The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1897-10-22

The fact Is, there are in another sense
three tavcrns now; the gorgeous taF-
ern for the afiluent. the medium tavern
for the working classes and the tavcrI
Of the slums, and they stand in line
and many people beginning with the
first como down through the second
and come out al the third Al the hrst
Of the three taycrBs the wines are OF
celebrated vintage. and the whistles
are said TO be pure, and they are
quaffcd from cut glass at marble side
tables under pictures approaching
masterpieces. 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 these atrons
are apt 10 stop visiting that place
II is not the money that a man
pays for drinks, for what are a
few hundred or a few thousand
dollars to a man OF large income
but their brain gets touched, and that
their judgment and they
can see fortunes in enterprises sur
with disaster. In longer or
shorter time they change taverns, and
they come down TO tavern The sccosd.
where the pictures are not quite so
scrupulous OF suggestion and the small
table IS tougher and the castor stand
i,.g on IL Is Of German silver and the
air has been kept over from the night
before, aud that which they sip from
the pewter mug has a larger percentage
OF benzinc, ambergris, crcOsOtc, hem
banc, strichnine, prussic acid, coculis
indicus, plaster OF paris, coppcras
and night shade The patron may
be seen almost every day and
perhaps many times the same
day at this tavern the second, but
he IS preparing 10 graduate. Brain,
liver, heart, nerves are rapidly giving
away That tavern the second has its
dismal echo in his business destroyed
and his family scattered, and woes that
choke ones vocabulary. Time passes
on and he enters tavern the third, a
red light outside; a biecoughing and
bcsottcd group inside. lie will be
dragged out Of doors about two
o'clock in the morning and left en-
the sidewalk. bccansc the bartender
wants to shut mp. The poor victim has
taken the regular course in the college
Of degradation lie has his diploma
written on his swollen, bruised and
blotched physiognomy. lie is a regular
graduate of the three taverns. As the
police take lin up and put him in the
ambulance Che wheels Seem TO rumble
with two rolls Of thunder, one of which
says, Look not upon the wine when
il is red. when it lnoveth itself Alright
in the cup, for at last it biteth like a
serpent and stingeth like an adder. :
The other thunder roll says, IAN
drunkar,ls shall have their place in the
lake that burncth fire and with brim-
stone
am glad to find in this scene Of the
text that there is such thing as de-
Ginning successfully great Tavernian
temptations. can sec from what Paul
said and did after he had Travelled the
following seventeen miles OF his jour
ney that he had received no damage at
the Three Tayerns. How much he was
tempted know not Do not suppose
he was superior TO temptation. That
particular temptation has destroyed
many of the grandest. might
lest, noblest statesmen, philoso-
pliers, heroes, clergymen, apostles
Of law and medicine and govern
ment and religion. Paul was not phys.
ieally well under any circumstances;
it was not in mock depreciation that
he said he was lin bodily presence
weak" IL seems that his eycsight
was so poor that he did his writing
through an amanuensis, for he men
tions il as something remarkable that
his shortest Epistle, the ono TO Philc-
mon, was in his own penmanship, say
ing, II. Paul, have written il with my
own hand lie had been thrown from
mis- horse, he mad been stoned, he had
been endungeoned, he had had his
nerves pulled On by preaching at Athens
10 the most scholarly audience of
all the earth, and at Corinth to the
most brilliantly proiligate assemblage,
and been howled upon by the Ephesian
worshipers Of Diana, tried for his life
before Felix, charged by Fcstus with
being insane, had crawled mp on the
beach, drenchcd in the shipw eek, and
much Of the time had an iron handcun
on his wrist, and If any man needed
stimulus Paul needed It, but with all
his physical exhaustion he got past the
Three Tavcrns unchanged and step
ped into Rome all ready for
the tremendous ordeal 10 which
he was subjected OH how many
mighty men, feeling that they must
brace up after extraordinary service
and prepare themselves for other scrv-
ice, have called on the spirit of wine
for inspiration, and in a few years
have been sacrificed on the altar of a
Moloch, who sits ON a throne of human
carcasscs. II would not be wise or
kind or Christian to call their names
in public, but you --eall them out OF
your own memory. on how many
splendid men could not get past the
Three Taverns.
Notice that profound mystery is at
tached to these Italian hostelries. No
hotel register tells the names OF those
who stopped at those taverns; there is
no old account book as to how many
drank there; there is no broken chalice
or jug to suggest what was the style Of
liquid which these customers con-
sumcd SO an awful mystery hangs
about the bar rooms OF the modern tav-
ems. OH II they would only keep a
book upon the counter or a scroll that
could be unrolled from the wall, telling
how many homcsteads they have desc
lated and how many immortal souls
they have blasted. You say that would
spoil their business. Well, suppose
II would, but business that can not
plainly tell its effect upon its custom
ers is a business that ought 10 be
spoiled. Ali you mysterious barrooms.
speak out and tell how many suicides
went out from you 10 halter. or pistol.
or knife, or deadly leap from fourth
story window; how many young men.
started well in life, were halted by
you and turned on the wrong road.
dragging after them bleeding parental