Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-07-02

that the farmers had nut MORTGAGES on their
farms in order that they might send their
families to the PHILADELPHIA Centennial Ex-
hibition. why he said, sit was not con-
sidered respectable here not to 60 to the Phil
adelpha Centennial Exhibition SO they
all went All, my friends, if by some fat Of
the capitalists, il by some new law of the
government of the United States, twenty-five
per cent, fifty per cent, 100 Per cent
could be added to the wages of
the working people, hundreds of thousands
Of them would be no better off. More
money, more rum. More wages, more holes
in the bag Scores of people who might have
hAan we'll "fP today. are 10 dastitntion ha-
cause they chewe1, or smoked, or drank. or
lived beyond their means, while others ON the
same salary went on to a competency. l
know man now who is all the time cont
planning of his poverty and crying out
against rich men, vet he keeps two
dogs, and he smokes and chews, aud he
is fille1 to the chin with whisky and heer.
Micawber said to David Copperfeld: Sop
! perHeld, my boy, one pound income, twenty
shillings AM siXrence outgo. Result misery.
But CoDperfeld, my boy, one poun income,
ninet Ell shillings and sixpence outgo. Re-
suit, happiness But oh, workingmen, you
take your dram in the morning, and
You take your dram at noon, and you
take your dram at night, and l will prom
iSe you and your children poverty forever.
The vast majority of the children in the
almhouses of this country had for fathers
drunken or lazy or improvident men. I do
not know how it is with others who try to help
the poor, but nine out of ten PEOPLE that l
help are the wives or the children of drunk
ards. Now the times have got to change if
| there is to be any relief from these influences
We have got to live within our means, and
we have got to be prudent. And here, let me
say that do not sympathize with skinfiint
saving. | am pleading for Christian pru-
! dence. man now may have NJ means to
save, but we are at the morning of a great
day of national prosperity and people are
! going to have means to save. There are men
who now have not dollar who might have
been their own masters, independent of en-
! ployers, independent of capitalists, and what
I say, you all know to be true. l know
there are people who think it is mean to
turn the gas down lower when they leave
the parlor. | know there are people who
are very much embarrassed il the door bell
rings before the hall is lighted. know
! there are people who feel apologize when
vou find item at plain table, plain food.
| Well, it is mean if it only be for piling up a
misery hoard; but if it be to give better
education to your children, if it be to give
help to your wife when she is not strong, if
it be to keep your funeral day from being a
horror beyond endurance because it is the
annihi'ation Of your home-that grand, that
is magnificent. 1t depends very much upon
what you save for, whether it is mean or
grand know young women in this city
who are denying themselves all luxuries to
educate brothers, or to give younger sister
musical advantages What do you call that?
tits next to the angelic Now, I want to say
to the workingmen of America, so far as l
can reach the II, and l want to say at the
same time the same things to all business
men, men of all classes and occupations,
the greatest foe of labor the greatest
foe of literature, the greatest foe of religion,
the greatest foe of all classes of people, is
strong drink and | want this morning in the
name of God to implore you to quit the use
of it. Iwarn you t. take one square look at
the suffering man who becomes the deSpoler
of the wine flask or the beer mug or the
whisky bottle, and understand that a
vast multitude are running for that
goal Some of you are running for it'll
When man comes from under this influence
he feels bemeaned | do not care how reck-
lie she talks. He may say: II don't care. u
He does care. He cannot look you in the
eye without a rallying of his energies and
force OF resolution. The Philistines have
bound him hand and foot and gouged his
eyes out and shorn his locks, and he has
already started to grind in the mill of a great
horror. just as soon as man, whether he
be q workingman, or, as we call him, a bust
ness man, gets under the influence of strong
drink, he will try to persuade you first of all
that he can stop at any time He cannot. |
will prove it. He loves himself, he loves his
body, he loves his mind, he loves his soul. He
knows his habits are running all these, yet he
keeps right on Why does he not stop? He
cannot STOP. He loves his family; he thinks
the finest group in all the world is his
wife and children; he knows that he is
that his son and his daughter are going out
under the baleful influence of having had an
inebriated father. Why does he not stop
He cannot. I had friend who for fifteen
or twenty years was going down under this
| process. He was a generous soul. He had
given thousands Of dollars to Bible societies
ira t societies. missionary societies, and YOU
could not make an appeal in behalf of charity
ordinary mode With intimate friends
was when applied to for help to say: "Pu
my name down on the subscription paper TO
what you think l ought to pay, and viii
pay it." Glorious soul. Not many like him
But strong drink put its graphing hook
upon him and he went on, on, down, down
He said: Il can stop any time want to
don't be worried" His pastor protested
and said: Don't you know you ar
running yourself, you are running you
family, now, you stop" He said: "Oh
could STOP any time if wanted TO-" Ate
awhile he had delirium tTemcns. The docto
said to him: "Now, if you have another at
tack of this kind the probability is you won
get well" "Why," said he, doctor, | ca
stop at any time; it is only a question 0
time. | can stop as easily as turn ng M
hand over.' He had a seconl attack
His physician said: "Now. you mus
this I can't be any help to you, no
can any doctor. You must stop" sob, h
said, doctor, could stop if l wanted too, i
thought it best. think you are mistaken
doctor" He is dead, my friends, dead. Wha
killed him? Rum! One of the last things h
did was to try to persuade his friends b
could stop if he wanted to, if he thought
was best to stop-1emonstrating the fact tia
rnere is a point beyond which if ma
go he cannot stop. A man said to Christia
friend: IF were told | could not get an
strong drink before tomorrow night unless
had my fingers chopped of, would say
Bring Ratchet and chop them off. J" Ia
a dear friend in PHILADELPHIA who was chic
ing his nephew for yielding to this temptf
was O cannon AMI on the top of the canno
stood a wine glass, and the thirst wei
on me and | knew as | advance
that cannon would be fired of,
would start for that wine cup" Oh, men {
the working classes and men of all classes &
not get this grip on you. 1t is an awful thin
for man to wake up aud say; 81 could hay
stopped once, but cannot stop now. | migl
have lived q useful life and died Christie
death. Dead but not buried i am walkir
corpse. l am only an apparition of what
pnce was. [ am Gagged immortal and my so
b ats against the wires of the cage on tn
side and beats against the wires of the ca
Oh the other side but cannot get out, al
there is blood on the wires and there is bio
on my soul Destroyed without remed
md than thare is all the sorrow that CON
from the loss of physical health Doctt
4ewall-some of the aged men in th
when he went through the COUNT
and electrified audiences | am told by tho
who heard him that he had eight or ten d
grams, which he dis Jlayed before the poop
showing the devastation of alcoholism on ii