The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1886-04-21
TEMPERANCE READING.
TOO LATE ron HIM.

wen, stranger' you @ ssk sisi. ior @ my story u.
That am At work here In prison,
lpstead OF a-workin' at home
tsS% s ssnP Esi%Pss Psepcs 1t spSs csaSs nsck
And will maze It atoxt for q sermon.
Or lecture OH Temprance, perhapA
You.needn't apologize. stranger;
I'm entirely willin' you should
Just tell EN- the whole of the story.
For I've a'ds Done ne % f,' share % Of fV the svii
That's allowed for one man here to do
Aud IL can do any good now,
Twill be something entirely new.
Well, to go to the very beginning
You know l was Innocent them
Ny mother died wilen was Oung, sir,
. And father, he married again.
And tell from experience, stranger.
There's no earthly power that can save
A Icllow from more or less dOwnfalls
Whose own mother lies in her grave.
My father was fond of good living,
And liked good glass OF old wine;
And sometimes, when filing his glassful,
He d just color the water IN mine.
In that way the appetite started.
And many q time 4 would 10
And take o sly slip without water,
When thought the old man wouldn't know.
You see, in those days, total abstinence
Want thought Of. except with smile;
Most men took their bitters quite reg lar,
And every one once in awhile.
Well. by and by. / went to college;
A careless. wild, reckless young man,
I'd nothing like principle In me,
And that's where my Wild oats began
was sixteen that fall and IL ever
There's time when fellows between
The good and the bad, Lord and devil,
That times when he reaches sixteen;
His principle then are not founded,
No matter how well he's brought up;
He thinks that he 10 almost man then,
And temptation presents pleasures cup.
In my room I kept all kinds of liquor
or course twas forbidden you know,
But when man bankers for whisky
Truth doesn't stand much of show.
had plenty of friends, always smiling,
And many and many u time
I've seen them sit there ut my table.
And drank to my heath in my wine.
We all swore most eternal of friendship;
They were all wild young fellows like me, ).
And twas always in my room they gathered
When n they wanted bit OF spree;
The faculty pulled" me at last;
The boys, to save themselves, ''squealed" Oh
And my days in college were past.
Twas about that time father went under;
He failed and lost all that he had,
AUD was alone in the world, sir
Do you wonder went to the bad?
! 1cculdn't go into II village
always found there warm weiCome.
And . glass followed only too soon.
And many time ] have sat there,
Half drunk, and I've wished that might,
Just for once. have good. cordial welcome
In somebody's homo there that night:
For you see, sir, fellow gets lonesome,
With no home except hotel
And that Is just where the saloons are
The devils side doors into he'll.
Il is useless to tell all the struggles,
The ups and the downs I've been through;
But when man falls he falls fartheY
Than ever he thought hc could go.
Sometimes I'd keep sober and steady
For months but always would fal1:
And now have got to the bottom
I'm reclEDCed the lowest of all.
You see. Government licenses deaiens
To sell us the liquor. and then
They shut us up here in the prison,
If 1t makes, us more demons than men.
They say they are going to prohibit
The keeping saloons in this State:
We'll, there's thousands to come that 1t will
Snve,
fut for me- it's lifetime too late
&c. =. b." (Des MOines, Id.,), in ChiSu0O IN
S<riOr.