The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1897-11-27
A Drunkard's Homely speech.

II was growing late. me tlOe OF
humanity that earlier in the evening
had ebbed and flowed through the
streets of the great city, had swept
onward, leaving the strange and
almost appalling sense of desolation
that comes when the noises of the
town are hushed. The electric
lights hared unnoted on the corners,
the street cars passed at farther in
tervals, now and then night
worker hurried by, ibis footsteps
ringing out loud and clear in the
stiffness. In front of a saloon whose
lights shone out bright and ruddy
across the pavement, stood a tramp,
unshorn, ragged, dirty, disgusting.
He watched with envious eyes the
men who passed in and out through
the swinging doors, and then he
turned his eyes towards two young
fellows in evening dress, who were
coming down the street towards
him. They had been drinking
deeply, and they stopped before the
saloon door and look curiously at
him. tBy Jove," said one, ''think
of having a thirst like that, and not
the price of an extinguisher in your
pocket! Beats old Tantalus all to
pieces, eh7 Liquor, liquor every
where, and not a drop to drink"
He ran his hand in his pocket and
proffered the tramp a dime, but
before 1t could be accepted the
other young fellow interposed.
"Say," he said, s'let's do the good
Samaritan, and set Hobo up to a
good drink" The other hilarious
ly consented, and the tramp
slouched into the saloon at the heels
of the two gilded youths. The bar
keeper set before them glasses and
liquors, and with a hand that shook
the tramp poured out trimming
glass, and raised, it to his lips.
"Stop." cried one of the young men
drunkenly, "make us speech. 1t
is poor liquor that doesn't un'oosen
mans tongue" The tramp has
tily swallowed down the drink,
and as the rich liquor coursed
through his blood, he Strengthened
himself, and stood before them with
grace and dignity that all his rags
and dirt could not obscure.
ssGentlemen," he said, 81 look
tonight at you, and at myself and
it seems to me look upon the pic
ture of my lost manhood. This
bloated face was once as young and
handsome as yours. This sham
bling figure once walked as proudly
as yours, a man in a world of men.
I, too, once had home and friends,
and position. had wife as
beautiful as an artists dream, and
I dropped the priceless pearl of
her honor and respect in the wine
cup, and, like, saw it
dissolve, and quaffed it down in the
trimming draught. I had children
as sweet and as lovely as the flowers
of spring, and 1 saw them fade and
die, under the blighting curse of a
urunkaFQ 1atner. L nau nome
where love lit the flame upon the
altar and ministered before it, and
put out the holy fire, and dark
ness and desolation reigned in it's
stead. had aspirations and am
billions that scared as high as the
morning star, and broke and
bruised their beautiful wings, and,
at last, strangled them that I might
be tortured with their cries no more.
To-day I am a husband without a
wife. a father without a child, a
tramp with no home to call his
own, a man in whom every good
impulse is dead. All, all swallowed
up in the maelstrom of drink"
The tramp ceased speaking. The
glass fell from his nerveless fingers,
and shivered into thousand frag-
on the floor The swim pino