Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1856-08-07
Confessions Of a d, unkard.

We deeply regretted to read in the New
York Daily Times, for Sept. llth, 1894. an
article published from an English paper, head
cd Lambs Ale" That article said that
when Charles Lamb was about to spend an
evening abroad, his sister would say, NOW.
Charles, you're not going to take any ale
" No, no." Charles would reply, impatlently.
Aud then the English journal proceeds to
administer reproof to Lambs sister, for
=" restricting her brother too much IN the use
of those artificial stimuli, which were, to a
certain extent, indispensable to healthy
tone of his mental condition" The writer
adds:
"The cup in which he INDUCED was
blessing. no less to himself. than to others,
and for both parties, its ingredient was an
angel"
Now. the truth is, that the intoxicating
bowl exerted its invariably baneful effect up
on Lamb. The "ingredient Of his, like
every other cup, was a devil" Where are
there, in the whole range of literature, more
graphic pictures of the devils of the drink
system, or of the crying necessity OF Total
Abstinence and Legislative Prohibition, than
ale to be found in the Essays OF Ella, under
the head Of Confessions Of a Drunkard, from
which we make the following extracts:
"The waters have gone over me. But
out of the black depths, could be heard, l
would cry out to all those who have have set
foot in the perilous food. Could the youth
to whom the flavor of his first wine is deli
cious as the opening scenes of life, or the en-
tering upon some newly discovered paradise,
look into my dcsoation, and be made to un-
derstand what dreary thing it is when a
man shall feel himself going down precl-
pice with open eyes and a passive wlIl-to
see his destruction and have no power to stop
it, and yet to feel it all the way emanatlng
from himself; to see all goodness emptied
out of him, and yet not be able to forget a
time when it was otherwise to bear about
the pitcous spectacle of his own selt-ru'n !;
could he see my fevered eye, feverish with
last nights drinking, and feverishly looking
for the nights repetition Of the Jolly; could
he feel the body OF the death out OF which l
cry hourly, with feebler and feebler outcry'
to be deivered,-itwere enough to make nm
dash the sparkling beverage to the earth, IN
all the pride Of his mantlng temptation.
Oh if wish could transport me back to
those days of youth, when a draught from
the next clear spring could Stake any heats
which summer suns and youthful exercise
had power to stir up in the blood, how glad
ly would 1 return to the pure element, the
drink of children, and OF child-Ilke holy her.
nit.
Twelve years ago. | was possessed of
healthy frame of mind and body. l was
never strong, but think my constitution
flor weak one] was as happily exempt from
a tendency to any malady, as it was possible
to be. | scarcely knew what it was to all
anything. Now, except when | am losing
myself in sea of drink, | am never free
from those uneasy sensations in the head and
stomach, which are so much worse to bear
than any definite pains and aches. AT that
time | was seldom in bed after six in the
morning, summer and winter. awoke re-
reshed, and seldom without some merry
thoughts in my head, or some piece of song
TO welcome the newborn day Now, the
first feeling that bcsets me, after stretching
out the hours Of remembrance to their last
possible extent, is forecast of the wearisome
day that lies before me, with secret wish
that could have lain on still, or never
awaked."
Let drinking scholars give heed to the sol
emn admonitions with which their belovet
Lamb closes his Confessions +"
81 pcrpetualy catch. myself in tears, 70
any cause or none. 1t Is inexpressible HOY
much this inGrmity adds to sense of sham
and n general feeling of detsriation.
Shall lift up the veil of my weakness
any farther or is this disclosure sufficient
[ have no vanity to consult these comics
sions. know not whether shall be laugh
ed at or heard seriously Such as they are
| commend them to the readers attention,
he finds his own case any way touched.
have told him what am come to. Let hi
TOP in time" -Prohibitionist