The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1877-09-19
An Essay.

at the same time we cannot refrail
from calling special attention to tn
following touching and appropriat,
article. 1t was written and read befor,
Hartford Lodge by request. Let al
give it a careful reading:
In reading for the entertainment O.
those present, L do not Aatter myself
that l may say anything in these has
tily thrown together fragments thai
will be instructive.
We all know the lowering tendency
of intemperance from observation.
We see the outside effects daily. The
misery entailed by the drunkard is
plainly written upon himself, his fam
lily and upon his possessions-ignor-
ance, vice, poverty; dishonor, crime
and death are the never-failing COM
paniOns of an unrestraiDed appetite for
strong drink. We see, in our every
day contact with the world, the lur-
ing banners of the merry god gaily
floating on the breeze, and the long
ranks in the motley procession are le-
gions in number. Among the follow
ers are the brightest and most gifted
intellects in the land; talents which
God has placed in the possession of a
few men for the good of the whole
race, the blessings intended to emanate
therefrom virtually belong to us in
general, and are intended to enlighten
and elevate US in the scale of civiliza-
ton, and no one has the right to az
propriate them exclusively as their
own, or dim their lustre, or mar
their usefulness by clouding the brain
with the narcotic fumes of alcohol.
The pleasures of the wine-cup are
delicious in the alluring song of the
sweet-voiced syren. The brain is stim-
ulated to pitch of extraordinary ten
sion by the artificial agency of excite
ment. The imagination is frightened,
tie nerves are strengthened, the blood
is warmed, and the heart throbs with
a new emOtion-a love for our fellow
man, without exception-and we feel
at peace with ourselves, and wish that
all could share with US the newborn
that seems to carry us on
ward to realms ofunrestrained pleasure.
Time passes-the effect wears away
there is reaction-a drowsine IS CD
presses us; we feel a strange misgiving
of something we cannot account for
a dull, dreamy, painful throbbing of
the brain, and forebodin g fear of ap-
pending evil; a regret for the past-but |
no resolve for the future, and we drink
to drive away the unwelcome and I'M
explained dread. The effect is the
same, though somewl Of intensified,
and we go from day to day, from week
to week, from year to year, each and
every debauch telling slowly but
steadily upon our system, until the
warm blood that once leaPed with
joyous pulsation to the heart, now
creeps with sluggish throb to a scared,
and selfish pendulum of |
an ebbing and purposeless life. The
bright eye that once flashed the bril-
liant hopes of the soul, has grown dim
and expressionless, as those happy
hopes, famed into life by a mothers
love, have faded as life's journey draws
nearer its close. The brain is dor
mant-the strain has been too great,
and the power for usefulness is lost
forever, and the wreck is all that is
left of the man whose early life gave
promise of useful and brilliant
career.
To give some statistical evidence of
the fearful fatality of intemperance, we
would not be far amiss in estimating
its victims, for the last forty years, as
quite the present population of the
United States-40, 900, 900. What a
startling array of CHASTITY, lettering
numerals to parade before the vision. |
What a tale of misery, sorrow and
want could be told by those silent vic
Tins of diseased appetite, who each
year squandered money enough to
educate every child within the wide
of this vast Republic.
What sadly wonderful scene, could
we view it all at once-forty million
Of men, women and children borne in
one vast, gloomy and sorrowful pro-
cession to the drunkards last resort
the gravel When all have forsaken
friends, enemies, stran-
gers, all, the grave opens its dark
bosom and kindly receives the outcast
from society, and within its gloomy
depths hides from the gaze of a pitiless
world, the faults, the shame, the dis
honor, the total wreck of what was
once the nOblest work of the Supreme
Could we but hope that
God, in His goodness, has received
the spirit, forgiven its faults, and in
that Celestial Lodge whose portals are
guarded by the presence of angels, he
has received the password from the
Chief who presides over the
temple of the universe, and there his
voice mingles in harmony with the
song of the reclaimed can
1idate for membership into that order,
the charter of which is for eternity.
A. H. CUMMINs.