Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-05-24

engaged IN the rulnOus traffic Came to
MIN and said their business ought to
have more consideration from the fact
that it paid such large revenue to the
said: Gentlemen, don't worry YOUR
selves about the revenue; give mo
thirty millions of sober people, and
We'll have revenue enough aud sur
plus.
We might in this country-this traffic
perished-have less revenue, but we
would have more happy homes, and we
wonld have more peace, and we would
have fewer people in the penitentiary,
and there would be tens ofthonsands. Of
men who are now on the road to- hell
who would start on the road TO Heaven.
But the financial ruin is very small
part of it. This iniquity of which I
speak takes everything that is sacred
out of the family, everything that is
holy in religion, everything that is in
finite in the soul and tramples it under
foot. The marriage day has come. The
twain are at the altar. Lights fash.
Music sounds. Gay feet go up and down
the drawing room. Did ever vessel
sea? The scene changes. Dingy garrett.
NO tire. On broken chair n sorrowful
wife, Last hope gone. Poor, forsaken,
trodden under foot, she knows oil the
sorrow of being q drunkard's wife.
oh, she says, "he was the kindest man
that ever lived, he was so noble, he was
so good! God never made grander
man than he was. but the drink did it,
the drink did i'll" Some day she will
press her hands against her temples and
cry: oh. my brain, my brain!" or she,
will go out on the abutment of the bridge
some moonlight night and look down on
the CLASSY surface and wonder if under
that CLASSY surface there is not some
rest for q broken heart.
A young man, through the interces-
sion of metropolitan friends, gets a
place in Il bank or store. He is going
to leave his country home. That morn
ing they are up early in the old home
stead. The trunk is on the wagon.
the trunk, hope you will read it often"
She wipes the tears away with her apron.
oh, he says, come, don't you be
worried. know how to take care of my
self. Don't be worried about me. The
father says: My son, be q good boy and
write home often, your mother will be
anxious to hear from you" Crack! goes
the whip, and over the hills goes the
wagon. Five years have passed on, and
a dissipated life has done its work for
that young man. There is hearse COM
ing up in front of the old homestead.
The young men OF the neighborhood
who have stayed on the farm come in
and say: "Is it possible? Why, he
doesn't look natural, does he? Is that
the fair brow we used to know? Is that
the healthy cheek we used to know? 1t
can't be possible that is him." The par
ents stand looking at the cash in the
forehead from which the life oozed out,
and they lift their hands and say 20
my son Absalom, my son, my son Absa-
lom; would God had died for thee o,
Absalom, my son, my SOM"
Lorenzo de Medici was very sick, and
if they could dissolve certain num-
Der of pearls in cup and then he
would drink them it would cure him OF
the disease. So they went around and
they gathered up all the beautiful pearls
} they could find, and they dissolved them
} in cup, and the lick man drank them
; oh, it was an expensive draught. But
tell you of more expensive draught
than that. Drunkenness puts into its
cup the pearl of physical health, the
J pearl of domestic happiness, the pear
, of responsibility, the pearl Of Christian
hope, the pearl of an everlasting Heaven,
and presses it to the hot lips.
tell you the dram shop is the gate OF
hell. The trouble is they do not put ur
!, the right kind of sign. They have 8
great many different kinds of signs or
} places where strong drink is sold. One
: is called the restaurant, and another
, is called the saloon" and another is
called the hotel" and another is called
the wine cellar" and another is called
the sample ROOM" What name to
: room! saw a man on the steps of one
of those sample rooms" the other day,
dead drunk. I said to myself: Il sup
pose that is sample" tell you it is
! the gate Of hell.
} ooh, says some man, Il am kind,
am indulgent to my family, 1 am right
in many respects, l am very generous,
: and I have too grand and generous a
, moral nature to be overthrown in that
J way" Let me say that the persons
who are in the most peril have the
largest hearts, the best education, the
brightest prospects. This sin chooses
the fattest lambs for its sacrafce. The
brightest garlands are by this carbun-
J cled hand of drunkenness torn off the
brow of the poet and the orator. Charles
: Lamb. answer! Thomas Hood, answer!
} Sheridan, the English orator, answer!
} Edgar A. Poe, answer! Junius Brutus
Booth, answer
Oh, come and look over into it while
uiu" OA eue GOVERNING over IL anu
, look down into it, and see the seeth-
, ing, boiling, loathsome, smoking,
agonizing, disappearing hell of the
} drunkard. Young man, be master OF
!, your appetites and passions. There
, are hundreds-might I not say thou
sands?-of young men in this house
this morning-young men of fair pros
poets. Put your trust in the Lord God
and all is we'll. But you will be
r tempted. Perhaps you may this mo-
ment be addressed on the first Sabbath
} of your coming to the great city, and
give you this brotherly counsel. speak
: not in perfunctory way. Ispeek as an
, older brother. Iput my hand on you,
| shoulder this day and commend you to
. Jesus Christ, who himself was young
man and died while yet young man,
} and has sympathy for all young men.
Oh, be master, by the grace of God, OF
, your appetites and passions!
close with peroration. Ministers
} and speakers are very apt to close with
a peroration, and they generally roll
up some grand imagery to express what
they have to say. close with q