The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-10-26

the Rres of thirst faster than 1t puts
them out. There were three taverns.
Tha which cursed that Italian village
curses Christendom today-too many
taverns. There r streets in some OF
our cities where there = three OF four
taverns on every block-aye. where
every house Is a tavern. You can take
the Arabic numeral OF my text, the
three, and put on the right hand side
Of it one cipher and two ciphers and
four ciphers, and that reinforcement
OF numerals vii not express the Stats
tics Of American rummerie5. Even IL
It were a good, healthy business, sup
plying necessity. an article superbly
nutritious, 1t Is a business nightly
~overdone. and there are three taverns
where there ought to be only one.
The fact is there are in another
snse, three taverns now-the gorgeous
tavern Of the afluent, the medium tav-
ern for the working classes and the tav
ern of the slums-and they stand in
line, and nan people beginning with
the first come down through the second
and come out at the third. AT the first
Of the three taverns the wines are OF
celebrated vintage, and the whiskies
are said to be pure, and they are Quan-
ed from cut glass at marble side tab
les, under pictures approaching master
pieces. The patrons pull of their kid
gloves and hand their silk hats to the
waiter and push back their hair with
a hand on one finger of which is a
cameo. But those patrons are apt to
stop visiting the place. 1t is not he
money that a man pays for drinks-for
what are a few hundred or a few thou
sand dollars to a man Of large income
but their brain gets touched, n that
~unbalances their judgment, and they
can see fortunes in enterprises sur
charged with disaster. In longer or
shorter time they change taverns, n
they come down to tavern the second.
where the pictures are not quite SO
scrupulus Of suggestion, and the small
table is rougher, n the caster stand
ing on it is Of German silver, and the
air has been kept over from the night
before, and that which they sip from
the pewter mug has a larger percentage
Of benzine. ambergris. creosote, hea-
bane, strychnine, prussic acid, coculus
indicus, plaster of paris, copperas ana
nightshade. The patron may be sean
almost every day, and perhaps many
times the same day, at this tavern the
second, but he is preparing to gradu-
ate. Brain, liver, heart, nerves, are
rapidly giving away. That tavern the
second has it's dismal echo in his bust
ness destroyed and family scattered
and woes that choke ones vocabulary
Time passes on, and he enters tavern
the third; a red light outside, a hic-
coughing and besotted group inside. He
will be dragged out of doors about 2
o'clock in the morning and left On the
sidewalk, because the bartender want
to shut up. The poor victim has taken
the regular course in the co .;ege Of
degradation. He a his diploma
written on his swollen, bruis I'd and
blotched physiognomy. He is a 1cgu-
lar graduate Of the three taverns. AS
the police tax him up and put him in
the ambulance the Wheels seem to
rumble with two rolls Of ihundec, enc
of which says. Look not Ipon tire
wine wheM it is red. when il moveth
itself Alright in the cup, for at the last
It biteth like q serpent sand stingeth
like an adder" The other thunder roll
says, All drunkards shall nave their
place in the lake that burneth fire and
with birthstone"
TEMPTATION.
I am glad to find in this scene Of the
text that there is UGH q thing az de-
clining successfully great t%avernian
temptations. I can see from what Paul
said and did after he had Travelled the
following seventeen miles Of his jour-
ney that he a received no damage
at h three taverns. How much he
was L KNOW uOC. DO not SCQ.
pose he was superior to temptation.
That particular temptation has de-
stroyed many Of the grandest, might
lest, noblest statesmen, philosophers,
heroes, clergymen, apostles Of law and
medicine and government and religion.
Paul vas not physically well underany
circumstances. It was not in mock de-
probation that he said he was 'in
bodily presence weak" It seems that
his eyesight "a so poor that he did
his writing through an amanuensis, for
he mentions it as something remark
able hat his shortest epistle, the enc
to Philemon, was in his own penman-
ship, saying, II, Paul, have written it
with my own han1." He had been
thrown from his horse, he had been
stoned, he had been endungeoned, he
had had his nerves pulled on by
preaching at Athens to the most schol-
arly audience Of all the earth, and at
Corin;.l to the most brilliantly profit
gate assemblage and had been howled
uron by the Ephesian worshipers of
Diana, tried for his life before Felix,
charged by Festus with being insane,
had crawled upon the beach, drenched
in the s~hipwreck, and much Of the time
had an iron handcuff On his wrist. and