The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-07-20
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF INTEMPeRANcE.

The Moderate Drinking Habit His Ruin
Sad Recital of q Former Bank Clerk
How He and His Vile Went Over the
Hill to the Poor House.
The New York World thus tells the
York bank clerk:
Garvin R. Dick, former clerk of the
check department of the Chase National
Bank, sat on a bench in the room for visit
ors at the work house on BiackwelPs ISL
and. He wore prison trousers, prison
shoes and q prison hat.
"Tippling brought me here" he said,
"just a drink or two a day with a friend.
That's what downed me. Moderate drink
ing is the most insidious form OF lnduig-
ence.
"It was moderate drinking also that
brought my wife here. She had her circle
of friends, and they had their social glass:
She will agree with me that the hard
drinker has not as much to fear as those
who take a social glass regularly"
Dick and his wife, whose maiden name
was Gertrude Bancker, popular in the Har-
lem set, were taken to the Island at tho
same time, sentenced for six months be-
cause neither could give the required bond
Of $500.
Friends of Dick who used to know him
WuGu III SIOOO DCuluo Vic AldtlliS - WIG
Chase National Bank and counted up the
checks and classified them, would not have
recognized in the tain-faced, white-haired,
unshorn prisoner, feebly and penitently
telling of his downfall, the same smiling,
jovial and confident young man who was
pointed out as a model to many OF the sub
ordinate clerks in the big bank.
IT didn't bring my wife down with me.
I didn't cause her to take up drinking" he
said. "It was her Gle 81 friends with
whom she used to ike a social glass when
they came together that caused her to be
here with me.
IT had no idea that I would ever be as
low as this. I came to New York from
New Brunswick, Canada, more than twen-
ty-6ve years ago. I was barely more than
a boy then, and 1 had hopes of accomplish
ing something in the big city. 1t was the
habit of all the people in my Canadian
neighborhood to take a glass of whisky
when they wanted it. I thought, too, that
I could drink like a gentleman and suffer
no Ill effects. I got a position twenty.
three years ago with the bank as one OF
the clerks, at Sis a week, l worked hard,
years later I married, and We were very
happy together.
"Whenever the boys would ask me out
to have a drink I would not refuse, but l
was not what one might call in the habit
of drinking. I knew that I could stop at
any time. y, >,
"By hard work, in a year or two l was
advanced again and we took a more pre-
tentious home. I had several friends at
the bank, but, Of course, they would not
endanger their position now by trying to
do anything for me. You know how par
ticular a bank is.
II suppose it must be the case with all
drunkards, but the first thing I knew l got
to be so dependent upon my daily amount
of stimulant that I would be nervous il l
left off. In the meantime I noticed that
nv wife also would ask for a drink before
meals and before retiring.
"She seemed tc take to it at first to be
c~ongenial with me, but she told me she
had learned to drink at a friends house.
I did not try to stop her, because l ex-
pected no i'll effects. I always did my
work regularly at the bank. The first in
timation that anything was wrong came a
year ago, when the surety company which
protected my position went OF my bond.
"The bank, Of course, notified me that l
would have to leave. | got out. In the
had to borrow from friends. I thought
there would be no trouble in getting a
new place, but after a man gets to a GER
tain age in New York no business has any
use for him, and it was then that l real
lied that I had cultivated the drink habit
10 far that I was permanently injured Ey 1t.
cit was impossible for me to get any po-
sition. I got more discouraged and began
to drink heavier. Mrs. Dick also began to
drink more. From the tippler she soon
was changed into the confirmed inebriate.
eve are here both Of US for six months,
and we can both attribute our present
state to the moderate drinking habit"