The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-05-07

after he Is dead. The most persistent,
most overpowering enemy of the work
ing classes is Intoxicating liquor. 1t is
the anarchist of the centuries, and has
boycotted and is now boycotting the
body and mind and soul of Amer
lean labor 1t annually swindles indus
try out of large'percentage of its earn
ings. 1t holds out its blasting solicita-
tons to the mechanic or operative on
his way to work, and at the noon-spell,
and on his way home at .eventide. On
Saturday, when the wages are paid, it
snatches large part of the money that
might come to the family and sacrifices
it among the saloon-keepers. Stand the
saloons of this country side by side,
and, it is carefully estimated they
would reach from New York to Chicago.
This evil is pouring its vitrolic and
damnable liquors down the threats of
hundreds of thousands of laborers, and
while the ordinary strikes are ruinOus
both to employers and employees, pro-
claim universal strike against strong
drink, which strike # kept up, will be
the relief of the working classes and
the salvation of the nation. / will I'M
dertake to say that there is not a
healthy laborer in the United States
who, within the next twenty years, if
he will refuse all Intoxicating bever-
ages and be saving, may not become
capitalist on small scale.
Oh! how many are waiting to see if
something can not be done for the stop
ping of intemperahce! Thousands of
drunkards waiting who can not go ten
minutes in any direction without hav-
| 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
surrendering again, and crying: ''How
long, o Lord! how long before these in
| famous solicitations shall be gomez"
And how many mothers are waiting to
see if this national curse can not lift!
Oh! is TINT the boy who had the honest
breath who comes home with breath
vitiated or disguised? What change!
How quickly those habits of early com
ing home have been exchanged for the
rafting of the night-key in the door
long after the last Waterman had gone
by, and tried to see that everything was
closed up for the night! Oh! what a
change for that young man who we had
hoped would do something in .merchan-
disc, or in craftsmanship, or in profession
that would do honor to the family name
long after mothers wrinkled hands are
folded from the last toili All that eX-
changed for startled look when the
door bell rings, lest something has hap
pened; and the wish that the scarlet
fever twenty years ago had been fatal,
for then he would have gone directly to
the bosom of the Saviour. But alas!
poor old soul, she has lived to experience
what Solomon said: ga foolish son is a
heaviness to his mother
Oh! what funeral it will be when
that boy is brought home dead! And
how mother will sit there and say: SIS
this my boy that used to fondle, and
that / walked the floor with in the
night when he was sick? Is this the
boy that l held to the baptismal font
for baptism? Is this the boy for whom
l toiled until the blood burst from the
tips of my fingers that he might have a
good start and good home? Lord, why
hast thou let me live to see this? Can it
be that these swollen hands are the
ones that used to wander over my face
when rocking him to sleep? Can it be
that this swollen brow is that l once SC
rapturously kissed? Poor boy how
tired he does look. l wonder who
struck him that blow across the tenn
pies {? I wonder if he uttered dying
prayer ? Wake up, my son; don't you
hear me? Wake up! Oh he can't hear
me- Dead dead dead % Absalom
my son, my son, would God that I had
died for thee, o Absalom, my son, my
son ~
am not much of a mathematician
and l can not estimate it; but is there
anyone here quick enough at figures tc
estimate how many mothers there are
waiting for something to be done? Ay,
there are many wives waiting for do
nestle rescue. He promised something
different from that when, after the long
acquaintance and the careful scrutiny
of character, the hand and the hear
| were O4lC1Su bnd dCSSp1SN. w Hat d lOl
on earth woman lives in who has {
drunken husband o Death. how love
| ly thou art to her, and how soft anC
| warm thy skeleton hand! The sepul
, cher at midnight in winter is king:
[ drawing room compared with that wo
, mans home. It is not so much the
blow on the head that hurts as the
| blow on the heart. The rum fiend came
: to- the door of that beautiful home
and opened the door and stood there
) and said: 81 curse this dwelling with
/ an unrelenting curse. curse that IA
| Their into a maniac, Icurse that mother
t into pauper. 1 curse those sons into
vagabonds, I curse those daughter,
into profligacy Cursed be bread-tray
t and cradle Cursed be couch and chair
and family Bible with record of mar
| riages and births and deaths Curse
} upon CURSE Oh! how many wives are
there waiting to see if something car
: not be dole to shake these frosts Of
{ the second death off the orange bios
SONS. Yea, God is waiting, the Coo
} who works through human instrumen