The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-12-07
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF INTEMPERANcE.
Tales About Men Who Have Become tho
Victims of the Saloon Wolves - The
Carpenter and the Wild Beasts Which
Deyoursd Him-Baits For Prey,

Victims of the Saloon Wolves The
Carpenter and the Wild Beasts Which
Deyoursd Him-Baits For Prey,
One who becomes q patron Of the saloon
is often worse than a prey OF wild beasts.
One cannot read of a mans being torn
by the wolves without desiring two things,
to help the man in his fight and to wish
to destroy the wolves.
I have known many a man to become
the victim of the saloon wolves. and have
tried to help free him from them. But
they would pursue him as relentlessly as
wild beasts would.
A man whom l knew was elected to the
LEGISLATURE of Ohio. He owned a farm
worth $40, 1000. But as he got INTO politics
he began to drink with other politicians,
and the appetite for drink became strong.
He made numerous efforts to break away
from the habit, but the liquor men We're
after his money, and they invented all
sorts of devices to get him into the saloon
so that they could cause him to break his
come free from them, and again and again
thew captured him. In less than ten years
from the time he entered the Legislature
an honorable, upright citizen they had got
ten all his money anu involved him heavily
in debt, and the sheriff sold his beautiful
farm to pay his debts. 1t left hin with
little money-no home-covered with dis
grace and his proud spirit broken. He had
been the prey os the wolves.
He took his family and went to the pro-
hibition State of Kansas and settled where
there were no saloons, to begin life anew
at fifty years of age.
I knew a mechanic in Indiana who
earned 81 a day as foreman for a house
l,ll;oo oon,pony 0c nnI1rcp with his
wages wisely expended he could have kept
his family in comfort. ,
But he had an appetite for drink, and
the wolves were ever ready to devour HIM.
When he would receive his S24, a weeks
wages, he would go TO the saloon and pay
out the greater portion of it for his drink
and treating bills. Then sometimes, il he
had a few dollars left after SETTLING" he
would treat some Of the "boys," and the
saloonkeeper would "mix" his liquors so as
to render him incapable of knowing how
much change he should get, then take his
last S. bill for fifty cents worth OF drinks.
and hand him back fifty cents instead OF
$3.50.
Then the carpenter would 60 to his home
with fifty cents left out of his s224. OF
course fifty cents would not 60 far toward
feeding a family for n week, hence there
would be distress in the house and various
expedients used to get food and clothing. .
The mechanic often quit drinking and
would save his money for awhile. But the
wolves behind the bar would send other
drinking men with a bottle of liquor to get
him to drink and break his pledge.
If he took one drink after hG had re-
formed for months they knew they were
sure of their prey. They cared nothing
that the man cut up the bedstead and
burned it in the stove to keep his family
from freezing one bitter cold night after
the saloon had gotten all his money and
left not a penny with which to buy wood.
On one occasion this mechanic had q
500 bill paid him on a job he was doing.
His family was destitute. needed every
thing. On his way home with the money
he stepped into q saloon to buy one glass
of beer. thinking he would then 60 imme.
diately home and purchase the many things
the family needed. All! The wolves!
Their fat prey! What a meal they made
of him!
He told me himself: II don't know
what happened during the next three days
after I drank the glass Of beer. | only
know that when my distressed wife sent
some one in search Of me three days later
they found me in the back room OF the sa;;
loon, with no money and just coming TO-
, from the effects of the drugs put into that
beer" ,
All! nv young friends, the wolves OF
northern Michigan never gnawed the bones
of an unfortunate hunter more greedliy
than these wolves in human shape devour
the blood of their unfortunate victlms.-
w. G. H., in Dial of Progress.