Connecticut western news., 1897-01-14


 hear Jenny Lind sing when it was not very easy to afford the s7. Very expen- sive is such music, but the costliest song on earth is the drunkards' song. It
 costs ruin of body. It costs ruin of
 mind. It costs ruin of soul. Go right down among the residential streets of any city and you can find once beauti-
 tul and luxurious homesteads that were
 expended in this destructive music The lights have gone ont in the draw
 ing room, the pianos have ceased the
 pulsation of their keys, the wardrobe
 has lost its last article of appropriate
 attire. The Belshazzarean feast has left
 nothing but the broken pieces of the crushed chalioes. The Most Expensive Musie. There it stands, the ghastliest thing on earth-the remnant of drunkard's home. The costliest thing on earth is sin. The most expensive of all music is the song of the drunkards. It is the highest tariff of nations-not protect i've tariff, but tariff of doom, tariff of woe, a tariff of death. This evil whets the knives of the assassins, cuts the most of the wounds of the hospital, makes necessary most of the almshouses, causes the most of the rawlings of the insane asylum and puts up most of the iron bars of the penitentiaries It has it's hand today on the throat of the American republic. It is the taskmaster of nations, and the human race crouohes under its anathema The song of the drunkards has for its accompa paniment kl< @f akas AkA ok,k of poverty, the rattle of executioner's scaffold, the creaking door of the de- serted home, the crash of shipwrecks and the groan of empires. The 2,020,. 900, 900 which rum costs this country in year in the destruction of grain and sugar and the supporting of the paupers and the invalids and the crimi- nals which strong drink causes is only a small part of what is paid for this ex. pensive song of the drunkards.
 Again, this song of the drunkards is a multitudinous song-not solo, not duet, not quartet, not sextet, but millions on millions are this hour sing l ing it. Do not think that alcoholism has this field all to itself. It has pow erful rivals in the intoxicants of other nations-hasheesh, and arrack, and pulque, and opium, and quavo, and mastic, and wedro. Every nation, bar bario as we'll as civilized, has it's pet intoxicant. This song of tho drunkards is rendered in Chinese, Hindus tanee, Ara bian, Assyrian, Persian, Mexican-yea, all the languages. All zones join it. No continent would be large enough for the choir gallery if all those who have this libretto in their hands should stand side by side to chant the international chorus. Other throngs are just learning the eight notes of this deathful music which is already mastered by the orchestras in full voice under the batons in full swing. All the musicians assembled at Dus- | seldorf, or Berlin. or Boston peace ju- ! bilee, rendering symphonies, requiems or grand marches of Iendelssohn or Wagner or Chopin or Handel, were in- significant in numbers as compared with the innumerable throngs, host be- ,ide host, gallery above gallery, who are now pouring forth the song of the drunkards.
 The Song of Salvation.
 Years ago. standing before bulletin board in New York on the night of 8 presidential election day as the news came in and the choice of the American people was finally announced. there were people in the streets who sang roistering and frivolous songs, but in | the street one man, in deep, strong, resonant voice, started, to the tune of "Old Hundred" Praise God, From Whom All Blessings Flow" and soon, all up and down the street. the voices | joined in the doxology. May God speed
 the day when the song of rescue and salvation shall drown with an over whelming surge this mighty song of | the drunkardsr
 Again. the song of the drunkards is
 a suggestive song. You hear a nursery refrain, and right away you think of | your childhood home and brothers and sisters with whom you have played and mother long since gone to rest. | You hear national air and you think | of the encampment of 1863, and the | still night on the river bank, and the | campfires that shook their reflections | up and down the faces of the regiment. I You hear an old church tune and you are reminded of the revival scenes amid which you were brought to God. Noth- | ing so brings up associations as song
 sung or played upon an instrument, and
 the drunkards' song is full of sugges-
 ton. As you hear it on the street quite
 late some night you begin to say to | yourself: "I wonder if he has moth | CT? Is his wife waiting for him? Will his children be frightened when he en- | ters the front door and staggers, whoop-
 ing, up the stairs? What chance is there
 Tor that young man, started so early on | the down grade? In what business will
 he succeed? How long before that man
 will run through his property? won-
 der how he got so far astrayF Can any
 influence be wielded to fetch him backp
 He must have got into bad company.
 Who led him off?' So you soliloquize
 and guess about this man whose voice you hear on the street under the star
 light
 Generally Q Chorus.
 Notice that the second noun of my
 text is in the plural. Not "drunkard,
 but "drunkards. It would be dull
 work to sing that song solitary and
 alone. It is generally chorus. They
 are in groups On that downward way
 there must be companionship. Here and
 there is man SO mean as always to
 drink alone, but generous men, big
 hearted men, drinking at bar or in res
 taurant or in clubhouse, feel mortified
 to take the beverage unaocompanied.
 There must be some one with whom to
 click the rim of the glasses, some one's
 health to propose, some sentiment to
 toast There must be two, and still bet
 ter if four. and still better if six, to give
 zest to the song of the drunkards. Those
 who have gone down could mention the name of at least one who helped them