The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1891-02-05
Tho Awful Visions That Reformed
-; Z r-- Drinking Man, -


toward the Battery and back again
hesitating at every saloon door, yet
passing every one, living desperately
half an hour at time. Such an ex.
penditure of nervous energy could have
but one ending; knew it, but would
not yield.
It was nearly noon. was walking
up Broadway and heard a band Of
music coming down. AS it came near ]
stood on the edge of the sidewalk tc
look and to listen. Back of the band
there was long line of splendid
carriages with flags and banners, and
in the carriages were well-dressed
well-kept, comfortable-loolsing men. II
seemed some delegation of distinguished
visitors. What was it? The saloon.
keeper of New York and Brooklyn out
for holiday!
If you had been there you would have
seen nothing but the band and the car
riages and the men; but l could see
such sights as language fails to picture.
You know the way of industrial pro-
cessions is to carry samples of their
handiwork in their parades, and the sa
loon business is an Industry" men say
In this line there were no samples car.
ried openly, but could see chained to
the carriage wheels a countless multi
tude OF men, shrieking and struggling
Keeling, staggering, stumbling down
Broadway to celebrate the triumph Of
the drink.
Back of these another multitude
more pitiful-of women, sad-faced an6
heavy-hearted, dragging on behind
with little wailing children clinging tc
to their skirts or Juggling at their bar
rem breasts, starving, though it was a
holiday, and from there back the misery
of the pageant shaded on into the light
laughter of the tipping boys and the
thoughtless girls who laughed al
drunkenness and wondered at despair
Farther than the eye could reach, the
long procession stretched away through
the great city, over the Harlem river
and was lost to sight in the plying
woods of Westminster County.
could see at every revolution of the
wheels the idol of some woman's hear,
crushed beyond recognition. Broadway
seemed paved with the bodies of the
hundred thousand men who died drunk
in America in the year. And the wheels
went crushing over their upturned faces
in the summer noon. I could see in the
clothing that these men wore silve,
threads torn from the heads of suffer.
ing mothers, along with many colored
threads drawn from the tresses of dis.
spirited and broken-hearted wives. ]
could see my own wife among the fol.
lowers in the line. Icould see my own
children tralnpled beneath the wheels
l thought things unutterable. When
the music came was about giving up
the struggle-when I turned from the
spectacle l felt 1 had grown.
Ny body was erect, my lips com.
pressed, my heart firm, and knew ]
would not drink that day; and then,
there alone, though jost'"d by thou
sand men, 1 made a new resolve. MY
own children might live to be spectacle
in such a procession to the eyes of other
men. What should do? Wait till the
juggernaut had passed over them, then
gather up their mangled forms and
carry them to their mother and say:
Here are the boys?'' --.~... ~,-. .se* -
The thought drove me mad, and !
said: ''Never another instant Of wait
ing, but here aud now I Join the men,
be they called fanatics or philosophers,
who have the bravery to cry aloud and
spare not, and to lay their hands upon
the horses bits and stop the procession,
though they be sneered, at and though
they die for it." 7
That's the way became a. Prohibi-
tionist.-John G. Wooley, in Exchange.