The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-02-04


cin6ers, and debris. In the interstices
of business that young man is reading
that which will prepare him to be a
merchant prince, and that young wom-
an is filing her mind with an intelli-
gence that will yet either make her
the chief attraction of a good mans
home, or give her an ependence
of character that will qualify her
to build her own home and main
tain it in a happiness that re-
quires no augmentation from any of
our rougLer sex. That young man or
young woman can, by the right liter
airy or moral improvement of the
spare ten minutes mere or there every
day, rise head and shoulders in pros
perity, and character, and influence
above the loungers who read nothing,
or read that which bedwarfs. See all
the forests of good American literature
dripping with honey. Why pick up
the honeycom BIS that have in them the
fiery bees which will sting you with
an eternal poison while you taste it?
One book may for you or me decide
everything for this world and the
next. 1t was turning point with me
when in a book store in Syracuse one
day L picked up a book called The
Beauties of Ruskin." 1t was only book
OF extracts, but it was all pure honey,
and L was not satisfied until L
had purchased all his works, at that
time expensive beyond an easy cap
acity to own them, and with what de-
light | went through reading his
Seven Lamps of Architecture" and
his Stones of Venice" it is impossible
for me to describe, except by saying
that it gave me u rapture for good
books and an everlasting disgust for
decrepit or immoral books that will
last me while my life lasts. All around
the church and the world to-day there
are busy hives of in Intelligence occupied
by authors and authoreSses from whose
pens drip a distillation which is the
very nectar of Heaven, and why will
you thrust your rod of inquisitiveness
INTO the beautiful saccharIne of per-
ditiOn?
Stimulating liquids also come into
the category of temptation delicious
but beautiful. You say: Il can not
bear the taste of Intoxicating liquor,
and how any man can like it is to me
an amazement." Well, then, it is no
credit to you that you do not take ii.
Do not brag about your total abSti-
nence, because il is not from any prin-
ciple that you reject alcoholism, but
for the reason thSt you reject certain
styles of food-you simply don't like
the taste of them. But multiLudes of
people have IL natural fOndness for all
kinds of intOXicants. They like it SO
much that it makes them smack their
lips to look at X. They are dyspeptic
and they like to aid digestion; or they
are annoyed by insomnia, and they
take it to produce sleep; or they are
troubled, and they take it to make
them Oblivious; or they feel happy, and
they must ceiebra their hilarity.
They begiu with mint julep sucked
through two straws on the Long
Branch piazza and end in the ditch,
taking from a jug a liquid half kero-
sene and half whisky. They not only
ike it, but it is an all-cOnsuming pas
sion of body, mind and soul, and after
awhile have it they will, though one
wineglass of it should cost the tenn
pOral and eternal destruction of them
selves, and all their families, and the
whole human race. They would say:
Il am sorry it is going to cost me, and
my family, and all the wold's popula-
ton SO very much, but here it goes to
my lips, and now let it roll over my
Oarched tongue and down my heated
throat, the sweetest, the most inspir-
ng, the most delicious draught that
l., 4
The habit before it came to its last
stages, various plans were tried in
Dlden times. This plan was recommend
I'd in the books; when man wanted |
10 reform he put shot or bullets into
,he cup or glass of strong drink-One
additional shot or bullet each day, that |
SO much liquor. Bullet alter
bullet added day by day, of course the |
IquOr became less and less until the |
bullets would entirely fill up the glass,
md there was no room for the liq uid, !
md by that time it was said the in !
,briate would be cured. Whether any
,ne ever was cured in that way l know |
lot, but by long experiment it is found |
hat the only way is to stop short off, |
md when man does that he needs |
Tod to help him. And there have been
more cases than you can count when |
Tod has SO helped the man that he left |
IF the drink forever; and L could |
count a score of them, some of them |
pillars in the house of God.
One would suppose that men would |
AXE warning from some of the omi-
lous names given to the intoxicants |
md stand off from the devastating in |
luence. You have noticed, for in |
tance, that some of the restaurants |
Lre called The Shades" typical of the |
act that it puts mans reputation in |
he shade, and his morals in the shade, |
md his prosperity in the shade, and |
lis wife and children in the shade, and |
lis immortal destiny in the shade. |
Now, L find on some of the liquor |
igus in all our cities the words |
old Crow" nightly suggestive of the |
.arcass and the filthy raven that |
woops upon it. "Old Croww Men and |
women without numbers slain of rum, |
)ut un buried, and thus evil is pecking |
It their glazed eyes, and pecking at |
heir blOated cheek, and pecking at |
heir destroyed manhood and woman
rood, thrusting beak aud claw into |
he mortal remains of what was once |
slOriOusly alive, but now morally |
lead. ''Old Crown But alas! how |
many take no warning! They make |
ne think of Caesar on his way to as |
assinati fearing nothing; though |
lis statue in the hall crashed into |
at his feet, and a scroll con- |
aiming the names of the conspirators |
vas hrust into his hands, yet walkin |
light on to meet the dagger that was
% take his life. This infatuation of |
trong drink is SO mighty in many a |
nan that. though his fortaneS are |