The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1890-10-23
why They. Came To Want.
BY JULIA S. vIsHER.

One cannot be long engaged. even In
directly, In charitable work, wllhou.
mournful knowledge Of the ruin that
comes through drink. What a throng Of
people come u mind seeking 10 dire dis
tress the relief which intemperance alone
has made necessary. The evils Of mod
crate drinking are well illustrated 10 the
life Of Hr. II. He Ia now In hale old age
His old. wife ia partially paralyzed and
nearly helpless. They have no children.
Mr.. H. thinks that it is the years Of sick
ness which have brought him 80 low;
and his struggles now 70 keep their poor
home as long as his wife lives are pathet-
ic. The dread phantom Of the future Is
always the poorhouse. He cannot bear
the thought, nor for him, SO Affection
ate is their humble life, 80 few their ne
cessities. SO We help him to find clothes.
" mend and clean. for his hand. are TOO
trenuloue for good tailor work, and Sc
cured him q chance for which he was
well paid by Chcago's leading artist 70
pose as Saint Peter. The character well
belts his gray hair and flowing beard, bis
rugged manliness. But bread winning l.
now an uphill struggle, and the ordinary
channels of relief are inadequate. We
cannot see the end. But the beginning
we do see. What became Of the money
earned by honorable toll In the long years
Of his strength II was wasted in beer
Always generous companonable ma
ture, not q week went By when money
enough did not slip lightly through his
fingers in treats for all his friends TO keep
them In comfort for month, II they had
It now.
Anoth er man Is nearing old age and
breaking down. Still, as second mate, he
can make 4 good income during tue
months Of open water. But it will not be
for long. The physical ruin caused by
years OF drink Is nearly complete. Moth
ing is saved Of past earnings; and, though
now he has come TO losthe the saloon,
which has been such curse TO him, much
can never be retrieved, and the poorhouse
may also be his home not long ahead.
His college classmate lets US into the
secret Of another blighted life,-ndeed,
put money into ny husbands hands to
pay for meals and lodgings. for he dared
not trust his old friend with the smallest
sum. Not only lovely family, but high
standing In the medical profession, has
been sacrificed for into1icsnt.. 1t was
pathetic 70 see the mental hunger which
prompte him, as he waited in the Office,
to search out sane review or magazine
instead Of glancing al the daily paper He
had not meant his past to be known to Us i,
SO thoroughly did the thought Of 1t humi-
late him. His friends, wearied GU. by re
peated efforts to reclaim him, had quite
cast him on He had not meant to try
again. l shall never forget the burning
words that melted him to one more
struggle; You need not drink. You can
die. II were you, and felt that could
not keep away from the saloon, l would
throw myself into the lake rather than
take another drink" He earned his first
money again by distributing advertise
ments along Chicago streets, and by such
painful, laoorious ways he actually wed
ged his way back, at least for q time, IN
TO his profession.
| know woman, noble In features.
polished in manners. keenly alive in intel
lect snd.afiection, but dead 10 will She
has presented herself to her classes in
modern languages, which she teaches al
mirably, drunk; but she cannot ser or will
not own she is anything but simply up-
fortunate. "Of course, l must have
stimulsnts TO sustain me-" she will say.
II am too poor 10 secure proper food
The wine, too, is not like that one drinks
abroad"
Another woman, who has jast sunk T.
Nutle lut ouc Vi Nupu nave JUST spOE-
en- may yet Il shudder at the thought
sink, has daughter and husband who
disown her. Only brothers love for s
dead mothers sake will not always leave
J her to herself. Yet, even in her. there
remains 8. times. enough that is so lows
BILE that ones heart bleeds with pity over
the wrecked life aud almost insane spells
of drunkenness. How impossible such fu-
lures would have seemed to every one OF
these, and many others. both men and
women, whom | have known. and OF
which our city must forever be full until
the open saloon no longer lures into the
; terrible maelstrom host who could with
stood temptation less alluring and omni.
present.
The fatal fungus of intemperance il
: too rank growth to be gotten rid of by
, any single effort. Must we even wait IN
: til the human soil has no longer anything
within itself fit to generate such seeds OF
poison:
Yet. meanwhile, mos. OF these and
5 host of other wretched souls might hay,
resisted temptation less slluring than tht
a omnipresent saloon Christian RfgiS:,1