The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1879-03-08

at any time since the war, and the OUT
look for next year is most promising.
A TEMPERANCE LECTURE.
Look Not Upon the sIinee Pie when It
is He'd.
Oil City Derrick.
My friends, there il another rock wish
all to guard against. 1t is hidden by the
still summer sea, but upon it many
human bark has split. I refer to the
mince.pie. Yes, my hearers, the mince-
pie is rock that has brought thousands
to watery graves-or, not to watery
graves, exactly, but--you understand
what L mean. The mince>pie is the
curse OF the land. 1t is alluring your
youth from the path of virtue and
sobriety, and leading them down to ruin.
1t begets an appetite for strong drink
that sweeps everything before it. Look
not upon the accursed thing. Shun it as
you would viper. Sit on it; trample
it under your feet, as it were. / once
knew brilliant young man, loved and
courted by all who knew him. His is
the story of thousands. This young man
used to visit his aunt in the fall, that
fatal time OF the year when the mince-
pie stalks up and down through the
earth, seeking where it may devour
somebody. This young mans aunt
could make mince-pie till you couldn't
rest, and her art Iured him to destruc-
ton. That Unsuitable monster At FIRST
be ate lightly of the damning food; then,
as his appetite grew by what it fed upon,
he ate deeper and deeper, until after
every meal be would sink into heavy
sleep, only to awake with head on him
bigger than Daniel Webeter's. He
would chew cloves and cardamon seeds
for hours, and yet you could smell his
breath across the biggest county i'm the
state. He saw that he was becoming q
slave to the accursed pie. His af6anced
bride, who to him was the one fair woman
beneath the sun, said she would never
marry a man that smelled like distil.
lery that employed three hundred hands,
and was in full blast all the time, and
unless he reformed she would be nothing
to him but sister. The young man
had all the sisters he wanted, and, fall.
ing at her feet, he registered o solemn
oath, and had it copyrighted next day,
that nince-pie should never pass his
lips sgain as long as he lived. But alas
he was already slave to strong pie, and
in less than twenty-four hours he tore
himself away from his sweetheart, who
made frantic grab at his coat-tails, and
fed to his aunt's in the city, and said he
hoped she would have some of her excel
lent mincs pies for dinner.
The good aunt, ignorant Of tho fact
| that she was putting an enemy in his
mouth to steal away his brain, set .em
up. 80 to speak, and in less than two
| hours the young man was rip roaring,
staying drunk, as usual. All, my friends,
the story is a CHASTITY one, aud needs no
establishment. While in this condition
the young man, the pride of his parents
and the hope of woman's heart, was
arrested for drunkenness and disorderly
conduct. On the way to the mayors
ofiee he shot the officer dead In his
tracks, blew out Lis own brains with
another barrel of the pistol, and then
went back and killed his aunt and dog
that he had paid three dollars for.
MY friends and fellow sufferers, from
the mincs pie to the tomb is but step.
IF mince pies must be made, ] demand
In the name of the youth OF our country,
that people who manufacture them DO
compelled to take out license. If they
must be eaten, beg, for your souls sal-
walton, do not eat them straight. A
serpent turks in every oneof them. Ten
thousand devils lie beneath every crust,
be it baked ever 70 nicely, Every cur
rant hides demon with q forked tongue
of fame and seven pronged pitchfork.
The suet, the citron and the chopped
meat are the broth OF ell, and the whole
business from stem to stern Is meek.
cry, and strong drink is raging.
In conclusion, my beloved bearen,
touch not, taste not, handle not--enter
not into temptation; or, in other words,
| look not upon the mincs pie when 1t Is
| red, when IL giyeth its color in the cup
board,
Il
CARE you the saleswoman Of whom
/ N 4 an.