The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1874-05-14

home, not in the front door like an honest
man Oh, mol Stealing in through the
alley, laughter hoist the kitchen window
get through the window into the kitchen,
pull off your boots, 60 up the steps upon
the carpet with a tread lighter than a
mouse, ashamed to wake your children,
ashamed TO wake your servants, ashamed
to wake your wife, and crawl into bed with
that lady-that bosom companion Of yours;
yours by Gods law and mans; the woman
that you had sworn to love, honor and
ebey-and have her wake up with the
room perfuned with the whisky and to-
bacco emanating from your nostrils and
your lips in a volume that would kill an
alligator in the dead of winter? Laughter.
Now, if you have, how did you feel when
you came to your senses? HeW do you
feel when you have slept off that drunken
madness; got up and gone into the bath
room; put your head into the spout and
turned that living stream of Gods upon it,
cooling your feVered brain2 How do you
feel2 Do you feel like you had made a
brute of yourself7 Don't you feel like you
would never take another drink? Don't
you feel that your wife was but little short
of an angel if she asked you at breakfast
if you would have cup of coffee and re-
main living under your roof for another
hour? If you don't there is very little
hope for your reformation. Applause.l ]
Now, turn the tables. Suppose that
woman could get her rights-the right to
vote; the right to play billiards; the right
to play poker [laughterE the right to bet
against faro; the right to spend their even
ings at hotels; the right to go to the theater
by herself or invite some gentleman to go
with her, with the right to do as you do,
and she was to come home in the morning
to you, cigar in her mouth, pretty drunk,
staggering up the steps with her boots or
shoes of, waking you up, with all that ia
Vor of whisky or tobacco on her breath,
what would you do2 BRING suit of divorce
before you got your breakfast. Laugh
ter. And yet this amiable part of Gods
creation, this noble man, this man made
in the image of his Maker, gifted with in
tellect, with genius, with physical strength
to control all other things created in this
world this man with the genius to 60 down
in the bowels of the earth and rake up the
ores and mould them into the forms of
beauty; this man with genius that invents
the telegraph, the steam power, and the
genius to build what l stood upon to-day
and looked from over your city, the mag
nifcent bridge which spans your river;
this man with power in him, gifted from
God, that enable to accomplish almost
anything; this man who goes, just as
have described, up to his home, and expects
that his wife will overlook this thing night
after night, and day after day-don't see
beneath the smiles that she wears upon
her face, in that she will yet win HIM back
to higher and nobler purposes, the deep
hos - 1.-
Wife's and mothers heart. He don't see
in the prattle of the little children, hel p
ing their mother to hide from their father,
the modification, the ruin he is bringing
upon them. Now, it is not all men who
ruin themselves by drinking. have oc-
casionally in my lite met with some men
1 would not reform if 1 could; those fell
lows that will go round and stand on the
corner, and look up the street to see If any
body is coming, and then dodge into sa-
fifteen cents on the counter, swallow the
neIghber will come in and he will have to
ask him to take something. They will
never get hurt drinking liquor. Laugh
ter. l wouldn't break a pin hook, as
they used to call 1t in Virginia, to catch
one OF these fellows. Let him go. Laugh
ter Why that man if he were worth
million-and have seen Just such nen,
not ten thousand miles from here-would
squeeze ten cent piece until the green
would leave an impression on his fingers.
He would not ask friend to take drink.
1t Is no use to bother yourself about that
kind of fellow. Let him rip. Laughter
Go for better men; go for the man who
goes into the saloon boldly, walks up to
the counter, puts his hand into his hip
pocket, where they carry the money now
a-days, and draws & roll of bills and says:
"Come boys, take drink" That is the
man who is worth saving, that is the man
worth struggling for. Save him from his
dissipation and he will spend his money
upon his wife and children-in the educa-
ton of the little ones, and he will help to
build these magnificent temples in which
we worship the living God. That is the
man who Is worth saving. TCheers. I
And there are hundreds and thousands of
them.
Now, l want to say, because it is due to
me to say, that am not reformed drunk
ard. 1t may be that the vigor of a phys
ical constitution, with which God has bless
ed me, has prevented me from becoming a
drunksrd, and therefore 1 am not a re-
formed drunkard. I do not deny but what
/ have drank, and great deal of what
have said here tonight have seen with
nay own eyes, and guess that even now,
from old habit and old associations, if
had not a different feeling to control me
than l have had heretofore, that if were
to hear the pop of champagne cork that
/ would have a desire for the glass I am
now a temperance man, not by any pledge
made under oath. l belong to no temper
ance organization: l am not ashamed
to admit tonight, in the presence of
this audience, before people among whom
have lived for twelve years, that have
taken pledge before higher throne than
this earth owns. Applause. have a
consciousness that will keep that pledge,
because I feel that stand at last, after
devotirg forty years of my most precious
life to sin and its pleasures, upon the rock
of safety, and with hope of eternal sal
walton. [Applause And am proud to
say, while this change in my life has been
radical, that all Lay friends who have
opened their lips to m on the subject have
wished NEE good cheer in my new under
taking. [Applause And in the name ot
the Master whom l have at last, and, ]
thank God, not too late, learned to recog-
nize, to honor, love and obey, wish the
cause of total abstinence God speed in all
the future. [Applause.l
Fifty Thousand Sufferers.
It is estimated by the Distributing Com
mittee, which holds sessions daily on Car.