The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1877-03-29
FORTY.TWO YEARS DRUNK.
How ..OId Charley Passed Away II
was mOurned by His Boon COM
DnnAOns.

p%nnAOns.
II is good to speak well OF the dead,
but it can't hurt old Charley Ripton's
feelings to state that he was n of the
toughest old %drunkards in Detroit. lie
has been gathered in by death, u he
will hear not nor read not. His life was
az curious as his death. He lived as an
experiment. He wanted to see whether
he could kill whisky before it killed him,
and when he found himself defeated he
owned up like a nan and was ready 10
die.
Think of a man being more or less in
toxitated every day in the week for forty
two-years! That was old Charley's ex-
perience as near as he could remember.
Not a man of his acquaintance ever saw
him have as much money as a dollar at a
time, and yet he managed TO keep clothes
on his back, food under his jacket, and
to find a bed. When men asked hlm
what he lived for, he answered: 10
take solid comfort" Perhaps he had it.
No one ever say him angry; he never
made a complaint, he was never worried,
and it wasn't half the time that he could
tell the day of the week.
Well, after fighting whisky for forty
two long years, old Charley laid aside his
battle.ax the other day. Nobody knew
that he was ill-no one had a suspicion
that his time had come. He had been
given a bed in an old rookery on Frank
lin street, and in the night he called out
that he wanted a doctor. One was sent
for, and when he had looked old Charley
over, he remarked:
"You are going to die J"
"That's what / thought !" was the
placid reply, and before daybreak the
old man was a corpse. >,
When the news went out that OLD
Charley was no more, a lot OF his Old
whisky. loving friends assembled TO view
the body and see that it was buried at
the expense of the city.
"The object of the meeting" ex.
claimed a red-nosed topper, as they stood
around the body, "is to exhibit Il re-
spect for the old man and pass him into
the p%otter's field halfway white. If any
gentleman desires to make any remarks
now is his time.
There was a painful silence as the old
soakers looked at the body, and from it
to each other, and finally a short man
with watery eyes began:
"Ah! Old Charley was one of the
incest of gentlemen! He hadn't Il fault
unless it was keeping too sober. | don't
suppose he'd have touched a drop of
if he'd owned a whole distillery.
They say that cold water killed him, and
| move that we sue the mar who gave it
to him."
This speech brought tears to the eyes
of a woman in the corner, and the chair
man emptied The ashes out of his pipe,
and remarked that in the midst of life
he was in death.
cold Charley was a beautiful citi-
put in a man who used to drive a
beer wagon. at was a tender sight to
see him smile when he paid his taxes and
.as bills, and no man was more quiet
md peaceful. If the police dubbed him
he never said a word if the papers abused
lim he only sighed and fell a falling
ear. o! | would that more of us were
k e'him. I'll give two shillings, when |
ret it, to help buy him a coffin with four
diamonds in the end"
There was great signing and grooming
Iround the room, and the chairman rap
red on the window-sill and said:
"We don't any of us begin to know
a day may not bring forth.
When | hear these words around me |
wen wish that | was dead" .
1t was a long minute before the silence
vas again broken. A cross-eyed soker,
allied General Beat" rose up in the
,orner and said:
GLOW lovely old Charley was! He
vas a man who used to give thousands of
to the poor and not blow about it
n insist on having it published in the
laily papers. He was always trying to
zee how much good he could do, and how
Ober he could be. | don't think he
new what the taste of whisky was. He
a great worker, a good man, and |
move that we put up q monument to his
memory"
The chairman smiled as lie remembered
hat the whole crowd couldn't raise a
ollar and a half to save their necks, but
was a time to do the fair thing, and he
)sked around and said:
Will some gentleman second the
love that we purchase a monument
Broken-nozed Barney seconded the mo-
ION, and it was put to vote and adopted,
nd then the chairman said:
{ Well, that's all; it is understood
nat the monument is to cost $4,000,
nd | s'pose we ought to wear Grape ON
ur elbows tor thirty days. Yes, old
in life was Il flower of beauty,
nd in death he was not divided. And
ow we'll go out and play pigeon-hole,
nd try for a brief space to forget our
,rrow. "-DetrOH Free Press.