The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1905-12-20
CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS.

ln6 LeaQer puDllSneQ DeI0fc the
glad Christmas tide is ushered in
which commentaries the humble
birth in Bethlehem of the beloved
Savior of the World. As the
editor Of this paper sits in his
quiet sanctum alone this Wednes-
day morning the last that will
come before the paper goes out
with its Christmas greeting his
heart and thoughts go out in ten
derest sympathy and solicitude to
those whose homes and lives have
been darkened and bllghted, or may
be soon shadowed by the curse Of
iptemperance. 1t is strange that
men, for whom the Son Of God
came into the world to suffer and
to die that they might be saved
from their sins, and who gave to
all mankind an example of tenn
perance and right living, will so
far forget what they owe to them
selves and to Him as to convert
his reputed natal day into a sea-
son of drunken 1evelry and de-
bauch.
Alas! it is too true that it has
long been the evil custom of a
considerable proportion of those
enjoying the inestimable privi-
leges and blessings of Christian
civilization to order a jug or bar
rel of liquor at Christmas time
and celebrate the advent of the Son
of God, the Prince of Peace, like
the advance agents of Satan and
the bottomless pit.
As we sit and contemplate the
many joys and cherished memo
ries Of this happy Christmas time,
our thoughts also irresistibly
turn for little while to the con-
temptation of what has happened
at this self-same merry season to
cast a mantle of gloom over so
many happy fresides as the result
of the evil custom mentioned, and
the crimes and accidents and
death and unutterable heart-aches
likely to come in some way to so
many more before the approach
ing Christmas festival shall pass
into history.
AS we stop long enough to con-
template the possibility, aye, the
probability of what may occur
within the bounds of Lincoln
county alone during the next
short week to bring sorrow and
trouble and darkness into many
now happy lives and homes,
through the agency of strong
drink, we find ourself coveting
the power to utter a warning
against the awful danger and con-
sequences of whisky which no
reader of these lines could ever
etface from memory.
II we could be endowed with
supernatural power little while
we would tonight set over against
the front door of every man, old and
young, in Lincoln county who has
ordered or expects to order a
Christmas Jug, a great light as
brilliant and dazzling as all the
electric lamps combined that have
ever been seen in this or any
other city. Then after each such
man had been summoned to his
door, we would have to pass be-
fore him under the glare of the
great hight, in slow procession
and so identified that they could
be known to him by name, all the
men of Lincoln county who have
filled drunkard's graves, all the
men whom liquor has caused to
be murdered, all who have been
hung or sentenced to terms in the
penitentiary or Jail for crimes
committed while under the in
fuence of liquor; all who have
committed crimes while under the
influence of liquor and escaped
legal punishment, but carry
through life guilty cconsciences
they can never escape from day
or night; all who have met acci-
dental deaths while drunk them
selves or at the hands of others
under the influence of liquor.
Next we would have to pass in
panorama or procession under the
dazzling light all of the sad faced,
sorrowing widows and orphans,
the haired fathers and moth
|ers, bowed down with grief and
disappointment; all the desolate
and broken up homes of all those
who have passed on before, the
sad multitude wailing in despair
ing chorus as they moved along,
"A sorrows crown of sorrow,
Is remembering happier things.
As the last ragged, barefooted
little orphan, with no Santa
Claus now to fill his stocking
Christmas eve, passed under the
light, we would throw on the can
yass Of the sky before the man
who had ordered Christmas jug,
in blood red letters that reached
from the earth to the zenith, this
awful edict Of the Almighty:
mo DRUNKARD SHALL IN
HERIT THE KINGDOM
OF HEAVEN. 2
Scaling up and down the huge
letters and peeping out from be-
hind through the spaces between
the awful words, would appear
divers imps Of the bottomless pit,
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