The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1891-08-21
Death I'm the Beer Kettle and whiskeJ
Glass.

When a man persists in putting that
enemy into bis mouth which the poet phil
| ogopher OF all tine and the experience Of
ali ages tells him will surely ssteal away
his brains'-it is impossible for him or for
any one to foresee whether the ultimate
| outcome will be a mere outbreak of BRAIN
| less folly-or a wrong that will plunge
him into sore affection for the whole of
| his after life-or g crime that will take
him to the penitentiary or to the gallows.
Still men will drink" will put that
enemy into their mouths-will in sheer
thoughtless. reckless folly, march upto the
brink of that perilous abyss-the plunge
into which msy mean for them simply a
damaged character-or may involve the
loss of their own liberty or lives. Still men
will drink-they will drink to drunkenness
and to the risk of disgrace and death.
Is it worth while to hold examples up to
the sight of men who are travelling along
that fatal course? The answer to that is
both no and yes. Some of them, of course,
care nothing for examples. Experience is
wholly lost upon them. Each of them
thinks he is safe. or else does not think at
all. Still there are some who are within
reach of reason-some whose hearts are
made Of ''penetrable stuff" And for all
such as these it should surely be worth
while to make use Of the lessons that have
been emphasized by two tragic vents that
nave happened in Philadelphia within the
last week.
In ore of these the centre of the picture
was "a kettle of beer" about which there
was a quarrel between two workmen, that
grew and grew until they got to blows
when one OF them, graphing the other in
his rage, threw him with what threatened
to be fatal violence ~headlong into a pile of
bricks. Both these men rlsked their lives.
Neither had any thought Of that when the
kettle Of beer was brought along; but in
that kettle, and in other deadly pots of the
same, WAS the enemy which they put
into their mouths to steal away their brains.
L~amentable, however. as even that event
is-it is less deplorable, and far less shock
ing than that by which the elder Jahke in
West Philadelphia WAS made for awhile to
appear to be an involuntary agent the other
day in the death of his own son. Here
were father and son, partners in business,
both prosperous-the son bound by every
tie of ommon gratitude as well as by filiaI
affection to love and honor his father. The
son goes off on a drinking bout-puts the
enemy in his mouth that steals away his
brains-comes home "full" of the devil
turns ruffian-assails TIE father he should
have been the first to reverence and protect
and brings on the fatal struggled in which
he goes stumbling to his own death.
What a woful tragedy is that. A son and
husband suddenly stricken dead; a willow
and orphans; a father suffering from dire
mental aff1iction, because of the death
which he feared his own hands had wrought
these are the work Of that arch 'ienemy"
which the son had put recklessly into his
mouth to steal away his brains, his life
and to plunge the sorely bereaved survivors
into affection, to last all their lives.
What need for a tabled Pandora's box
for a world that has the whiskey bottle and
beer mug so close at hand?-Phaddelphia
Ledger.