The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-07-26
Temperance Reading.


Victor Hugo, in his tremendous work.;
lies Miserables," in one of the chap
ters on the instruction of 1913, in Paris,
gives a picture of the last sleep and the,
last waking of Grantaire, drunkard.
Numbered among the "patriot stu
dents because he had a strange love
for Enjo!ras, one of the most cbaste
and temperate of young enthusiasts!
Grantaire drank while the others toiled,
and falling into heavy "dead-drunk ~
sleep, lay 50 during the siege and
capture of the barricade of Rue Chano-.
verie. This is the manner of his sleep
and of mis- waking to die. The terrible.
picture is drawn by an artist who
studied exclusively all that he por-,
trayed
Graintaire slept, then, since the
preceding evening in the hall of the
wine-shOp; he was seated on a chair
ami bent over table; he realized in all
its energy the old metaphor--dea
drunk. That hideous philter, alcohol,
had thrown him into letharry.i
The table whereon he had leaned
being too small to serve in the barri-,
cade, no one had disturbed him. He was,
always in the same posture, his breast
bent on the table, his head on his fold.
ed arms, surrounded with glasses. cups
and bottles. He slept that overwhelm-
ing sleep OF bear gorged to the jaws
with blood. Nothing that passed,
neither the rattle of musketry, thunder
of cannon, the hustling of bullets. nor
the crashing of minie-balls into the hall
where he was, reused him. Neither did
the prodigious uproar of the assault
Only he responded sometimes to the
cannon by a deep snore. He seemed to
wait there until a ball should come and
spare him the trouble of waking Many.
cOrpses lay around him, and at first
glance nothing distinguished him from
the profound sieeperS of death. Noise
does not rouse q man who is drunk,
silence wakes him. This singularity
has often been observed. The fall and
crash of all about him augmented the
stupor of Grantaire; tumult cradled
him. But the sudden quiet that felh
when Enjolras was taken was a shock
that penetrated that leaden slumber.,
1t had the effect of u coach that rolls,
borne at a gallop-then stops short,
When it stops its sleeping passengers
awake. Grantaire lifted himself With
a start; he stretched his arms, rubbed
his eyes, looked-understood
drunkenness ending resembles the
rending of a curtain. One sees in black
and with one glance of the eye all that
that curtain had concealed All offers
itself suddenly to the mind, and the
drunkard who has been unconscious for
twenty-four hours opens his eyelids and
comes back to realization with q burst.
Ideas stand out with a swift incidfty;
that deep darkness of drunkenness, ris-
ing from the fumes of drink binding
the brain, dissipates and gives place to
stern fronting of reality. Grantaire
sprang up. The immense light OF that
strong conflict where Ice had been want
ing leaped before him at a glance He
had failed his comrades. Enolras, the
last one, stood facing death. Gran
taire rushed across the hall and placed
himself before the pointed rifles, stand
ing near Enlolras. Two at a blown
he cried, and, turning to Eniolras,
'Dost thou permit?' The fire flashed
forth, Eniolras, a smile on his face,
leaned against the wall dead; his head
| dropped. Grantaire, like man smitten
by thunderbots, lay lifeless heap at
his leaders feet. IN T. AdU0cate.