The Ohio organ, of the temperance reform. (Cincinnati, [Ohio]) 1853-1854, 1853-09-23

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! can better describe what is to be found
there daily. | see two chairs ranged
side by side against the wall. One of
I them holds the form of man, the other
his spirit. His form has lost nearly all
resemblance 10 human being, his spirit
is not to be mistaken. A casual OBJ
server would say it was whisky. He
only lives in, and for whisky. There he
sits, his head Topped down and swaying
hither and thither in a drunken sleep.
When he wakes, it will be perhaps TO
take another cup and sleep again. The
outside world is nothing TO him, the flight
of time is unheeded by him. Fer him,
no sun shines, no skies are clear, no
flowers bloom. No love of wife or child
can find soft response in his heart. He
has no hopes, no fears, no dreams he
only lives to drink and sleep. He is out
one Of many that anybody who walks
the streets may see daily.
Occasionally, passing in and out with
quart cup, goes the proprietor of the
den from his shop to lhe cellar. The
business Of his life is to keep the whisky
cask full, and also the poor, thirsty crea-
tires who call for "more, more," and
know where they can find it cheap, /
You may imagine that he is the sole
tenant; but no, look in farther and you
will see the wife; and look aIound, down
the alley, in the gutter, aud on the door
step, and you will see children of divers
sizes and ages, from the creeping infant
TO the half-grown girl and daily, if you
look, you can see pale, sickly boy sit
ting on the ground with his head leaning
against the door, moaning and half cry
ing. Nobody takes notice of him. tits
an old song that he sings. Perhaps it
means something, if one could but un-
derstand it; but who has time to care for
poor, sick boy? 1t may be, the poison
in his fathers veins, is consuming the
life of his child. 1t is a wall Of suffering.
I pray God may take him away soon,
when he will moan no longer.
Young men and middle.aged enter
alike this dreary den, and come out, as
their nature may be, wild beasts, shout
ing, fighting, cursing; or, with too little
life for that, reeling, staggering, and per-
haps falling dead weight on the pave
ment; or, beginners in sensuaIity per-
haps, with loud clustering hurrahs and
oaths, with boisterOus, senseless mirth,
tmaking night hideous,u and groping
their way homeward to carry blight and
woe to the mothers that bore them, and
plant barbed arrows in the bosoms that
fed them.
Yes, in some form or other, this awful
scourge may be found daily destroying
the life-blood Of our race, and spreading
untold misery among the homes in our
land.
Not daily, yet occasionally, sight less
familiar, but ah ! more sad, meets my
eye. Two women, respectfully dressed,
supporting between them drunken man,
followed for the length of three squares.
He was a man in the prime of lite, tall,
we'll made, athletic, strong enough of
bone and sinew TO have borne these two
frail women in his arms. But there he
was, reeling, stumbling, his bIoated face
half buried on his breast, his great,
brawny hands clenching the arms on
which they leaned, and his heavy weight,
falling from side to side, till | feared the
feeble reeds on which he bore SO heavy,it
would sink exhausted on the pavement.
Their faces haunted me many day;
sorrow and shame were written there.
They could not lift their eyes. They
knew they were stared at as they went
along, by gaping crowd Of men, women
and children. They, the innocent ones,
felt all the shame, all the sorrow He
who had brought such woe upon them,
was dead to shame long ago. He will
lie down upon his bed and sleep till
morning, his senses stupifed. They
will wake and watch and weep, as they
have done many weary night before,
as their pale, wan cheeks and sunken
eyes tell plainly.
Another time, half fallen on the side
walk, supported by stone steps, | saw a
man, besmeared with dirt, ragged, and
indescribably beastly in his appearance,
| should have turned away in disgust,
had he been there alone, for my whole
F,ono h. hnt hap;ba