The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1885-04-24

ooh yes, l am in usual health, never
very strong, but able to take care of my
parish. How is this, though, my dear
Wilbur? l thought you babe fair to be as
slender as myself, and here I find you a
large, heavy a
And then Wilbur entered into a recital
of his health and the sovereign remedy
hat had snatched him from the very jaws
of death.
'Why | was a genuine old rack-a-bones,
Uncle John, he declared. II was SO thin
a north wind would blow ME away when |
commenced using beer, and now look at
me-can't count the bones any more. |
dare say you rave a touch of dyspepsia,
too, haven't you? Well, there's nothing
like beer for it. Stay with us a while and
I'll cure you up. When the digestive or
gans are poor, beer gives them just the
boost, you know, that they need. Why,
Uncle John, if you take a glass of beer and
drop an oyster, say, into it, it will dissolve
it in a short time; that is proof you see, of
what I nave been saying"
"And you are perfectly well now,' said
Uncle John, never have any bad feelings,
whatever"
.'Oh no, | can't say that, nobody is per-
fectly well, you know. l have consider
able headache, and sometimes little attacks
of heart trouble, but l weigh nearly two
hundred, and my weight used to be only
II hundred and twenty-five, just think of
the difference. 1t will build you right up,
Uncle; have a glass now, won't you?
There's nothing like it to freshen one up
after a journey"
'Not any, thank you, Wilbur. | have a
parishioner who is very much engaged in
fattening hogs for the market. but | have
nc disposition to enter the list with them,
| assure you. If beer will add so much
more to this already cloggiug, hindering
body, I want none of it. The more flesh,
the more one has to carry about, don't you
see q"
just at this point the men made a rapid
mental diagnosis of each others case.
Poor Wilbur. 1t is plain to be seen he
is on the high road to ruin, and he is per-
fectly blind. Who would ever suppose the
handsome clear-eyed young fellow I saw
last, could change like this. I must see
what can do to save him." This with a
sigh, was the ~unele's, while the n~ephew's
was after this sort:
E.DOA- I~,,ol, T,1,f TfIo IoenNt +,r,aI
into one of those dried up old fanatics.
Now | suppose he won't give me any peace
of my life, featuring on beer every blessed
minute he stays. If he only would take to
it himself, he wouldn't look quite so much
like a bundle of bones as he does"
The visit was not very satisfactory ON
either side, for Uncle John could not leave
his dearly beloved nephew without faithful
warnings, earnestly pleading with him for
the sake of his family and his own soul to
break loose from the fatal snare. But it
was without avail. \ stone wall could not
have been more blind and deaf, or stronger,
in fancied security.
Il am really astonished, Uncle John"
he exclaimed with a burst of indignation,
that you should think so meanly of me
as to fear that | should ever become a COM
mou drunkard.H
That was just ten years ago. Wilbur
Trent is not IA common drunkard," he is
an one. The beer that he de-
clared had power to dissolve food, had
even greater solvent properties than he
imagined. 1t has absolutely dissolved all
he possessed, He was an honored and
trusted bank officer, but through his own
Encouragement, due to a beclouded brain,
the bank failed. His beautiful home went
to creditors. He has deserted his family,
and is a broken down, prematurely old
man, wandering about the world picking
up a living as best he can, while his wife,
a ~sad-hearted woman, mourns her early
folly with the bitterness of death.
Uncle John, too, still lives, despite many
protruding bones and a blue veined fore
head. His hair is becoming silyered, but
''his eye is not dim, nor his natural force
abated," for he is yet doing vigorous work
for the master in the large church of which
he is pastor.-Uhio Signal.