The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-12-22

As 'OAAyh OVutN SCotiy INV Oitou ttiev
have taken him BY the hand when he
was Frustrated, both literally snd met.
aphOrically. and raised him to his feet,
surrounding him with kindness, seek
ing to aid him with counsel bearing
with his follies and mania, and not
shrinking even from his degradation,
in the hope of rehabilitating him. At
times he gave gns that such consider.
alton was not lost. He would suspend
his orgies, sincerely try 10 reform his
habits and give promise of redemption,
or at least of amen ment
But when tho rum fend has his
clutches upon a man he does not tame
ly yield up MS dominion. Apparently
in the very tide Of successful 70.
Mobilization of his life. DIR. Blakeny
would secretly yield to the irresist-
ible cravings of that damning
thirst, even while pledging him
self to reform and proclaiming
his salvation from rum. Then tho
treacherous and abomina able influences
from which he would not or could
not release himself, would drag him
down to their level, and in a day the
work of months would vanish in ter
rite debauch. Home. hope, employ
ment and 'lf.respect were swallowed
up in the maelstrom of appetite. The
intoxicants which were at first an in
cident, then tonic, then necessary
motive power to his mind. became his
master, and he their abiect slave.
Lower and lower in the scale he sunk
until his reeling form on the streets Of
Brooklyn daily excited the pity of the
gentle and the ribaldry of the vile.
What days were not spent in rum.
holes were spent in jails. What nights
were not passed on ash heaps. under
carts or in alley-ways were passed in
station-houses. The friends of other
and better days had exhausted the re.
sources of appeal, aid and remon.
STRANGE. only to be cursed by him in
his insensate fury, and the dregs Of
society drew back from him as he
settled down to condition below even
them. The biography of his life be.
came but a record Of commitments and
recommitments to Jail. and his kindred
asked of the world only the one kind
ness OF forgetting the sundcred ties
that had bound him to them. ties
which in his furious passage downward
he had snapped forever
The Geographic report summarized
at the beginning of this article marks
the depth to which DIR. Dlakeny has
fallen, and shows the terrible mastery
which the drink habit has over human
ity. An outcast, without home or
friends or money, spurned by the keep
ers Of the rum-holes because he could
not pay for their vile liquors, he at
tempted deliberately to commit MUIR
der in order to obtain more of the in
fernal stuff to which he owes his down.
fall. The officers of the law " no sought
him found him in q drunken stupor.
He had satisfied the insatiate demands
of his thirst by crime. He Lad found
forgetfulness in drink. He was q
spectacle horrible to behold, the ruins
Of body and a soul, but his craving
had been appeased and he had drowned
the fires of hell within him for the
time. As to reach capacity for the
crime that he had committed, he had
before destroyed every vestige of man
hood, sacrificing self, family, friend
ships and all the fair chances and gen.
tie aids and holy hopes OF life, so muir
der seemed but a trivial incident to
him in the path he resolved to hew be-
tween the bottle and his desire. The
skill he was once so swift and effective
to exert, others must exercise to save
the life of his victim. The law again
holds him in its grasp; not merely as o
helpless and hapless drunkard. but as a
criminal attempting murder to abhieye
rum.
Gaze backward over that ruined life.
The depth to which DR.. Blakeny has
fallen is terrible, measured from the
social and professional height of his
starting point, but he traversed it
quickly. 1t took him very few years,
but his downward progress was by log
ical and progressive steps His path
is strewn with shames and disasters
and memories of lost and persisted
hopes. The one compensation which
it Yields is the record of the efforts of
friends and kindred to reclaim him.
Though the efforts have failed, they
attest the fact that all was done for
him that love and kindness. patience,
faith and forbearance could do, albeit
in vain. The band of honorable physi-
clans who tried to save Dr. Blakeny
have no reproachful memory of an at
tempt neglected. to nettle their sorrow
over his fall. They can pity him; they
can magnanimously overlook the abuse
with which he has repaid kindness;
they can do and will do what they can
to care for those whom he has cast off;
but him they must leave to the law, in
the hope that the sentence his crime
must earn and which he must expiate
may at least mark a period in which
he can be saved from himself
The path he has travelled has been
trod before by myriads. and to-day
there are thousands and tens of thou
sands taking the first steps in that road
to poverty. misery, ruin and despair.
Is there no help for mankindp Shall
the gates that lead to death stand
yawning forever, that the unheeding
multitudes may cross the threshold
without let or hindrance? Is there no
remedy by which the State can save
her young men, the future hope of the
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