The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-06-17
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS AeoUT
THE VICE or INTEMPERANcE.
Bobbed OF HIS Brains by Ltquor-Ths
Rev. Thomas b. Gregory Relates
Horrible Experience-The Ono Drink
That Was q Death Warrant.


Horrible Experience-The One Drink
That Was Death Warrant.
"Out in that one miracle of history" the
great "Windy City, by the "unsalted
seas" there lives man who could tale
unfold" of the woes Of strong drink. =
A few years ago this man, whose name,
for tenderness sake. shall be left for you
to guess, was prince in the industrial
world. =
He was worth his hundreds of thousands!
The lord he was of a beautiful, happy
home. A lovely wife confidedIin him and
was proud of him, bright-eyed children
met him when he came home at night, IN
Vulnerable friends rejoiced in his prosper
ity!
The old adage that america is the land
of opportunity" was nightly corroborated
by this mans case.
Beginning with the senderest of means,
relying mainly upon his own pluck and
gumption, the man we speak Of soon forged
tc the front in splendid style!
While still young man he found hlnl@
self at the head Of splendid business.
Twelve hundred men were on his payroll,
and they were paid generously. regularly,
for the "boss" believed in fair play.
On the great west side his plant was the
wonder even of the enterDrising denizens
OF CIldC HuSClUR, CeutIS u
American strenuosity. o..
His profits were $4,000 year. And as
the fates smiled upon him and his bank
account grew and grew he more and more
let himself out in his generosity toward his
family, his friends and the poor and the
needy round about him.
There was not a mean hair in his head.
His heart was as big as a mountain. and
his future looked as rosy as an Italian sky.
There are to-day in the city of Chicago
no less than twenty big men, the advance
the city, who, few years back, were EN-.
ployed by the man around whom this story
centres.
But the man of whom I speak-where is
he to-day? God only knows.
A few days ago he was brought up before
petty theft.
Already, opine, the reader is beginning
to "catch on" to the mystery in the case.
lived to be thirty-fve years old before alco-
hol ever passed his ips-and then he took
drink
That one drink was his death warrant.
That one drink loosed the furies which
pounced upon him and destroyed him.
That drink created a strange, fiendish
desire for another, the second led to still
| another, and before he realized it his para
disc was gone and "desolation saddened
all the green"
! He got drunk. And he got drunk again,
and again, and presently ne was common
sot. ...
His magnificent business melted away
like snowbank~ in the springtime; his
beautiful home was blasted, as though it
had been stricken by the red lightning's
whitening shaft. The ightin his children's
eyes went out, thc 10y id his wife's soul
was turned to grief, and to-day the once
brilliant, prosperous man, the pride of q
happy home and the marvel and wonder of
the whole, community is tramp. a COM
ing himself and longing to die.
In the great city by the unsalted seas he
roams about penniless, homeless, friendless,
living on the charity OF few friends. his
health gone, his brain added, his whole
existence perpetual nightmare.
it is tine old, old story. And yet men
will not profit by it.
Oh, humanity. thou art the biggest fool,
the most stupid, idiotic thing, in all the
world.
Wilt thou never learn'twlsdom? Wilt
thou never discover and, respect the fact
that strong drink is hell?
What then? Assert yourselves. Exer.
| else YOUR will power. Be'men.
Whisky never goes out into the street
after. man. The man goes in after the
whisky. The man who says: "I will not
touch the accursed stuff" and means what
he says, can go unhurt by miles and miles
OF saloons.
1t is the man that goes in that gets hurt.
"I have no one to blame but myself" ex
claimed the man write of. That is what
he said the other day as he stood ragged
and shivering and miserable before the
Chicago justice.
Il have no one to blame but myself, I
have been robbed of my brains by liquor,
| and it is all my own fault"
This story needs no comment. It speaks
for itself. It is its own terrible interpreter.
1t is only necessary to remind the reader
that there is but one thing for him to do
if he would escape the fate that grappled
and crushed the poor fellow out in Chicago
he must let whisky grandly alone.
He must eschew it as he would eschew
the hell-broth mixed by Macbeth's witches
on the "blasted heath. National Advo-
| cate.