The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1902-02-19
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF INTEMPERANCE.
The Wretched Panorama of Human Ma.
ture Ahrlft That the Bartender Watche
Pass Before Him-Some Harm Done by
att" 1t Always Meaning Whisky.

Pass Before Him-Some Harm Done by
att" 1t Always Meaning Whisky
This is what the bartender sees A
vous energy, and tired-of-the-world ex-
preston, leans over the polished, silver.
mounted drinking bar.
You look at him and order your drink.
You know what you think Of him, and
you think you know what he thinks of you.
Did you ever stop to think of all the
strange human beings besides yourself that
pass before him?
He stands there as a sentinel, business
man, detective, waiter, general entertain
er and host for the homeless.
In comes young man, rather early in
the day.
He is a little tired-up too late the night
before. He takes a cocktail. He tells the
bartender that he does not believe in
cocktails. He never takes them, in fact.
"The bitters in the cocktail will eat hole
through thin handkerchief-pretty bad
effect on your stomach, eh?" and so on.
Out goes the young man with the cock.
tail inside of him.
And the bartender knows that that
young man, with his fine reasonings and
his belief in himself, is the confirmed
drunkard of year after next. He las seen
the beginning of many such cock I'll philo-
sophers, and the ending Of the same.
The way not to be a .drunkard is never
to taste spirits. The bartender knows that.
But his customers do not know it.
At another hour of the day there comes
in the older man. This one is the fresh
faced young oldish man.
He has small gray side whiskers. He
shows several people-whom he does not
khow-his book of continuation tickets.
He changes his mind suddenly from
whisky to lemonade. The bartender pre-.
pares the lemon slowly, and the man
changes his mind back to whisky.
Then he tries to look more dignifed than
the two younger men with him. In the
midst of the effort he begins to sing ''The
Heart Bowed Down with Weight of Woe"
and he tells the bartender "that is from
''The Bohemian Girl
He sings many other selections, occa-
sionally forgetting his dignity, and occa-
sionally remembering that he is the head
of most respectable homeopathy paid
for.
The wise man on the outside of the bar
trouble But the bartender says:
'No, he will go home all right. But he
won't sing all the way there. About the
time he gets home he'll realize what money
he has spent, and you would not like to
be his wife. It won't be any songs that
she'll get"
The bartender knows that the oldish man
about fifty-one or two has escaped
being a drunkard by mere accident, and
that he has not quite escaped yet.
A little hard luck, too much trouble,
and he'll lose his balance, forget that there
is lemonade, and take to whisky perma-
nen.iy.
At the far end CT the bar there is the
man who comes in slowly and passes his
hand over his face nerrous!y. The bar
a bottle Of everyday whisky and small
glass of water.
The whisky goes down. A shiver fol-
water follows the shiver. The man goes
out with his arms close to his sides, his
gait shuff1ing, and his head hanging.
1t has taken him less than three min
utes to buy, swallow and pay for liberal
dose Of poison.
Says the bartender:
"That fellow had good business once.
Doesn't look it, doeG he? Jim over there
y used 1 to y work for him. But he couldn't let
The at" mentioned is whisky.
Outside in the cold that man, who
couldn't let it alone, is shuffling his way
against the bitter wind. And even in his
poor sodden brain reform and wisdom are
striving to- be heard
His soul and body are sunk far below
par. His vitality is gone, never to return.
The whisky, with its shiver, that tells
of shock to the heart, lifts him up for
second.
IT. -. . TALL ro1.. a4.a..4L &c -.;,l
and brain, and that strength is used to
humble good resolutions.
He thinks he will stop drinking. He
thinks he could easily get money backing
if he gave uD drinking for good. He feels
and really believes that he will stop drink.
ing.
Perhaps he goes home, and for the hun.
dredth time makes a poor woman believe
him. and makes her weep more for JOY,
as she has wept many times from sorrow.
But the bartender knows that that
mans day has gone, and that Niagara
River could turn back as easily as he
could remount the swift stream that is
sweeping him to destruction.
Five men come in together. Each asks
of all the others:
"What are YOU going to have?"
The bartender spreads out his hands on
the edge of the bar, attentive and prepared
to work quickly.
Every man insists on buying some
thing to drink in his turn. Each takes
what the others insist on giving him.
Each thinks that he is hospitable.
But the bartender knows that those men
belong to the Great American Association
for the Manufacture of Drunkards through
treating"
Each of these men might perhaps take
his glass OF beer, or even something worse,
with relative safety. But as stupidly as
stampeded animals pushing each other
over preciDice, each insists on buying
poison in his turn. And every one spends
his money to make every other one, if pos
sibie hard drinking and wasted man.
You, Mr.. Reader, have seen all these
types and many others. have YOU not?
Why did you see them? What reason
had you for seeing thcr? New York
Journal.
Needn't Live With Drunkards.
No West Virginia woman need live with
her husband if he is habitual drunkard,