The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-07-25

II. Ii. HADLEI.
In various things which he undertook,
but he never seemed to undertake any
thing that was worthy of his talents. he
mingled in politics and was known not
only as powerful stump speaker, but as
an active worker in underground politics.
Hadley was a soldier. He came OF
good stock, and claims that Jonathan
Edwards was his great-grandfather'S IN
Gle. On MS fathers side there were nu-
merous ancestors Of very respectable
fame. He enlisted in an Ohio regiment
when he was twenty ye rs old, and
learned to drink Unfortunately while in
the army. He says that fifty drinks a
day were not enough for him when he
was at his worst. He became captain
and brevet lieutenant colonel, wherefore
he has been called Colonel Hadley since
the war.
He went into business, made money
and spent it recklessIy, studied law and
practiced with success. Making large
money all the time he grew poorer and
poorer. though he never had less than
enough to maintain the appearance Of a
gentleman, and according to his own
story never ceased to keep up a sort OF
struggle against the drinking habit.
When he became a New York Bohe-
milan his fortunes were at low ebb, but
he was always full Of schemes, and
long before he made his radical de-
parture from the old line of life which
he had followed so long he had organized
the Business Mems Society for the En-
couragement Of Moderation, an institu-
ton which made considerable stir IN
New York and which really did accom-
plish something in the way Of good. AT
least it served to exc out Hadley's in
come, as he frankly acknowledged at
the time, and it paid for the malnten-
ance of one or more public ice water
fountains every summer in places where
passer by would be likely to be divert
ed from the purchase of beer by the
proximity of free ice water.
In 1886, however, he changed radically.
He and a friend swore off (as Hadley had
often before done} at the conclusion OF
furious drinking bout, and Hadley
stuck to it. The other did not. He is
dead. Hadley managed by will power
and the aid of u physician to keep his
oath for forty-ei3ht hours, and then
sadly broken up, he called in at meet
ing of the famous McAuley mission IL
Water street, where his brother, also q
reformed drunkard, was superintendent
at the time. There, Hadley says, he
was converted, and from that time til
this has never had the desire to drink OF
even to 20 into a saloon. He was very
'profane by habit, and he says that it ha!
never occurred to him to swear since.
by their works We shall know them.
What has Hadley done? He was at thai
time editor and proprietor of a small
up town paper which was mainly sup
ported by the advertisements Of brewer
and liquor dealers. In the next issue o
his paper ne announced that he would
take no more such advertisements. Then
with the assistance of a friend, he re
funded all moneys paid in advance TO
standing lads" and threw them out 0
his columns. Then he struggled.
Twas associated with him in a bushes
arrangement for some months soon afte
this, and know of his refusing dishones
money which he might have takel
secretly at a time when he was strug
Cling the hardest. And after working
hard all day be used to go every nigh
and work without pay at little obscur
east side mission where drunkards wer
dragged in and prayed for. His tire
mendous physical strength Che is Yer
large and very powerful mau) enable
him to stand the strain, and as time wen
ON he proved his ability in this line Q
work so that he was presently engaged
at an infniteSiInal salary, to estabis
other missions of a like character.
This was at a time when, refreshed b
his temperance habits and III the fu-
Vigor Of manhood, he might have gon
into business again or resumed the pral
uce of the law, and might have bee
reasonably certain of a good income
lie did neither, but stuck 10 the missio
work and is at il yet. He has starte
missions in New Brunswick. Rochester
Harlem, Morristown, Buffalo, Newar
and Bayonne, n. j., and Is now the 81
perintendent of the St Bartholome,
Rescue mission in this city.
He says, "Since May, 1887, have see
over II, 600 hard drinkers start to becom
Christians, and have personally knelt !
prayer with more than half Of them an
heard them pray for themselves" H
freely admits, however, that 20 or {
per cent Of those who undertake Ee'
life succunb TO the old temptation
Mr.. Cornelius Vanderbilt Is one Of II
vestrymen OF St Bartholomew churcl
and il is understood that he is the pril
cipal subscriber TO the cost Of the ne
mission house In Forty-second stree
where, as a policeman told me tOd2l
''poor unfortunate men VIII get Cru
and Gospel" DAVID y. CURTIS.
Pineapple Punch.