The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-10-30

said she, ~
mot a bseggar or drunksrd abroad would
HRS. j. McNair Wright.
~ EXCELLENT TEMPERANCE aToRY.
Temperance! It is a good thing. And
can give an excellent temperance story with.
out adding particle of fiction to the facts.
says New York correspondent of the Gin.
clnnatl Enquirer. As was walking with
one OF the house surgeons through the alco.
holIc ward OF Bellevue Hospital the other
day saw face that was familiar to me.
The owner was young woman who had
oeen brought In several days before, suffer-
Ing from the ailment that afflicted all the oc.
cupants of the alcoholic ward. She Law in
cot, looking quite peaceful, her eyes closed,
the white coverlid drawn close up under her
chin; Save for great pallor and certain
old, faded look that came not Of years but
OF reckless living, the face would have been
pretty, as it lay framed in the spotless pillow,
motlonless as a picture The patient was
asleep and with every minute that she slum-
bered was putting the fever and the frenzy
further away. She had slept uninterrupted
ly for seven hours, the nurse said, and it was
believed that when she awoke she would be
hungry and far along on the road to recov-
cry. | cast about in my mind to think
where l had seen the face and at length
remembered.
-Four years ago last winter I lived on East
Eighteenth street, near Second avenue, and
1t was my habit TO 60 Of an evening to
Schmenger's beer saloon, on Third avenue, to
pass social hour over glass Of the Munich
Royal brew and cigar. Schmengers was
family resort and a very quiet and respecta-
bic place. Among the many groups that used
to establish themselves there with more or
less regularity was one consisting Of an ell
derly woman, young man and girl. I
took them to be Germans, The woman and
the young man were unmistakably that, but
Of the girl I was in doubt My curiosity was
not very great, and it was only after obsery-
ing them for several months that acci-
dentally learned something about them.
One rainy March afternoon was throwing
dice with John Meyer, the bartender, when
the trio came in. The girl looked very pretty.
The wind and rain had had their way with
her face, and it was rosy with bushes. l
should say that she was about twenty years
Of age. She had a superb figure and black
her eyes of her and to follow the dice, upon
the turn of which the best cigars in the
house depended. Johns attention was also
frequently diverted by the three, though not
in the same way. They kept him measurably
busy supplying them with what they wanted
to drink. 1t occurred to me after while
that they were drinking good deal. said
as much to John, but he only shrugged his
shoulders and said that they were used to It,
When they first came In they had pony OF
brandy all round to take off the chill Of the
weather. It was not quite sufficient, and
;hey had another, and then third. From
The brandy they turned to beer, choosing the
neavy Bavarian variety, and they drank six
glasses each Of it before going home to sup
per. As they passed out, John, who was
smoking Reina that paid for, told me that
The young man was musician in Damrosch's
Orchestra at the Metropolitan Opera House.
that the elderly woman was his mother, and
that the girl was his wife. They had been
coming to Schmenger's for a year, John said,
and what they had drunk that afternoon was
| nothing unusual for them. He bad served
| the rosy checked girl with twenty glasses OF
heavy beer in the course Of an evening of five
hours. Shortly after that removed from
my Eighteenth street lodgings, and changed
circumstances interrupted my habit OF going
to Schmenger's. did not see the girl again
until saw her in the hospital
felt an interest in the case. The patient
had been brought to Bellevue, suffering
from acute alcoholic mania, by two officers
the district in which Schmenger's is situated:
I called at the station in Twenty.second
street and asked Detective Carey what he
knew about the girl.
.'The police knowledge of her." said Carey,
is concerned with single fact; she ls
drunkard She is widow and lives with
her mother-in-law in Nineteenth street: Her
husband, who was skilled musician, died OF
alcoholism q year ago. The mother-in-law
is a tough old knot of German; she kept
boarding house here OH the East Side Tor
twenty years and saved enough to make her
comfortable for life She is IS good drink
er as her son was or as her daughter-in-law is
but she stands it better. She is sixty years
old at the least and we'll and hearty. Six
o'clock every morning finds her out market
ing. She was always thrifty soul. When
her son was alive they used to do their drink
ing in saloons and he paid for IT, but since ne
| died she and her daughter-in-aw have foi-
! lowed the kettle and bottle plan, which Is
cheaper. The girl, who is q native New
Yorker and very pretty one, stood her ex-
cesses very we'll until q few months ago, when
she went to pieces all of sudden. lsuppose
| our men have carried her home twenty times
| since last May-found her drunk in the streets.
| She was always stupidity drunk, fetching up
| on doorsteps in state Of quiet collapse, until
| the last time when her complaint took vio-
lent turn. About o'clock one evening she
went flying along under the electric Lights IN
uScuuc, ehtA S@A S'A-c
ing and striking peoplewith her umbrella right
and left. When Roundsman Hagan brought
| her to-a man who is the idol Of the unen-
gagged women Of this sneighborhood-she drew
her nails across his face arr called him the
Whitochapel murderer. She won't last much
longer / suppose she will come out OF this,
| but the marks are on her. Six months ago she
was plump as partridge; now she's lean as
! hound. am an observer and when the hesh
drops of at that rate undor habits like hers.
! know what's coming. If Christmas finds
her with us I'll give you new hat
nEAsuNs FUR BECOMING A TOTAL ABSTAINRR.
About ten years ago or more, says Canon
Farrar I first became total abstainer, be-
cause i was easily convinced that the use Of
alcohol was not necessity, and great deal
turns upon that. I saw for instance, that
whole nations had not only lived without it,
but had fiourished without it. believe that
the human race had existed and had
flourished q considerable time before it was
discovered / saw the remarkable fact that
there were some twenty thousand persons in
England, and that though many Of them had
maize themselves mere tunnels for drink;
though they had been accustomed to drink
from their childhood; though most Of them
had been brought to prison, either directly
or indirectly, through drink, yet the very