Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1867-10-02
1vII Effects of Dram Drinking.


In a familiar epistle from Lutte A
faylor, of Wisconsin, to Joe Elwell,
published in the La Crosse Republican,
We find touching and powerful expo
sitiOn of the result Of an Incorporate
use of ardent spirits, and the danger
of acquiring a morbid taste for liquor:
Ny pen is arrested, Joe, and my
thought involuntariy turns to another
heme. A friend Of other days, but
or whom friendship is now shorn OF
;espect, and has only pity left, just
came to me and asked for small sum
to buy strong drink. 'Oh it was pit
full With heart naturally noble, a
mind active and strong, a gentleman,
a ready writer, a pleasant friend, he
has gone to disgrace with fearfal rapid
ity; and wrecked, broken, desolate, and
damned, he plead for a pittance with
which to buy another draught of for
getfulness, delirium and death. Tread
too, today, of the miserable death of
ex-senator McDougal-the quenching
of that splendid intellect in which his
life was strong enough to strike thro'
the foggiest fumes of alcohol, and the
brilliancy of whose lustre put the alb.
stcmious scholars to blush. 0, the IA
tai mastery of habit! 1t steals upon
its victim with noiseless feet and binds
him with chains softer than silk and
stronger than steel Once in the
charmed circle of it's invidious infu-
ence, and the strong man is like Samp-
son in the lap of Delilah. He sleeps
in fancied security in the lap of Indul-
rence, until habit has stolen resolution
rom his soul, and then awakes TO a
.erriDle consciousness of his degrade
ton, hut powerlcss to retrieve MS lost
estate. No position or attainments
are n safeguard against the wiles of
habit, and intellect Of lofty order
seems rather to invite than to repel its
destructive mastery. Itthere is sight
on earth, sadder and more terrible
than all else, it is to see a liquor-char-
red remnant of once great man, gro
ping in delirium at deaths dark doors,
with hell-born horrors peoplng the
brain where once dwelt pure affections
and regal thoughts.
Corruption of Ancient POmpeii.
a correspondent of the Chicago Tri-
bune, who has lately been at the buri
ed city in Italy, writes as follows:
There is one matter in relation to
Pompcii that is seldom touched on by
writer's, and which l dare not touch
too closely, to wit: the horrible de-
pravity of the Pompeians as illustra
ted by the frescoes, mosaics, sculptures
and bronze statues that are found.
Hundreds of these vile objects have
been carried away to the museums of
Naples, and put in room where no
woman is allowed to visit, but there
are still houses in Pompeii that are
kept locked, and others that have such
sculptures over the doors on the out,
side that the guides hurry past them
when there are women IN the party.
Even in private houses there are scores
of frescoes-magnificently executed,
too-which one would dare to visit
only in company with his nearest and
dearest friends, if ladies, and in other
houses pictures and statues than which
none can imagine anything worse. |
cannot understand why the writer's on
these matters have been so anxious to
conceal the faults of the ancients. 1t
is a fact that deserves to be generally
known. Great God, what a picture of
corruption in Imperial Rome is reveal.
ed to one who looks into Pompeii with
anything but thoroughness. The very
stone of the door step tells tale more
damnable than ever was invented by
modern thought Sodom was clean,
and Gomorrah was pure, compared
with Pompeii. Where was ever peo
pie on earth before or since Pompeii
advertised the way that led down to
hell by sculptures placed in the open
light of the street? Out, id spot?
cried the still infant genius of modern
civilization and christianity, as it look
ed in upon Pompeii, and Vesuvius re
sponded to the command and sent his
consuming fires to do the work.