The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-07-05
THE ROAD TO HELL

/ AiACA VI Iudt city the iOllOWluB llLucly
and terribly true editorial comment:
The cities OF the land have many
pits wherein thoughtless, needless
youth may fall; they have many
snares for his feet, many temptations
that appeal to his lower, his baser APP
petities-the saloon, the gaming
house. the brothel-but the surest OF
all these to debase. to destroy self
respect and render reckless OF conse-
Quences, TO bring sorrow and humilia-
ton and blight and bitterness, is the
house over which she presides whose
| path is the way to death, the toad to
hell
He who is bound by the thrall Of
strong drink surely and steadily be-
comes physically and mentally weak
ened. and with his brain indamed and
his veins heated he may rave and Stay,
but the struggle is often short ere
death closes the tragedy
THE devotee of the gaming table
soon wastes his possessions in the
vain attempt to win back which he in
evitably lost, and enthralled by con-
Stunning passion and lured by a never
to-be realized hope, he hangs about
the table where the tickle goddess Of
chance presides, even after his last
dollar is gone, and with it hope and
pride and manhood and honor, leav-
ing only a blighted life and broken
hearts of loved ones, who bend in
silent pity above the fearful wreck of
what might have been a man.
mo man can number tragedies such
as these, but the way that leads to
and from the house of scarlet women
is strewn with wrecks and darkened
by tragedies, compared with which all
others are of small consequence.
She spares none. He with and he
without other ties and obligations be-
comes her victim. The youth of low
origin and instinct, the trend of whose
steps is ever downward, is drawn to
her by the irresistible law Of associa-
ton and affinity. The youth in whose
veins flows the blood of gentlemen,
fallingSSnce within the radius of her
influence, yields to the subtle and
deadly spell of her charms, and she
releases no victim until he has paid
to her the tribute of his uttermost as
set of coin and character and nobler
aspiration.
With sordid, sinister, polluting pur-
pose she woes and charms and seduces
until her fascinated victim once
brought to her level, rises no more to
the plane of manhood and self-respect.
There have been such tragedies in
Zazoo City and here there are now
hearts freshly pierced by poignant
griefs, eyes yet wet with bitter tears,
and homes even now darkened by the
rayless gloom of unspeakable sorrow.
ITO those who weep there goes out
the sympathy of many heart, even
of hearts of those who know not the
mourners, and many mother sends
up silent, fervent prayer that her
boy be not enticed into that path |
which leads to ruin and death.
These are evils which have defied |
the civilization of every life, and the |
fruits of which have been the same
through all of the passing centuries.
1.-THE wisest CT all the sons of men
many centuries ago drew picture
which is as perfect and as true to life
now as then, and would to God that It |
could be given on the heart of youth
and manhood alike, that it might warn
from vice and WOO to virtue. He who
sits behind prison bars and they who
love him can with anguish-stricken
hearts attest the truth of that which
was set down by the inspired writer
in the seventh chapter of Proverbs:
S"My son, keep my words and lay
up my commandments with thee.
THAT they may keep thee from the
strange woman, from the stranger
which fattereth with her words,
"And % beheld among the simple
ones, | descended among the youths
Young man void of understanding.
Passing through the streets near
her corner, and he went the way to
her house.
I'm the twilight, in the evening, in
the black and dark night.
And behold, there met him wo-
man. with the attire of harlot and
subtle OF herrt.
"He goeth after her straightway, as
IN OK goeth to slaughter, or as fool
N the correction of the stocks. II