The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-11-17


Our feet are climbing the stairway bright
UP to the regions of endless light,
Or gliding downward into the night,
"Little by little, day by day."
Youths Temperance Banner,
How I Would Paint a Bar-Room.
If had the adorning of bar-room,
says tho Rev. T. NJ. Griffith, it should be
done in this wise:
On one side 1 would paint death on
the Pale Horse" his arm welding the
thunderbolt, the fiery hoofs of his flying
,teed treading down everything fair and
lovely; the Garden of Eden before him,
. blackened waste behind him.
On the other side I would draw the
picture of a "wretched" hovel, once a
happy home; the roof broken in, the
windows stuffed with rags; in the door
way weeping wife, with ragged chill.
dren clinging to her skirts, piteously be-
seeching her for bread. In the distance
ahould be seen the once happy husband
ind father, now a reeling drunkard, OF
his way from the village tavern to th'
hut he calls his home.
Back of the bar, in full view of the
bloated creatures that stand with tho
cup to their lips, I would paint "a com
pany of demons" in the death dance oi
tiendish hilarity, around fire kindled
with the flames of alcohol, and over it
would write in lurid letters: "Moderat<
drinking lights the fame and burns te
the lowest hell"
Opposite the bar should be a ''loncly
and dishonored grave;" a lightning
blasted tree should stretch its leafesa
branches over it, and on some withered
bough should perch the melancholy owl
hoot:ng to the wintry moon. Atthe foot
of the grave should kneel the angel Of
mercy. with hands and eyes upraised to
the plying heavens; and at the head Of
the grave should be the angel of ofjustice,
carving, with stern, relentless hand, upon
the tombstone these fearful words o1
doom: mo drunkard shall inherit the
kingdom Of God"
In the intervening spaces would
haye--hcre grinning skeleton aud there
broken heart, q shattered hourglass, 6
stranded boat, a torch extinguished ir
blackness of'darkness; while from ovel
the doorway and from the ceiling should
look down all kinds of woeful human
faces-pale, imploring, wrathful, dead
ly, despairiug.
The walls of the room should be shroud
I'd in sackcloth, and the floor covered
with ashes, and the Lar wreathed in
weeping willow and gloomy cypress
while all the vessels that held the damn
ing fluid should be black-black as the
gates of doom.
Then I would call the rumseller, if he
would, to take his place behind the bar
and though a few besotted wretches.
hardened in crime, might stagger up te
the bar and drink defiance to thc.r fate
vet should hope that the young, the
pride of mothers and the light of homes,
might turn away as though they had
caught glimpse of the internal world.
The Drink Habit az the Enemy of
the Snnday-School.
Rev. W. T. Sabine, D. D.. is writing
q series of able and valuable articles in
the Episcopal Recorder, of Philadelphia,
upon THE Drink Habit an Enemy of
the Church, =" from one of which We take
the following concerning the drink habit
and the Sunday-school:
"The drinking usages prevalent among
us impair and, to great extent, destroy
the influence of the Sunday-school.
Thousands of children leaving the Sun
day-school return to homes where
these usages prevail in varied stages
of Development. In SO far as
they determine the home influence their
effect is to dissipate and destroy the ef-
fort and instruction of the faithful teach
er. The Sunday school teacher has no
more subtle and influential foe than the
bottle in the home, vitiating in the de-
gree Of its use the moral atmosphere OF
tie household, and impairing and per-
vcrtlng parental character and example.
"As the result of an investigation in
stituGcd some years ago, it was ascer-
tanned that, of 10, 361 inmates of prisons
and penitentiaries in England, Scotland,
and Wales, not fewer than 6,572 had
previously received instruction in Sun
day schools, and upon pursuing the in
ouiry, it was almost uniformly found
that the use of intoxicating liquor was
the cause, directly or indirectly, of SO
many Sabbath-school scholars becoming
criminals.
News and Notes
The British Museum Library has 400
temperance publications.
A home cursed with drinking father
is almost hell upon earth.-Prohabition
Banner.
Tho Duke of Westminster has con.
sented To accent the Office of President of