Connecticut western news., 1897-05-27

to go GO the centennial beGW66u EuC0 evils and pauperism there is very short step The vast majority of chil- dren in your almshouses are there be- cause their parents are drunken, lazy or recklessly improvident.
 have no sympathy for skinf1int sav- ing, but I plead for Christian pru- dence. You say it is impossible now to lay up anything for a rainy day. l know 1t, but we are at the aybreak of national prosperity. Some people think it is mean to turn the gas low when they go out of the parlor. They feel em- barrassed if the doorbeQ rings before they have the hall lighted. They apolo- gize for the plain meal, if you surprise them at the table. We'll, it is mean if it is only to pile up a miserly hoard. But if it be to educate your children, if it be to give more help to your wife when she does not feel strong, if it be to keep your funeral day from being horrible beyond all endurance, because it is to be the disruption and annihila- tton of the domestic circle-if it be for that. then it is magnificent.
 There are those who are kept in pov- erty because of their own fault. They might have been well off, but they smoked or chewed up their earnings or they lived beyond their means, while others on the same wages and on the same salaries went on to competency. I know a man who is all the time con- blaming of his poverty and crying out against rich men while he himself keeps two dogs and ohews and smokes .c p,,1l %l1 oL; xr,;< !; cl-r beer. Wilkins Micawber said to David Copperfeld: "Copperfeld, my boy, a1 income, expenses 20s. 6d. result, mis- cry. But, Copperfield, my boy, e1 in- come; expenses, 19s. 3d.; result, hap piness '' But o workingman, take your morning dram, and your noon dram, and your evening dram, and spend everything you have over for to- bacco and excursions, and you insure poverty for yourself and your children | foreverl
 More Holes In the Bag.
 If by some generous fiat of the capi- ! talists of this country or by new law | of the government of the United States 25 per cent or 50 per cent or 100 per cent were added to the wages of the working classes of America, it would | be no advantage to hundreds of thou sands of them unless they stopped strong drink. Aye, until they quit that evil ! habit the more money the more ruin, I the more wages the more holes in the bag.
 My plea is to those working people who are in discipleship to the whisky | bottle, the beer jug and the wine flask. | And what say to them will not be l more appropriate to the working classes than to the business classes and the lit ! erary classes and the professional classes | and all classes, and not with the people l of one age more than of all ages. Take 1 one good square look at the suffering of | the man whom strong drink has en- l thralled and remember that toward that | goal multitudes are running. The dis | ciple of alcoholism suffers the loss of self respect. Just as soon as a man | wakes up and finds that he is the cap | tive of strong drink, he feels demeaned. do not care how recklessly he acts. He l may say, 1T don't care;" he does care. | He cannot look a pure man in the eye l unless it is with positive force of reso- | lution. Three-fourths of his nature is l destroyed; his self respect is gone; he says things he would not otherwise say; | he does things he would not otherwise l do. When a man is nine-tenths gone | with strong drink, the first thing he l wants to do is to persuade you that he can stop any time he wants to. He can- not. The Philistines have bound him hand and foot, and shorn his locks, and | ls 1 grind in the mill of great horror. He
 cannot stop. I will prove it. He knows
 that his course is bringing ruin upon
 himself. He loves himself. If he could
 stop, he would. He knows his course is
 bringing ruin upon his family. He loves
 them. He would stop if he could. He
 cannot. Perhaps he could three months
 or year ago; not now. Just ask him
 to stop for month. He cannot-he
 knows he cannot, so he does not try.
 Killed by Drink.
 I had friend who was for 15 years
 going down under this evil habit. He
 had large means. He had given thou
 sands of dollars to Bible societies and
 reformatory institutions of all sorts. He
 was very genial, very generous and very
 lovable, and whenever he talked about
 this evil habit he would say, "I can
 stop any time." But he kept going on,
 going on, down, down. down. His family
 would say, II wish you would stop"
 "Why," he would reply, 'I can stop
 any time, if want to-" After awhile
 he had delirium tremens-he had it
 twice, and yet after that he said, "I
 could stop at any time, if wanted to. :"
 He is dead now. What killed himp
 Drink Drink And yet among his last
 utterances was, 'I can stop at any
 time." He did not stop it because he
 could not stop it. Oh, there is point
 in inebriation beyond which if man
 goes he cannot stopl One of these vic-
 tims said to Christian man, "Sir, if
 I were told that I couldn't get Q
 drink until tomorrow night unless l
 had all my fingers cut off, would say,
 Bring the hatchet and cut them off
 now.'" have dear friend in Phila-
 delphia whose nephew came to him one
 day, and when he was exhorted about
 his evil habit said "Unc1e, can't
 give it up If there stood cannon and
 it was loaded, and glass of wine were
 set on the mouth of that cannon, and ]
 knew that you would fire it off just as
 came up and took the glass. would
 start, for must have it. Oh, it Is 8
 sad thing for a man to wake up in this
 life and feel that he is oaptivel He
 says: "I could have got rid of this once,
 but can't now. might have lived an
 honorable life and died Christian
 death, but there is no hope for me now.
 There is no escape for me. Dead, but
 not buried. am walking corpse.
 am an apparition of what once was.
 am a caged immortal beating against
 the wires of my cage in this direction