The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-12-11
AS THRILLING AS BESANTS
STORY OF THE DEMONIAC"
Demoniac in Real Life. The Man Who Preached
Temperance and Died in Agonies of
Delirium Tremens

-lad a Wild look in his eyes and q
neEvous movement of hands and feet
and seemed as one in great dread.
1t was on one of these occasions, when
the family We're apprehensive and
troubled. that my father was sent for
by the anxious wife. to go over and /
talk with that unfortunate man, in
the hope that something might be
said that would break the spell, which
the family but too plainly saw was
soon 10 end in another long debauch.
But my father was too late.
Tlhs first drink had been taken be-
fore he arrived, and it was impossible
to do anything with him. His brain
was on fire and there was no reason
in him. He laughed, he talked, he
sang and almost shouted. His gloom.
of the past few days, was gone, but in
it's stead there was frenzy: Every
thing, to his heated and crazed brain
was enrapturing. He was happy. Glad
to see my father, and wanted hlm to
stay by him that he might talk, talk,
| talk.
That was the beginning of his last
| debauch. I heard his brother tell
him, at my fathers table, to beware
/ of the next Spree" as his drinking
spell was called.
| That brother. was minister of the
| gospel who lived in Virginia and was
making his last visit to his old home.
/ He and the unfortunate brother were
! dining at my fathers house, and dur
! ing the dinner j remember hearing
| the reacher brother say: Brother
John, God has been very good to you:
| has brought you out of many very serl-
Gus troubles, which were brought on
by your own conduct. You had better
let that enemy of yours alone. l fear
fall VIII
not rise again.
The brothers face Redeemed, and for
q moment he seemed little abashed;
but, in a moment he made pleasant
reply, saving: 1.-The next time would
never come" God grant that it may
not" the preacher brother replied. AS
I have said that was the last visit that
he ever made to this State, and during
that visit those brothers saw each
other for the last time on earth.
When the occasion had passed my
father and mother often talked OF that
dinner and the conversation, and L am
sure that they regarded the warning
{ of the preacher brother as prophecy
, and settled down in the opinion thai
the next debauch would surely end II
t death.
o How well l remember the anxious
| expressions on my mothers face Whef
, | my father related to her the SAD news
Il that the man udu ldliCI oecAiiA' ~
she remembered the brothers words
/ 81 fear that the next time you fall you
: will not rise again
A. month from that evening, Whel
r, father and mother were talking OF IN
q matter, that unfortunate brother, Wn'
: said the next time would never come
Law diving in all the agonies of deliriun
tremens. OF course, 1 did not see him
, nor hear his piteouS cries and bias
. phemous oaths: but my father ant
| mother did. And strange TO say N
remembered, in his dying hour, tn,
o conversation and the brothers warn
, ing. He died the death of the drunk
ard and his body was LAID IN INT
drunkard's grave.
;. But, why tell all this?
:, / do it to warn those who are max
!. ing life a past-time, a frolic. season
I of selfish enjoyments. and who, in thu
9 midst of which seem to forget,
"'Tis not all of life to live
2 Nor all of death to die
n know many people-some o
: whom are church members-who are
! living very irregular lives. Some
times they pull, and seem to bt
, making Roadway; but sometimes they
' stall and pull back; then they jerk ano
! | break the traces or kick out. The
Lord surely has to exercise a great
: deal of patience with poor fallen hui
manity.
What a novel thing is a Methodist
| Conference There's nothing under
the sun like it; that's the reason
like to attend it. There sits the bishop
who has come not only to preside
over the deliberations of the Confer
ence but to exemplify the we'll taught,
| dignified, prudent, gentle, sweet
spirited Christian minister, VINO -
supposed to be as wise as a serpent
and as harmless as a dove; and COM
ing in the spirit of the MASTERY to adj