The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-12-06

! murder and abandonment in solution.
Aye, reform hat army OF inebriates-
That shows that You will be Of no use
in the work. 20 We Of little faith"
Away back in early times President
Davies, of Princeton college, n day
found a man in utter despair because
Of the thrall of strong. drink The
president said to him: Sir, be Of
good cheer. You can be saved. Sign the
pledge" All" said the despafring
victim, Il have often signed the pledge.
but 1 have always broken my pledged"
But" said the president, Il will be
your strength to keep the pledge. 1 will
be your friend, AND with a loving arm
around you will hold o UP. When
your appetite burns, and you feel that
you must crafty it, come to my house,
sit down with me in the study or with
the family in the parlor, n I will be a
shield to you. All than I a do for
you with my books. my sympathy, my
experience, my society. my love. my
money, I will do. You shall forget
your appetite and master it," A look
Of hope glowed on the oor mans face.
and he replied, "Sir. will you do all
that?" Surely I will" Then I will
overcome" He signed the pledge and
kept it. That plan of President Davies
which saved one man, tried on a large
scale. will a a million men.
THE CONQUEST OF SELF.
! Alexander the Great made an imperi-
al banquet at Babylon, and, though he
had been drinking the health of guests
all one night and all next day, the
second night he had twenty guests,
and he drank the health of each sep
arately. Then calling for the cup of
Hercules the giant, a Monster cup, he
filled and drained it twice to show his
endurance; but, as he finished the last
draft from the cup of Hercules the
giant, he dropped in a fit, from which
he never recovered. Alexander, who
had conquered Sardis and conquered
Halicarnassus and conquered Asia and
conquered the world, could not cor
quer himself, and there is a threaten
ing peril that this good land of ours,
having conquered all with whom it has
ever gone into battle, may yet be over
thrown by the sup of the giant evil of
the land-that Hercules of infamy,
strong drink. Do not let the stagger-
ing and bloated and embruted host of
drunkards go into the next century
looking for insane asylums and aims
houses and delirium tremens and dis
honored graves.
Another thing we must get fixed is
a national law concerning divorce. Will
liam E. Gladstone asked me while
walking in his grounds at Hawarden,
do you not think that your country
is in peril from wrong notions of di-
vorce?" And before I had time to an
swer he said, 1.-The only good law Of
divorce that you nave in America is
the law in South Carolina" The fact
is that instead of state laws On this
subject We need a national law passed
by the senate of the United States and
the house of representatives and plain
ly interpreted by the supreme court of
the country
There are thousands of married peO-
pie who are unhappy, and they ought
never to have been welded They were
deceived or they were reckless or they
were fools or they were caught bv
dimple or hung by a curl or married
in joke or expected a fortune and it
did not come or good habits turned to
brutality. and hence the domestic
wreck. But make divorce less easy and
you make the human race more eau
tious about entering upon lifetime al
lance. Let people understand that
marriage is not an accommodation
train that will let you leave almost
anywhere, but a through train, and
then they Will not step on the train I'M
less they expect to go clear through to
the last spot. One brave man this
coming winter. rising amid the White
marble of yOnder Capitol hill, could of
fer a resolution upO the subject OF
divorce that would keep out of the
next century much Of the free lovism
and disso1uteness which have cursed
this century.
THE JURY OF NATIONS.
Another thing that we need to get
fixed up before the clock shall strike
II on that night of centennial tranSi-
ton is the expulsion of war by the
power of arbitration. Within the next
three years we ought to have, and !
hope will have, what might be called
"a jury of nations" which shall rem
national questions. All civilized ma
ttions are ready for it-Great Britain
with a standing army Of 100000 men;
France, with a standing army of $50,
900 men; Germany, with a standing ar
my of 800, 900 men; Russia, with g
standing army of 900, 900 men. Europe
with standing armies of about $500, 00(
men: the United States proposing g
standing army Of 100,0 600 men,! VIVA
a glorious idea, that Of disarmament
What an emancipation of nations anC
centuries! The car Of Russia las
summer proposed it in world esound
ing manifesto. Disarmament! Wha
an inspiring and heaven descended
thought! In some quarters the car:
manifesto was treated with derision
and we were told that he was not il
earnest when he made it. I know
personally that he did mean it, Si1
years e he expressed to me the sam
theory in his palace at Peterhof, h,
then being on the way to the throne
not yet having reached it. His father
Alexander III. then on the throne, ex
pressed to me in his palace the sam,
sentiments of peace, and his wife, tn
then empress, with tears in her eyes
|, said. in reply to my remark, you
: majesty. there will never be anothe
great war between Christian nations.
"Ah, / hope there never will be! /
there should ever be another grea
war, I am sure it will not start from
this palace"
, What a boon to the world if Russii
, and Germany n England and tn
, United States could safely disband a.
r their standing armies and dismantl
, their fortresses and spike their gum
, What uncounted millions of dollar
would be saved, and, more than thai
!, what a complete cessation of hupa
! | slaughter! What an improvement !