Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1909-08-04
ITO BE Continued
THE STORY OF AN ALCOHOL
SLAVE

THE STORY OF AN ALCOHOL
SLAVE.
Continued from Page One.
working. lost my job each time,
not so much because of the notoriety
as owing to the fact that l was tenn
porarily too disheartened to do any
thing but continue drinking, without
going near my place of business. L
would go to saloons that knew
were sanctuaries for drunkards.
Ike my masters the saloonleepers
and bartenders, for they have af-
forded me succor, protection, and
uplift to my self-respect after the
most humiliating moments of my
life, when have had to say, dyes,
sir, like a whipped slave, to the PEG
lice judges inquiry, "Were you
drunk?"
Chief of Police Kohler of Cleveland,
Ohio, has the right idea of ckaperon-
ing drunken men to their homes, in
stead of putting them under arrest at
station-houses. repeat, after being
jailed for drunkenness, a drinker is
never the same again. 1t brings
either disheartenment or desperation
100000 the Cost of my Slavery.
In 1889, at twenty-six years of age,
held an official railroad position
scheduled on the payroll at two hun
dred dollars a month, good during
good health and good behavior till
the occupant was sixty years of age,
and for pension later. My public
drunk lost me that position The to-
tai of my wages received during the
subsequent period of twenty years,
according to my private personal
ledgers, is $1S,060 Subtracting this
sum from the amount l would have
received in the twenty years, had l
kept my two-hundred dollar job, l
find that my loss in wages alone
amounts to $29,94O. The interest on
this loss, and on my saloon account,
reckoned at four per cent, would be
$14,6S6.2S. Thus my total loss in
money for the thirty years between
January 1878 and April 1908, is $751;
99O.SS With this SCI, 99O.SS in bank
at four per cent, should be in pos
session of an annual income of ST.
1883. 1t gives me pain to put down
the figures.
The inexperienced and impression.
able young man in saloon village,
town, or city does not get square
deal. My definition of square deal
is no saloons. If there are to be sa-
looms. teaching the evils of alcoholic
drink at school, home, and church
ought to be discontinued. The young
ster detects the Inconsistency be.
tween preaching and practice. In my
high school days l drank beer, while
studying the effects of alcohol on the
human body. did not believe the
textbooks, for it seemed inconceiv-
able, to my ignorance, that such
poison as it was alleged to be should
be licensed to be sold to one group
of human beings by another group of
human beings.
Saloons must have fresh drinking
boys every day, or they must go out
of business for lack of patronage.
The saloonkeeper cares nothing for
the ultimate effect on his customer
of the goods purchased. A fresh
drinking boy every day is necessary
to make the saloon cash register ring
unsteady in the saloon proprietor's
ears. A saloonkeeper getting fresh
drinking boy every day is willing to
let old liquor slaves fill graves, jails
pens, and asylums.
Everyday that saloons are open in
saloon-licensing States, some saloon
keeper or bartender shoves across
the bar a glass of cool, refreshing
beer to young man, and says,
i You're big enough to drink. beer
now Then there is started fresh
minor drinker, who can outdrink re.
lay of old-timers. If the fresh minor
drinker is a boy leader twenty more
minors are started, and half the
twenty become alcoholic slaves.
Personally, as an alcoholic liquor
slave, from whom eighteen hundred
and sixty saloonkeepers took twenty
four good paying jobs during twenty
years of my drinking life, l should
like to see all saloons legislated out
of existence. for the purpose of pro-
tecting the growing youth of our ma
ton. Old slaves like myself soon
pass out of the material world.
Note.-Evidence gathered in care
| full investigation of the career of
the author of this article shows
that he has been just what he says
he has been. 1t is obviously impossi-
BILE to corToborate his testimony as
to the money he has spent for drink,
but we can say in his behalf that in
the course of our inquiry none of his
acquaintances has charged him with
untruthfulness. II one credits the
story of his career, his figures do not
seem at all improbable. Out of re-
spect for his family the author asks
that his name be withheld-Editor
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a Ready Answer.
After an unkind remark about the
coffee his landl;dy asked critically,