Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1869-11-10
OUR SATURDAY NIGHT.

1 STAGGERING HOME!
! God knows we are sorry for him. Fol-
/ five minutes we have watched him from
/ our window. \ stout young man, ap-
/ parently thirty years Of age. He looks
| like WOrkingman. We should saw q
man Of family. See steady there, with
/ hand against the iron fence in front of
/ of the house, step Ey step-staggering
| along. Take care there-almOst down
| now he cTawls and staggeTs on.
His clothes are muddy as if somebody
/ had been scattering him. His face looks
| haggaTd and distressed. He is qOiHg
! home. Great God! what 4 visitor to
some earnest woman and little children
waiting his coming, and here it is half
| past eleven o'clock ut night! Poor fell
lOw-gOing to ruin because fashionable.
/ Here comes a kind policeman.
''HallOa, old fellow, what ails your
! legs?
''Tired-very tired"
''Where do you live?"
''NO- - Second Avenue,
"Well, come alOng--Tll help you
home"
"And you wont take me in?''
To take IN means to take to the police
station.
'sNo, if you come along quietly. This
is no place for drunken man."
"All right, Pm yer friend"
Arm in arm they went away. We do
not know who that poor fellow is, whose
home is hardly reached; but he is some
body, He had a mother, and how her
heart would have mOUTned to have seen
him thus. Perhaps it is to his mothers
house he is going. Perhaps to his own
home, if a drunkard's place of living
can be called home. If to a wife and
children that policeman is leading him,
God pity them. Doubtless he worked
all the week. Most likely some good
fellow who is kind, and gentle, and low
ing when sober. But now what is he ?
A poor, weak, helpless man, unable to
care for himself. A sorrow and shame
to his loved Ones-a disgrace to himself
We do not know how much money it
cost him to win this prize. But it cost
something. Perhaps dOllar-perhaps
less. Better have thrown his money
away and kept his manhood.
Better have given his dimes to the lit
tie beggar children. Better have bought
Il little pictUre-bOOk for his children
picture for his Walls-a better hat than
the one he WOre-a pair of shoes or stock
ings for the little ones, tChO love him for
all he goes down into such hOpelessness
to their neglect; or n present for the
wife who so often cared for him in these
plights, and who tonight viii weep and
mourn, and feel so discouraged rs she
washed and combs and cares for the one
she cannot help loving, for all his fool
ish weakness.
God only knows what Il true wife and
mother suffers when her husband and
the father of her babes has no honest
pride and love of family to make him
care for his home ones. And God pity
the poor man who has given his heart
in exchange for that eating, craving,
burning thirst for stimulants. knowing
there is no safety under their influence.
Every week he lowers himself deeper
into the terrible well. He has friends,
sO-called, while his money lasts. But
one by one his dollars go. Little by lit
tie his hope fades out. His pluck and
ambition become dull and blunted. He
cares for nobody. His employer does
not want an unsteady man, and pretty
soon he has lost his place. A good work
man, but TOO unsteady. The downward
road is easier to travel. Blueness or de-
preston of spirits fOllOw-the home he
has not made beautiful loses its attrac-
tions-the wife is found often in tears,
while sighs from a grief-laden heart tell
davs to dread the terrible future with a
drunken husband.
Once he was kind and good, and man
~. His eye never was clOuded or dazed
i'm its look. His lips were not dry and
parched. His tongue was not thick
His breath was not SO pOisOn-laden and
offensive. He lived other than in his
throat.
If he would only listen to us. Once
We We're very, very poor, even penni-
less But we worked and saved. We
saw what money would and could do
that it brought pretty things to places
of dcsOlation and made them attrac-
tive. And we saw that men loved to
he in attractive places. And for fear we
would he sick and without money we
worked. And to make our home attraC-
tive We saved our earnings, till at last
we made a sanctum more beautiful than
any room we over saw, and people
asked how we did it,