The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-05-01

ct tho mastery Of you..' "oh, no." he
says, II can stop at any time. Ican stop
now, can stop tomorrow. His most
confidential friends say: why, I'm afraid
you are losing your bslanoe with that
habit. You are going little further than
you can afford to 80. You had better
stop" ooh, no." he says, 1T can stop at
any time. I can stop now" He goes on
further and further. He cannot stop.
will prove 1t. He loves himself, and he
knows nevertheless that strong drink Is
depicting him IN body, mind and soul.
He knows he is going down, that he has
less self control, less equipoise OF temper
than he used to. Why does he not stops
Because he cannot stop. will prove 1t by
going still further. He loves his wife and
children. He secs that his habits are
bringing disgrace upon his home. The
probabilities are they will ruin his wife
and disgrace his children. He sees all this,
and he loves them. Why does he not stop?
Ho cannot stop.
I had very dear friend, generous to q
fault. He had given thousands and tens
Of thousands Of dollars to Bible societies,
tract societies, missionary societies. asy-
huns for the poor the halt the lame, the
blind, the imbecile. do not believe for
30 years anybody asked him for ~ Or $50
or 800 for charity bat he gave it. never
heard Of anybody asking him for help but
he gave 1t. But he was under the power
of strong drink, and he went on down,
down, down. His family implored him,
aging, you are going too far In that
habit; you had better STOP" He replied:
II can atop any time: am my own mas
ter. can STOP" He went on down,
down. His friends advised and cautioned
him. He said: Don't be afraid Of me.
I am my own lnaster;'I can stop new;
know what ! am doing" He went on
down until he had the deliriu,n tremens.
On down until he had tho lelirium ire
mems twice. After the second time the doc
tor said: III you ever have an attack like
this again, you will die. You had better
stop" He said, II can stop any time; I
can stop now" He went on down. He
10 dead. What slew him? Rum, rum!
Among the last things he said was that
he could stop any time. He could not
stop.
A WARNING to the Young.
Oh, my young friends, want to tell
you that there Is a point in inebriation
beyond which II q man 60 he cannot stop.
But sometimes man will be more frank
than that. A victim Of strong drink said
to reformer: ut Is impossible for me to
stop; realize 1t. But, II you should tell
mo couldn't have a drink until tomor-
row night unless Il had all my fingers cut
of, would say, Bring the Ratchet and
cut them off. had very dear friend
in Philadelphia whose nephew came to
him and was talking about his trouble
and confessed it. He confessed he could
not stop. Ny friend said, "Yqu must
STOP" He said: II can't stop. II there
stood cannon, and 1t was loaded, and
there was glass Of wine on the mouth Of
the cannon, and knew you would fire it
off if l approached, would start to get
that glass of wine. l must have 1t. l
can't got rid of this habit. I can't get
away from it,. Oh, it is awful for man
to wake up and feel that he is captive.
I hear him soliloquizing, saying: Il
might have stopped three months ago, but
can't stop now Dead, but not buried.
I am walking corpse. I lam an appari-
ton Of what onco was. am a Gagged
immortal, and my soul beats against the
wires of my cage on this side and beats
against the wires of my cage on the other
side until there is blood on the wires and
blood on the SOUL but can't get out. De-
atroyed without romedyp'
Again, the man suffers from the loss Of
usefulness Do you know some of tho
men who have fallen into the ditch were
once in the front rank in churches and in
tho front rank in reformatory institu-
tionsp Do you know they once knelt at
the family altar and once carried the chal-
ice Of the holy communion OH sacramental
days' Do you know they once stood in
the pulpit and preached the gospel Of the
Son of Godp We will not forget the scene
witnessed some years ago In my brooklyn
church when man rose in the midst Of
the audience, stepped into the aisle and
walked up and down. Everybody saw
that he was Intoxicated. The ushers led
him out, and his poor wife took his hat
and overcoat and followed him to the door.
Who was he? He had once been mighty
minister of the gospel Of Jesus Christ In a
sister denomination, had often preached
In this very city. What slew him9 Strong
drink! Oh, what must be the feeling of u
man who has destroyed his capacity for
usefulness? Do not be angry with that
man Do not lose your patience with him.
Do not wonder il he says strange things
and gets irritated easily in the family. He.
has tho Pyrenees and tho Andes and tho
Alps ON him. Do not try to persuade him
that there Is no future punishment. Do
not go into any argument to prove to him
that there is no hell. He knows there Is.
He Is there now!
But he suffers also in the loss of physical
health. The older people in this audience
can remember DR.. Sewell going through
this country electrifying great audiences
by demonstrating to them the effect Of
strong drink upon the human stomach.
am told he had eight or ten diagrams
which he presented to the people, showing
the different stages in the progress Of the
disease, and lam told tens of thousands
of people turned back from that ulcerous
sketch and swore eternal abstinence from
all intoxicants. God only knows what the
irunkard suffers. Pain files on every
nerve and travels every muscle and gnaws
on every bone and stings with every poison
and pulls with every torture What rep
tiles crawl over his shivering limbsl What
specters stand by his midnight pillows!
What groans tear the dir! Talk Of the
rack, talk of the funeral pyre, talk of the
Juggsrnaut. He suffers them all at once.
The Inebriate's Death.
See the attendants stand back from that
ward in the hospital where the inebriates
arc dying They cannot stand it, The
keepers come through 1t and say: Hush
up nowl Stop making this noise! Be
still You are disturbing all the other
patients. Keep still now" Then the
keepers pass on, and after they get past
then the poor creatures wiring their hands
and say: "Oh, God! Help, help! Give
me rum, give me rum Oh, God Help
Take the devils off Of me! Oh, God; oh,
Godr' And they shrek, and they bias
pheme, and they cry for help, and then
they ask the keepers tn slay them, saying:
''Stab me, strangle me, smother me- Oh,
God Help. help! RUM Give me rum!
Oh, God Helpr' They tear out their
hair by the handful, and they bite their
nails into the quick. This is no fancy pic
ture. 1t is transporting in hospital at
this moment. 1t went on last night while
you slept, and, more than that, that Is the
death some Of you will die unless you stop.
I see 1t coming. God help you to stop be-
fore you 60 SO far that You cannot stop.
But it plaques man also In the loss of
home. do not care how much he loves
his wife and children, II this habit gets
the mastery over him he will do the most
outrageous things. If need DO, In order to
get strong drink he would sell them all