Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1884-06-05
A TEMPERANCE SERMON.


two ago his attention was attracted by the
noise barkeeper was making in ejecting a
seedy.l looking individual from his ee.lunch
counter. The reporter followed the man
who had suffered such an indignity, and
asked him if he wanted drink, which of
course he did, and entering barroom he
soon put "three fingers under his belt, after
which he gave the following account of his
career to the reporter:
"I've been able to get rum when l couldn't
get bread. You see this scar on my jaw,
don't you? A bullet from Confederate
sharp-shooter made that at Gettysburg, and
cane so near cutting my windpipe that |
couldn't consider it a joke by any means.
This scar on my right hand was make by a
sabre. carried sword then and wore
epaulettes on my shoulders. set up my
shingle in law Office in Denver, Col, after
the war, graduating under old Professor
Wedewood at the Columbia night Law
School at Washington, paying for law
lectures while 81 400 clerk i'll the War
Department.. I was hail fellow we'll met
in those days, and had $4,000 or so."
"Well," with sigh, II was ambitious,
and asked for foreign consulate, not being
satisfied with law, though I had good
practice for young man. | refused, while
chairman of republican convention, to &C.
cept nomination for Congress, as | felt
warm friendship for Colonel -, who had
been a delegate in the House from Colorado
when q Territory, and he promised to get
me a foreign post. Tampico, Stettin and
other places were too small for me, SO
struck for the post of Secretary of Legation
to Constantinople. l had been a very tenn
perate fellow until I was % years of
age-in fact, during the carnage ofwar had
not even tasted anything in the way of rum
stronger than cider. / remained about
Washington year and half, and III the
meantime was dazzled with the gayety Of
the capital. My associates and friends were
as numerous as butterflies in flower gar
den, and l began to like champagne. [
spent in fifteen months in Washington every
dollar had, and yet received no commits
sion. One day Senator informed me can.
didly that the Constantinople place had been
promised to Maryland chap. The Sec
retary Of State would not appoint you, be-
cause on two or three occasions when you
called to see him he smelt Whiskey on your
breath, l was told.
II was too proud and ambitious to accept
O government clerkship again so went West
and fell back on the law. But eglected
some of my clients, and rum got the master
for year or so. | struggled in the mines
of Nevada, doing the law work of some of
the claimants there. I fell in love with the
daughter of an English miner and-unhap-
pily for her-married her. The father idol
lied the girl, and set us up in life in San
Francisco. For four years lived as
happily as prince, but for the life of
r ,3N1t T,tt.o irl, 4
child was given us, and one night in q
drunken, maudln condition, woke up to
find nv wife and child gone-fed from me
forever. l fed to England, but could find
no trace of wife, child or father-iu.law in
the great CITY of London. Great God, what
| q hell on earth I've endured since l work
| ed for a time as common laborer in Chica-
| 90. I tried to reform, time and time again,
but failed. My friends of former days turn
ed their backs upon me, and most of them
would not recognize me. Some of them
would pass by on the other side when they
espied me- l couldn't even get a messen-
gers place in any department in Washing
ton. ] resorted to every device to obtain
drink, except to steal. A thousand times
have thought of suicide, yet never had
the courage to attempt it. I've slept in
Railways and the parks and in cheap lodg-
ing houses for two years past; have been
scorched in the sun and all but frozen to
death in the sleet and snow storms yet l
live Sometimes I've put in u ton of coal
for a quarter, or swept out the sawdust of a
liquor saloon for a bite to eat and drink.
l am beyond redemption, as you see.
There are thousands just like me. But
for the accursed rheumatism, which has
laid me up in the hospital for the past
few months, I'd enlist as a private
in the army or marine corps-and l
once commanded thousand brave fellows.
The noise and confusion of battlefield
would be music to my ears now. Would
had left my bones on Gettysburg's heights
"Oh, yes, I've tried often to get something
to do in this city Of late, but in nine cases
out of ten I've been rebuffed. asked for
copying or anything to earn a living. Only
Yesterday I was turned out of half dozen
places, where was looking for work, by the
janitors.
all self-respect. I haven't any chum. /
shun the main streets, and am ashamed to
meet the gaze of a gentleman. The memory
of nv wife haunts me like dream, and the
affection she once bore for me keeps me
from the lowest haunts of vice. All! the
curse of rum. The first glass Of wine l ever
took was handed me by the daughter of a
Justice of the United States Supreme Court
who was q Presidential candidate. The
ladv's husband was a Governor and after
ward a United States Senator. That one
glass of wine has been my ruin. sainted
mother warned me when was child never
to touch it. She died of a broken heaft, for
she had felt the curse of rum. have a
brother, a thousand miles from here, who fills the
pulpit of leading church, and they tell me he IS
tha ala tofm I
who are well off, and who are doubtless now think
] ing of my accursed fate. But / am too proud to