Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1902-02-20
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF INTEMPERANCE.
The Wretched Panorama of Human Ma
ture Adrift That the Bartender Watche
Pass Before Him-Some Harm Done by
"t," 1t Always Meaning Whisky

Pass Before Him-SOme Harm Done by
IT." 1t Always NJ leaning whisky
This is what the bartender sees: A
young man with cold face, much ner
vous energy, and a tired-ofthe 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 sentinel, business
man, detective, waiter, general entertain
er and host for the homeless.
In comes a young man, rather early in
the day.
He is little tired-up too late the night
before. He takes cocktail. He tells the
bartender that he does not believe in
cocktails. He never takes them, in fact.
The The bitters in the cocktail will eat hole
through thin handkerchief-prett bad
erect 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 i'll himself, is the confirmed
drunkard OF year after next. He has seen
the beginning of many such cocktail philo-
sophers, and the ending of the same.
The way not to be 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 whskers. He
shows several people-whom he does not
k4ow-his book of Communication tickets.
He changes his mind suddenly from
whisky to lemonade. The bartender pre-
pares the lemon slowly and the man
CHANGE his mind banl- 10 whisky
Then he tries to look more dignified 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
suggests that the oldish man will get into
trouble But the bartender says:
mo, 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. 1t won't be any songs that
she'll get"
The bartender knows that the oldsh man
about tifty-one or two has escaped
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 of the bar there is the
man who comes in slowly and passes his
hand over his face nervously. The bar
tender asks no questions but pushes out
a bottle of everyday whisky and q small
glass of water.
The whisky goes down. "A shver fol.
lows the whisky and very little of the
water follows the shiver. The man goes
out with his arms close to his sides, his
gait shutf1ing, 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:
'"rhat fellow had good business once.
Doesn't look it, does he? Jim over there
used to work for him. But he couldn't le.
it alone"
The ''it' 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 it's shiver, that tells
of a shock to the heart, lifts him up for a
second.
He has a little false strength of mind
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 up 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 poor woman believe
l., a1-A, hA,, fA.
as she has wept many times from sorrow.
But the bartender knows that that
mans day has gone, and that Niagara
Ri1 er 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 stupidity as
stampeded animals pushing each other
over precipce, each insists on buying
poison ia his turn. And every one spends
his money to make every other one, if pos
sble, 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 thcn? - New York
Journal.
Needn't Live With Drrnkards.
No West Virginia woman need live with
Lnr l,nShnnl Il he Is hahitual arunl, I'd