The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1876-03-24
FINDLAY OHIO, FRIDAY MORNING, MARCH 24 1876

drinkin' COS they're at the tavern, an
amt got no where else to go, you've
made a mighty big hole in the crowd
of drinkin' men-bigger'n temperance
meetins' ever begin to make yit."
''But how are they to be left out!"
asked the lecturer.
"By temperance folks doin' somethin'
beside talkin'," replied the drunkard.-
''For twenty years I've been lectured
and scolded, and some good mems come
to ME with tears in their eyes, and put
their arms round my neck, and begged
me to stopa drinkin'. An I've wanted
to, an tried to, but when all the encour-
agement man gifts is in words, an no
matter how he commenced drinkin' now
now ev'ry bone and muscle in him is
beggin' for drink eZ soon eZ he leaves off,
"an' his minds dull, an he amt fit for
much, an needs takin' care of pitcher
ez a mighty sick man, talks jist as good
as wasted. There's been times when eff
I'd been ahead ON flour an meat an
sich, could stopped drinkin', but
when a mans hungry an ragged, an
weak, and half crazy, KNOWN how his
family's fixed and he can't do nothin' for
'em an then don't get nothin' but words
to reform on, he'll go back to the tavern
ev'ry time, an he'll drink till he's COM
Portable an till he forgits. | want the
people here, one an all to understand
that though Pm past helpin' now, there's
been fifty times in the last twenty years
when might have been stopped short,
if anybody d been sensible enough and
good hearted enough to give me lift"
Joe Diggs sat down, and there was a
long pause. The Chairman whispered
to the leader of the Glee Club, and the
club sang song, but somehow it failed
to awaken the usual enthusiasm. After
the singing had ended, the Chairman
himself took the floor and moved the
appointment of permanent committee
to look after the Incorporate, and to
collect funds when the use of money
seemed necessary, and the village doctor
created sensation by moving that Mr..
Joe Diggs should be a member Of the
committee. Deacon Towser, who was
the richest man in the village, and who
dreaded subscription papers, started an
insidious opposition by eloquently vaunt-
ing the value of earnest prayer and of
determined will, in such cases, but the
new member of the committee 0hough
manifestly out of order outmaneuvered
the Deacon by accepting both amend
ments, and remarking that in hard
fight folks would take all the help they
could get.
Somehow, as soon as the new commit
Predetermined to open place of en-
tertainment in opposition to the tavern
and furnish it pleasantly, and make it
an attractive gathering place for young
men-asked for contribution to enable
them to do it, the temperance excite
ment at Berkeley abated marvelously.
But Squire Breet, and the doctor, and
several other enterprising men took the
entire burden on their own shoulders,
or pockets, and Joe Diggs was as useful
as areforned thief to a police depart
ment. For the doctor, whose profess
sional education had left large portion
of his natural common sense IN working
order, took practical interest in the
old drunkard's case, and others of the
committee looked to the necessities OF
his family, and it came to pass that Joe
was one of the earliest sreformers. Men
still go to the tavern at Backley, but
even as when the twelve spake with in
spired tongue some people remained inn
penitent, the temperance men at Back
ley feel that they have great cause for
encouragement, and that they have, at
least, accomplished more within a few
months than did all the temperance
meetings ever held in their village.