Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1891-03-07


lay out for him a garden, ana ciorne
his sons in broadclot:l and his daughters
in silk, and stand at his front door q
prancing span of sorrcls or bays, and
secure him a policy of life, insurance SO
that the present home may be we'll
maintained after ho is dead. The most
persistent, most overpowcriag enemy of
the working classes is intoxicating
liquor. 1t is the anarchist OF the
centuries, and has boycottcd and is
now boycotting the body and mind and
soul of American labor. 1t annually
swindles industry out of large per-
centage of its earnings. 1t holds out
its blasting solicitations to the me
chanic or operative on his way to work,
and ct the noon spell and on his way
home at evcnti,le. On Saturday. when
the wages are paid. it snatciics q large
part of the money that might come TO
tho family and sacrifices it among tie
saloon keepers. Stand the saloons of
this country side by side; and it is
carefully estimated TART they would
ses
throdts
of hundreds of thousands Of laborcrs,
and while the ordinary strikes are r,in-
GUS to both employers and employees, l
proclaim a universal strike against
strong drink which strike, if kept up,
will be the relief of the working classes
and the salvation of the nation. | will
undertake to sly that there is not a
healthy laborcr in the United States
who, within the next twenty years. if
he will refuse all Intoxicating beverages
and be saving, may not become a capt.
talist on small scale.
Oh! how many are waiting to sec if
something cannot be done for the stop
ping Of inteinpcrancel Thousands of
drunkards waiting who cannot 80 ten
minutes in any direction without llav-
ing the temptation glazing before their
eyes or appealing to their nostrils, they
fighting against it with enfeebled will
and diseased appetite, conQuering, then
surrendering. conquering again and sur
rendering again. and crying, How
long. 0 Lord :: how low before these in
famous solicitations shall be gone!"
And how many mothers are waiting to
sec if this national curse cannot lift?
Oh, is that the boy who had the honest
breath WHO comes homo with breath
Initiated or dis1lised2 What a changed
How quickly those habits of early com
ing home have been exchanged for the
rattlng of the night key in the door
long after the last Waterman has gone
by and tried to see that everything was
closed mp for tli.. nielitl
Oh what change for that young
man WHO we had hoped would do some.
thing in merchandise, or in artis;rnslfip,
or in II profession that would do honor
to the family name long after mothers
wrinklcl hands arc folded from the
last toll! All that exchanged for
startled look when the door bell rings,
lest something las happ>ncd; and the
wish that the scarlet fever twenty years
ago had been fatal, for then lie would
have gone directly 10 the bosom OF his
Saviour. But alas! pocr old soul. she
has lived 70 experience what Solomon
said, ~ foolish son is G heavineSs to
his mother"
THE STlICKEN MOTHERS WOE.
Oh. what a funeral it will be when
that boy is brought lloInc dead! And
how mother will 81. there and say: Is
this my boy that used to fondle and
that walkc,l tho floor with in the
night when he was sick' Is this the
boy that held to the baptisrlal font
for baptism? Is this the boy for whom
toilcd. until the blood burst from the
tips of my fingers, that he might have
good start and good home? Lord.
why hast thou let me live to see this!
Can it be that these swollen hands arc
the ones that used Il, wander over my
face when rocking him to sleep? Can
it be that this swollen brow is that ]
once so rapturously kissed' Poor boy /!
how tired he does look! wonder WHO
struck him that blow across the tenn
pies? I wonder if he uttered 4 dying
prayer2 Wake up. my son; don't you
hear me? wake up! Obi he can't hear
me. Dead dead! dead! % Absa-
lom, my son, my son, would God that
had died for thee, o Absaloin, my
son, my son'"
am not much of % mathematician,
and cannot estimate it, but is there
any one here quick enough at figures
to estimate how many mothers there
are waiting for something to be done3
Az, there are many wives waiting for
domestic rcscnc. He promised some
thing different FROM that when, after
the long acquaintance and the careful
scrutiny of character, tho hand and
the heart were offered and accepted.
What hell on earth woman lives in
who has q drunken husband! O death,
how lovely thou art to her, and how
soft and warm thy skeleton bandl The
sepulchcr at midnight in winter is
kings drawing room compared with
that woman's home 1t is not so much
the blow on the head that hurts as the
blow on the heart. The rum flcnd
came to the door Of that beautiful
home, and opened the door and stood
there and said: Il curse this dwelling
with an unrclenting curse. Icursc that
father into maniac, curse that
mother into q paupcr. I curse those
SONS into vagabonds. l curse those
daughters into pronigacy. Cursed be
bread tray and cradle. Cursed be couch
and chair and family Bible. with record
~ ,,..-.;or-o, owl i,;rtl,S oD0 deaths