The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-24

home and maintain it in a happiness that
requires no augmentation from any of our
IouSher sex. That young man or young
woman can, by the right literary and
moral Improvement of the spare ten min
utes here or there every day, rise head and
shoulders i'm prosperity, and character
and influence, above the loungers who
read nothing, or read that which be-
dwarfs. See all the forests of good Amer
lcan literature dripping with honey Why
PICK up The hOueycombs that have in them
the merry bees which will sting you with
an eternal poison while you taste it? one
book may for you or me decide every
thing for this world and the next. IL was
"a turning point with me when in a book
store in Syracuse, one day, | picked up
book called The Beauties of Ruskin."
II was only book of extracts, but il was
al pure money, and / was not satisfied
uhttl l mad purchased all his works at
that time expensive beyond an easy ca
pacity 10 own them, and with what de-
llsht went through reading his Seven
Lamps of Architecture" and his "Stones
OF Venice, ii is impossible for me to de-
Scrloe except by saying that it gave me a
rapture for good books, and an eyerlast
ing disgust for decrepit or immoral books
mat viii last me while my life lasts. All
around me church and the world to-day
there are busy hives of intellisence occu-
pea by authors and authoresses from
whose pens drip distillation which is the
very nectar OF heaven, and why will you
thrust your rod of inquisiuveness into the
deathful saccharine of perdition?
Stlmula ting liquids also come into the
category OF temptation delicious but death
Iul' lou say: Il cannot bear the taste
Oh intoxicating liquor, and how any man
can IKE IL IS to me an amazement !" Well
then, 1t IS no credit to you that you do not
tahe IT, DO not brag about your total abb
stinence, because IL Is not from anv Drin-
clple that you reject alcoholism but for
the reason that you reject certain STYLES
OF food-you simply don't like the taste
OF them. But multitudes of people have
a natural fondness for all kinds of IN
toXlcants. They like it so much that it
makes them smack their lips to look at it.
They are dyspeptic and they like to aid
digestion; or they are annoyed by insom-
MIA, and they take it to produce sleep:
or they are troubled, and they take it to
make them Obvious; OF they feel happy,
and they must celebrate their hilarity
They begin with mint julep sucked through
Two straws on the Long Branch piazza
and end in the ditch taking from a Jug
a liquid half kerosene and half whisky.
They not only like it, but il Is an all
consuming passion of body, mind and soul.
and after awhile have it they will, though
one wine-glass of 1t should cost the tenn
poral and eternal destruction of them
selves and all their families and the whole
human race. They would say: 81 am
sorry it is going to cost me, and my fam
lily, and all the worlds population so very
much, but here it goes to my lips and
now let it roll over my parched tongue
and down my heated throat. the sweetest,
the most inspiring, the most delicious
draught that ever thrilled a human
frame" To cure the habit before it
comes to its last stages, various plans
were tried IN olden times This plan ives
rppn Cd in he n
wanted to reform he put shot or bullets
into the cup or glass of strong drink-one
additional shot or bullet each day, that
displaced so much liquor. Bullet after
bullet added day by day, of course the
liquor became less and less until the bull
let's would entirely fill up the glass, and
there was no room for the liquid, and hy
that time it was said the inebriate would
be cured. Whether any one ever was cur
ed In that way l know not but by long
experiment it is found that the only way
Is to stop short off. and when a man does
that he needs God to help him. And there
have been more cases than you can count
when God has so helped the man that lie
left off the drink forever; and could
count a score of them, some of them pill
lars in the house of God.
One would suppose that men would take
warning from some of the ominous names
given to the intoxicants, and stand off
from the devastating influence. You have
noticed for instance, that some of the
restaurants are called THE Shades, "
typical of the fact that ii puts a mans rep
utation in the shade, and his morals in the
shade, and his prosperity in the shade,
and his wife and children in the shade.
and his immortal destiny in the shade.
Now, / find on some of the liquor signs in
all our cities the words "Old Crow,
nightly suggestive of the carcass and the
filthy raven that swoops upon it. "Old
CroWv Men and women without numbers
slain of rum, but unburied, and this evil
is pecking at their glazed eyes, and peck
ing at their bloated cheek, and pecking at
their destroyed manhood and womanhood.
thrusting beak and claw into the mortal
remains of what was once gloriously alive,
but now morally dead. "Oid Crown But
alas! how many take no warningi They
make me think of Caesar on hts way to
assassination fearing nothing; though his
statue in the hall crashed into fragments
at his feet, and a scroll containing the
names of the conspirators was thrust in
to his hands, yet walking right on to meet
the dagger that was to take his life This
infatuation of strong drink is so mighty in
many man that, though his fortunes are
crashing, and his health is crashing, and
his domestic interests are crashing, and
we hand him a long scroll containing the
names of perils that await him, he goes
straight on to physical, and mental, and
any style of alcoholism is pleasant to your
taste and stimulating to your nerves, and
for time delightful to all your physical
and mental constitution, is the peril awful.
Remember Jonathan and the forbidden
honey in the woods at Bethaven.
Furthermore, the gamester's Indulgence
must be put in the list of temptations de-
lfcious but destructive. You who have
crossed the ocean many times have no.
! ticed that always one of the best rooms
has, from morning until late at night been
given up to gambling practices. ] heard
of men who went on board with enough
for a European excursion who landed
without money to get their baggage up to
the hotel or railroad station. To many
| there is complete fascination in games
! of hazard or the risking of money on pos
sibihties. It seems as natural for them TO
bet as to eat. Indeed the hunger for food
| is often overpowered by the hunger for
| wagers. 1t is absurd for those of us who
| have never felt the fascination of the
wager to speak slightingly of the tempta-
| ton. Il has slain a multitude of intellect
| ual and moral giants. men and women
! stronger than you or I. Down under its
! power went glorious oliver Goldsmith.
| and Gibbon, the famous historian, and
| Charles Fox, the renowned statesman.
| In. 1ASf,