Monongalia mirror. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1855, 1853-08-13
ruR TIE MIRROR,
Mr.. EDiToR-

Mr.. ED,ToR-
Can you tell me where the people
get The liquor that makes so many Of
Our harvest hands drunk ? Old men, md
even young men and boys may be seen
staggering home in the evenings from
their own harvest fields; and boys Of
l5to ls years old SO tight, as they call it,
US 10 require the assistance Of some one
10 help them home and often, the blind
leading the blind, both fall into the ditch.
Their way is marked with fiendish yells
enough TO arouse the sleeping owl or to
scare The fox from his safe retreat the
yells accompanied with oa,hs foul enough
TO disgust liend, Or raise the hair on
sober mans head. Our once peaceful
settlement has thus been disturbed for The
last three weeks. Some Of our farmers
have bOasied, 10 their shame, that they
hlvo used from one 10 two gallons per
day while harvesting. Among those ma.
Tauders may be seen some Of our citizens
who once stood high in socicty-one all
exhortcr, il you please, with two or three
sons following in the footsteps Of drum
ken father. I ask again, where do they
get their liquor! We have no licensed
,ayerns in our neiehborhood, and where
can they get il Can ii be possible that
the blue uagon that leaves our town about
once week, at about three o'clock in the
afternoon, and returns about midnight,
driven by corpulent Justice Of the Peace,
furnishes this soul-lestroying poison 2
Rumor says it is he. If so, where is II
kept? If you were TO visit onr town on
SaturJa! evening, VIC presume you could
answer this question, from the array oil
vessels brought in almost every direction
such as juss, can,eens, coiiee.po's, Oil
cans, and almost every thing that will
hold whiskey; all directing their steps 10
one of those low, mean, miserable sink
holes where whiskey is always slowed
away little out Of sight Of the public,
there to be given away BY some unknown
hand, perhaps by lady! No, conscience
forbids the phrase, for no lady would be
seen in the company Of those that haunt
such sin ks Of misery and vice. She may
be the wife Of drunken husband, and
the mother CT three or four children. =
Little does she think Of the misery she is
heapins upon the wives and children oil
those men 10 whose mouths she is hold
ing The cup. Or it may be man in d
high station in life, slipping the bottle
from some little boy and sneaking away
to fill it, then sending him away as sly as
possible, after seeing that the ruy is de.
posted in little money-box; for he don't
take pay himself!
Yonng men aud boys ore seducel into
these places, and generally leave u few Of
their dimes and all their senses, and then
s,asger home, disgrace 10 their sisters,
q pain TO their mothers, and TO bring the
grey hairs Of their father in sorrow 10 the
grave. But such young men may well
cay, +" Father, who is 10 blame You have
raised me, and educated mo for high sta
ton in society, and how con attain to it
without following the footsteps of my PFC
decessors. They owe their elevation to
tho influence Of the bottle. Father, do
you recollec, voting for Ms.- for JUS
lice Of the Peace, and you knew he was
n druukard oil his life I? and Mr.. - for
the Legislature. You knew he carried q
flask in his pocket, and treated you and
l when he was around electioneering.-
And you wish me 10 become honorable
and to do SO must treat, and drink o
little, for Squire B. says man is not fit
for society unless he can take his glass
md keep up with u.s." Fathers, beware!
examples speak louder than preccp's.
Now, can you tell where they got the
liquor? FolskS VI ChhAi.