Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1859-03-09
Temperance and Lawyers.

Considering how greatly the Legal profess
sion has been scourged by intemperance, it is
wonderful that so few Of Its members unite
with the efforts that are being made to arrest
Of men that furnish so mary instances of
bright intellects and noble endoYments be-
ing wrecked, degraded and ruined, as is to be
found among the Lawyers. The most exal-
ted intellccts nave been hurled from their
high places to grovel in the dust of degraded
and depraved appetites. The most accom-
plished and refined have by intemperance
gone into the most bestial Indulgence, and
the lowest and basest companionship. For
tune and fame have been cast to the winds,
by lawyers practising at a bar, different from
that for which they had so studiously pre-
pared themselves.
The Temperance Visitor gives an instance
of the ravages Of intemperance among the
Lawyers, as follows; and how many Of the
same stamp can each reader Of this article
point to? We have now IN our minds eye
one whose history we know. Possessed of
great literary attainments, he trod successful
ly the path of literature and won surels
there. Deeply read in the science Of the law,
he ventured fearlessly in the halls of justice,
and came out with the laurel wreath of sue
cess. Possessed Of noble qualities of mind
and heart, he attracted a large circle Of friends,
and scattered JOY and happiness around him
But there was one cloud hanging over his
prospects. There was one base habit over
~shsGowing his whole being. That was in
temperance. For him the wine cup had It's
charms; the c~onvivial party held out its most
powerful alIurement. Friends, fellow law
yers, had thrown about him, too often for
his good, their fatal spell. Before it he fell
Down hill he went. Intemperance had burnt
its iron deep into his soul it had broken his
spirit; it had scattered his fortune; 1t had ru
ined his reputation; It had broken his bodily
health, and laid him PROSTATE in the earth
Zone of the streets Of one of our largest cfrie'
finally proved his dying bed a rough curb
stone was his dying pillow. The history o
this one man is the history Of thousands i
our land among the legal profession VII
have fallen before the same terrible power
And how many there are at the present M
ment who are victims of the same agent {
woe. We see them on the street, in thei
places of business, at the bar. 1t is melar
choly enough to see the devastating effects
rum among the uncultivated and the low
is more melancholy to behold those who hay
been blessed with talents and education, an
the advantages of refined life, prostratin
them to the basest of vicious purposes. An
how is the picture deepened in its shade whe
we reflect that such ordinarily have unite
with them minds and hearts that have NJ
been accustomed to see all the sad and all III
grosser developements of drunkenness.
cultivated wife can feel more keenly than M
ny others, the disgrace brought on her by I'll
shameless course of a drunken husband.
We wish that the great reform Of tempe
ance received more support from the leg
profession As We have looked over the In
of laborers in the reform, we have often bee