The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1898-07-01
A Life i Closes With LulLer
BensOns' Death.

Iance orator, died suddenly, at
O'Clock, Tuesday morning, in Rush
willie, probably from heart disease
He lived with his wife and thre,
children at 1925 n. Delaware-st.
indianapolis. He went to his ole
home, Thursday, to transact bust
ness. He was well up to Monda,
cvenllg, and took buggy rid,
Monday afternoon.
The story of Luther Benson's lif,
is as thrilling as a dark TRACED,
from Goethe. He was born in Rusl
county, sept ., 1871. lie worke,
on MS fathers farm until he was i
md, after finishing school, opened
a law Office in Rushville. He prac-
ticed law in Hartford City and
Bluft'on and came TO INDIANAPOLIS
about 20 years ago. He was sue
cessful AT the bar, and became a
prominent political speaker. He
taught school in several towns un
It'll finally he took the lecture plat
form in the cause of Temperance
He has lectured with great success
HIS DESPERATE FlGHr.
This is the story as it would ap-
pear as applied to anyone but Luth-
er Benson. But the causes which
lead to these various moves and the
experiences Of his early life were
wild and narrowing. Up almost to
the time of his dc ath he has b EN-
lighting the appetite for drink, which
was eating him within even
when he was on the lecture plat
form, numbering his warnings to
others. These experiences are told
with dramatic fire in his book
Fifteen years iD hell" of which
more than 100, 200 copies have been
sold. In the first chapter he says !:
"From the day that conscious
ness came TO me in this world, |
have been miserable. In early
childhood | swan, as it were, in "A
dark sea of sorrow, whose sad waves
beat over me with q prophetic wall
OF desolation and storms to come.
To day if were to dip the point of
a needle into whisky and touch that
point to my tongue, | would not be
able to resist the burning desire to
drink which that infinitesimal atom
would awaken. !"
HIS FIRST DEBAUcH.
His first debauch occurred when
he was but 6 years old. 1t was
harvest time and bottle containing
liquor was set in the shadow OF some
sheaves of wheat. Taking it, he
crawled into a wagon with a neigh
Dor boy. They diank until they
we're pitiably drunk. From that
the desire for drink never
eft him. He says, in his autobi-
,graphy, that if he could 'look |
down into the flames, and see men
whose eyebrows were burnt off,
whose every HAIR was a burning,
blazing, coiling, kissing srake, and
( each of these countless fiery
snakes had tongue of forked fire,
md could be heard to scream for
niles, and he knew that another
lrop would cause them to lick his
flesh, yei would he take
t." The whole history of his life
5 story of debauch and reform,
he cravings Of the appetite and
mother fall. The elimination of
lis life Of horrible misery he thus
describes:
AN AWFUL EXPERIENCE.
81 was at the Gait house in Louis
lille. had felt the delirium irem-
ms coming on for two or three
lays. got into that condition that
lot one drop of stimulants would
emain on my stomach. In that
! went into a saloon and
Isked for drink, and, as trem-
,lingly poured it out, a snake shot
is head up out of the liquor and
With swaying head and glistening
yes, looking at me, licked out its
orked tongue and Kissed in my
ace. felt my blood run cold and
.urdle at my heart left the glass
and walked out on the
treet.
"By a terrible effort of the will,
I, to some extent shook off the ter
'ible phantom. feft that if |
,ould get some stimulant to remain
IN my stomach | might escape the
errible tcrments that were gather
ng about me; and yet, at the very
hought of touching the accursed
'tuff again, ! could see the he ad Of
hat snake, and could hear ten