New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-11-08
THE HORKHOUSE TRAGEDK

II was sad tragedy A man OF fine talents
and elegant accomplishments, scholar Oh nvie
than ordinary attainments, writer lor He
nross who found a ready market for the pfoduc
iions of his pen, and who for many years nao
contributed 70 the instruction and entertainments
If a wide constituency of readers, an ATTRACTIVE
personality, unusually agreeable In manners ""1
as brilliant in conversation as ne was iaci,o ""N
graceful with the pen-dead in the "orhhou'e'
Suicide. by the lingering death he orou9h' upon
himself by ungoverned habit as much as II nc
had cut himself off from life dellberately WIN
n;stol poison or knife. Sad tragedy, but only
one of many that go on all about us every oay.
For men are dying every day and whether they
die on easy pillows amid weeping fnends OF
alone on Workhouse cots, each death is FOR some
one tragedy full of pathos; full OF sorrow
After all, it is not the way man dies that
makes his ending tragic, SO much as the wa"
he has lived. 1t is the poor, blundelmg way
in which men try to get all they can out OF llfe'
and mako mistakes about it, and vain essays
IN correct their mistakes all the time lncuiring
PENALTIES that must be paid and consequences
that cannot by any shifting or turning or nedi-
cine or surgery be avoided-that is the real
tragedy about it, This poor mans life seemed
n constant recurrence of mistakes; mistakes
which. though he was painfully conscious OF
them and tried with all his failing will power
To correct. through such agony and remorse as
only those who have undergone the trial know
he could not avoid lie thought at last that ne
had found his remedy. In his JOY at the dis
coverv. and with generous impulse in behalf
Of his fellow sufferers, he published it abroad
Il 81 M
self and his frailtes, such as most men Woud
draw back from almost with horror, apparently
sacrificing his own personal pride and almost
his self-respect in order that the narrative might
not lose any of its effect upon the minds OF those
whom he sought to benefit by the results OF his
own experience.
And then while the readers Of "The North
American Review" were bordering the well-told
story and the newspapers all over the country
wore discussing the questions it raised and the
victims of the drink habit were considering
whether and when-not now. but after little
more indulgence-they would try the infallible
remedy. suddenly the brilliant writer and scholar
TO whom for few months the world had be-
come full of light and hope. and life an Oppor-
tunity for high endeavor and useful service, fell
down drunk in the gutter: melancholy spec
tacle. Ten days of it of such agony or re-
morse and bitterness of self-reproach as no one
can measure, and the poor man lay dead on a
Workhouse cot 1t was all over; all the turn
ing and twisting the stumbling and rising, high
nurpose and weak will, froth of the night and
dregs of the morning. for him all ended.
And now the never-ending discussion begins
anew. Is drunkenness a disease? Is there any
permanent and effective remedy for it? The
frat will not be concIusively answered: the sec
opd will be answered in infinite variety. And
all the time the tragedies will be going on day
by day. Meantime do we learn nothing? Is
there nothing in the sad life just ended and the
manner of its ending to set men thinking? Not
merely thinking along the narrow line suggested
bv this special case, but on the somewhat broader
field it opens, whether for this or any other self
indulgence or fralty or weakness for any i'm
poence of will or habit of yielding to appetites
passions or evil propensities, there is any physi-
cal cure We grope blndly for remedies for
some panacea for our human ills that Wilde
what? What but let us off our watch, relieve
us of care, of responsibility, of vigilance; so
that we may lash our tillers and go below, trust
ing that fair winds will always blow and we
shall sail before them into port.
II cannot be- There is no cure for the drink
habit or any other form of self-indulgence.
Habit once formed cannot be exercised by any
spell, or eradcated by any remedy. 1t stands
at the door so long as life lasts and the only
escape from it is through the constant sense of
danger and the constant guard.