The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1882-08-08
OLD AND BATTERED.
Bound to the Car of the Mod
ern Juggernaut, he has had
all Manhood Crushed
Out of His Life.
A Sad Sight in the Police Court
An Old Mans Doom.

II Has never required the augmentatlve
powers OF the temperance lecturer, the
hery eloquence OF the pulpit orator, or the
gifted pen of the author to inspire man
kind the world over with a contempt and
utter loathing for drunkenness.
This feeling seems to be inherent, to a
great degree, and education and experience
but serve to strengthen and deepen it. The
drunkard himself, after recovering from
one OF his debauches, loathes himself and
the fiery liquid which has robbed him Of
his strength, his manhood, his self-respect,
and, in fact, everything which man holds
most dear and most sacred.
DRUNKENNESS IN HIGH PLACES,
in the halls Of congress, on the judicial
bench, and even in the pulpit, as we'll as
In the humble home of the day labOrer,
calls forth almost involuntary expressions
OF contempt, which, among the more ten
der-hearted, are mingled with some words
of pity.
The veriest drunkard that ever lived,
In his sober moments, cannot avoid
the natural feeling of disgust
Tor drunkenness when he sees
1t In all of its lOathsome phases exhibited
in the person of fellow drunkard.
EVEN THE DEALER IN INroxIcANrs
abhors drunkard. 1t may be said, then,
that the hatred of drunkenness, and the
contempt for the drunksrd, is universal.
This being the case, of course there is a
reason for it, and this reason is readily
found when the vast amount OF human
misery, degradation and crime caused by
intemperance is considered.
A drunkard, in whatever station in life,
whether he be young. old or middle aged,
is always an object Of pity, none the less
than that Of contempt
WHEN A YOUNG NAN
just entering on the busy stage of life, in
the full flush of early manhood, with the
broad world all before him, with the op-
portunity of carving his name high up in
the niche OF the temple of fame, if be only
wills 1t, is seen staggering along the street
in maudlin state of intoxication. all of
his natural manhood subverted by the IL
quid fire he has been quafing, and the
throne OF reason occupied by a foul
usuTper, the general comment is "What
a shame. How sad that one so young
should be addicted to such shameful and
rqinous habit" When it is the
old man, bending under the weight of
years. HIS SILVER iOCkS DcdIU uAkcmpG
and tossed about his blOated face in wild
disorder, making the most futile efforts to,
maintain steady gait, it is whispered:
"How distressing; how utterly heart sick
ening 1T is to see an old man, standing on
the very brink of the grave, under such
complete domination of the intoxicating
cupw
God knows that either picture is far
from being calculated to inspire anything
but feelings of the deepest gloom, and med
itation that is anything but pleasant.
But IF IT Is SAD SIGHT
to see the young man temporarily shOrn of
his strength and deprived of his reason,
how infinitely more sad it is to gaze upon
the aged drunkard In the former case,
the young man has taken false step, and
perhaps entered upon a path which ter
inmates only in dishOnOr and ruin, but
for him comes the messenger of hope with
healing in her wings; that false step can
be retrieved, that dishonored manhood can
be redeemed, and there are for him yet
grand possibilities. But with the old man,
alas, how different.
The writer, while attending session of
the police court q few days since, observed
among the prisoners brought up for trial q
gray haired old man, who,
WITH DOwNCAsT EYES,
and shaking limbs, arose to answer the
charge of drunkenness. Blear-eyed, dirty,
ragged, trembling in every limb, all of the
divine lineaments of manhood blOtted out
of the bloated face and presenting the re-
voting sight of human and brute nature,
blended together, stood this poor, old man
awaiting, like the abject slave that he is,
the mandate of the court. Here is
PICTURE WITHOUT RAY OF HOPE
to gid it. Here is the spectacle of God
given manhood offered up as a sacrifice on
the altar of King Alcohol A life that
was perhaps begun as auspiciOusly and
was just as pregnant with bright promise
as that of any of the rosy faced, healthy,
bright-eyed youths seen on our streets to-
day, shattered, wrecked, utterly destroyed.
In few short years at most, all that is
mortal of that battered old hulk will be
laid in the grave, while nothing but tar
nished name remains to remind the world
that such a man ever lived.
WHAT BITTER THOUGHT
it must be for man to carry to his death
bed, what fearful legacy of dishonor to
leave to his children, that the world is only
worse for his having lived in it.
Yes, the very sadest thing of all sad
things thet can be contemplated is an ut
terly wasted life; manhood so deeply
STEPPED in vice and degradation that no
earthly power is able to restore it. Gray
hairs shorn of the veneration with which
we are wont to regard them, and the aged
head bowed in disgrace.
Rev NJ p Remin9ton Ithica N Y