Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1912-06-14
TERRIBLE LURE OF LIQUOR
Power Which Drags Down votares Of
Cup 10 Little Understood-Few
Awful Examples Related.

tnat table, and knew that IL snoulu
drink 1t I would lose my right arm.
could not help but take the liquor,
even though my arm were chopped on
piecemeal"
Thus expressed himself to the writ
er a 56-year-old man who had spent IL
months in a Michigan prison for the
commission of crime for which
liquor was most largely responsible.
writes William H. Vim in the De-
troit Journal
How little we can understand the
power which drags down the yotaries
OF the cup. Said man to ODE OF our
police captains in Detroit: Il have
not waking moment when am free
from the craving for liquor" If we
knew more about the lives and expert
snces of the men whose forms go stag
gering by on our streets. or who stand
before our bars of justice. pity would
often replace blame and sympathy
would occupy the place of scorn.
Last week I met a poor fellow on
the street who had been released from
police court in the morning. From
his actions it needed no prophet to
foretell that he would face the judge
ere long, and sure enough he was in
the same court next morning. For over
a decade he has been under the COM
plete domination of John Barleycorn.
His experiences cause one to think
of the custom of certain African chiefs
who express their peculiar affection
for certain of their subjects by maim-
ing their bodies. All sorts of cripples
are thus made by these rulers and 1t
is related that the persons SO mall
treated take particular delight in
their sufferings, for to them it is a
mark of the esteem of their chief.
Some years ago, while under the in
f1uence of liquor, the man of whom we
are writing lost limb. He hobbled
about on a peg-leg for a time, but
drink still held sway over him. About
four years ago, while drunk, he be-
came mixed up with a railroad train
and lost an arm at the shoulder-limb
off on one side and arm on the other.
Still he chung to the glass, or, rather,
more properly speaking, the glass
chung to him.
Somewhere in this city tolls little,
sweet-faced lady of upward of 20 years
of age, still earning her own living at
homework of a light order. She is
the mother of the man above referred
to, and he is her ALL Her one prayer
is that she may be spared to bury her
boy. Saving all that she could from
her scant earnings, she procured a
satisfactory artificial limb for her
sessed of the power of speech it could
tell many tales Of adventure while
supporting its owner or while reposing
back of some bar where it had been
put up" for drinks.
One incident is recalled. Two years
ago Judge Stein requested the writer
to take this unfortunate man to the
carers for the county house. Motto
ing his limb was replaced by a wood
en- peg, on inquiring we learned it had
been put up for security for a drink
bill in a saloon not two blocks away
from the police court. On payment of
As cents the limb was secured and the
man sent to Eloise. At present the
poor fellow is being upheld by the peg
leg again.
That was a peculiar stunt which
was pulled off" by resident at Nc.
Gregor mission many years ago. Be
coming very thirsty, and possessing no
belongings which would serve as Sc
curity, he bethought himself of his
false teeth, and back of the bar they
went as warrant for the payment of
the drinks. Still, there was more
sense in this transaction than in the
one above referred to, for while a
get, he can very well dispense with
the molars, which are a useless lux
ury at such time, as he cannot
drink heavily and eat.
No crusader ever followed Peter the
Hermit with greater devotion than
the drinker pursues his cup" no
bowling or dancing dervish can equal
the utter abandon of him who ''tarries
long at the wine" What does he not
surrender at the call of that demon
rum! Fortune, family, friends, health.
life even-all are ungrudgingly offered
to his thirsty god. and he will beg.
steal or starve that he may keep the
fires aglow on the unholy altar. The
great Paul tells us God loveth a
cheerful giver." In the Greek the
word translated cheerful is .'hil-
arion,' from which comes our word
hilarious" Very few are the disci-
pies of the Master who, give them.
selves and their belongings as hilar-
iously as does the votary at the altar
of Bacchus.