Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-01-20
Terrible Tragedy In BOOns-
bOrO..AnOther Victim to
the Flowing Bowl.

the Flowing BOWL.
Ben. Null, an honest, hard-work-
ing German farmer, living on Squaw
creek in this County, came into
Boonsboro on last Friday with load
of corn, which he disposed Of at forty
cents a bushel. He was hale and
hearty, in the full vigor of life, and
scarcely forty years of age. Now,
Rem. Null, with having many excel
lent traits of character, with being a
good neighbor, and an honest, in
dustrious citizen, was occasionally
addicted to the vice Of intemperance;
and his weakness in this direction
being understood, he was lured into
one of the infamous dens which dis
grace Boonsboro, as well as every
other city in this fair land, where he
took drink of ''native wine," the
lawful beverage of Iowa. Soon boon
companions came in, and interchang-
ing treats became the order of the
day. The FLOWING bowl" BASED
round and round, until, by and by,
poor Ben. Null became full, drunk,
floored, oblivious. Helpless and un-
able to stand from tarrying long at
the wine, it is alleged that glassful
after glassful was poured down his
throat through speechless and unre-
sisting lips. Amid a scene Of drunk
en- hilarity, intermingled with bias
phemous oaths and smutty songs and
jokes, with an atmosphere pervaded
with fumes of smoke, floor reeking
with sloppy filth, Death knocked at
the door with his bony hand, en-
tered, laid his icy fingers on Null,
and claimed him as his victim. Null
was dead. Staggering pall-bearers
removed his inanimate form to the
back room, where he was stretched
upon the floor, his feet elevated on
an old wooden pail, and stick of
stove-wood laid across his throat to
keep his jaws together. What a
death! No wife, no children, no
sorrowing friends with sympathetic
tears-no prayer, no sacred song, no
consolation in dying hour. Ben.
Null, at noon sober, alive and in the
full flush Of manhood, at o'clock p.
M. stretched out in filthy doggery,
DEAD, surrounded by those whose
sensibilities were all blunted by the
accursed cup. "Hell and damna-
tion," utters one, as he presses the
eye open with his thumb and finger,
and flipapntly slaps each cheek OF
the corpse with the other hand, che
amt dead by Id sight; see!
the eye is watery." But he is dead.
and his spirit, commencing its ascent
from den of drunkenness and infa-
my, was already in the presence of
the Awful Judge. Ben. Null died as
the brute dieth. But let us go
to his cabin home away out on the
prairie. There, stretched upon a
bed, sick and nigh unto death, is
the wife of Ben. Null. Standing
around the couch of the poor, patient
mother, are seven little children, the
eldest not yet thirteen. A messen-
ger arrives bearing the sad intelli-
gence that he who had left her in
the morning in vigorous manhood
is now in the jaws Of death. She
listens to the recital of the terrible
circumstances attending his demise.
Her constitution, already shattered
by disease, cannot Withstand the
shock; and within day or two the
brittle thread breaks, and her spirit
takes its upward flight. Behind are
left seven little, helpless orphans
fatherless and motherless-to be buff
feted about in this cold and heartless
world. Two deaths and seven or
phans-and all the work ofthe demon
Alcohol. And yet, in view OF such
lessons as this, and the daily enact
ment of every species of crime from
one end of this broad land to the
Other-all traceable to the Internal
traffic in Intoxicating liqnors-men
will continue to oppose the interpo-
,sition of the strong arm of the law.
We may punish the innumerabie
crimes that attend the use of alcohol
ic stimulants, erect penitentiaries
and jails, keep up an expensive sys-
temof police for public protection,
build poor-houses for the miserable
wives and children Of the victims,
but the unclean fount from which
flows all these iniquitics shall not be
impeded. What inconsistency
Boone County Democrat.
Speedicr Telegraphing.