Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-04-17
WHAT TOBACCO WILL DO FOR A Roy
Concluded from last week.

The is young man of greatpromise. He
seems to be really brilliant at times,
but at other times quite dull. His
studies come too easy to him; he does
not make effort enough"
1t was the same on the playground.
An expert n day, another an indif-
ferent player. "You can depend on
Franklin Melvin" the boys said.
He was anxious to enter a military
school, but he was unable to pass the
examinations here, being pronounced
physically unsound. 1T is unless"
said the examiner, "for a man that
uses tobacco to attempt to enter a mill.
tary school,"
Then Franklin studied law, but failed
in that, for, though eloquent and witty,
shrewd and keen, he had periods of
confusion when nothing seemed clear
and he could not collect his thoughts.
$50 strange" people said, that such a
smart lawyer should lose so many
cases.
Then he tried medicine, and il was
the same old story, a brilliant begin
ming and every ones favorite, then a
quick falling off until the word ''fail.
ing stared him in the face again.
Standing amid the ruins of wbathad
been a promising career, Franklin Mel
win acknowledged the truth to which
ne had stoutly refused to listen, name.
ly' that tobacco was a viper that was
sucking his life's blood, weakening
body and brain, and transforming a
noble manhood into a very inferior
specimen. He thought of his father,
who year by year grew morose, irrita-
BILE and dull. He thought of all the
warnings to which he had turned a
deaf ear, and the many youug men
who had failed hat were slaves of the
tobacco habit.
VI will give it up" he said, and he
did make a struggle only to return to
his habit more a slave than ever.
The friend who had gone West when
a child returned to her old home; and
strangers lived at the Melvin home.
stead. Upon inquiry she learned that
Mr.. Melvin had failed in business, most
unaccountably, and had committed
suicide, and the wife had died of a
broken heart. When she inquired of
her son, no n could tell her of his
whereabouts. But they told her that
he had not amounted to anything, and
remarked that it was not always the
smartest boys that made the smartest
men. He had been engaged to a daugh-
ter of one of the first men in the place,
but the engagement had been broken,
and no n knew why.
Leaving the town sorrowfully, for the
Melvins had been dear friends, she
went on to the city to visit other friends
there.
This woman had a tender heart, and
was laughed at by her friends for her
generosity to beggars. "They are
hypocrites and frauds, and most of them
are rich" they told her, But the good
woman's pocket was never empty of
pennies, and she was SO afraid that the
beggars she saw were not the disrepu-
table kind that she could not refuse
them.
One day after having bought flowers
OF a little girl, pencils of a one armed
man, and leaving several pennies in the
hand of a blind man, she was ~accosted
by a most miserable creature, so lean
and so ragged, 80 palsied and SO feeble,
she could hardly tell whether he was
young man or an old man. She was
alone, 30 there was no one to pull her
by the arm and urge her not to stop.
"A penny, please, madam, a penny
begged this pitiful creature. Though
the voice was whining and unsteady
and feeble like a consumptive's, the
woman Immediately noted that his &C.
cent was not like that of the ordinary
street beggars. She looked at him ear.
nestly as she dropped q few of the new.
er failing pennies in his hand. There
was something familiar in the marred
face. The man did not look up, and she
stepped back a little to watch him, 80
impressed was she that she knew him.
He chewed and spat incessantly. From
women he asked a penny, from men
for "a penny for Gods sake, or a CT
gar" or "a chew of tobacco"
Suddenly the woman watching reap
peared before the miserable wretch.
who are your" she said.
Taken by surprise, he looked ND at
her. Immediately his head sank down,
his knees bent under him as if he would
fall.
The woman, quite pale now, took the
man by the shoulder. "Tell me who
you are" she commanded. "You are
not, you can't be, my dear friends
son, Franklin Melvin"
By the way the figure crouched and
moaned she knew her worst fears were
realized. She ordered a carriage, this
great woman, and together they went
to a public bath and to a clothief, and
then to the house where che was visit.
ing, and listened to his account of what
tobacco had done for one boy. Later
she took him to a home where he would
have good care and medical treatment.
All that could be done for such a
wreck was to mitigate his suffering un-
til death should release him from his
enemy, tobacco,