The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1858-10-14

many temptations to encounter and
few, at all times, come off victorious
and unscathed. Most of them come
from the fiery furnace, with, at least,
the smell Of fire on their garments. -
Squire Cranstoun was no exception.
Convivial meetings, champagne sup
pers, and social gatherings, with par
ty-friends, to rejoice over their victo-
ries, had not been without their effect
on him.
At first he had not drank to excess,
only a glass or so; but as one election
after another came on, and he found
other aspirants for political honor
springing up here and there and TAX
ing the stump against him, he, like
others, used every means in his power
to ensure the defeat of his competitors,
and treating some and drinking with
others, were among the measures en-
ployed to accomplish his purposes
He sometimes found that his brain
was less clear, and his step and hand
less steady, and then he should have
paused and considered the end ofthese
things. But, like many an other in the
same condition, he did not. The
greater the difficulty, each succeeding
canvass, of retaining his position over
the heads of younger aspirants, the
more determined he grew to do it, and
the more frequently the whisky bottle
and the wine. glass were called into re-
QUESTION, not for himself, to be sure,
but to secure the votes of his friends,
as he called them, then, though at 9th
er times he would have blushed to
have been seen in their company
Finally he had learned TO love the de-
basng cup, and the use of it had be-
come habitual. At last, speaking du-
ring new canvass with more liquor
in his stomach than his reeling brain
could maintain its sway against, he
made an entire failure, and his oppo-
nent, gentleman of noble, courtIy
bearing and whose language was sin
gularly well-chosen and adapted TO
his theme, and whose speech was
made up, alternately, of sound argu-
ment, striking comparisons, brilliant
repartce and sparkling wit, won the
ears of the delighted audience, and
the wind of popular favor veered
completely round, to watt the opposing
candidate successfully into the haven
he dcsired--milcage, the iranking
privilege and eight dollars a day.
Squire Cranstoun was defeated and
from that hour his course was rapidly
downward.
o! that cup that "biteth like SER
pent and stingcth like an adder'--he
drank deeply Of its deadly mixture
which had blasted all his worldly pros.
poets, and its poison was in his burn
ing veins, scorching his brain, blasting
his home comforts, and destroying
home affection.
There is no man more unreasonable
than disappointed one, if he yield
to his feelings, and add the irritabiIity
of strong drink to that, and all who
come under his sway, must expect
nothing from him but the most exact
ing tyranny.
Upon his patient, uncomplaining
wife and suffering daughter, did
Squire Cranstoun vent all his spleen,
and day by day his conduct towards
them was more cruel and uncomfortable.
His property, of course, was wasting
rapidly, and poverty stood lowering
nigh TO take at no distant time her seat,
with ruin and disgrace, in the pleasant
cottage.
He grew negligent in providing for
the most common wants Of his wife
and daughter, allowed them no lon
ger the means of procuring what
was necessary to appear according to
their station, while he, himself, cross
and quarrelsomc, was spending lavish
ly in all manner of strange and un-
heard ofspeculations. He had gather
ed round him, at the bar-room of the
village inn, set of idle, worthless
vagabonds, who had not, in former
days, more than dared to bow to the
honorable Senator, and to whom now
his word was law, who initiated his
manner and language and scoredtheir
liquor at his expense. He never, even
now. descended to any undue famil-
iarity with them, but the breath of
praise had become necessary to his
nostrils, and the great man must be a
great man still, if only in the bar-room
of a village inn.
But to return to Madeleine. Slow
ly and sadly did the poor girls life
wear on, unblest by day and unsus-