The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1886-12-16

ible cravings OF tnet oamnlng
thirst, even while pledging him
self 10 reform and proclaiming
his salvation from rum. Then tho
treacherous and abominable influences
from which he would not or could
not release himself, would drag him
down to their level, and in day the
work of months would vanish in ter
rife dcbauch. Home, hope, employ
ment and elf.respect were swallowed
up in the maelstrom Of appetite. The
intoxicants which were at flrst an IN
cident, then tonic, then o necessary
motive power to his mind, became his
master, and he their abject 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 cy.ways we're 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 q condition below even
them. The biography of his life be-
came but 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 telegraphic report summarized
ut the beginning Of this article marks
| the depth to which DR.. Blakeny has
| fallen, and shows the terrible mastery
which the drink habit has over human.
ity. An outcast, without home OF
friends or money, spurned by the keep.
ers of the rum-holes because lie could
not pay for their vile liquors, he at
tempted deliberately to commit mnr
der in order to obtain more OF the in.
fernal stuff to which he owes his down
fall. The officers of the law who sought
him found him in drunken stupor
He had satisfied the insatiate demand!
of his thirst by crime. He had founC
forgetfulness in drink. He was I
spectacle horrible to behold. the ruin!
OF body and o soul, but his craving
had been appeased and he had drowned
the fires Of hell within him for thu
time. As to reach q capacity for thu
crime that he had committed, he hat
before destroyed every vestige of man
hood, sacrificing self, family, friend
ships ana all tho fair chances and gen
tie aids and holy hopes OF life. so muir
der seemed but trivial incident t,
him in the path he resolved to hew be
tween the bottle and his desire. Th'
skill he was once SO swift and effectiv'
to exert, others must exercise to saw
the life of his victim. The law agail
holds him in its grasp; not merely as
helpless and hapless drunkard. but as
criminal attempting murder to achiev'
rum.
06fe backward over that ruined life
ThS<llepth to which DR.. Blakeny ha
fallen Is terrible, measured from tn
social and professional height of hi
} starting point, but he traversed
quickly. 1t took him very few years
but his downward progress was by log
ical and progressive steps His pat
is strcwn with shames and disaster
and memories of lost and perishe
hopes. The one compensation whic
; it Yields is the record of the efforts Q
friends and kindred to reclaim him
Though the efforts have failed, the
attest the fact that all was done 70
him that love and kindness, patience
faith and forbearance could do, albei
! in vain. The band of honorable phys
, clans who tried to save DR.. Blaken
,, have no reproachful memory of an a
; tempt neglected, to nettle their sorro,
! over his fall. They can pity him; the
: can magnanimously overlook the abus
with which he has repaid kindnes!
', they can do and will do what they ca
! to care for those whom he has cast of
but him they must leave to the law,
, the hope that the sentence his Grim
must earn and which he must expiat
, may at least mark period in whic
: he can be saved from himself
The path he has Travelled has bee
!, trod before by myriads. and tO-da
there are thousands and tens of thol
: sands taking the first steps In that roa
. to poverty. misery. ruin and despair
!, Is there no help for mankind? Sha
, the gates that lead to death stan
|, yawning forever, that the unheedin
q multitudes may cross the threshOl
! without let or hindranceP Is there n
: remedy by which the State can So,
her young men, the future hope of tf
. Nation, from the danger of livin
' death like the life.picture given above
Toledo Blade.
, ~~
n