The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1879-01-09

tendency over virtue among the children
of men.
Step with me into one of the recitation
rooms in the good town of Jackson; we
enter here; the air is laden with fumes
80 complicated that they defy discrimina-
tion by the sense of smell. but the canopy
of thick smoke overhanging all brings
the sense of sight to aid of that of smell
and we know that every ounce of atmos
phere in the smoky room bears its com
pliment of deadly nicotine. The hall
emptied, half full glasses upon tables
and counters enables US to perceive that
whisky and beer lend their aid and con.
tribute, with the foul exhalations from
the human bodies there present, to pro-
duce combination of odors defying the
chemists skill to analyze, and quite in
supportable to healthy nostril. And
here, breathing this putrid, putrescent,
poisoned and poisonous air, are human
beings And they are engaged-note
their engagements-one is telling bru.
tai anecdote, another in drunken exul-
tation is roaring out ribald song, a
third in maundering and meaningless
profanity drawling out soliloquy, inter-
mitted by hiccoughs and noddings, the
harbingers of drunken stupor, while all
appear to have passed that point beyond
which the still small voice of conscience
is never heard But there sits group of
four at a round table whereon stand
glasses whose shape and position define
their use. These four are engaged at
card d-playing, but card-playing unaccom-
panied by the quiet and refining infuen-
ces of parlor game surrounded by all
the happy adjunets of social and domes-
tic felicity. Two of this group demand
our special attention. One, a hoary-
headed veteran of sin, with eyes over
whose orbs the film of dissipation has for
years been spread, his countenance bears
ample evidence of his devotion to Bac-
chus and the steadiness with which he
has pursued his downward pathway and
of the total expulsion from his mind of
every trace of former virtue and there
he sits, his demure gaze alternately di-
rected to the cards which he holds and
plays with the skill of an adept, and then
to his opposite neighbor, opposite appar
emily in every respect, for this neighbor
judging from his appearance, is reciting
his first lesson in this particular class
he is young; thewarm blood of early life
courses his veins the tint of health not
yet obscured by the tracings of vice
adorns his countenance, and is not en-
tirely obliterated at finding himself de-
tected in such company; his eye has all
the fiery ardor of youth OF eighteen,
the blaze of generous ambition has not
yet died out; his brow is Indicative of
culture and refinement, and his whole
bearing is that of the educated and pol
ished young gentleman, but now, sadly
oh so sadly out of place SO out of natur-
al harmony with his surroundings, SO
ineffably unfit to be the associate of the
abandoned wretch who sits opposite him.
We know the youth-his parents came
from rural district, came with charac-
ters fixed and conformed to virtues
standard, came to town to educate their
hildren,-and here is one of them, the
pride of his mother, the joy and hope of
his father, the dearly beloved of both
here is one, the first born, around whom
cluster the fondest and brightest visions
because they are early and first strug-
glings of maternal instinct and love, tax
ing his first lesson in this particular classl
See, his flush of shame deepens, as he
perceives that we are regarding him; he
is aware that we know the proud man,
his father, that we are acquainted with
that Christian woman, his mother he
knows how deeply the loving heart of
that mother would be wrung, and how
intolerable would be her anguish at sight
of her son consorting and associating
with companions SO depraved; and for
the moment he becomes uneasy
thoughts of home, the home circle, the
pleasant 6reside, the doating mother, the
proud father sweep for a moment across
the horizon of his mind-he hesitates-
but the tempter is there, the old veteran
of a thousand sins marks the moment of
irresolution, and well drilled in his mas
ter's work knows well how to recall to
the vacillating mind of the youngster the
alluring song of the Sirens whose insid-
ious strains first seduced him from the
path of virtue and rectitude; he seizes
upon that supreme moment; he insinu-
ates the eliminating idea; the youth
listens and yields, and yielding he is lost,
panied and grieyed his good angel de-
parts
Card-playing, with intermissions for
drinking, progresses the intermissions
grow rapidly shorter; the glasses tinkle
more frequently; the cheek of the veter-
an in crime retains its hardness and its
passiveness on that of the youth there
is continually deepening flush, no lons
ger the flush of shame, or the tint of
health, but the fend-begotten and perdi-
tion born-hue of inebriates; his eyes no
longer blaze with the steady lustre of
generous ambition, but incipient ruin
has kindled these her baleful fires, the
fame of whose evil light directs to but
one goal an early and dishonored tomb;
the hours wax later and later; the fierce
heat of the unusual excitants have burn
ed out the vital force of the youth along
with his shame, and now reckless, and
now reckless of good name and mothers
love, casting his culture and refinement
to the winds. he joins in the ribald vul-
garity of the scene, until the transforma-