Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1886-12-17
Esletf Rsahing.
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said |, getting down frsm the stage at
1.-THE D House, In one of the pretty
little villages on the Androseoggin,
''and how goes the old place.
"0h! the town is behaving itself rs
well as usual. 1t isn't the place for
news, you know" said Colby, leading
The way to the register. Only" low
ering his voice-''only Burt Slater, you
remember Burt
"Yes, indeed, What Of himl"
"IIe's got the Jim jams" againw
Again. I'm sorry for that"
"Well, he has; awful, too There
are two men with him in his room
over the l.. Both of them can hardly
Ihold him."
felt sorry, indeed. for the poor fel-
low, Tor | had known aud respected
him for his manly qualities. He kept
u neat and we'll ordered livery stable
near the hotel, and even now he was
scarcely l9 years old. But hoy in
years, Burt was every inch man, gen.
ial, handsome. obiiging.
He Was fellow, too, who always
had his business at his FINGERS ends.
lie could tell you, DAYS ahead, just
what horses were engaged, aud what
>. = could 20 for YOU if you engaged a
team. aud when the time came. you
could rely on him to the hour aud
minute.
Yet he Fever used an order book.
HIS IN apI
curate that he could safely RELY on it
for his ordinary business. and but for
this one failing-drink-he would
have been = fayorite with every man
IN the village.
la Burt's case there was this excnse
for him. His grandfather and father
now dsad) had been tavern keepers
In New Hampshire. where rum in
their day was used as freely as water.
Burt had been brought up in the
odor of barroon, so TO speak, and
his father had been n drinking man
am sure poor Burt had Inherited an
appetite for alcohol.
Much as condemned and lamented
his bad habit, | was pleased with him.
aud liked To be IN his company. II
was pleasure TO spend an hour in his
room, he Was SO good naturei and
cheerful. WAS very often saddened,
too For, though ordinarily bright
and witty, there was always, when he
chanced to speak of p~rsonal matters,
n certain hopelessness in his way OF
alluding to himself, as Of one booked"
for premature grave.
Burt did not drink habiiually. A..
bout once in two or three months, an
ungovernable desire for alcohol came
over him, aud he would drink inces.
sanity Tor thi;e or four days. These
Iexcessss could not fail to result in de.
lirum tremens.
When Colby told me OF this second
attack Of this fearful disease, my heart
sunk, for it s emed that Burt must
now be utterly lost. And as there are
THOUSANDS of similar cases the country
over. | should hardly deem this one
likely to interest the reader, bnt for a
strange incident.
did not See Burt that week. He
kept, or rather waS kept, to his room
and did not care to See him. In the
course of "A fortnight. however, he was
once more at his work and, during
all the rest OF the summer and fall, up
to November. he did not indulge in
intoxicating drink. One bleak, windy
November morning, however. the in
sane appetite again rose within him.
He wandered around with parched
lips aud blood shot eyes, suffering al
most uncomfortable torment from his
raging thirst. At last, he harnessed
one Of his horses and rode down to
&, twelve miles distant, hoping,
as he afterward told me, that the
piercing cold would help him to over
come his raging thirst.
Having arrived at L, he put up
his horse vt stable where he was
known, ami began to walk the streets,
still hoping to overcome the burning
desire for alcohol.
But the appetite was more than he
could control, and, yielding to it at
last, he went into saloon, and, after
taking one glass, gave himself up to
utter indulgence.
At night, when he again went to the
stable, he could hardly stand, and
seemed so unconscious of what he was
about that the men woald not let him
have his horse, and tried to have him
60 into the hotel and stay until morn.
ing.
1t was alread late in the afternoon
and the weather was bitterly cold, bul
he would not heed their good counsel