Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1857-04-23

1
resolution to reform, which grows weake
as appetite wakes stronger, deludes hin
with the hope of escape. Thus it was il
this case. Gradually the Doctors practic,
left him. The patrons who had nearly
idolized him were constrained 10 pass hin
by. His loss of friends and character tool
away the remaining restraint to his appe
tite, and soon became incapable ofprofession
al duty. Sober intervals brought on severe
struggles-poverty, shame, disgrace, dis
ease. death, and hell forbade his advance
friends, fame, prosperity, domestic peace
long life, and heaven forbade him retreat
but appetite ragged within, and terrible
consciousness that all was lost he escaped
the vision of the future, by plunging agair
into sensibility. At length summoning hi:
remaining strength he made a desperate
effort to rescue himself. He moved bach
to the village he had left. Here things
had changed, his old companions were gone
salutary moral influence pervaded the com.
munity, and everything conspired to en-
courage his reform. He stood erect, but
as his character had preceded him, he was
eyed askance, and he won confidence but
slowly. Still there was hope. On one oc-
casion after an election which resulted as
he desired he joined in rejoicing. As
usual in such circumstances, the wine flow
ed freely; it was offered him, it was press
ed upon him with such declarations as
these: alt is n rare occasion, men will ex-
Ipect you to make free; you should not re-
fuse to take single glass" He drank, he
was bewildered, overcome.
His wife was at my fathers awaiting him.
He came late at night, ana came drunk. /
cannot forget the countenance of that wife
as he entered. Shame, disgrace, grief dis
appointment, rage and dispair, in turn play
ed round her features. With desperate
effort to subdue her emotion, she put on
her bonnet and shawl and babe respect
full farewell I attended her and her hus-
band to the door. AS soon as the light
was Withdrawn she shook him from her as
she would beast; the sense of wrong and
ruin, for time overpowered he affections;
her last hope of temporal happiness
had expired, and she was little better than
a maniac. He staggered after her bawling
like a calf, and making strange gathering
upon the pavement, the echoes of which,
in that dark and silent night, 1 shall not
soon forget. Disheartened he moved to
his own cottage, now sadly changed, Dis
ease came on him apace, the remainder of
his fortune was soon spent; and he died in
his prime, leaving beautiful young wife
and child nearlo destitute. He was bur-
led not without pity, but the feeling as if
the earth had been relieved of burden
We would not speak irreverently of even
ruined human nature, but if there is any
thing which can obliterate our sympathies
for man it is drunkenness, which more
than anything else obliterates manhood
The ancients felt this as well as the modern
and have transmitted many fine sayings up
on it. A woman injured by her drunken
monarch, said, 81 appeal from Phillip
drunk, to Phillip sober" Publius Syrus
says, "He who jests upon drunken man
Injuries the absent" One said, "a man
may be wise in the morning. and when the
sun gives the sign to spread the table, and
intempelance brings in the messes and fills
the bowls, the man falls away and leaves
beast in his room. And when we bury
him with sorrow, it may be but not as a
man; the man has long since departed"
In this case, as in many, We might write,
ale whose merits deserve a temple can
now scarce find a tomb" Let us pause a
moment over this case. We see here, a
loss of fortune, character, business, friends,
internal peace, seiieccnntrol, health, and all
rational enjoyments. Here too, was expo
sure of folly, force of temptation, power of
passion, alienation of natural affection.
blunting of moral sensibility, premature
death, and domestic desolation. Here, too,
was duty, preternitted and sin continued
to the tomb; here, too, was evil example
upon family and friends, to be felt in the
present and future generations; here was
an appetite which neither genius, accom-
plishments, affection, honor, nor the sancti-
ty of religion could control. We will not |
lift the curtain of another world. This, too,
be it marked, was not case of the worst |
description, for the poor victims were re-
strained from crime. But we must view
this instance alone. 1t must be multiplied
by 100000 to give the aggregate of drunk
ards daily exhibited in the United States
number kept thus by moderate drinking,
which fills up the places as fast as death
and crime yacates them. The evils of. in
Temperance are not co., fined to the intem-
perate. Here nan reeling home from a
debauch dislocates his shoulder; there an
intoxicated driver oversets coach and
kills some innocent travellers; and here
the bottle makes a maniac, and there a
murderer; here it sinks ship, and there it
fires house; and here it ruins character,
and there soul. II fills lunatic asylums,
hospitals, poor houses, jails and penitentia-
ries with victims.
Careful estimates show that it causes
three-fourths of all the crime, three-fourths
of all the pauperism, and a large part of all
the insanity Of this Union; that it occasions
an immense destruction of property, adds
to the number, and aggravates the severity
of diseases, spreads dissipation and vice
and wretchedness over the land; leads to
bodily, mental deterioration in many fami-
lies and communities ;corrupts the polls and
endangers the government and is the chief
hindrance of the Gospel in all civilized
lands. The opening of the bottle, indeed,
Is the opening of pandora's box Reader
if,you are wise, you will eschew it for
while thus injurious, it is never useful In
health and rarely in disease.