Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1912-03-06
PRIZE ESSAY.
CONTINUED from page 1.)

books on the stand. The family is
well-clad and there every one is
happy and joyous. In the second
home scene the piano. was sold yes
terday by the sheriff. The wife's
furs are at the pawn-broker's shop.
The clock and jewelry have been
sold to get -four. Carpets are off the
floor. The family is poorly dressed.
The wife is hard at work sewing
! for everybody. The baby has an
awful wound on her face made by
an angry blow. There is a deep
shadow of wretchedness in every
room. We hear the door bell ring.
The children hide and the daughter
turns pale and looks sad and de-
pressed. The poor wife holds her
breath as she hears the laundering
steps in the hall and we see the
door open. In walks the fiend ours
ing and swearing as he enters. Must
I tell it? Yes. This is the same
home. Alcohol transformed it. Al
tohol changed the Paradise into a
He'll.
Then too we see bright young
man graduating at college with first
honors. He is lauded by all. All of
his friends and relatives are quite
proud of him as he receives his di-
ploma. A year later he lies in a
pool room. The doctor comes and
dresses his wounds. His hair is
matted, his lips are bloody and cut,
and he will soon enter into perdi-
ton. Alcohol made him the changed
man. Alcohol withered the garlands
of commencement day! destroyed
parental expectation, and dashed
out his manhood.
Why! Do we ask why this .agita-
tion! when such incidents occur
every day? However eminent a
mans services may be, if he has
any habits of intoxication, he is un-
fit to have a part in our United
States government. Our laws can be
no better than the men who make
them. "This demon, alcohol has
turned the earth into 2 place of
skulls and has stood opening the
gate to lost world to let in It's
victims, until now the door swings
no more upon its hinges, but day
and night stands wide open to let
in the agonized procession of
doomed men,"
Alcohol destroys more than a
thousand times as many men as war
does. Let US save the children of
to-day from alcohol and we are saw
ing the nation of the morrow. 1t
is not enough that we close saloons.
1t is not enough that we teach obe-
dience to law. We must teach the
childhood and manhood of this ma
ton the value aaof abstinence and
sober living" Alcohol is the most
prolific cause of crime for it is a
stimulant to vice because it is .
narcotic 10 good motives. One man
very nobly said if alcohol be moved
from the slums tina. there would be
no slums. Let all of us join to put
out this evil. The states are begin
ming to cast it out. The issue must
grow.
Let all of us try to put out the
saloon and clear our nation OF the
demon of strong drink and make 1T
safe and clean, so that men and wo-
men may live in it and be clothed
in their right mind. Teach the boys
that pledge frees and not enslaves
and that it not only means the
writing of a name but often the
righting of ones life. Everything
that tends to plunge the working
man into misery is encouraged by
alcohol; everything that is working
| to bring him out of his wretched-
ness is discouraged by alcohol"
Alcohol retards the physical and
mental development of children,
leads quickly to fatigue, causes dull
ness, promotes disobedience, causes
nervousness, endangers moral ma
ture, weakens the resistance of the
body, and prolongs the duration OF