The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-03-18

self associated with those whose pulse
heats IN unison with his own and
whose regard for his welfare Is strong
and sincere. He would here find all
those helps and stays so needful to sus-
tain his infant resolves. As he IS, IN
common with the rest of mankind,
endowed with social feelings, he will
find employment here of more ele-
waiting character to occupy his leisure
after the fatigues of the day, than he
ever found among his former wild
associates, whose brains were mud
died, and whose feelings we're pervert-
ed by the potent agency Of intoxi-
eating drink. A taste for good socle
ty is ever a characteristic Of sober
people, while those addicted to drink,
care little with whom they mix, if the
company but furnish food for drunken
merriment. This can be found
wherever liquor is sold, for how
can it be said, that sense has resi-
dence In the intellects of men who
are hourly employed In gulping down
thieves to steal it away? Alas that
so many should resort to the sale Of
this LIQUID ruin for a livelihood, and
still alas! that such crowds should be
so fascinated with an indulgence
in which so inevitably works their
temporal and eternal ruin. Would
| that we had not only one but many
such agreeable and refining places Of
resort as is this In which we are as
| sembled; then those who have eman-
| cipated themselves from the degrad-
| ing slavery of intemperance, might
and would contrast the quiet enjoy
ments Of the abstemiOus, with the fit
| full, feverish, and debasing pleasures
of Bacchanalian jewellers.
| In eXpatiating upon any topic, it IS
a vast advantage to have the aid of
| experience; but to have passed
through the slough Of intemperance,
! although it may be advantageous in
| enabling US to trace and describe its
! ul-haTrOwing effects; yet, to have
passed through it merely to know
/ those effects. as DeQuincy used opium
only that he might write his brilliant
Confessions of an Opium Eater,
was an experiment Of great peril
great humiliation, and great suffer-
ing; and one that | would entreat all
sane persons to forbear. That expe-
riment so dangerous, so vitiating,
and so rulnous, | candidly acknowl-
!
faction. | am, therefore, exceedingly
we'll qualified to pronounce upon the
evils of alcoholic stimulation, as
much so as any one who
/ has ever matriculdted at the
college Of inebriates, aud graduated
at length with the highest collegiate
honors. But while | have been thus
! far fortunate in passing the terrible
ordeal, how many have sunk from
responsibility, happiness. and life, at
my side, by the way? Yes, alas cut
/ off in their prime with every chance
/ in their favor of achieving fortune,
fame, honor, aud a long life Of hap
piness, they afford US additional warn
/ iugs to those which can be found In
various other places, to shun the abyss
Of wretchedness into which they
were plunged by an insane and invet-
crate fondness for strong drink.
And let US while contemplating and
mourning their melancholy fate,
renew our v,ws to be steadfast in our
/ pledge, and endeavor to win over to
our CO use every one we can, by we'll
directed appeals to their better nature,
and by the irresistible influence of a
good example.
Years ago, while residing In Bos-
ton, Mass, it was my good fortune to
hear on several occasions the widely
celebrated temperance reformer, John
B. Cough, as we'll as other eminent
speakers in the same great cause; and
| then, as no doubt many at this mo-
ment do, congratulated myself over
whelmed as | was, with the cataract
of his elocution, that | should never
he subjected to the dominion of in
temperance. 1t is ever thus with
overweening confidence. Like all I'M
sophisticated youth, forgot, or had
never learned, that it is only by the
greatest clrcumspectiOn, vigilence and
sagacity, that the most assured vir-
tue can maintain its integrity
and purity, surrounded and as
saulted as it Is, and always
will be by innumerable adversaries.
Mr.. Cough, Mr.. Chaplin, and others,
than whom no more eloquent or earn
est advocates ever stood forward In
the sacred cause of humanity, graph
icaly described the ruinous cOnse-
quences which followed the indul-
gence in intoxicating beverages, and l
can attest that with all their wonder
full talent at description. they failed
to come up to the reality. Would
that being forewarned, had been for
tunate enough to be forearmed, for
then might have met the destroyer,
and vanished him, ere he had been
able to have wrought me so much
mischief and misery.
l have often, of late, dwelt on the
personal history of Mr.. Cough, as I
heard it related by himself and l
have paralleled his experience with