American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1876-08-26
The ElOquence of an Intemper-
ate Actor in Court.


ate Actor in Court.
The Virginia City Chronicle says: An
old fellow who gave his name as Chas.
H. Slosson was called up in Judge
Wright's Court on the charge of drunk
enness. He was a remarkably seedy-
looking specimen, arrayed in a dirty
check shirt and pair of loose, baggy
trousers, which were prevented from
falling off by a leather strap knotted
about his waist. He was shivering and
trembling from the effects of a well
sustained debauch, and hardly had the
physical strength to stand upright.
When the Judge asked him if he had
any thing to say, he rose up in sort of
disjointed way and demanded a jury,
which was granted, and when his turn
came he advanced with shutting tread,
and, bending his eyes on his sspeers''
began: sa
Gentlemen of the Jury, 1 stand here
to-day less defender of my own per-
sonal debasement than an example of
human depravity, which, like a beacon
light, should warn you from the ragged
rocks of intemperanoe. A man in my
condition is like rude sign-post once
saw in Tennessee, which pointed up a
road over which the green grass was
beginning to wave. On the sign was
the inscription: .Small-p ox, and the
index finger of a hand pointing west
ward. II any of you in travelling along
a highway saw such a sign as that, you
would pause upon the brink of deadly
danger and turn backward. GSensa-
tion.1 In me you behold such a sign,
and if by looking upon me any one of
you can be turned back from destruc-
ton, I shall1 think that God in His in
finite mercy has allowed me to fill a
sphere of usefulness which shall enable
me to bear with fortitude the imputa-
ton constantly hurled upon me by my
own conscience, that I have lived in
vain. sE - 10
Gentlemen of the Jury, as you pc
ruse the pages of the old poets you will
see how they have deified the wine-cup.
They have wreathed it with the flowers
of fancy, surrounded it with the halo Of
song, and peopled its bloody depths
with the creatures of their own bright
imaginations, until one might almost
believe it to be the well-spring of hu-
man happiness when bitter experience
tells US in very different language that
lit is the fountain-head of misery, the
abode of the demon that destroys our
very lives. Here. one of the jurors
wiped away q tear with his coat-sleeve. I
There is something which comes up. in
the fumes of the cup that fools call in
SEPARATION, but it is a cunning reptile
which, crawling up from the, dregs of
the grape, enters the window of the
brain and steals away like thief In
the night with our reason fast in its
embrace, There the speaker poured
out and took drink of water. There
is a hand in the wine-cup which, at any
moment, may put its felon grip upon
your Threats and strangle you as a
strong man might babe. Here sew
eral of the jury pulled down their col
lars. s-
"Gentlemen of the Jury, I have not
long to stay. Two mighty miners are
delving on this 1ode-Time and Death
They are daily at their posts, working
together side by side as one eternal
shift, clearing away the rubbish Of
waste rock and pushing along the ledge.
Before long I shall be gathered into the
vast laboratory of Death, a piece of
useless porphyry, to be cast into the
waste dumps of heu.'
Here the old fellow pulled from his
pocket red handkerchief, and began
to sob. The effect was immediate and
striking. The old miners and the Jury,
moved by his forcible simile, broke
forth into a simultaneous sob, in which
the Court, spectators and Prosecuting
Attorney joined. The Chronicle reporter
was SO moved that he was obliged to go
out and brace up with a stiff cocktail
The jury were obliged to find him
guilty, but recommended him to the
mercy of the Court. He was accord
ingly fined So, which the jury paid on
the spot, and the old man slid out of
the door with the remark: ssI knew I'd
ketch 'em. Blast my buttons, didn't 1
work up the briny, though, didn't Ip''
A subsequent investigation led to the
that the bum was an ex-actor
from Frisco. who was Just giving the
jury touch of his profession. -