Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1877-07-05
Tho Street OF He'll.

tn 1870 thcro was in the United States
10000 licensed liquor saloons. If formed
into q street with saloons on each sido,
allowing twenty feet to each saloon, they
would make q street two hundred aud sixty.
five miles long. Lot US imagine them
brought together in suoh street aud let us
suppose, the moderate drinkers and their
families ore marching into it at the upper
end. Go with mo if you have tho nerve
aud patience, and stand ut tho lower end
and let us soc what that street turns out in
ono ycnr.
What army 10 this that comes marching
down the street 10 solid column, five abreast
extending five hundred and seventy milcs7
1t is tho army of 100000 men and women
who 60 daily and constantly to the snloons
for Intoxicating drinks rs beverage.
Marching twenty miles day aud it will
take them more than twenty eight days to
50 by.
Now they are gone, and close in their
rear comes another army marching five
abreast and sixty miles in length. In it
there arc $4,000 confirmed drunkards
TGs.e are men aud women who have lost
coptroLof their appetites, and who are in
tho regular habit Of getting drunk aud
making beasts of themselves. Marching
two abrenst tho army is $50 miles long.
Scan them closely. There are grey haired
men and fair haired boys. There are, alas!
many women in the army sunk TO deeper
depths than the men, because Of tho greater
heights from which they fell. 1t will take
them sevon days to 60 by. ~
1t is sad and siokening sight, but turn
not away yet, for there comes another army
100000 criminals. From jaiIs and
prisons and penitentiaries they como.
At tho head of the army comes
long line Of persons whose hands arc
smearcd With human blood. With ropes
around their necks they are on tho way to
tho gdflows. Others are going to prison for
life. Every crime known to our laws has
been committed by these persons while
under tho influence of strong drink. But
bark l. whence comes those yells, and who
those bound with strong ohains and guarded
by armed men? Thoy are raving maniaos,
made so by strong drink. Their eyes are
tormcnted by awful sights, and their ears
ring with horrid sounds. Shiny reptiles
crawl slowly down their backs, and fends
from hell torment them before their time.
They are gono now, and wo breath more
freely.
But what gloom is this that pcrvadea tho
air, nnd what long tide of black coming
down tho street, 1t is the line Of funeral
PROFESSIONS. Ono hundred thousand who
have died tho drunkard's death arc boiug
carried to their graves. Drunkards do not
have many friends to mourn their loss, and
wc put thirty of their funeral professions
into a milo. Wo thus have procession
$3.50 miles long. 1t will take good part
of the year for them to 60 by, for funeral
professions move slowly, yes, most Of them
DO, but once in a while ON unooffined corpse
is driven rapidly by and we hear tho brutal
driver sing,
"Quick rattle his bones, rattle his bonos,
Over the stones! ~
HE'S only pauper whom nobody owns"
Look into tho collins as they 60 by. Sec
the dead drunkards! Some died Of delirium
tremeps, and the lines Of terror are still
marked on their faces. Some frozc to
death By The readaide, too drunk to reach
thoir homes. Some stumbled from tho
wharf aud wore drowned; somo wandered
into tho woods and died, and rotted on the
surface of tho earth; some blew their own
brains ont; some were foarfully stabbed in