The Sweetwater enterprise. (Sweetwater, Tenn.) 1869-187?, 1871-02-09
What L Have Seen.

| have seen the maker and the vender of
ardent spirits who were in possession Of a
competency, standing high in society, with
promising SOUS and daughters, by the mod
crate use of ardent spirits, after a time,
from the mere force Of habit, become
drunkards-both male aud female, ut the
cost of fortune aud reputation.
have seen a youth, the pride of his
parents, possessing by nature, a brilliant
intellect, having all the advantages Of a
finished education, the idol ofall his ac-
quaiutances, qualified to fill the most ex-
allied station in any profession he might
have chosen, in an evil hour, by assOciat-
ing with the gay and thoughtless, the mod.
crate dram-drinker, (often at the board Of
the fashionable and wealthy fOrego all
these advantages, d~isappoint the fond ex-
pectations of parents and friends, and IL
nally end his career in a drunkard's grave.
If this was a picture of a solitary instance
of youthful delinquency, of blasted hopes
and ruined character, it might be passed
over in silence; but their number is legion.
The highways and byways, our cities, our
villages are infested with this deadly poi
son-this destroyer of fortune, intellect,
health and reputation, and thousands tray
el this broad road to ruin.
| have seen IN accomplished youth gift.
ed, handsome, wealthy, with brilliant pros
poets before him, lead to the himeneal al
tar one, in all respects his equal, if not
his superior, surrounded by loving and
admiring friends, where was spread out
before them the brightest prospects of I'M
alleged enjoyment Of extatic felicity in a
union Of hands and hearts. But how vain
and excrescent are all earthly hopes, how
delusive our youthful dreams. A few
feeting moths aud our hero become the
victim of the destroyer, and the wife ofhis
bosom died of broken heart, whilst lie
wandered an out.cast from society, despised
and Stunned by all his Appropriateness,
| have seen talented Legislators, our
lawmakers, men entrusted with the rights
and liberties of Il couiding constituency,
spending days aud nights oyer the flowing
howl; anGS after a night spent in debauch,
come into the halls of legislation wholly
incapacitated to discharge the high and
responsible trust which they had under
taken, and with shameless a~ffrontery peck
ct their per diem for misspent time, IL
has been iutimated that not u few Honor
able members in the Congress Of the Uwt-
ed States, have been known to make cqua.
ridiculous exhibitions Of themsel yes asSUme
of our State Legislators. 1t may lie that
much of the bad Legislation of that Hon
orablc body is ascribable to the too flee
use Of alchohOlic liquors.
| have seen some lew men grow rich by
the extensive sale of spirituous liquors,
and spread themselves like a green bay
trea. | have looked upon the broad acres,
their splendid palaces, and thought to my
self of the tears, the heartaches, the cries
of poor naked children, the wasted fortunes,
the broken constitutions that contributed
to buy these acres, and rear these splend-
I'd editices, and, in imagination, | could
hear their impreCations poured out against
the curse of all these woes.
| have seen men in all professions, from
the highest to the lowest, imbibe freely OF
this liquid fire, whose effect is to deihrone
reason and render the most talented but
little above the beasts that perish. And
| have heard men who claim respectable
ty, who move in the first circles, denounce
Temperance organizations as useless and
having a tendency to make men more in
temperate, to drink in secret, and commit
the sin Of violating their pledge. 1t is
true we have but little faith in the confirm
ed drunkard, but there is hope of the
youth of our land, and that moderate
drinkers may be reclaimed by moral sua-
sion there can be no doubt.
OBSERVER.