The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-11-25


could that Italian village, so small that
history makes but one mention of it,
want with more than one tavern?
There were not enough travellers COM
ing through that insignificant town to
support more than one house OF lodg
ment. That would have furnished
enough pillows and enough break
fasts. No, the worlds appetite is dis
eased, and the subsequent draughts
must be taken to slake the thirst
created by the preceding draughts. So
strong drink kindles the fires of thirst
faster than it puts them out. There
were three taverns. That which cursed
the Italian village curses all Christen-
dom to-day - too many taverns.
| There are streets in some OF our
cities where there are three or
four taverns on every block; aye,
where every other 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 will
not express the statistics of American
rummeries. Even if it were a good,
healthy business, supplying necessity,
an article superbly nutritious it is a
business mi ightily overdone, and there
are three taverns where there ought to
be only one.
The fact is, there are 10 another
sense three taverns now; the gorgeous
tavern for the affiuent, the medium
tavern for the working classes, and the
tavern of the slums, and they stand in
line, and many people beginning with
the first come down through the Sec
Ond and come out at the third. At the
first of the three taverns. the wines are
Of cele vintage, and the whis-
kies are said to be pure, and they are
quatfed from cut glass, at marble side
tables, under pictures approaching
masterpieces. The patrons pull off
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 at that place.
1t is not the money that a man pays
for drinks, for what are a few hun
dred or a few thousand dollars
to man Of large income
but their brain gets touched, and
that unbalances their judgment, and
they can see fortunes in enterprises
surcharged with disaster. In longer
or shorter time they change taverns,
and they come down to tavern the Sec
ond, where the pictures are not quite
SO scrupulous of suggestion, and the
small table is rougher, and the castor
standing 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 larger per-
centage of benzine, ambergis, creOsote.
hen bane, strychnine, prussic acid, co
culus indicus, plaster of paris, copperas
and nightshade. The patron may be
seen almost every day, and perhaps
many times the same day, at this tav-
ern the second, but he is preparing to
graduate. Brain, liver, heart, nerves
are rapidly giving away. The tavern
the second has its dismal echo in his
business destroyed and family scat
tered, and woes that choke ones
vocabulary. Time passes on, and he
enters tavern the third; red light out
, side; hiccoughing and besotted group
inside. He will be dragged out OF doors
. about two o'clock in the morning, and
left on the sidewalk. because the bar
tender wants to shut up. The poor
, victim has taken the regular course III
the college of degradation. lie has
his diploma written on his swollen
, bruised and blotched physiognomy. He
is regular graduate Of the three
taverns. AS the police take hin
and put him in the ambulance the
wheels seem to rumble with two roll!
; of thunder, one of which says: "Looi
not upon the wine when is is red
/ when it moveth itself Alright in the
l cup, for at the last it biteth like a ser
/ pent and stingeth like an adder.
f The other thunder roll says: "Al
4 drunkards shall have their place in
= the lake that burneth fire and with
, brimstone.'
5 | am glad to find in this scene of tn
: text that there is such thing as de
4 clining successfully great taverniaI
1 temptations. l can see from what Pau
e SAID and did after he had travelled thu
d following II miles of his journey, tha
l. he had received no damage at the thre
o taverns. How much he was tempted
l. know not. Do not suppose he was 81
= perior to temptation. That partlcu
e lar temptation has destroyed many c
r the grandest, mightiest, noblest states
e men, philosophers, heroes, clergymer
a apostles of law and medicine and GO
It ernment and religion. Paul was nc
IS physically we'll under any circun
s stances; it was not in mock depreci;
n ton that he said he was I'm bodil
l. presence weak" 1t seems that h
v eyesight was SO poor that he did h
n writing through an amanuensis, for
D. mentions it as something remarkab
D. that his shortest epistle, the one
1t Philemon, was in his own penmanshl
N saving: Il, Paul, lave written it wit
le nv own hand" He had been throw
It from his horse, he had been stoned, l
Of had been endungeoned, he had had h
to nerves pulled on by preaching
re Athens to the most scholarly audien