The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-08-27
A HORRIBLE DEATH
Brilliant Career Ended by
Demon of Drink.
The Slow Suicide of DR.. Prestwood, Victim
Of AlcohoIism--He BattIed With His
Foe Alone.

l read some days ago, the strangest
obituary that j have ever seen in print.
1t first appeared in the Mitchell County
| Mirror, and was afterwards copied in
several of the State papers. 1t an
nounced the death of one, DR.. K. l..
| PrestWood, and spoke of him as fol-
| lows:
This announcement will not strike
terror to the hearts of many, if indeed
! any, for over a week ago his physi-
clans and relatives gave up all hope of
his recovery, and just how he lived till
9:ZO o'clock this morning will remain
an unsolved mystery to his physicians,
| Drs. Penland and Smith, and to all 9TH
ers who saw him. He certainly had
| the most wonderful constitution of any
man we have ever seen. For over a
| week he practically took no nourish-
ment, and during that time he suffer-
ed the agonies of torment.
DIR. Priesthood was a suicide literally
| speaking, for whiskey and cigarettes
and other designations were the direct
cause of his death. He died with a
case of delrim tremens (jimmies) al
w
the best nursing possible, but it could
not save him.
DIR. Priesthood had very bright
mind, an indomitable will power and as
much self-conceit as it was possible for
a man of his ability to possess. 1t was
seldom he ever spoke kind word about
anybody, and for year or more he has
been bore to the community, as he
was continually prating his imaginary
troubles in the hope of eliciting sympa-
thy. His last wife survives him. To
her he made life miserable, notwith-
standing she lavished upon him all the
love and attention it was possible for a
loving woman to bestow."
What life this man must have lived.
What depression from the path of duty.
What wreck of self, and what a
total disregard of self claims of loved
ones, the demands of civilization, and
the influences of Christianity, and vet it
is said that he was a man of strong will
power and bright mind; he was strong
enough TO go to battle with a demon,
bllt too weak to conquer it, His mind
was perhaps bright enough to unable him
to see and realize the unequal combat
but too dull to seek proper aid to enable
him TO overcome his terrible adversary
The life that this man and many
others like him lived, and the death he
died calls aloud to humanity, it appeals
to science and it pleads with ciyiIiza-
ton and religion everywhere for some
specific that will cure the disease that
had him in its grasp.
And has not science listened to this APP
nR1tS n no rf ho hnS 91e,
in America it has, and it has revealed
in the Kelley Bi-chIoride of gold cure,
a specific that has in ten thousand in
stances cured men who were as much
afflicted with inebriety as DR. prest-
wood. 1t could have cured him, and
had he, instead of continuing to fight
the demon alone, applied to the mana.
gers and physicians in charge of the
Keeley Institute at Greensboro, the
probability is that he would have been
living today, not as a bore to his com
munity, but as a sober. valuable and
useful citizen. This much can be safely
said indeed Of the many hundreds and
thousands who have gone hither and
been cured.
There are others in the same condi--
tion as DR. Priesthood was, and it is
time that both they and their friends
We're considering seriously the approach
ing terrors.
A course at the Kelley Institute at
Greensboro, we know, will cure this ter
rible disease. We know this. because
we know of so many unfortunates who
have been cured there.
The Kelley cure has accomplished
wonders in North Carolina, but there is
a great work yet for it to do.
It's mission is not complete, so long
as such obituaries as the above can APP
pear in a North Carolina newspaper.