The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1904-04-13

CdnQlQdLe lOE L dA COIACCCOA'
whose shelter this weary and trouble
some world could take refuge from
the storm Of sin and sorrow. Oh, how
refreshing to the soul, what an uplift
to the tired hand and weary heart %
retreat from the busy world, and Tor
few hours take shelter under the roor
of a peaceful home, a home where
love sits enthroned as queen in every
heart and where affection one TO an
other rules as king in every life, How
peaceful is such a home; how Heaven
like is such a family where husband
and wife. father and mother, brother
and sister can meet in peacetul COM
mTniOn one with the other around the
altar of a God-ordained and GOd-esta5-
lished home. But how miseraDly
wretched is that home where the faith
er or brother or husband has become
the slave of the Devil, through his eS-
tablished agency, the legalized liquor
traffic The evil of strong drink has
and is today fastening its powerful
hands upon thousands of homes all
over this nation, and rObbing them OF
their peace, that which alone makes
any home worth living for. How my
heart goes out to the wife or mother
or children who have been robbed OF
the peace of home through a drunken
father or brother by The legalized liq-
uor traffic.
2 Then the evil Of the liquor traffic
takes from the home it's protection.
and support. The husband and faith
er is the protector of the home. With
father at home and clothed in his
right mind, how sweetly and quietly
the children retire to their beds for
sleep No fear comes to their hearts,
father is there, he is strong and brave.
The wife is happy in the thought that
he who loves her as he loves his own
life, stands by her side as her protect
or. But let the strong hand of drink
take hold upon that husband, or faith
er's life. and he becomes a terror to
the wife and children, and the hand
often becomes the hand which afflicts,
and the lips from which should fall
words of love and kindness become
stained with oaths and curses. Not
only does the demon drink rob the
home Of it's protection, but it takes
away it's support. Many a child has
suffered from hunger and cold and
sickness and even death through the
neglect of drunken father, who took
the money which should have been
used to buy food and clothing for mis-
children, and wasted it upon that
which has made him worse than the
beast of the field. This home, the
dearest place on earth, the rest for
the weary of refuge for the distressed
of comfort for the troubled, is robbed
of it's peace, its protection, and sup
port by the power of strong drink,
which comes to us through the infiu-
ence of the legalized liquor traffic,
and home, the heaven Of earth, be-
comes the place of terror with all the
poverty, wretchedness, and misery that
the human heart and life has ever fell
heir to.
8. Then this evil not only destroys
home. but it wrecks the character of
the one who INDUCES in the use of it.
use the word character here for all
that it can mean to human life. Let
me draw for you a picture of a young
man who has just entered upon life
for himself. He is in possession Of
every faculty that it takes to make a
man, sound in body, strong in mind,
clean in principle, honest in his deal
ings, gentle in his manner, loved and
respected by host of his fellOWmen;
then there lies out before him every
prospect of a successful and useful
life; he is honOred and admired by the
entire community, happy man that he
is. But ere long the demon of strong
drink knocks at the door of his life
and he allows him to come in; he
comes again and again, each time
fastening it's strong hand of power
more securely upon the life of his
victim. and now we see the same man
with bloated eyes, trembling hands,
wrecked character, lost fortune, with
the respect of the community gone, he
now becomes an Outcast, an object Of
pity and sympathy; people speak Of
him with an expression of sadness, his
best friends have lost all hope Of him;
down, down down, to the very depth
Of degradation and ruin he has gone;
hopeless, and penniless he |
goes out into the wide world a vaga- |
bond. Oh how sad and yet how true |
S such a picture. No man can tinkerf
With this deceptive evil, this death
Iealing power of strong drink, and es-
ape the harvest. for, says the word