The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1892-11-09
THE D~RUNKARD's END.

One beautiful afternoon in August there
came to me the heart-broken wife of a State
prison convict. We tried to plan for his
pardon an restoration to home and the
world. 1t was a very sad case. He was the
only surviving son of a very noble man
one who lived only to serve the poor, the
tempted, and the criminal. All he had, all
ne was he gave unreservedly to help thieves
and drunkards. His house was their home.
His name their bail to save them from pris-
on. His reward their reformation. 1t was
a happy hour to hear him tell of the hun.
dreds he had shielded from the contamiua-
tlon and evil example of prisons, and OF the
large proportion he had cool reason TO be.
heve permanently savel. Out of hunireds,
he once told me, only two left him to pay
their bail, forfeited by neglect to show them
serves at court according 10 agreement
only two!
Bred under such a roof, the son started in
life with a generous heart, noble dreams, and
high purpose. Ten years of prosperity,
larry earned by energy, industry, and char.
acter, ended in a bankruptcy, as is often the
case In our risky and changing trade; then
came a struggle for business, for bread
emptation-despair He
could not safely pass the open doors that
tempted min to indulgence, forgetfulness,
and crime. How hard his wife wrought and
struggled to save him from indulgence, and
then TO shield him from exposurel How long
wife, and sister, AM friends labored to avert
conviction and the State prisonl
81 would spare him gladly wrote the
prosecuting attorney, 'ff he would stop
drinking. He shall never go to prison If he
will be a sober man. But all this wretched.
Eess and crime came from rum"
Mantully did the young man struggle to
resist the appetite. Again and again did he
promise, and keep his promise perhaps a
month, then fall. He could not walk the
streets and earn his bread soberly while so
many open doors-opened by men who sought
TO coin gold out of their neighbours vices
lured him to indulgence. So, r%ightfully, the
state pressed on, and he wen to prison. An
honorei name disgraced, a loving home
broken up, a wide circle of kindred sorely
panied. a worthy, well-meaning man wrecked.
Sorrow and crime ''all come from rum said
the keen-slghted lawyer.
As parted from the sad wife on my door,
step looked beyond, and close by the laugh
ing sea stood a handsome cottage. The
grounds were laid out expensively and with
great taste. Over the broad piazza hung
lazlly an Eastern hammock, while all around
N're richly painted chairs and lounges of
every easy and tempting form. Overhead
were quaint vases Of beautiful flowers, and
the dellclOus lawn was borderSd with them.
On the lawn itself gaily dressed women
laughed merrlly over croquet, and noisy
cnlldren played near. A span OF superb
horses paved the earth impstiently at the
gate while gay salutations passed between
NN NS4uCb pay CIT anu the ldSulOndDle eQul-
pages that rolled by. It was a comfortable
home as well as luxurious one. Nature,
taste and wealth had lone their best. Ii
was a scene of beauty, comfort, taste, lux
ury and wealth. All came from rum. Silks
and diamonds flowers, and equipage, stately
roof and costly attendance, ali came from
rum The owner was one who in a great
city coined his gold out of the vices OF his
fellowmen.
10 me 1t was q dissolving view. 1 lost
sight or the gay women, the frolicsome
children, the Impatient horses, and the
ocean rolling up to the lawn. saw instead
the pale convict in his cell twelve feet by
nine, the sad wife going from Judge TO at
torney, from court 10 Governors Council,
begging mercy for her overtempted hus-
band. l heard above the children's noise,
the croquet, laugh, and the surf waves, that
lawyers stern reason for e~xacting the full
penalty Of the law. ALI this comes from
rum.
Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor
drink. Woe unto him that buildeth his
house by uprighteousness aud his chamber
by wrong, for the stone shall cry out of the
wall and the beam out of the timber shall
answer it-Wendell Phillips.