Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-07-02
NOR parents are drunken, or lazy, or r.ck.

.sssly l~mprovident.
-. nave no sympathy for skin flint sav.
,1s' out plead for Christian prudence.
aou say IL is impossible now to Law nm
any tning for a rainy day. 1 know f. Int
W. are at the daybreak of National nro,.
perley. Some people think it is mean r.
'urn inc gas low when thew go ont of the
parlor. They feel embarrassed If Tho doa.o
s "s1 rings before they have the hall light.
~ Aney apologize for the plain meal II
you surprise them at the table. Well. h !.
mean II it is only to pile up a miserlv
hoard: But II it be to educate your chill.
uieh' II 1t be to give more help to vour
"i,e when she does not feel strong, if it be
20 keep your funeral day from being hor.
i'oie beyond all endurance because il is to
De tne disruption n humiliation of the
domestic circle-if it be for that. then r. ia
magnificent.
mere are those who are kept in poverty
because OF their own fault. Thew mioht
nave oeen We'll off, but they smoked or
cne"en up their earnings, or they lived
oeyono thelr means, while others on the
same wages and o n the same salaries
went on to competency. I know a man
VINO was all the time complaining of his
poverty and crying out against rich men.
while he himself keeps two dogs and chews
smokes, and is full to the chin with
WHISKY and beer. Wilkins Micawber said
to David Copperfeld:
"Copperield, my boy, one pound in
come, twenty shillings and ~sixpence ex-
penditure; result misery. But, Copper
field, my boy, n pound income, nineteen
shillings and %sixpence; result, happi.
ness"
But, 0 working men of America, take
your morning dram, and your noon dram,
and your evening dram, and spend every
thing you have over for tobacco and ex.
cursions, and you insure poverty for your
self and your children for ever. II bv
some generous fiat of the capitalists of this
country, or by a new law of the Govern
ment of the United States, twenty.fi five
per cent or fifty per cent or one hundred
per cent were added to the wages of the
working classes of America it would be no
advantage to hundreds of thousands of
them unless they stopped strong drink.
Aye, until they quit that evil habit, the
more money the more ruin; the more
wages the more holes in the bag.
The disciple of alcoholism suffers the
loss of his self-respect. just as soon as a
man wakes up and finds that he is the
captive of strong drink he feels demeaned.
do not care how reckless he acts. He
may say: ~ don't care" He does care.
He can not look a pure man in tho eye un-
less it is with positive force of resolution.
Three-fourths of his nature is DESTROYED:
his self-respect is gone; he says things he
would not otherwise say; he does things
he would not otherwise do. When a
man is nine-tenths gone with strong drink,
the first thing he wants to do is to
persuade you that he can stop any
time he wants to. He can not.
The Philistines have bound him hand
and foot, and shorn his locks, and put out
his eyes, and are making him grind in the
mill Of a great horror. He can not stop.
will prove it. He knows that his course is
bringing ruin upon himself. He loves
himself. If he could stop he would. He
knows that his course is bringing ruin upon
his family. He loves them. He would
stop il he could. He can not. Perhaps he
could three months or a year ago, not
now. just ask him to stop for a month.
He can not; he knows he can not, 80 he
does not try. I had a friend who for ff-
teen years was going down under this
evil habit, He had large means. He had
given thousands of dollars to bible socie.
ties and reformatory institutes of all sorts.
He was very genial, very generous and
very lovable, and whenever he talked
about this evil habit he would say:
II can stop any time" But he kept 60
ing on, going on, down, down, down. His
family would say:
II wish you would STOP"
"Why," he would reply, 81 can stop any
time if l want to-"
After. awhile he had delirium tremens;
he had it twice; and yet, after that he
said:
81 could stop at any time if I wanted
o."
He is dead now. What killed him? Rum
Rum! And yet among his last utterances
was:
II can stop at any time"
He did not stop it be because HI could
not stop it. Oh, there is a point in lnebria-
tion beyond which if a man goes, he can
not stop!
One of these victims said to a Christian
man:
"Sir, if I were told that 1 couldn't get
a drink until Tomorrow night unless I had
all my fingers cut off, I would say: Bring
the Ratchet and cut them off now.'"
I have a dear friend in Philadelphia
whose nephew came to him one day, and
when he was exhorted about his evil
habit, said:
"Uncle, I can't give 1t up. If there
stood a cannon and it was loaded, and q
glass Of wine were set on the mouth of
that cannon, and I knew you would fire it
off just as l came up and took the glass, I
would start, for must have t."
Oh, it is a sad thing for a man to wake
up in this life and feel that he is a captive!
He says:
81 could have got rid Of this once, but I
can't now. might have lived IN honor
able life and died a Christian death but
there is no hope for me now; there is no
escape for me. Dead but not buried. I am
a walking corpse. I am an apparition of
what I once was. I am u Gagged immortal
beating against the wires of my cage in
this direction; beating against the cage
until there is.blood on the wires and blood
upon my soul, yet not able to get out.
Destroyed without remedy !"
1 go on and say that the disciple of rum