The prairie news. [volume] (Okolona, Miss.) 1851-1875, 1858-06-03

| their feaStS had skeleton 10 Slb at tho
table with them, to be reminder OF the
mutability and heetingness of all things
Human but in these latter days we have
no need of such monster; death is no
longer grim and terrible to behold, but
beams upon us with a cheerful counte-
nance as glass jingles to glass at the bar
counter, or as bright eyes, liquid with
love, dart their glances to eyes that speak
again over the merry champagne, in some
brilliant parlor. This indeed, is the chief
danger to, be apprehended from the vice
of intemperance: its insidions attacks
upon all that is most attractive in human
nature. 1t can not be denied that the
lower classes, the base of society's pyra-
mid, exhibit the scathing marks of its
fiery visitation as lamentably as the sum-
nit and peak, the select and valuable in
society but still the same noble princi-
pies are attacked and undermine, wheth-
er in rags or ermine. This disguised de-
mon of intoxication promises largely OF
happiness, while it makes of conscience
a continual sting, and destroys even per-
sonal comfort. 1t tells the poor invalid
of health and strength, while it strews
his accelerated journey to death OF
shame, with withered flowers and cypress
garands. 1t intimates to the diflident
man of merit, brilliancy in conversation,
while it sinks him too low to appreciate
the society to which he aspired. 1t whis-
pers of love, like spice laden zephyrs from
| the land of the blest, while it is sapping
the very foundations on which the rose
y ls.--1ssered - palace might have been reared
in all its gloriousness Of course, these
allusions are to the first approaches Of
Intemperance for after the victim is
once fairly entangled in the meshes Of
his toll, his captor unmasks, and throw
ING aside the glittering exterior by which
i he had fascinated and captivated him.
exhibits with impunity to his dead fastid
iousness the horrible features Of open de.
prayity.
Tt seems that some minds, after yield
ing to the temptation of the wine cup
sink lov as they might have scared, haC
, they resisted. The siren voice of Plea
sure. with lute-like music, lured them on
till they were engnlfedin the maelstrom 0
physical and social degradation. Ant
! then. over them, unburied, whitening OF
: the beach, rolls the vast ocean OF lntem
perance, which, as if in penance for wha
J it has done, sings even its sad dirge; ant
! as if atoning for the fine flowers of feeling
and talent that it has crushed and sub
, merged, means continually, even wher
t calm, with its unlanguaged sobbings O
: the surf, and when aroused, lashes itsel
, into fury, and ungovernably howls its re
morse to the elements, and dashes vain
regrets to the stars. And how similar
!, too, to the natural ocean is this tide o
!, Intemperance in the indiscrimination 0
its burials for over all, alike, the prince
and the peasant, the beggar and the no
BILE, is said the same requiem by thu
winds and the waves. Such being th'
. admitted fact, then, that intemperanc'
, obtains its sway and exercises its influ
ence. not like other vices, not like theft
! by appealing to the cupidity of mans ma
ture, nor like murder, by kissing int
poisoned ears that revenge is sweet, no
living, that holds up contemplate mean
ness as admirable; but in a peculiar man
ner, gliding with beauty deformity itself
!, for mans companionship, making him be
|lieve that those are Gods, which benz
nor bow to his idolatrous worship, tear
] ling reason from his throne, making power
ty assume the pretentions of wealth, AM
robbing modesty ofits only charm, chang
! ing the strong man Of courage into
bully, and the man Of talent overhowinl
! with the fervor of a chaste and poeti
i imagination. making him snivelin
! idiot, and so in a thousand ways uproo'
!, inc whatever is most amiable and Lowell
!, in humanity, and substituting all that
miserable and revolving. All this bein
!. true. ought not something he done b
: philanthropists (and who will say he
t, not one y to destroy, forever, this vice