The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-08-22
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF lNTEMPERANCE.

LnteEperancc Destroys tile Heal'h u
the Drinker, Ruins the home
and Often Puts the Family Into
Dreadful Poverty.
Intemperance not only destroys the
health, but inficts ruin upon the IN
nocent and helpless, for it inVades
the family and social circle, and
spreads woe all around; it cuts down
youth in it's vigor, manhood IN us
strength, and age in its Weakness
it breaks the fathers heart, bereaves
a dear mother, eEtinguishes natural
affection, grasses love, blots out tllal
attachment, blights a parents hope,
and brings down mourning age IN
sorrow to the grave. 1t produces
weakness, not strength; sickness, not
health; death, not life. 1t makes
wives, widows, children, orphans,
and all at last beggars; it covers the
land with idleness and poverty, dis
ease and crime; 1t fills our jails; 1t
condemns law and spruns order; 1t
crowds the penitentiaries, and FUR
nishes the victim of the scaffold; 1t
countenances the liar, respects the
thief, and esteems the profane; it
incites a father to kill his children,
helps a. husband to kill his wife,
detests life, curses God, and despises
Heaven, then curses the world and
laughs at the ruin it has inflicted
upon the human race.
My reader, let me picture to you
a youth-a noble, generous youth
from whose heart flowed a living
fount of pure and holy feeling, which
spread around and fortified the soil
of friendship. The eye of women
frightened at his approach, and
wealth and honor smiled to WOO him
to their circle. His days sped on and
as a summers brook sparkles on its
gladstone way, so sped he on. He
wooed and won a girl of peerless
charms, one who bestowed the har.
vest of her young hearts love upon
him. The car of time rolled on, and
clouds arose to dim the horizon OF
worldly happiness; the serpent OF
inebriation crept into the Garden OF
Eden of his heart; the pure and holy
feelings which the God of nature
had implanted in his soul became
polluted by the influence of the mis-
called social cup; the tears and ag-
ony of his afflicted wife found no re-
Spouse within his bosom; the pure
and holy fount Of love within his
heart, that once gushed forth at the
meanings Of misery, sent forth no
more it's pure and benevolent Offer
ings; it's waters had become inter-
mingled with the poisoned ingred-
tents of strong drink, and the rank
weeds of intemperance choked the
fount from which the stream flowed.
The dark spirit of poverty had tapped
it's wings over his home, and the
burning hand of disease had dark
ened the brightness Of his eye. The
friends who basked in the sunshine
of his prosperity fed when the Win
try winds of adversely blew harshly
around his home.
Pause, gentle readeri Go with me
to yonder cemetery. We will stop
at this lowly burial place; you ask
me who rests in this newly-made
Hgrave?% / answer: The mouldering
remains of a drunkard." The days
of whose boynood were hallowed by
high and noble aspirations; the
hours of whose early manhood were
unclouded by care; the setting orb
of whose destiny was enshrouded IN
a mist of misery.
Oh! liquor! How many happy
homes hast thou made desolate!
How many starved and naked little
orphans hast thou cast upon the cold
charities Of an unfriendly world!
How many graves hast thou filled
with broken-hearted wives! See the
fathers pride and mothers joy, hur-
ried to an untimely grave, see the
flower of youth and beauty shedding
its fragrance and displaying it's
glory; but ere the morning dew had
escaped on the breeze, 1t sickens,
withers, and dies, all poisoned by in
temperance, all doomed TO an un-
timely and d~isgraceful death; look
at these and beware.
On would to God there vas one
universal temperance society, and all
mankind we're members of it. The
glorious cause of Christ would be
advanced, and thousands of broken
hearted wives and bare-footed or
phans would sing praises to Heaven
for the success of the temperance
cause.
l say beware of this zone glass
more and I have done" for this once
has led it's thousands to ruin. A
kind word, an ooliging act, even
though it be a trifling one, has a
power superior to the harp of David
in calming the pillows of the SOUL
Ella Mcclure, in the Reveille Echo,
New Waterford, Ohio.