The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-11


lowed the sea and habits OF inebracy had
been fixed upon him. But converted to
God he began a new life. Yet it was
thirty years war against the old appetite;
but about this struggle / knew nothing
until he was dead. While absent during
my summer vacation I received a telegram
announcing his death and asking me to
come and officiate at his obseQuies. ! ar
rived at the moment the service was to be-
gin, and had not much time to make in
quires about his last hours. In my re-
marks without any limitations, 1 extolled
his virtues while living and spoke of the
heavenly raptures into which he had en-
tered. Afterward / found that he had died
OF delirium tremens in the hospital, be-
cause he was SO violent he could not be
sufficiently restrained in his beautiful
home. He had been seized in the street
with violent pains of body, and went into
an apothecary store to get medical relief.
Something there given him set on fire his
old appetite for strong drink, and utterly
irresponsible, he went from liquor store to
liquor store, until, raVing maniac, the
officers of the law bound him and took
him to the hospital, where he died. Some
time after l said to the doctor in the hos
ptal, "Of what did he die?" and the an
swer was Congestion of the BRAIN"
said, Doctor, l want to know the bottom
facts, for / was his pastor and he was one
of the best friends / ever had. Was ii
spOnded, Yes" Did I regret that at mis-
oDsequies I had extolled his virtues and
spoken of the heavenly joys upon which
he had entered? No. l do not think that
my friend was any more responsible for
the mode of his taking off than a typhoid
fever patient in delirium is responsible
for leap.ng out of the fourth story win
dow. But while we were heart broken
about his going away l think that in the
saloons, to those who heard of his mem
bership of the church and the tragedy %
his departure, he became, as did the
David and the Christ of my text, the Song
of the Drunkards.
Again, the Song Of the Drunkards Is
easily learned. Through what long and
difficult drill one must go to succeed as an
elevated and inspiring singer. Emma
Abbott, among the most eminent canta
trices that ever enchanted academies of
music, told me on ocean ships deck, in
answer to my question, Whittier are you
| bound?" Il am going to Berlin and Paris
to study music" What l said, after
all your world-renowned successes in mU-
sic, going to study?" Then she told me
through what hardships, through what
self-denials, through what almost killing
fatigues she had gone in order to be a
singer, and that when, in her earlier days,
a great teacher of music hasr told her there
were certain notes she could never reach,
she said, Il will reach them" and through
doing nothing else but practice for five
years she did reach them. Oh, how many
| heroes and heroines of musical achieve
ment! There are songs which are easy to
hear but most difficult to render When
Handel, with a new oratorio, entered a
room where a group of musicians had as
sembled, and said: Gentlemen, you all
read music?" They said, yes, we play in
! church" Very WE'LL" said the great COM
poser. play this" But the performance
/ CT
ears and said, You play in church, Very
we'll; for we read the Lord is long-suffer-
! ing, of great kindness, and forgiving of
iniquity, transgression and sin. But you
| shall not play for me-" Pure music,
whether fingered on instrument or trilled
| from human lips is most difficult. But
one of the easiest songs to learn is the
Song of the Drunkards. Anybody can
/ learn it, In a little while you can touch
! the highest note of conviviality or the
/ lowest note of besottedness. Begin mod
| erately, a sip here and a sip there Begin
| with claret, go on with ale, and wind up
| with cognac. First take the stimulant at
a wedding, then take it at meals, then
/ take il between meals, then all the time
| keep your pulse under its stealthy touch,
/ In six months the dullest scholar in this
! apollyonic music may become an expert.
First it will be sounded in a hiccough.
| After awhile it will be heard in a silly
| whoop. Then it will enable you to run
up and down the five lines of the musical
/ scale internal. Then you will have mas
| tered 1.-THE Song of the Drunkards
The most skillful way is to adopt the
modern theory and give the intoXicant to
/ your children, saying to yourself, They
will in after life make the intoXicants
! everywhere, and they must get used to
seeing them and tasting them and con-
! trolling their appetites." That is the best
| way of teaching them the Song of the
| Drunkards. Keep up that mode of edu-
! cation, and if you have four boys at least
! three of them will learn the Drunkards'
Song and lie down in a drunkard'S grave,
! and if 1 ever laid a wager / would lay a
! wager that the fourth will lie down with
] the other three. Or if the education of
| the children in this music should be neg
/ lected il is not too late to begin at twenty
| one years of age. The young man will,
! find plenty of young men who drink They
| are in every circle to be found. Surely,
my boy, you are not a coward, and afraid
| of it? Surely you are not going to be him
| dered by sumptuary laws or the prejudces
| of your old father and mother? They are
| behind the times. Take something. Take
| it often. Some of the greatest poets and
/ orators have been notorious imbibers. If
you are to enter a parlor, it make you
more vivacious and Chesterfeldan. If
you are to transact business, your Gus
/ toner is apt to buy more If you have taken
with him a sherry cobb.er If you are to
make a speech it will give you a glibber
tongue. Gluck could compose his best
music by having his piano taken into the
midst of a meadow, and bottle of cham
payne placed on each side of him. The
earlier you begin to learn the Song of the
Drunkards the easier it is: but none OF
you are too old to learn. You can begin
at fifty or sixty, under prescription of a
doctor for aids to digestion or breaking up
of intirmities, and close life by rendering
the Song of the Drunkards so well that
all pandemonium will encore the perform
| ance and want it again and again.
Furthermore the last characteristic of
the Drunkard's Song is so tremendous
that / can hardly bring myself to mention
it. The Drunkards' Song is a continuous
! song once start that tune, and you keep
it up. You have known a hundred men
destroyed of strong drink. You cannot
mention five who got fully started on that
road and stopped. The grace of God can
do anything, but it does not do every
thing. Religion saves some. Temperance
societies save some. The Bowery Mission
! saves some. The Central Mission eaVpg