Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1856-08-20
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Stop that Rolling.

DR.. Charles Jewett, in his lectures, COM
pares the Liqyor system to a Bowling Alley.
AS fast as temperance men reform a drunk
ard, the Liquor sellers bowl him down again.
The following from a late article in the New
York Tribune, is a distressing case in point
"We had a young mechanic of such ex-
traordinafy skill 10 his business as to furnish
him with a great run of customers, who
knew that what he did was well and prompt
ly done. His work was widely noted in our
region, but he had one inirmity, inherited
from a drunken father, and greatly aggraya-
ted by his own indulgence. He always
averred that he was born with the appetite
for strong drink, and his averment was a
fact. In childhood his father bad learned
him to drink, and the rude circle in which
he moved was a d~rinking-school. As an ap-
prentice he was restrained but not reformed,
and before he was % years old was a con-
frmed drunkard. He became attached to a
young woman of excellent character and in
dustriOus economical habits, but his habit
was an insuperable objection in her eyes
lie abandoned his cups for her sake, opened
a shop, began q thriving business on his own
account. In this he was honest, and as he
put to interest 500 after another of his earn
ings, he was more strongly resolved never to
drink again. Meantime, his reformation
seemed so thorough, that the young woman
consented to be his wife. All went on hap
PLY for some years but during tbs time his
old drinking companions were tempting him
to join them, but he loved his family and his
business was prosperous, and he had so long
resisted the temptation that he supposed
himself safe. He was elected to an Office of
some importance, and this led him to the tav-
ems. The destroyer was on his track, and
suddenly it was rumored that A. b. was
having his sprees again. Tho red eyes and
sorrowful looks of his wife showed that it was
true. He had been tempted to taste a little,
and his old appetite revived into uncontrol-
liable energy. The liquor. sellers and their
pimps applauded their victims emancipation
from petticoat government and priestcraft.
An influential friend induced him to aban-
don his cups once more, and everything again
seemed right. His customers returned, his
wife smiled again, and he was happy. /
seem even now to see his delighted face and
hear his manly voice, as he was listening to
a lecture, on a certain occasion, from that
admirable man, DIR. Jewett. And yet the
very next day he was entrapped into a tav-
ern and became drunk. He went down with
fearful rapidity, but saved his property by
deciding it to a friend in trust for his family.
This done he gave himself up with frantic
and desperate eagerness. Everybody expec-
ted he would die but by some means he has
been led to abandon drink once more, and is
again making money at his trade. But the
s~oulcatchers hover about him, and it will be
no surprising thing if he falls again.
What is true Of him is in many respects
true of scores of other reformed drunkards
in our town the last.twenty-fve years. They
have been subjected to a running fire every
time they ventured in the street, so that they
had no chance to try whether or no they
could master their diseased appetite for rum.