The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-06-25

anu bIC nIA bcSn liz P0FCA~
ished by the fact that they put mortgages
on their farms in order to send their fami-
lies to the Philadelphia Centennial It
was not respectable not to go to the Gen.
tenniaL Between such evils and pauper-
ism there is a very short step. The vast
majority of children are there because
their parents are drunken, or lazy, or reck-
lessly improvident.
have no sympathy for skin-hint saw
ing, but plead for Christian prudence.
! You say it Is impossible now to lay up
any thing for rainy day. 1 know it, but
we are at the daybreak of National pros
perity. Some people think it is mean to
turn the gas low when they 60 out Of the
! parlor. They feel embarrassed If the door
bell rings before they have the hall light
ed. They apologize for the plain meal If
| you surprise them at the table. Wen, It is
mean if it is only to pile up miserly
hoard. But If It be to educate your chill
dren, if it be to give more help to your
| wife when she does not feel strong, if It be
| to keep your funeral day from being hor-
rible beyond all endurance because it is to
| be the disruption and annihilation of the
domestic circle-if it be for that, then It is
magnificent.
There are those who are kept in poverty
because of their own fault. They might
have been well of, but they smoked or
| chewed up their earnings, or they lived
| beyond their means, while others on the
same wages and on the same salaries
went on to competency. I know man
who was all the time complaining Of his
! poverty and cry ing out against rich men,
! while he himself keeps two dogs and chews
and smokes, and is full to the chin with
4 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, one pound income, nineteen
shillings and sixpence; result, happi-
ness"
But, o 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. If by
some generous fat of the capitalists of this
! country, or by a new law of the Govern
ment of the United States, twenty 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: "I don't care" He does care.
He can not look pure man in the eye un-
less it is with positive force of resolution.
II Il
! 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 bis 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 thathis course is bringing ruin upon
| his family. 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 friend who for fif-
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 a Il sorts.
He was very genial, very generous and
very lovable, and whenever he talked
about this evil habit he would say:
''I can stop any time" But he kept GO
ing on, going on, down, down, down. His
family would say;
''I wish you would stop"
"Why," he would reply, "I can stop any
time if / want to-"
After awhile he had delirium tremens;
he had It twice; and yet, after that he
Il could stop at any time if wanted
to-"
He is dead now. What killed him? Rum !
Ruml And yet among his last utterances
was:
"I can stop at any time"
He did not stop it be because he could
not stop it. Oh, there is point in Inebria
tion beyond which if a man goes, he can
not stop
One of these victims said to Christian
/ man:
"sir, IL I were told that couldn't get
drink until tomorrow night unless had
all my fingers cut off, / would say: Bring
the hatchet and cut them off nov.' {"
1 have a dear friend in Philadelphia
whose nephew came to him one day, and
when he was exhorted about his evil
habit, said:
"UncIe, l can't give it up. II there
stood cannon and 1t was loaded, and a
glass of wine were set on the mouth Of
that cannon, and knew you would fire IL
off just as / came up and took the glass,
would start. for ! must have it."
Oh, it is a sad thing for a man to wake
up in this life and feel that he Is acaptivel
He says;
"I could have got rid Of this once, but
can't ow. / might have lived an honor
able life and died Christian death; but
there is no hope for me now; there is no
escape for me. Dead but not buried. / am
a walking corpse. / am an appaTition Of
what once was. an a 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 remedyW
20 on and say that the disciple Of rum
suffers from loss of physical health. The
older men in the congregation may re-
member that some yearsa4ago DR.. Sewell
went through this country and electrified
the people by his lectures, Ia which he
showed the sAgIbs u aA@OhDAt6h yA eAtV
human stomach. He had seven or eight
diagrams by which he showed the de-
vastation Of strong drink upon the physi-
cal system. There were thousands Of peo-
pie who turned back from that ulcer0us
sketch, swearing eternal Abstinence from
every thing that could intoxieate.
God only knows what the drunkard suf-
! fers Pain files on everv nerve and trav
els every muscle, and gnaws every bone,
and burns with every flame, and stings
with every poison, and pulls at him witk
every torture. What reptiles crawl over
bis creeping iimbsl What tends stand BY