Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-07-23


in the summer, altogether pleasant and agreeable.
am in hurry now-morc next week.
MAGNOLIA.
- For the Yorkville Enquirer.
THE PLAQUES OF EGYPT.
SCENE FIRSr-A ">R ROOM
Toprr.-"Whcre did you get this COOL old bald
face? d--n good stuff"
Bar Htepcr--Ycs the best that's going-always
treat our friends - the hest--good old mountain
juice
Topsr-Well. give Us another lrcn. o,l hoss!
Play Of the Az C""f"rg.
1t is some times amusing rs well as instructive,
to loiter about the bar.room door and hear :he
Bacchanalian oaths and wrong-side-up stories of
toners hiccoughing around the "hoe in the WALL
When we say "amusing and instructive, we should
qualify the expression-itis is only amusing to one
who can laugh at the fobles weaknesses and de-
pravity of human nature-t is only instructive
when it engraves on the heart terrible warning
of the Circean bowl. But here is gran; stand
point, from which to contemplate the dark side of
human nature. 1t would be master pencil which
could draw bar-room and its customary adjuncts.
Old and sQualid misery; youth taking the first
treacherous steps; Williams conscious of many
rope. dangling act; hardened cut-throats with
many dark and ruthless deed portrayed in their
hard and stony features; the politician seeking to
court the favor of the characteress inebriatc; the
man of the world who is hunting some victim for
speculation--all meet here in dnly contact.
Who can imagine the aggregate of human mis-
cry, present and prospective, in that crowd? Who
can look on it without pity-disgus? Who can
behold that spectacle, without refecting how many
hopes once tinged with gold lie blasted forever
how many homes erst while happy nnl sunshiny
have become obscure and miserable loIrls; how
many children, pledges of the purest anl most
devoted love, eat their scanty food in bitterness
and ignorance how many dark deed is brought
here to be drowned in oblivion how many of
those deluded creatures have spent their last dime
the hard earnings perhaps Of wife or child
for the treacherous draught that causes Lin to
blaspheme and gesticulatc so wildly? What mis-
cry is in that frantic hugh! You hnve risit.d
the Asylum for the insaue-you have heard the
maniac laugh as we'll as the maniac groan-whch
haunts you the longer? Surely the wild laugh
that mockery Of departed mirth. And long after
wards, the incoherent wor,ls and unearthy sounds
from the dungeons around will cause tremor
to pass through the heart-a shulder, feeling
of ave- And so when we have stood by and heard
imprecatons around the bnr.room, we have
thought it Che most vivid scene of human suffering
which fancy could portray-more impressive than
The rock.bound Prometheus with the 'vulturers
preying on his bleeding entrails.
But let rs from this standpoint, review more
minutely this mass of fallen and falling humanity.
There, seated on that stcp-that old tattertema-
lion-thnk you he was ever respectable, afauent
in his circumstances, proud Of his character and
standing, doating on fond wife and happy chill
dren? We knew him we'll and could easily trace
Each step from splendor to disgrace.
II was not by one fearful leap that he fell. Grad
ually the chain drew close around him, he did not
perceive it, his friends did not perceive it-even
his wife was long in suspccting that he wonld fall
But under the influence Of daily stimulants that
Judgment once so clear and practical, became
perverted; that heart, once so pure and manly,
became corrupt and debased; and that pride Of
character, without which man floats like n rud-
derless ship, was lost forever. When the sum-
mons came that the old homestead must be left
that q long array of debts contracted Mt the gam
bling table, and under the influence of fatal slim
ulants, impendcd over them; who can paint the
anguish Of that wretchcd wife-of those houseless
children: lie had not the moral courage to re-
form even ut that late hour, aud now he fingers
around that bar-room door, md imagines in his
delirious dreams, that he is once more happy and
respectable.
This jocular old man, entertaining his little
circle with anecdotes of the bar, is m eS-lawyer
His practice was once lucrative and his prospects
bright, but though he still haunts the Court, he is
trusted by no one-not even his boon companions
of the bar-room. Those companions have been
his ruin.
Thus we might trace out the history Of each in
dividual in that noisy crowd, but it would still be
the same tale of temptation and degradation and
misery. 1t would still point out the moral-be-
ware of bad company and the seductions of the
bar.room. BRUTUS.
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