Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-03-01
John Thompson-..IIis Dream.
a TfHrfhAEoF sronT-


II was drunken dream-yet q singular
one. When we say Vt was a drunken dream,
we wish 10 insinuate that John Thompson
was not very respectable man. On the
| contrary he was q very wreck, rum-soaked,
scorched, prematurely withered By his la
mentable failure to control his appetite for
gin, he had undermined his constitution,
worn out his poor, patient wife, and inspired
his four little girls with terrible idea Of
his utter cruelty. Ten years before Mr..
Thompson dreamed this dream, when he
first married the bright, buoyant down-east
girl who lived with him. ii anybody had
warned John that there was always danger
in even moderate drinking, he would have
| felt insulted, aud would probably have in
| quired if they thought he was a brute who
could not control his appetite; and yet few
| years later, It was no uncommon thing to
see John standing, with bleared eyes and
/ shameful face before Judge Lawton, while
that functionary inflicted the customary
$3.50. But the details of q career like John
| Thompson's it is not necessary to rehearse /,
they are too common. Let us tell about his
dream, which he dreamed ON New Years
night two years ago.
Mr.. Thompson on that particular night
| had spent his evening in varied pleasures
He was an excellent workman, and on that
| day had received a sum of money for work
done since his last "spree," aud had slipped
out by the back door of the building where
he was employed, because he knew that his
thinly clad wife was waiting near the front
door to see if she could not get little money
of him to buy some flannel for the children.
No doubt John felt, as he looked, like a cur
when he did this deed, and no wonder he
] IA Al.
the nearest grog shop, where bland smile
/ greeted him, and poured down two heavy
doses in quick succession. Then he felt a
| little better
"Dam a woman" he said TO the bar
tender, "what dogs a mans footsteps"
O. should say so, answered the bartender
"why don't you make the old woman work
as you do 2 "
She's a lazy one" said John Thompson,
and poured down another drink, which
seemed as though it would choke him--as it
ought 10 have donc-and this was the lowest
point John Thompson ever reached, and this
was low enough. Even the short-cropped
rumseller desperate villain as he probably
was, felt a keen contempt for John when he
spoke thus of his poor, hard-working wife,
and took little pains TO conceal it. Mr..
Thompson was not yet sufficiently intoxi-
Gated not to notice this, and as voice
within him was expressing similar feelings,
something like burning flush, not alto
| gether born of alcohol, came over his pimply
face, and he left the shop abruptly, with one
desire upperEost in his mind-to lose him
self in the oblivion of whiskey as quickly as
possible. But as he walked to the next sa-
loon, something kept dinging in his ears, in-
cessantly, words TO this effect Liar, Sian
derer coward, knave her fingers are worn
with weary toll; her eyes are dim with mid
night sewing; her brain is weary with un-
varying anxiety, and now she is standing in
the cold waiting for you" But John, though
he could not dispute the truth of these state
ments, and did not try to- merely said
within himself Let her watt darn
woman what dogs mans footsteps-she
ought to starve !"
Nevertheless, in spite of this defiant atti-
tude toward his own conscience, there was
on MIR. Thompson's part a more lively de
sire to reach the point of drunken uncon-
sciousness than he had ever known before.
| lie poured down the drink with eager rapid
ty, treated all that desired TO be treated
(and they were many, aud was utterly
reckless about the change Before nine
o'clock that night, the voice of conscience
might have roared from the mouth of ten
FOUNDER, and John, so far from being moved
or disturbed, would have returned bland
and tender smile. But the voice was quite
silent. At the particular hour we mention,
| indeed, Mr.. Thompson was engaged in sport
/ peculiarly absorbing TO gentlemen in his con
dition. lie was in a shooting gallery and sa-
loon combined where they were shooting
for turkeys, and Mr.. Thompson's shots
had created intense amusement by the gro
tesque inaccuracy, the bullets apparently
describing a transcendant curve Of which
it would have puzzled Descartes TO deter
mine the locus. SO very much pleased,
indeed, were the company, that, with great
fertility of invention, they bethought them
selves Of practical joke.
"You know, said the proprietor to his
boy, the sick turkey that died in the coop
Yesterday 2"
Well" said the boy.
"Wel" said the proprietor, /" stuff it with
straw and let John take it home to his fam
lily, who, in all probability, haven't had one
for some time
So they Informed John, when the defunct
bird was stuffed, that he had won turkey,
which he might have after treating them
and having treated them with the last money
/ he had John departed with his prize reflect
/ ing, as he staggered along, that the present
of turkey would make it call right" with
the old woman-the old woman" who was
I lying on the meagre straw bed, thinking
what in the world she should do--for the
grocery bill was running up, the coal was
most gone and not paid for, the chidren's
feet were on the ground, and John was
drunk again"
Yes-drunk for the last time; for, as the
clock struck twelve, or shortly before, John
dreamed dream.
1t was, perhaps, eleven o'clock when Mr..
Thompson cast himself upon his bed in the
attic which, like all the rest of his house,
was Of a primitive kind, being tick stuffed
with fifty cents worth of rye straw-whole-
,ome, indeed, but very democratic and, for
awhile, he knew nothing, snoring heavily as
his vitals labored under the stimulants he
had taken, but after some time strange shapes
seemed TO fit before him he felt cold a
queer consciousness of being in some strange
place took possession Of him, and hazy
light showed him strange sights. Big icicles
jumped round on legs; snow men walked
solemnly past him, locking at him with their
wooden eyes, and pointing at him with their
broomstick arms he heard the jingling of
unearthly sleigh bells and the scraping of
unearthly snow shoyels as the spectral side
walks were being cleared Off then suddenly
a great ring OF aurora boreais blazed up
with purple light, and John saw, seated on a
glittering throne of ice, old King Winter
himself, with heavy beard and snowy gar
inents, with frigid face and steaming breath
while around him stood myriads of his
courtiers, armed with long, sharp icicles for
spears. Beside the ice kings throne stood,
leaning upon a staff, a worn and hoary man,
bent nearly double, with wrinkled face Of
infinite severity, who gazed on John while
on the other side stood fair aud rosy boy
with little soeptre in his hand, who also
looked on John. "This," said John, "is
sight worth seeing" But the old Winter
King cried out with awful sternness, " 81
lcnce sir !" and dozen of his courtiers
pointed their icicle spears at Johns heart,
and a shiyering seized him and a quaking,
so that he was glad to hold his tongue.
Then, when John had ceased 10 shiver so
violently, the winter king remarked "Johp
Thompson"
That is my name" said John.
II desire TO introduce you" continued
The Winter King, 10 personal knowledge
Of the Old Year, whom, in general way,
you have known for very nearly twelve
| months"