Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-08-24

strong drink all is gone.
Another loss which the inebriate suf.
fers is that of self respect. Just as soon
as a man wakes up and finds that he is
the captive Of strong drink he feels de-
meaned. do not care how reckless he
acts. He may say, Il don't care he
does care. He cannot look a pure man
in the eye, unless it is with positive force
of resolution, Three .fourths Of his ma
ture Is destroyed; his self respect gone;
he says things he would not otherwise
say; he does things he would not other
wise do. When a mar is n%ine-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 eyer, and are making him
| grind in the mill Of a great horror. He
cannot stop. | will prove it. He knows
! that his course is bringing disgrace and
ruin upon himself. He loves himself.
II he could stop he would. He knows
hs course is bringing ruin upon his fam
lily. He loves them. He would stop if
he could. He cannot. Perhaps he could
three months or a year ago; not now.
Just ask him to stop for a month. He
cannot; he knows he cannot, so he does
not try. had friend who for fifteen
years was going down under this evil
habit. He had large means. He had
given thousands of dollars to Bible So
cieties and reformatory institutions Of all
sorts. He was very genial and very gen
erous and very lovable, and whenever
he talked about this evil habit he
would say, Il can stop any time"
But he kept going on, going on, down,
down, down. His family would say, Il
wish you would stop" why" he would
reply, II can stop any time if ! want
to- After a while he had delirium tire.
mems; he had it twice, and yet after that
he said, Il could stop at any time if |
wanted to-" He is dead now. What
killed him? Rum, Rum! And yet among
his last utterances was, II can stop at
any time" He did not stop it, because
he could not stop it. Oh, there is a point
in inebriation beyond which, if a man
goes, he cannot stop
One Of these victims said to a Christian
man, ''Sir, if | were told that | couldn't
get a drink until tomorrow night unless
| had all my fingers cut of, ! would say
Bring the Ratchet and cut them Off
now" have a dear friend in Philadel-
phia, 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 q cannon, and it was
loaded, and a glags of wine sat on the
mouth Of that cannon, and | knew that
you would fire it off just as l came up
and took the glass, | would start, for 1
must have it," oh, it is a sad thing for
a man TO wake up in this life and feel
that he is a captive. He says. 81 could
have 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 NJ es-
cape for me. Dead, but not buried. |
am a walking corpse. l am an appari-
ton of what | once was. | am a Gagged
immortal, beating against the wires Of
my cage in this direction and in that d.
~rectioG; beating against the cage until
there is blood on the wires and blood
upon my soul, yet not able to get out.
Destroyed, without remedy
| go further, and say that the inebriate
suffers from the loss of his usefulness.
Do you not recognize the fact that many
Of those who are new captives OF strong
drink only a little while ago wore fore
most in the churches and in ~reformatory
institutlons2 Do you not know that
sometimes they knelt in the family circle?
Do you not know that they prayed in
public, and some of them carried around
the holy wine on sacramento days? Oh,
yes, they stood in the very front rank,
but they gradually fell away. And now
what do you suppose is the feeling Of
such a man as that, when he thinks Of
his dishonored vows and the d%ishopored
sacrament-when he thinks Of what he
might have been and what is now? Do
such men laugh and seem very merry?
All, there is, down in the depths of their
soul, a very heavy weight 70 not
wonder that they sometimes Sc TRANCE
things, and act very roughly n the
household. You would not bilmC them
at all if you knew what they su4fer. Do
not tell such as that there is no future
punishment, DO not tell him there is no
such place as hell. He knows there is.
He is there now
| go on and say that the inebriate
suffers from the loss Of physical health.
The older men in the congregation may
remember that some years ago DR.. Sewell
went through this country and electrified
the people ny ulS lcStuies, III WulCu IC
showed the effects of alcohol on the hu-
man stomach. He had seven or eight
diagrams by which he showed the devas.
tatlon Of strong drink upon the physical
system. There were thousands OF peO-
pie tina, turned back from that ulcerous
sketch swearing eternal abstinence from
everything that could intoxicate.
God only knows what the drunkard
suffers. Pain files on every nerve, and
travels every muscle, and gnaws every
bone, ard burns with every flame, and
stings with every poison, and pulls q.
him with every torture. What reptiles
crawl over his creeping limbs What
tends stand by his midnight pillow!
What groans tear his ear! What horrors
SILVER through his soul Talk Of the
rack, talk Of the inquisition, talk Of the
funeral pyre, talk Of the crushing Jug
gernaut-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 driving back the
| attendants, their voices sounding through
the night2 The keeper come up and
says, Hush, now. be still. Stop making
| all this noisep' But it is efectual only
| for a moment, for as oon as the keeper
is gone, they begin again: "Oh, God
| oh, God! Help help RUM Give me
rum Help, Take them off me! Take
them OIL me! Take them off met Oh,
=. - A.