Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-05-08
INTEMPERANCE,

INTEMPERANCE.
Were an artist l would borrow a
pencil from Raphael and dip it in the
fountain of human SORROWS, and l would
paint a picture of intemperance.
would put in that picture every con.
ceivable thing that was terrible and
revolving.
l would paint health in ruins, hope
destroyed affection crushed and PRAYERS
silenced.
would paint the chosen seats of fra.
ternal care, of flial piety, of brotherly
love and maternal devotion, all vacant
and gone.
L would paint all the crimes of every
statute and every hue, from foul muir
DER standing aghast over the open
grave of its victim, which it has no
means to cover, to the meanest decep.
ton still confident of success.
l would paint a deep, dark river,
rushing and foaming angrily on over
craggy rocks, hurrying everything on
= its heaving bosom towards an awful
Niagara of death.
Its waters should be the tears of
weeping eyes and the blood from hui
man bleeding hearts.
In its turbid current no living thing
should dwell, and on its storm tossed
waves nothing but human wrecks
should be seen.
would paint a deep and gloomy cay
ern where sunlight never strays, where
foul odors fill the air, and the diving
means of murdered men resound thro'
its sepulchral vaults.
would fresco it with Shiny serpents
and creeping centipedes, and on the
walls the faces of ~grinning and ghoul.
lsh devils would CLEAN out with mad.
dening fury and iendish hate.
would putin the distant background
OF my picture vanishing visions of a
more blessed past and in the foreground
the awful certainty of an accursed flu.
ture.
1 would paint prison doors that open.
ed inward only. then l would people
the scene with men whose forms were
tenanted by tormented demons, with
wretched starving children, on whose
lips no smiles should ever play, with
woman in whose cheek burrows had
been burned by scalding tears wrung
by anguish from bleeding hearts.
In my picture not one happy home
should be found, not one bright and
cheerful face should be seen, but bloat-
ed and beasty men, pale and sad faced
women, and half clad, starving children
should CLEAN from the canvas.
l would varnish my picture with the
poison of dragons and the cruel vonom
OF asps, and when it was complete /
would frame it with the skins of scorp.
ions and Shiny monsters and hang it up
in lurid light on a cord woven from the
fangs OF the deadly RATHER and say to
the Christian people, There is the pic
ture OF intemperance, which by your
votes you are authorizing the legalized
rum seller to paint and hang up on the
walls of your now happy and peaceful
homes"
And would write under that picture
in letters as black as midnight dark.
ness, Damned by the legalized liauor
traffic for all eternity" and as YOU
walked to your churches and Sunday
Schools, to your schools, your prayer
meetings, l would have these words,
Damned by the liquor traffic for all
eternity, "ring in your ears, echo in the
chambers of your hearts and well upin
your souls until you PROSTATE yourself
at the feet of Jesus, at the foot of the
cross and cried out in agony, "How
long, o Lord, how long shall this le-
galized crime last, this dark pail cover
Christian homes, stife Christian con-
cienoesP" then spring to your feet, rush
to the ballot box with apure, clean bal
lot for God, home and native land, de.
positit for the prohibition of the liquor
traffic, and then 1 would put new joy
in your hearts and q new song in your
mouth and have you shout: Saved.
saved at last, by an honest ballot from
everlasting to everlasting. "-Ex.
nnrc TN D.-D