The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-02-17
9maerspa yateIItgeueef.
A DRUNK CURE.
Very Heroic and Extremely Effectual.

He was a great big fellow, with a
fist on him that could fell an OK, and
a Jaw that indicated he was willing to
if an opportunity were offered, but in
other respects he seemed to the San
reporter to be most exemplary man.
He was one of a dozen laborers wait
ing on pier for scow that was ap-
parently never to get there, and they
were talking about a drunken man who
had been removed few minutes be-
fore in a patrol wagon.
"By gosh,' said the big fellow, II
used to have a weakness for the wet
myself, and I'm ashamed to say so,
but I've took ride in that same 60
hickle, too. More than one, guess,
but it's all over now.
zone of the men chaffed him bit,
and he went on:
"About 20 years ago or thereabouts,
when I was a bigger fool than [ am
now," he said, II was a hard one, but
somehow I found woman to have me,
and I got married. She might have
done worse, mebbe, for I was never
out of work, but she couldn't have
done much worse, though I'm think
ing it wouldn't have been safe to have
told her so. Annie's friends, and
mine, too, didn't want her to marry
me, but you know how a woman is
when she takes a notion, and Annie
had notion I was worth trying to
save. OF course, [ made all kinds of
promises and swore to them thicker
than blackberries. that I wouldn' t
any more, and would keep myself
straight for her sake. You know how
men do when they are in love with a
girl, and I guess I was in love, with
Annie. I told her she would save me
if she would marry me, and she
thought mebbe she could, so she mar
ried me.
"Annie owned her own house, and
we went to housekeeping in that, and
for the first two months we was hap
pier than two bees in a honeysuckle,
and thought it was easy as anything
to be respectable if l had good wo-
man to help me. After time | got
used to being married, and kind offelt
lonesome of nights and wanted to see
the boys once more, so went out one
Saturday night and came home fuller
than a wagon load of hay.
~ "a
had sense enough to see that my only
chance was to put bold front on and
bulldoze it through. And tdid, for
was twice as big as she was, and ten
times as ugly, and the way talked
around there was enough to have made
her 90 back on me forever. But An
ME wasn't afraid of anything, and she
took what I said like an angel, and |
closed by tumbling off my chair to
sleep.
II don't know how long it was be-
fore I came to, but when | did !
thought I war smothering with bed
covers all over my head, and l began
to kick and swear and sputter and yell.
l might as we'll have tried to get out
of jail. Annie was on the outside
saying things that sounded bad for
me, and pretty soon I began to feel a
cowhide whacking me over the body
from head to foot. Then / understood
that Annie had sewed me up in sheet
or something, and was giving me a
lesson. It was a sharp one, too: and
kept up till I had made thousand
promises to keep sober, and not to
hurt her when I got out.
II made the promises easy enough,
but she didn't let me out till Sunday
morning and by that time I wasn't so
drunk as I was, but I was madder
than ever, and so soon as got loose l
forgot everything and made grab for
my wife. Nobody knows what might
have happened if Annie hadn't been
the kind of woman she was, but she
was the right kind, and as I reached
for her she reached for shovel handle
there was in the corner, and the next
thing I knew I was laid out fat and
Annie was standing over me.
I" Now, look here, Tom,' says she,
you've begun by lying to me and get
ting drunk. You have broken your
promises. You have tried to fight me
as you would fight a man, and | have
laid you out as a man might have
done; if you move hand or foot now,
I'll smash you fat. This is my house,
and everything in it is mine. I don t
ask any more promises of you, but if
you ever get drunk again, you never
come under my roof. Now, get UP and
go to bed, and I'll go for the doctor,
which she did, boys" he concluded,
'Sand from that day to this one Annie
and I haven't bad a 'squahble, and,
though I'm not under any promise not
to drink, l don't think 1 have had
more than a drink q wear since that