St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1892-05-07
SOCEALDRINKING.
The Thinking People are Discarding
Fiinu0,S

The Thinking People are Discarding
Liquors.
No question has enlisted the attention
of thoughtful people throughout the length
and breadth of our country as has the tenn
perance question. Every one@who thinks
at all seriously is interested in matter
which touches so many human interests
and affects the life and happiness of so
large number.
During the last twenty years a marked
change has taken place in public opinion
concerning the use of wines and liquors,
but this change has come about almost
entirely in the great middle class-that is
in the industrious, wefl-to-do class who do
the earnest thinking and the best work of
the world, and not among the fashionable
class. nor yet in the 1aboring classes. At
been little change. Wine is used just as
freely in fashionable clubs and at the din
ner tables of the wealthy as it ever was,
and the hard-working day laborer seeks
lust as eagerly after his days work is done,
the whisky bottle and the dram shop. The
clubs formed for the discussion of the bur
ming question of the day by earnest men
heart have almost wholly discarded liquors
from their club tables. It IS difficult to
form an opinion as to the relative amount
of wines used now and twenty years ago,
for the reason that with the advancing CIV
ilzation and population society is broken
into sets and cliques, so that one can hard
ly write society with q capital s. There are
as many societies as there are different in
terests, and the barriers between this set
and that are quite as impregnable as they
were in other days.-Mary Is. Clatiin in
Ladies' Home Journal.
Who is Tempting My Darling Tonight?
Washington Argus.
Far away in the lone log cabin tonight
I'm sitting and musing alone.
While the steps of the pastare echoing near,
The death knells one by one.
Yes, alone, one by one have they passed
And left me louely and drear
In the homestead once happy and gay,
Now cold and dark and scar.
Oh! my poor old heart is crushed and torn
Meath the sob that arises tonight,
And the bitter sweet tears of love long ago
Are finding their way to the light
Ny once blooming cheek is furfowed with |
Icare,
My locks are silvery gray,
And my eyes have grown dim meath the
Though I have striyen to brush them
away.
PoorJ ohm is at rest beneath the green
[shade,
And Harry is lying close by,
While Jennie, the pride of my heart has
Igone too,
: And dwells in the beautiful sky.
One only is left me, my comfort my stay,
My darling, my precious. my boy
The one golden thread linking life unto
life,
NJ, ,f l,c,,a o,,d ;ox
But alas! the homestead under mortgage
[now lies,
And he must too leave me and go
To find better luck in the city, trow,
Surrounded by snares and by woe.
He is drifting tonight on dangerous sea,
Amid the city SO bright,
And I, wonderingly, think in the gather
ing gloom,
Who is tempting my darling tonight?
Does the hand of woman hold to his lips
The cup that bears in its BREATH
The cup of the ruby-red demon of wine,
That seals by the monster in death?
Oh, God can the hand of an angel thus
wreck
A poor old mothers delight?
Can a smile and tear buy the soul of my
[boy?
Who is tempting my boy tonight?
Beware, fair one of the power you WELD,
The blood of a mother cries aloud,
And curses the head OF you who would
make
For her idol the demons red shroud!
Your future must answer for what you
have done,
Your heart must wither and die,
At the seat of your Judge when your rec
lord is read.
Unheeded will then be your cry,
Oh, you in the city, the country, the wood,
Remember the trust that you bear,
Don't tempt an old mothers stay in herage,
Pause, and glance at the glittering tear,
'Twere better to lose the laureis of fame,
And be on the side of right.
Remember the prayer of that old broken
heart
Don't tempt my darling tonight.
One moment too late has wrecked many
[souf,
One drop too much broken hearts,
One SMILE one tear, turned demons to love,
One kiss made deadliest darts
Then may you by act, by word or by deed,
Keep this forever in sight,
"ris an old mothers hope and her only stay,
Don't tempt my darling tonight.
MAGGIE A. DOWNING.
ApEpnEEN3 o.. July 81. 1891