The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1898-04-02
NO. 81
1T IS HE'LL.

Greenwood Commonwealth
If all the bligh,ed hopes, frustrated
ambitions, crushed aspirations, broken
hearts-all of the suffering and sorrow
which excessive drink has caused in
this world could be gathered together,
reduced to a liquid and poured intu
the Pacific ocean, it would make every
globule an infinite hell every air cell
a storm center of destruction; every
vapor breath of death; every ami
malculae a tortured fend, and cause
the mighty basin to burst its bounds,
wash down the law of gravitation and
devastate the universe. Strong drink
is the greatest curse that ever befell
mankind. 1t is worse than pestiieDce
equally as bad as poverty-more
heartless than war, and makes every
soul that lives in it veritable fend in
hell. Would to God that every drop
on earth were-we like to have said in
perdition-but we would not be so un-
kind to the spirits OF the damned. We
hardly know where to put it, unless it
be in the back yard Of some outcast
shade, a million miles from the con-
fines of creation. And we>a-e not an
over-zealous rantankerous prohibition
ist, either. But we are against it. 1t
does no good-and it does an infinite
deal Of harm. 1t is urging more young
men to the shores of ruin today than
all the other diabolical agencies in the
world combined. They start out with
the social drink, taken for the purpose
of getting jolly and to have a good
time, and often end in broken health,
shattered hopes crushed hearts
wreck, ruin, remorse. Great Gou 1t
is a mystery that sensible, rational
men do not see the danger and avoid
the consequences of so terrible snare.
The following, which we take from
the Scranton Chronicle, presents a
most pitiful example Of such life;
"Probably no more eloquent or dra-
matte sermon on the sin OF drunken
ness was ever delivered than 10 which
a small gathering Of drinking men lis.
tened to in a New Orleans barroom
recently. The drinkers group of
well.dressed young men with plenty OF
money,-were standing at the bar,
when poor miserable specimen OF
tramp pushed open the swinging doors
and, with bleared eyes, looken at them
appea,ingly. They ordered drink
for him, paid for it, and then bolster
ously demanded that he make speech.
After swallowing the liquor the tramp
lgazed at them for an instant, and then,
with dignity and eloauence that
showed how far he had fallen in the
social scale, he began to speak.
Gentlemen" be said. Il look TO-
night at you and myself, and it seems
to me LOOK upon the picture OF my
lost manhood. This boated face was
once as young aud handsome as yours.
This shambling figure once walked as
proud as yours, 4 man in the world Of
men. |, too, once had home. an:
friends and position. had wife as
beautiful as an ARTISTS dream, and I
dropped the priceless pearl OF her
houor and respect in the wine cup, and,
Cleopatra-iike, saw it dissolve. and
quatfed it down in the brimming
draught. l had children, as sweet and
lovely as the flowers OF spring, and
saw them fade and die under the curse.
OF drunken father had home
where love lit the flame upon the altar
and ministered before it, and put out
the holy fire, and darkness and desola-
tion reigned in its stead. I had aspi =
ratlons and ambitions that scared as
high as the morning star and | broke
and bruised their beautiful wings. and
at last strangied them, that might be
tortured with their cries no more. To-
day am a husband without a wife. 4
father without child. u tramp with nc
home TO call his own. a man in whom
every good impulse is dead. All, all
swallowed up in the maelstrom of
drink"
The tramp ceased speaking. The
glass fell from his nerveless fingers
and shattered in thousand fragments
on the floor. The swinging doors
pushed open and shut to again, and
when the little group about the bar
looked up the tramp was gone. He
had gone out in the dark December
night to wander, no doubt, till dawn.
but he, outcast though he was, had
made an impression. They felt that
they had received lesson which they
would remember while they lived, and
when they left the barroon the word,
OF the poor wanderer still sounded in
their ears like note Of warning