The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-10-10
A THRILLING STORY BY. B. COUGH.

A minister of the Gospel told me one OF
the most thrilling incidents / ever heard in
my life. A member of his congregation
came home for the first time in his life in
toxicated, and his boy met him upon the
doorstep. olapping his hands, exclaiming:
"Papa's come home"
He seized the boy by the shoulder, swung
him around, staggered and fell in the hall.
The minister said to me:
81 could give You his name, il necessary.
I spent the night in the house. went out.
barred my brow that the night air might fail
upon it and cool it. / walked down the hill.
There was his child-dead! There was his
wife in strong convulsicns, and he asleepp'
A man but thirty years of age asleep with
a dead child in the house, having a blue
mark upon the temple where the corner OF
the marble steps had come in contact with
tho head as he swung him around, and
wife upon the brink of the grave!
"Mr. Cough" said my friend. II cursed
the drink. He had told me I must remain
till he awoke, aud 1 did. When he awoke
he passed his hand over his face. and ex-
claimed: 'What is the matter? Where am
/? Where Is my boy2;
'You cannot see him."
"'Stand out of the way! will see my
boyr"
child's bed, and as turned down the sheet
and showed him the corpse he uttered a
wild shrek: oh, my childp"
That minister said further to me: "One
year after he was brought from lunatic
asylum to lie side by side with his wife in
one grave, and 1 attended the funeral"
The minister OF the Gospel who told me
that fact Is to-day a drunken hostler in
stable in Bostoni
Now tell me what rum won't dol 1t will
debase, degrade, imbrute and damn every
thing that Is noble, bright, glorious and
God-like in human being. There is moth
ing that drink will not do that is vile, das-
lardly, cowardly, sneakish or hellish. We
are united, comrades, are we not, to fight
this monster, rum, till the day Of our death?
A GRATIFYING FACT.
1t is only natural deduction from other
facts that the drink habit is falling off, says
the Brooklyn IN. W Citizen, One Of these
Is the common practice OF railroad AID other
corporations to require notEmerely temper
ance, but total abstinence on the part of
their employees. This at once wthdraws from
the saloons the patronage OF large body OF
men, most of them young men. who are the
btst patrons of such places when they pat
ronize them at all. The Christian Endeavor
movement, which has had such wonderful
success in gathering young men to Its BAN
ner, is another potent enemy of drink, and
withhoids from the saloons many thousands
yearly.
Still another adverse influence is that of
society. There is plenty of drinking done in
society, and society smiles on it, but, ali the
same, when mans character is under dis
cussion In society the admission that she
drinks a little now and then" always counts
against him. That is really the meaning of
the screened doors and frosted windows OF
the saloons. 1t is not reputable for man
to be seen drinking, and this consideration
has its influence in restraining the habit.
1t is tolerably plain, then, that the use OF
Intoxicating liquor is on the wane. 1t will
be a long time before it will cease entirely, If
II ever does, but each succeeding genera
ton is sobsrer than the one before it. In
time, perhaps in a comparatively few years,
drink will become the dissipation of the few
instead of, as now, the vice OF the many.
HARMLESS CIDER"
A few months ago two boys rode to coun
try store. One of them bought and drank
four glasses of harmless cider" They then
went to a country church, disturbedthe con-
gregation, who were holding a social, and
starting home, overlook others.
The boy. only nineteen years Old, who had
drank the cider, began TO quarrel with an
other young man. and before the others
realized what was taking place, had killed
him; and he was a son OF q widow. The bow.
only nineteen years old, was sentenced to
the penitentiary for twenty years. So two
homes are made desoiate by four glasses Of
cider.
Not until the anguish @; that widowed
mothers heart 81 she sat listening for the
bounding step OF her hoy and heard instead
the tread of those who bore the Ii e ess form
Of her boy, can be estimated, can we know
the cost OF four glasses OF cider.-Wafch-
tower.
When you get into a tight place, and
everything goes against you, tiil.it seems MS
II you could not hold ON minute longer.
never give up then, for that's just the Lace
and time that the tide'n turn.-Har,iet
Beecher Stowe.