Evening star., 1901-05-11
HOW HE STOPPED DRINKING

"The strongest minded man I ever met
up with" remarked one OF the Chicago
correspondents the other evening when the
talk drifted around to the subject of
swearing off, 'is the president of a big
western railroad, the headquarters Of
which is in Chicago. He executed his little
swearing-off stunt about twenty-five years
ago, and since that time he has just pun
ished himself by having the stuff all
around him, and by smelling 1t, and by un-
corkinB fragrant bottles of it and permit
ting the aroma to float around his apart
ments-and yet he has never touched a
drop from the hour he made up his mind to
leave 1t alone once and forever. He is now
a man verging upon sixty and up to the
time he quit he had been a heavy drinker
for large number of years His ability
was so marked that he reached the posi-
ton OF superintendent of the road, for
which he went to work as a boy; but his
haplts caused him a lot of difficulty with
his Superiors. and there We're often times.
as he told me himself, when he was barely
able to hang onto his billet by the skin of
nus teeth. The drinking habit SO grew upon
him that he gradually found himeslf in
dulging In early morning drains. and from
that he eventually got so that he was
more or less 'het up with the stuff all the
tlme. When warned by his superiors as to
what his Indulgence was bound to lead
MIN to he made many more or less deter
mined enortS to give up his bad habit but
MS Will had been a good deal sapped by
tnat time, and he always returned to his
Ola practice In short space of time
twenty-five years ago he was sum-
nioned to attend meeting of the board of
directors OF his road to give some informa-
tion with reference to the possibilities of
certain branch lines the company had in
view. and when he made his appearance
pelore the board he was in such a state
that ne made an exhibition of himself He
hao tried in wabbly sort of way to get
himself into proper shape for the meeting
, put hadn t made 1t stick. so that he was
nL. si..ie more than spectacle when he did
snow UP. and the officers of the line, who
naa his interest in mind-knowing his bot
tom worth, despite his evil habit-had a
ulIhcult time of it to save him from the
"rath OF the directors. He was summoned
70 a solemn conference over his case when
tne board meeting had adjourned. and the
alternative of virtually swearing to aban-
uon Hquor or handing in his resignation
ana was put parole
>, mat very night he got himself hopeless
~ intoxicated. just for the purpose of in
his .;slnls d voluntary bit of punishment upon
state OF collapse. and almost wild for a
.hair OF the dog that bit him., but the drink
business was all off for him, and he
~ouiant take 1t: Instead he sent out for
d quart oottie OF liquor. uncorked It, smeIt
II, ana cussed the stuff up hill and down
uale. he knew that d good big hooter of
~ ~ "Vuid nave the customary effect of quiet
lhs ms nerves. but he told me that he
wouldn't have taken it for million dol
iars-that the remembrance of the humiI-
iatlns position he had been placed in before
the ofncers of his company on the day be-
fore fingered in his mind like a fire and
that he would sooner have planted bull
let IN his skull than to have partakrn OF
so much as drop of the liquor. Mind he
was man who had been drinking heavily
for years, and was almost in a state when
at h
tlpple to keep him going until he could
gradually taper off-but he wouldn't have
1t that way. He intended to stop at once
and that was what he did He went to his
ONCE and attended to his work. and that
uncorked quart bottle Of liquor was right
on his desk all day eXuding it's bouquet
The next morning he got himself a quart
pottle OF apple brandy-and you know how
rich a smell that stuff has got-and un-
corked this on his desk sos he could inhale
it and tantalize himself. For nearly three
weeks his nerves were in such state that
he was on the verge Of a breakdown, and
during the nights of that time he walked
the floor Of his room at home like a man
half mad. with bottles of all sorts Of fine
liquor uncorked on his mantelpece and
dresser. He considered that the torture
was coming to him. as he told me, for his
years of Indulgence, and he took it like a
little man. His shattered nerves began to
come around within about a month, and the
fight he had set for himself became less
hard. but he told me only last year that
there We're periods even when his longing
for liquor had to be beaten back with all
Of the will power he possessed. He Is a
rich and prosperous man now and always
has wine and liquors in his house for his
friends. and attends pretty festive club
banquets by the score every year-but he
has never touched a drop Of anything in
toxicating from the night that he deiber-
ately got drunk for the purpose of making
himself feel all the worse the next day. l
think he's the sort of man that would have
worn a hair-shirt and failed himself in a
cell in the middle ages"