The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1870-03-31

SiOoeuACs ildt every Tulliau WIN WdtAS tue
country dare set his cur at There was
full and plenty in my fathers house when
l was young, but before 1 grew to wo-
manly estate, its walls were bare and
roofiess. What made them so ?-drink
whisky My father was in debt to
kill thought, he tried to keep himself SO
that he could not think he wanted the
courage of man to look his danger and
difficulty i'll the face, and overcome it
for, Ellen, mind my words, the man that
will look debt and danger steadily III the
face, and resolve to overcome them, can
do so. He had not means, he said, to
educate his children as became them he
grew not to have means to find them and
their poor paii.nt mother the proper neces-
saries of life, yet he found the means 20
keep the whisky cask flowing, and to an
swer the bailiff's knocks for admission bv
the loud roar of drunkenness, mad, as it
was wicked. They got in at last, and
there was much fighting, ay, and blood
split, but not to death and while the riot
was afoot, and we were crying round the
death>bed of a dying mother. where was
he !-they had raised a ten-gallon cask of
whisky on the table in the parlor, and
astride on it sat my father, fourishing the
huge pewter funnel in one hand, and the
blackjack streaming with whisky in the
other and amid the fumes of hot-punch
that flowed the room, and the cries and
oaths OF the fighting drunken company his
voice was heard swearing 'he had lived
like king, and would die like a king =
And your poor mother 2 1 asked.
"Ihank God she died that night-she
died before worse came she died on the
bed that, before her corpse was cold, was
dragged from under her-through the
strong drink-through the badness of him
who ought to have saved her; not that
he was bad man, either, when the whis-
key had no power over him, but he could
not bear his own reflections. And his
end soon came. He didn't die like a
king he died smothered in ditch, where
ne fell he died, and was in the presence
of God how? Oh, there are things
that have whiskey as their beginning and
their end, that make me as mad as ever
it made him. The man takes a drop,
and forgets his starving family the
mother takes it, and forgets she is moth
er and wife. It's the curse of Ireland
bitterer, b!acker, deeper curse than ever
was put on it by foreign power or hard
made laws
''God bless us!' was Larry's half
5reathed ejaculation.
81 only repeat old Stacy's words, -
said Ellen ''you see l never forgot them.
You might Think she continued. ''that
l had had warning enough to keep me
from having anything to say to those who
were too fond of drink, and 1 thought L
had 5. but somehow Edward Lambert got
around me with his sweet words, and
was lone and unprotected. 1 knew he
had little fondness for the drop; but in
him, young, handsome, and gay-hearted,
with bright eyes and sunny halr, it did not
seem like the horrid thing which had made
nee shed no tear OUer my .tilther's Craze.
Think of that, young girl the drink
doesn't make man beast at first, but il
will do SO before it's done with hin-it
will do so before it's done with him.
had enough power over Edward, and
enough memory of the past, TO make him
swear against it, except so much at such
and such time, and for a while he was
very particular but one used to entice
him, and another used to entice him, and
l am not going to say but might have
managed him differently l might have
| got him off it-gently. maybe; but the
pride got the better of me, and though
| Of tho limo I oama of op,I hon, I 49, ~, :.
ried him who wasn't my eqnal, and sucI
nonsense, which always breeds disturb
ance betwixt married people, and useC
to rave, when, maybe, il would have beer
wiser If l had reasoned Any way
things didn't 60 smooth-not that he ne
elected his employment; he was industri
Gus. and sorry enough when the fault wa
done still he would come home often tn
worse for drink-and now that he's deat
and gone, and no finger is stretched to M
but in scorn or hatred, l think maybe
might have done better but God defent
me, the last was hard 10 bear. Oh
boys" !" said Ellen. ''if you had only hear
her when she said that, and seen her fac
poor ould Lady Stacy, no wonder sh
| nateu lne uIOP3 no "Ouuer ene uaSne
down the whisky"
"You kept this mighty close. Ellen,
said Mike 81 never heard it before"
81 did not like coming over it," she re
piled ''the last is hard to tell" Th
girl turned pale while she spoke, an
Lawrence gave her cup of water. 81
must be told, she said; "the death {
her father, proved the effect of deliberat
drunkenness. What 1 have to say, show
what may happen from being even onC
unable to think or act.
"'I had one child,' said Stacy, 'one,
darlint, blue-eyed, laughing child new
saw any so handsome-neverk knew any ;
} good. She was almost three years oult
, and he was fond of her-he said he wa
but it's quare fondness that destro,
what it ought to save. 1t was the Pa