Southern shield., 1853-07-09
A TALE OF THE gNTEmpERATE,

force sound moral, gives us the
 following as the effects of intemper-
 ance:
 Mir. and his young wife took up their abode in apartments near my first residence. I owed my acquain- tance to an introduction at course of lectures in which I was associated for the benefit of one of our dispensiaries Anatomy and the physiology of the yiscera were my subjects, and I obser- ved from his excessive paleness that he was afflicted with some internal con- t1estion, or that his circGl et;4a at any rate was not of a very high order. A
 degree of curiosity on the subject of
 enlargement of the liver, from the ex-
 cessive use of brandy, with desire to know the earliest indications render
 ing abstinence indispensable to preserve
 life, gave me a hint of his listlessness
 and the cause of his inattention to bus
 mess.
 He was a lawyer and had few
 years before been acti7ely occupied in
 the lower courts; going home one night
 at a late hour, from one of my mid
 night enterprises, where the good rule
 of leash on delivery" meets no favor
 with our poor patients, notwithstanding
 the abundance of the commodity deliy-
 cred, 1 observed him staggering before
 me in such a manner that l feared my
 aid would be necessary. He was ex-
 cessively proud and tenacious of his character, and I therefore avoided his observation, walking slowly behind him until a violent fall compelled me to interfere, and raise him; being obliged, indeed, almost to carry him to his house, a small and barely decent resi- dence, to which his habits had reduced him, and the rent for which, as I sub- sequently learned, his delicate wife paid by painting maps and prints for the booksellers.
 My first impulse was to leave him as soon as 1 should hear the approach of the servant in answer to my summons. 1 did not anticipate the possibility of the absence of the single servant 1 knew they had some time kept, but their poverty had obliged them to discharge her, and the bell was almost instantly answered by the gentle being who knew poor child, the nature of the summons. She was in her day dress, and had not removed it, as she told me. for several nights, having been obliged 10 watch the return of him who should have been her hopo and ark of refuge, and whose strong arm should have in.erposod be- tween her and all harm. Alas, drunk enness had dimmed the lustre of that eye that once looked so kindly on her, and withered the arm that should have protected her, and naught remained for both but the quiet grave. We none of us imagined how near it was.
 Never shall I forget the look of heart broken anguish with which her gaze met mine, as the flame of the hall light fell upon us. Those tears are imprin- ted on my very soul; nor do 1 think any man, with spark of humanity in him, would not have answered them in kind. I carried him to his chamber and after examining and dressing the wound on his forehead received from his fall, and knowing that my absence would be most acceptable to the true. wife, 1 took my departure, begging her instantly to send freely in the event of any trouble or new misfortune. l did not repeat my visit, well knowing what her sufferings must have been, and that she wished to bear them un- and alone.
 'T was some days before again saw them; and l fondly hoped, from short of renewed attention toI business, and seeing his wife occasion ally walking arm-in- arm with him, plainly but respectfully clad, that he had turned over a new leaf in the blackened and defaced volume of his life. But, alas! he soon relapsed into a lower state than ever; and often stag gered by my office occasionally looking in, and uttering some maudlin nonsense. l was powerless; he was like many oth- CTS addicted to the loathsome vice, and had not mind enough to appeal to- He resented the least hint for reform; and once gave me to understand 1 would do well to concentrate all my mental power on my own business, as suring me (and God knows l felt the truth of his remark 1 would find no ability. The poor fellow never forgave me for carrying him up stairs, though his suffering wife avoid ed mentioning my name to him except in a medical light.
 A few months after the incident which brought me into this family, the Choe- "a of 1892 came on. It was soon ap- parent that the disease confined its most fatal ravages to the wrctched and debili- tated. None will forget the sickening and heart-rending scenes of that awful visitation. The Angel of Death did. in- deed, spread his wing on the blast; but