Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-06-26

snip ~ WHISKY pOttlV. tiIC y IIuS
and the wine flask, And what | say to
them will not be more appropriate to
the working classes than to the bust
ness classes and the literary classes
and the professional classes and all
classes. and not of the people Of one
age more than of all ages. Take one
good square look at the suffering of
the man whom
STRONG DRINK
has e~nthralled, and remember that to-
ward that goal multitudes are running.
The Discipline of alcoholism suffers the
loss of his seif-respect. Just as soon
as n man wakes up and finds that he is
the captive of strong drink, he feels de-
meancd, do not care how reckless
he acts. He may say: IL don't care"
he does not care. He can not look a
pure man in the eye unless 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 Il 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 a mill of great horror. He
can not stop. l will prove it. He
knows that his course is bringing ruin
upon himself. He loves himself. If he
could stop he would. He knows his
course is bringing ruin upon his fam
lily. He loves them. He would stop if
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; so
he does not try. ] had a friend who
for fifteen years was going down under
THIS EVIL HABIT.
He had large means. He had given
thousands of dollars to Bible societies
and r%eformatory institutions OF ali
sorts. He vas very genial, very gen
erous and very lovable. and whenever
he talked about this evil habit he would
say: 81 can stop any time But he
kept going IN, going on, down, down,
down. His family would say: IL wish
you would stop" why" he would
reply, Il can stop ut any time if want
to-" After a while he had delirium
tremens; he had it twice; and yet, after
that, he said: II could stop at any
time if | wanted to-" He is dead now.
yNLnt E;11,l h;,,D D,oI D,A AL
yet among his last utterances was: II
car stop at any time He did not
stop it because he could not stop it.
Oh, there is a point in incbriation be-
yond which if a man goes, he can not
stop!
One of these victims said to a Chris
tian man: ''Sir, if | were told that l
couldn't get a drink until tomorrow
night unless l had ali my fingers cut
off. l would say: Bring the hatche
and cut them off now"
l have a dear friend in Philadelphia
whose nephew came to him one day
and when he was eXhorted about his
evil habit said: Uncle, l can't give it
up. If there stood a cannon and it was
loaded, and a glass of wine were set
on the mouth of that cannon, and |
knew that You would fire it off, just as
| come up and took the glass, l would
start, for | must have it."
Oh, it is a sad thing for a man to
wake up in this life and feel hat he is
a captive! He says: II could haye
got rid of this once, but | can't now.
| might have lived an honorable life
and died "A Christian death; but there
is no hope for me now; there is no es-
cape for me. Dead but not buried. /
am a walking corpse. | am an appar-
ition of what l once was. | am Gagged
a Gagged immortal beating against the
wires OF my cage in this direation; beat
ing against the cage until there is blood
on the wires and
BLOOD UPON NV SOIL,
yet not able to get cut Destroyed with
out remedy!'
| 90 on and say that the disciple Of
rum suffers from the loss of physical
health. The older men in the congre-
CATION may remember that some years
ago DR.. Sewell went through this coun-
try and electrified the people by his
lectures, in which he showed the effects
of alcoholism on the human stomach.
He had seven or eight diagrams by
which he showed the devastation of
strong drink upon the physical system.
There were thousands Of people that
turned back from that ulcerous sketch,
swearing eternal abstinence from
everything that could intoxicate.
God only knows what the drunkard
suffers. Pain flies on every nerve, and
travels every muscle, and gnaws every
bone, and burns with every flame, and
stings with every poison, and pulls at
him with every torture. What reptiles
crawl over his creeping limbs! What
fiends stand by his midnight pillow!
What groans tear his ear! What hor-
rors shiver through his soul. Talk of
the rack, talk of the Inquisition, talk of
the funeral pyre, talk of the crushing
Juggernaut-he feels them all at once.
Have you ever been in the ward of
the hospital where these inebriates are
dying. the stencil Of their wounds driv-
ing back the attendants, their
VOICES SOUNDING THROUGH THE NIGHTp
The keeper comes up and says:
FLUSH, now. be still! Stop making all