The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1874-03-27
TOUCH NoT-TAsTE NoTLHANpLE
NOT.

Z
raging. Who hath woe. who hath sor.
| rpN Who ha;!i contentious. who ba1b
| hahhiin-: who hath wounds without a
'.:iJi>e. Who hath redneSs of ewes, They
| that tarry long at the wine
How often do men meet in good
humor. then drink TO excess. talk non
sense. fancy themselves insulted. take
fire within. rave, threaten, and then
come 10 blows. \ long time ago. Seneca
spoke of those who let in a thief at the
mouth to steal away the brains In
such a case. the stupidity of a brute Is
often united with the fury of a demoni-
ac.- Nay. the man among the tombs was
comparatively harmless; he only injured
himself But how often does the drunk
en- revel end in the cry of murder, How
often is the hand of the intoxicated man,
lifted against his dearest friend, perhaps
the wife of his bosom,
I'm one rash hour,
Perform a deed that haunts him to the grave!"
Could | call around me, in one vast
assembly, the young men of this nation,
| would say: Hopes of my country,
blessed be We of the Lord. now in the
dew of your youth. But look well to
your footsteps; for vipers, and scorpions,
and adders, surround your way Look
at the generation who have Just prece-
ded you. The morning of their life was
cloudless, and it dawned as brightly as
your own. But behold, now, the sInit-
ten, enfeebled, infiamed, debauched, idle,
poor, irreligious, and vicious, with halt
ing step, dragging onward TO meet an
early grave. Their bright prospects are
clouded, and their sun is set, never to
rise. No house of their own receives
them, while from poorer TO poorer tene-
ments they d, s cad. as improvidence
dried up their resources. And, now,
who are those that wait on their foot
steps, with muffled faces and sable gar
mentsl That is a father, and that is a
mother. whose gray hairs are coming
with sorrow to the grave. That is sis
ter, weeping over evils which she can
not arrest; and there is the broken-heart-
ed wife; and these are the children
hapless innocentS.-for whom their
father has provided no inheritance, save
one of dishonor. and nakedness, and
woe. And is this, beloved youth, the
history of your course? In this scene of
desolation, do you see the image of your
future selves3 Is this the poverty, and
the disease, which, as an armed man.
shall take hold on you! and are your rela-
tives and friends to succeed those who
now move on, in this mOurnful process
sion, weeping as they 60! Yes, bright
as your morning now opens, and high
as your hopes beat, this is your noon,
and your night, unless you shun those
habits of intemperance which have thus
4 =, 4 al l. -
thick darkness. If you frequent places
of evening resort for social drinking; If
you set out with drinking, daily, little,
prudently, temperately; it is yourselves,
which, as in a glass, you behold.
'.One of the greatest consultations al
forded to my mind by the success of the
temperance cause, is the reflection that
my child will not be drunkard." Such
was the language of distinguished phi
lanthropist, as he held listening assem-
bly,, chained by the voice of his elo-
duence. To this remark the heart of
every parent aSsents; for that the pro
gress of the temperance cause will be
so great, at the period when the child
which is now an infant, shall come upon
the theater of life, as to render all use
of ardent spirits, as drink, ,disreputable,
can scarcely be questioned.
IL any father or mother could lift
the vail of futurity, and read on the page
of coming years, that the son now so
loved, so idolized, perhaps, would become
a bloated, polluted and pOlluting crea-
ture, reeling under the influence of ar
dent spirits, the remainder of life would
be wretched, To such a parent, this
world would indeed be a vale of tears;
and the silence and solitude of the tomb
would be welcomed as the place where
the weary might be at rest. The TEN
perance reform does in fact lift the vail
of years, and disclose to the parent of
the present generation, their children
and children's children freed from all
the woes and curses of drunkenness, the
smile of gratitude upon their counter
ances, and the language of benedictiOn
upon their lips.
MY child will not be a drunkardr
Cheering thought! How it swells the
heart with emotions too big for utter
ancel What an animating prospect does
it open to the mind! Alms-houses, and
jails, and penitentiaries, and state-pris-
ons, will then stand only as so many
of the vices of an age gone
by; and the evils consequent upon the
use of ardent spirits shall exist only upon
the historians page, as so many records
of the former degeneracy and the errors
of mankind.-LyHGn Beeclier.