The Red Cloud chief., 1884-07-04
Temperance Reading.
DRAGGED DOWN BY RUM

Career anu Broke Up a Happy Home.
"aiet out of here you blank blanked
tramp, or I'll pitch YOU out of tine win
dow, blank blank yOu," sad the bar
keeper OF a Chatham square'saloOn to =
poor specimen of humanity who WAS
.stealthily trying to ease his appetite
with some musty cheese and crackers
on the free-lunch counter.
The wrathlul bar-keeper's face wore
q villainous yet sleek expression. The
poor. hungry tramp n,eekly limped to-
ward the door. with his head bowed
down, and said nothing. He wore n
seedy suit of black, 4 well-worn SLOUGH
hat covered his head, and the heel OF
his left foot protruded from al excuse
for q shoe. There was something in the
mans appearance which betrayed the
thought To the reporters mind that the
tramp had seen better days. He was
certainly a hungry man, aud the re-
porter followed him from the saloon
and ven'ured to address him.
''WOuli you like 4 drink?' said the
reporter to the man whom he saw 4
minute later looking the very picture OF
misery in Oliver street.
THAT 1 would, SIR" he replied.
This was furnished him at "A neighbor-
ing saloon. The poor devil swallowed
three fingers of whisky at a gulp. almost,
and turned like a iamished creature,
IS he was, to a bowl of pigs feet, which
constituted the solid portion of a free
lunch provided in most the downtown
rum shops.
X CURSE OF RUN.
''Oh, yes,' he said, in reply to the
reporters remark, live seen better
days. sir. and rum has brought ME
down. 1t is a disease with me-, | fear. !
which can not be cured this side of
l am now in my fortieth wear,
yet N foot is in the grave"
"But what's the USE he said, after
a pause, ''tO tell yOu who | am or what
L We been. 'lou wouldn't believe me.
I've been able to get rum when /
couldn't get bread. You see this scar
On my jaw. don't you? A bullet from
Confederate sharp-shooter made that
Mt Gettysburg, and came so near cut
ting my windpipe that l couldn t con-
slider it a joke by any means. This scar
On my right hand was made b. a >aber.
carried q sword then and wol.. epau-
on my shoulders. | set up my
in 4 law office in Denver. Col.
the war. graduating under old
Prof. WedewoOd ut the Columbia Night
Law School at Washington. paving Tor
aw lectures while 4 $1,000 clerk in the
department. | was 4 hail fellow
will met in those days, and had ~, 100
IT So"
ALMOST A CONGRESSMAN.
Well with a sigh, Il was ambi-
and asked for foreign consulate.
lot being satisfied with law, though |
,ad Il good practice for 4 Young man.
refused. while Chairman of a Repub-
Convention. to III for Congress.
IS l felt 4 warm friendship for Colonel
who had been n delegate in the
House from Colorado when a Territory.
mi he promised to get me a foreign
,Ost. Tampico, Stettin and 9th r
were too small for me. 30 / ,
truck for the post of Secretary of Le- !
.ation to Constantinople. / had been !,
very temperate fellow until | was .
weniy-three years OF age-in fact, dur 4,
ne the carnage of war | hal not even :
anything in the way Of rum :,
trOnger than cider. L remained about !.
a year and a half. and in /;
he meantime was dazZled with the :
ayety of the capital. My associates !,
friends were is numerous Is but =,
in a flOwer-9arden, and / began :
like champagne. | spent in fifteen :.
lOnths in Washington every dollar l :.
ad, and yet received no commission. :.
me day q Senator informed me candid I
! that the tOnstantinOple place had !
cen promised to Il Maryland chap, i
hose father had made q fortune run =
inc the blockade and sy%mpathiziny =.
18th the rebels during the war. The !.
OF State would not appoint -
OIL because on Two or three occasions :,
hen you called to see him he smelt =
Risky on your BREATH l was told. ,,
a. did not feel in the mood TO ac- :;
ept a Government ~clerkship again. so a
went West and fell back on the law. :"
ut l neglected some of my clients. =
nd rum got the mastery for u year or =
D.. | struggled in the mines of Nevada, =
ping the law work of some of the u
aimap5s there. Ifell in love with tn. -
of an English miner and-un- ="
apply fer her married her. The (,
.ther idolized the girl. and set us UP in -
fe in San Francisco. For -four wears !
lived as happily rs a prince. but for =
life of ME l couldn't give up drink. y
beautiful child was given us. and one
Sht in a drunken, maudlin condition,
woke up to find my wife and child
,ne--f1ed from me forever. | fed TO 7;
but could find no trace of a,
lfe. child or father-in-law in the great a
ty OF London. Great God, what a
on earth I've endured sincei
for n time as a common laborer III
Chicago. / tried to reform, time and OF
again, but L saw most of the pro- Pi
ssed Christians were only arrant hyp- II
All nv friends Of former days
rned their backs upon me. and most Sc
them would not recognize me. Some in
them would pass by on the other it
lie when they espied me. couldn't ia
en- get a messengers place in any de-
at Washington. / resorted =.
every device to obtain drink. ex ept -.
steal. a thousand times have "
of suicide, yet l never had the -
urage to attempt it I've slept in ~
and the parks and in cheap %
iging houses for two ear past; have III
ffered terribly in snOw-stormS, vet 1 ~,
- d. --k = w