The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1868-09-26
From the Sunday Crescent.
He Drinks.
BY HEsR1E DE WERE.


-
How ominously that sentence falIsl
How we pause in the conversation
and calculate, sit is a pity !" How
his mother hopes that he will not
when he grows older, and his sisters
persuade themselves that it is only a
few wild oats he is sowing. And yet
old men shake their heads and feel
sad, and look gloomy when they
speak of it for who ever stopped and
did not at some time again give way
to temptation !
1t is dangerous to trife with
Pleasure, Each step that she leads
US away from the path of rectitude,
caves us less desire to return. Each
time that she induces us to deviate,
we must 60 little further to obtain
the same enjoyment Even if with
increased experience we resolve to
walk il the path of duty, we follow
it with more difficulty if we have once
allowed ourselves to wander.
Pleasure stands at gate ever open,
and she invites us to enter her gar
dens. She tells us that we need not
fear, for we can return when we
choose. She calls to the pilgrim on
the dusty highway of life, and way
worn and weary as he is, she invites
him to enter. She points him to men
tnat are again upon the road men
who once whiled away some time in
her dominions, but have now resumed
their journey. He does not know
the seIf>reproaoh and the weakness
they felt on leaving her bowers, nor
the increased difficulty with which
they tread the path Of daily life. He
wishes, and then turns, and then looks
| in. He will enter for little way,
But he is soon bewildered with en-
Ijoyment His senses reveal in the
fragrance. He is on enchanted
ground. He is sure that he can re.
turn. and that he wiU return after he
has been a little further and yet with
every step he feels less desire to do so.
OF what profit is it to him now, that
the gate stands open; As he waDders
along, the air becomes more eXhil-
arating and the fruits more highly
favored. The breezes become warner
the fragrance is more puBgeut, and
the flowers more aromatic. His
senses are intoxicated and his desires
become inhamed, The flowers tha
blossomed along his morning path
the little modest flowers that opened
their meek eyes, sparkling with dew
and smiled. on him as he set upon hi
Journey, are forgotten. The dutiC
that he owes to himself, to his fellow
men, to his God, all are forgotten
and he goes restlessly toward to enjo,
hotter breezes, mo stimulating fruits
and more narcotic ordors. Wha
avails to him now, that the gate re
mains ever oTen
But already these pleasures hav
begun to pail. Some strange infuene
is benumbing his senses. He find
apples with ashes at the core. Ho
winds are blistering his flesh, but h
feels no wound. He has reached tn
f marshes where the garden of pleasure
borders on the valley and shadow o
4, death, and he would tHn take refug
: in oblivion. He sits down under tn
; shade of the aconite and binds hi
throbbing temples with wreaths Of it
E dull foliage. The night of despair
e fast closing upon him. Darknes, lik
blanket, shuts out the light c
: heaven, aud the trembling madues
i fires his brain. Shiny serpents are /
J attendance on him. Worms are in
t cessantly twisting in the seems of HI
, clothing. Invisible fends are gather
t ing around him like ravens. They wa
$ impatieptly. He hears the rustlin
( Of their skinny pinions, and he fee.
Z the air move a little by them. The
, ewes of FIRE are shining on him trol
) their viewless bodies, and the air
4 thick with muttering, Out from tn
n darkness comes the voice Of the worn
: claiming him as her brother, ana tt
i voice of corruption calling him I'm
Il son :" and with chill he curses Co
h and dies. cat the last it biteth like
a serpent and stingeth like an adder
5 Young man, just commencing lit
d buoyant with hope, don't drink Hc
are freighted with a precious carg
The hopes Of your old parents,
YOUR sisters, Of your wife, of yol
: children, are all laid upon you.
.e you the aged live over again the
i Younger days through you only 9
III the weaker ones attain position
" society, and from the level on WIN
n YOU place them must your chlldr
: go into the great struggle Of life,
oFI -----s-s-s-----
', An Indian burglar out in
lg Crosse appropriated pair OF fem,
" drawers, which arranged to suit
4. custom by pinniug the sides to obvi'
I A,,y