The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-07-18
Temperance Reading.


Victor Hugo. in his tremendous work,
''Les Miserables,'' in one of the chap,
tiers on the instruction of 184S, in Paris,
gives picture of the last sleep and the
last waking of Grantaire, a drunkard.
Numbered among the "patriot stu
dents because he had a strange love
for Eniolras, one of the most chaste,
and temperate of young enthusiasts,
Grantaire drank while the others toiled,
and falling into heavy dead-drunk -
sleep, lay so during the siege and
capture of the barrieade 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 chair
and bent over a table; he realized in all
its energy the old metaphor-dead
drunk. That hideous philter, alcohol,
had thrown him into a lethaTgy.,
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-b 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 q deep snore. He seemed to
wait there until 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 sleepers of death. Noise
does not rouse 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 Graded
him. But the sudden quiet that fell
when Eniolras was taken was a shock
that penetrated that leaden slumber.
1t had the effect of coach that rolls,
borne at gallop-then stops short.
When it stops its sleeping passengers.
awake. Grantaire lifted himself with
a start; he stretched his arms, rubbed
his eyes, Observation-Disclosures
drunkenness ending resembles the
rending of 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 burst
Ideas stand out with swift incidity1
that deep darkness of drunkenness, ris-
ing from the fumes of drink binding
the brain, dissipates and gives place to
q stern fronting of reality. Grantaire
sprang up. The immense light of that
strong conflict where he had been want
ing leaped before him at a glance. He
had failed his comrades. EnjoIraS, the
last one, stood facing death. Gran
taire rushed across the hall and placed
himself before the pointed rifles, stand
ing near Enjolras. Two at blowp
he cried, and, turning TO Enjolras,
'Dost thou permit?' The fire flashed
forth, Eniolras, smile on his face,
leaned against the wall dead; his head
dropped. Grantaire, like a man smitten
by thunderbolts, lay a lifeless heap at
his leaders feet."-M T. -AdvOcate.