News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-01-15
REFORMING A DRUNKARD.
PECK OF MILWAUKEE HAS A SPECIAL
CASE UNDER HIS CHARGE.
And Asks Very Seriously If it Pays TO Lay
Awake Nights to Think of n Way of Ret
ormu fjon.

About four weeks ago the writer re-
ceived letter from a man who was on
the verge of suicide, begging for some
thing to do by which he could earn
loaf of bread each day. The man was
| about forty years of age, who had been
a LAWYER in Canada. He had been
cursed by a love of drink, had separated
from his wife and two children, and he
| had wandered until he was footsore and
weary. insuficientIy clothed, penniless,
despondent. He had drank to the dregs
the bitterness of a lost manhood, and
what should he do, steal or starve? He
had not drank drop in three months,
never would drink another drop, aid
only wanted a strong arm to lean on I'M
til he could show himself to be man.
His letter was touching, as well written
| as any lawyer could write, and 1t was SO
full of touching illusions to his wife and
babies, who vera sufferers from his own
| dissipation, that-well, we sent for him.
He came to the office expecting a tenn
perance lecture, aid little advice. and
| dismissal. Oh, but he was seedy. Iho
winter had Just come, and caught him
with summer pants on, so thin that the
November winds walked through them
uprnolested, His coat was thin and
soiled, his spectacles were broken by an
unfriendIy lamp-post, his feet were al
most bare. But he had splendid face,
and his heart was tender, and he was the
soul of honor. Instead of a temper
arce lecture, the only question asked,
alter he had told his story was, ''Have
Won got through drinking forever ?" He
said, as be called upon God to witness,
and with the image of his wife and little
ones before him, that he would never
drink again. That settled it. He was
taken to the writer's home and fitted
out with good suit of clothes, from
socks to collar, and from drawers to
oyercoat. He was given sum of money
and told to put in a week walking about
the city and familiariziDg himself with
every street and every place of business.
| That. should be his first weeks work.
| He was furnished respectable boarding
place, and as the writer was going away
for week, his proiege was ordered to
report the following Monday. He re-
| ported, and he was the happiest man IN
| the world. The later days of the week
| the business manager, who had taken
| great 1uttICSG III l11Lls hdNA S5ANI1 AAAAAL
some commissions to execute, and he
had done them well. To think that any
man would take stock enough in him to
clothe him and give him money and set
him to work, after he had betrayed every
friend he ever had, including his wife
and children, seemed too much for him
to realize, and he was so happy and
grateful that it was a genuine pleasure
TO see him, and talk with him, and hear
him plan to send Christmas presents to
the dear ones in Canada, and when we
mentioned that if he kept on being as
successful as he had been it would not
be long before he could send for the
wife and babies and have a home here,
how his heart swelled at the thought;
until it seemed as though he would
burst our undershirt and overshirt, and
vest and coat and overcoat, which were
covering his swelling heart.
For about three weeks he worked as
man never worked before. He seemed
to realize that he was taking advantage
of last opportunity to become a man
among men. He worked hard days and
slept good nights, and dreamed of the
loved ones who would soon be with him,
and he seemed to be a thoroughbred
brand plucked from the burning. Graft
tude was no name for the feeling he had.
He would have walked through burn
| ing hell for the man who had fired him
into those clothes and given him work to
do. But one day he came into the Office
and there was an indescribable smell
permeating the atmosphere, such smell
as comes from medicine given to a man
who has been on drunk and the doctor
wants to brace him up and steady his
nerves. Nobody knows what is in that