Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-07-14

drunkard's graves. Why, my friends'-he spoke
now with a sudden indignant enersy-'one Of
those young men, with his intellect undimned,
would have been worth a thousand of the misera-
bic wretches who destroyed them, and for whose
maintenance you SO generously provided the trade
of dram-selling. How my heart swells and throbs
and almost s~ufocates me with indignation at the
thought. But, ah how impotently =
Mournful, very low and m%ournful were these
last words.
We'll, my friends he resumed, after a pause,
to protect and support the idle, vicious dram.sel-
Ter, you sacrifice the rising hope Of your village.
Unto this bloody Moloch you brought your sons.
For twenty years have sat on the Bench; and !
will say now, before God and man, that 10 nine
cases out of ten, every crime and outrage which
has taken place during that period in this coun-
ty, was traceable, directly or indirectly, to the use
of intoxicating drinks. And the history of crime
all over our land gives but a parallel testimony.
And yet the rumsellcr is protected in his accursed
traffc--is regularly licensed to destroy The bodies
and souls Of your neighbors and children; and If
we, oil whose hopes are blasted by this evil, lift
our voices against it, aud ak for the suppression
by the firm hand Of the law, we are branded with
coarse e~pithets, and called visionary and fanatical
disturbers Of settled order, otc.
Show me any good that hos been done in P
by dram-6rinking. Show me q man made more
%virtuous and thrifty--a better husband, father and
citizen. Bring him here tonight and let US look
upon him. Where is he2 Alas he is not to be
found. You cannot show the good, but the evil.
God help US It is everywhere
NV fr;opJs oil GpOrr 1boN 7 o,d r,;,a 6o,o
been cursed with this curse; but how deeply, few
have imagined. Let us lift the curtain for you,
to.night-lift it for a moment, and then let it fall
forever. Three sons grew up to manhood. True
hearted, clear minded they were, and full Of prom
Use for the future. Ono studied law, one medicine,
and the other chose the life of o farmer. l used
no intoxicating drinks in my house, and yet these
three goodly sons sleep in drunkard's graves. Be.
yond my own house | could not protect them.
Ten ptation was on every hand; temptation sane
toned by law, aud made respectable through the
blind favor of men whose position gave influence
to their precept AMI example. Like other young
men they had their weaknesses; like other young
men, they thought lightly of warning; like other
young men, they moved pleasantly along in the
smooth current CT The world, all unheeding the
danger by which they were surrounded, until re-.
sistance to the downward course was hopeless.
Three years ago, the oldest was thrust from
one of your taverns at a late hour of the night,
and falling on the pavement, received a wound On
the head that produced insanity. lie is since
dead. The second, after a six months abstinence,
was cnticed into the same den of evil, by some
wicked men who knew his weakness, He
fell, never to rise again. Unhappy young man
How hard he struggled with his appetite | Oh (!
how bitterly l have seen him weep-how earnestly
I have heard him pray, in the lonely night watch,
for strength; yet he died while the mad fever of
intoxication was in his brain.
The third, my youngest son--his mi theirs idol
-he too, went the same way; Of all my sons, he
alone married. The purest, fondest, sweetest Of
women was the denr child he brought away from
her warm nest at home to grace and brighten our
household. We had no daughter of our own; and
SO, all the love in our hearts a daughter would
have called forth, was lavished ~ on this beautiful
dove. l need not describe her to you, for you
have seen her, and many of you loved her. But
she is at rest
The old mans voice choked. For a little while
he stood silent, unable, from ire pressible emotion,
20 proceed. AT last, he said, in a husky whisper
She is at rest now. Let me, as calmly as l am
able, tell you how she passed away. 1t was not
peacefully and sweetly as an infant sinks to sleep
in its mothers arms. All, Mono! Her death
was violentP
What a thrill passed through the assembly {!
White faces bent forward eagerly, and breaths
were held in appalled, expectation.
She was murdered by her husband
The old man sank into a chair, while q groan
rose from the assembly.
No good end is to be gained by concealment,'
resumed Judge Williams, as he arose and in a
frmer voice went on--'if the revelation spurs YOU
to action, all desire is accomplished. My son
came lone one night less than a year ago, intoxi-
Gated, after a longer period Of sobriety than usual.
He had never treated his wife with personal IN.
kindness. If she demonstrated with him, he showed
no irritation, and often, through her inhu ence,
would make temporary efforts at reformation. He
had passed to her room only a short time, when 7
heard a moment Aufhing Of feet, and a smoth-
cred There was something in the
sound that caused me to start and listen. But
nothing more was heard for at loast five minutes,
when | was aroused by the heavy falling of a BODY
~ '""' ""NNOS' 1lVpaIeu tnltu0r ON the IN
stant' Sight of horror! My son lay, dying, in
his own blood, on the floor; the fatal razor with
which the death deed was done, clutched in his
hand. You all remember this dreadful tragedy.
But there was something more dreadful still of
which you have not been told. Ere turning his
hand upon himself, my son smothsred with nil.
lows the
The old man staggered hack and .o d.
again.
God help me! y, he resumed. after q moment or
Two. cannot say more. We buried them side
by eide; but we were broken hearted. A few
weeks more my poor wife followed them, leaving
me a lonely old man, all the green branches Of
my tree withered, and the root nearly sapless and
dead.
What need is there for me to say more p he
added, after a pause. i have shown YOU the
! bittaH fruiKo Of tIo k..mo