The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1883-09-13
The cooling rain. the bright cheerful

The cooling ram, the bright cheerful
sunshine, the fertile fields. the grateful
dew, the busy hum of insect life, the
fragrance of the wild flower, the carol
of the robin, the melody of the harvest
er, the creak and plash of the old mill
wheel-aye, even the happy smile on the
miller's face-each yields its mite to
natures ever-recurring gift, that great
blessing. crowned in the loaf, that sea-
son by season tells the tale of peace
on earth, goodwill to man."
Not so the product of the still; deep,
swift and treacherous stream, dank with
the chill of wasted lives, tainted and
CALLED by the hopes and ambitions it
has wrecked and the ties it has sun
dered. poisoned by the crime and lust
of its victims, foul with the oOze of
treacherous deeds, and clogged with
clinging weeds of temptation, ever
ready to engulf and swamp the thought
less or unwary; flowing swiftly and re-
sistently onward to but one end, de-
struction; engulfng hope, happiness
and strength; making parents childless
and children orphans; manning the
gallows and filling the prisons; sapping
strength, individual and national, and
sweeping thousands of good resolutions
before its resistless current; marshy
and treacherous its banks, where idiocy,
lunacy and crime flourish like rank
weeds.
How chameleon-like in its aspects!
At first how joyous and tempting in its
many allurements to both youth and
age; how bright and fascinating in its
promise of forbidden pleasure and joys
anticipated: how apparently small and
insignificant as it winds its way in and
out of the events of daily life; how
cheerful in its frothing, foaming con-
viviali.y; how green the fields, luxuri-
ant the shade. and tropically magniti-
cent the flowers that deck its banks;
how easy the sailing, how unheeded the
ripples of warning against the PROV, or
the wrecks of other lives as they float
hopelessly by!
With what reckless hilarty and abar-
don the pleasure parties glide along its
smooth bosom, unmindful of how swift
" the shores are receding. and how
near the gloom and despair that are
slowly settling over them Then, the
first froth of Joy gone, and with the ter
rible consequences of their action star
ing them full in the face. they awake to
II ItdllLdLlOu VI lllCii ulCdblul 1tsiSI anu
with trembling hands endeavor to steer
for land. Too late; already the i'll
omened nightmare birds of debt, dis
honor and disgrace perch upon and
rend the frail bark, whose thin boards
alone separate them from the now foam
ing waters beneath.
Then is the terrible force and swift
ness of the current realized; then it is
that hopes and promises and good reso-
lutions so often fail to turn the doomed
craft from its course; then, too late. thai
the foulness and pollution of the stream
are seen; then that the staring and
ghastly faces of dead-anl-gone hope,
happiness and ambition, dropping
astern, are lost to sight forever. The
banks no longer green and luxuriant.
but brown and scorched; the air hot
and sulphurous; thirst intense, craving,
dominant; delirium imminent; the joys
no longer joys, the pleasures now be-
come burdens.
No longer the little rippling stream
that the word mo- might at any mo-
ment turn from its course, but the angry,
seething, troubled sea of drunkenness,
the black clouds of despair, and the
sullen roar of the mighty breakers of
crime. disease or dishonor, against
which so many once promising lives
have been dashed and hopelessly
wrecked, and whose ghastly skeletons,
strewing the beach or stranded high
upon the shore, tell sad tales of misery,
despair, neglect and destitution.
Oh, for breath of the cool fields
where the golden grain is ripening!
Oh, for a draught from the crystal
stream that moves the miller's WHEEL
III. II. Kane, N. d., IN Harper'S Weekly.