture to all, aud Nature win not reel i'm them
but in the tomb. That is Gabriel Mason,
the drunkard! And in an hour you may
il your eyes can bear the sight, see and
hear him staggering up and down the vii
lage, cursing, swearing, preaching, pray
ing-stoned by blackguard boys and girls,
who bound all the dogs aud ours at his
heels, till, taking refuge in the smi.hy, or
the pot-house, he becomes the sport Of
grown clowns, and after much IDIOT laugh
ter, ruefully mingled with sighs, aud
groans, and tears, he is suffered 10 mount a
table, and urged, perhaps by reckless folly,
10 give out text from the Bible. which is
nearly engraven on his meuory--so much
and so many other things etfaccd forever
and there, like wild itinsrsni, be STAN
mers forth unin,cntionaI blasphemy, ill
the liquor he has been allowed or instiga
ted 10 swallnw, smites him suddenly sense
less, and falling down, be is huddled off in
10 corner Of some lumber room, and left
to slecp-bctter far for such wretch were
il to ."--Sconish TEN. In.
INFLUENCE OF WoMEN-The followin
occurs in one Of Kossuih's speeches:--
"When in the midsi Of busy day. the
watchfuI cares Of guardian angel throw
some flowers Of joy in the thorny way Of
man, he gathers them up with thanks, a
cheerful thrill quivers through bis heart,
like the melody of an Eolian harp; bui
the earnest duties Of life soon c)sim his at.
ten,ion and his cares. The melodious
thrill dies away, and no must 60, and on
be goes, joylcss, eheerless, and cold, every
fibre oi bis heart bent to the earnest duties
Of the day. But when the hard work Of the
day is done, and the care Of mind for mo-
ment subsidies, then the heart again claims
its right, and the tender fingers Of your
memory gather up again the vioie,s Of Joy