Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-01

Spend it for food, not rum Florence"
| didn't follow their advice. A chari-
table woman wrote my parents My own
mother answered, saying her heart was
broken, but that they had given me up,
that my case was hopeless.
kindhearted woman placed me with
the good sisters in a convent near Har-
rison, New York;. They were kind to me
but they would give me nothing to drink.
| craved drink. went mad for it.
climbed the high convent wall, ran to the
station, found dollar on the station floor
where some one had dropped it and paid
my fare to New York When | arrived
went straight to a cafe. l asked the pro-
prietor, who had known me in prosperous
times, to trust me for the drinks. | tele-
phoned woman friend who came and
paid for them, though she did grudgingly.
II suppose I'll have to get you out of
hook, you fool,' she said,
"That's it." / said. "Pm a fool ] am
filled with the folly that you pour out OF
a bottle"
Since then I've lived about on the boun-
ty of former friends who pitied me. My
health and strength were gone / lay in
bed all day, awaking only to drink myself
into a stupor To be sober was to realize
the depths to which had fallen and that
was torment for then the fine sensibilities
me and dashed me as with whips.
Then came this last terrible illness that
sooner or later will prove fatal There is
no hope for me- Drink caused the alb
dominal walls to become encysted II
hardened my liver. l am dying, though
tediously, slowly. There is no hope fo.
me. But there is hope that may say
what will warn other girls from a fate
ike mine.
have seen other girls slip slowly dow
to perdition as | have done and even more
rapidly. That dreaded disease, "swift
consumption" is not quicker than driat
when it devours some bodies and blights
some souls
do you drinN?" heard physician ask
a beautiful young actress.
mo" she replied, her clear eyes looking
into his, corroborating her story. why
do you ask"
Because" he replied, "if you did you
would be dead or insane in three weeks
Hers, he explained, was a delicateIy
organized constitution upon which liquor
would work havoc, rapidly destroying her
nerves and putting out the lamp of her
life.
| know a girl who is beautiful as the
dawn, her beauty of the FRESH delicious
sort of dew-kissed violets. Yet that girl
sits all day in cafes, drinking brandy and
finishing the day with doses of cocaine.
The doctors say that at most she can
live two months.
Drink Is the greatest danger that threat
ems woman's footsteps for it is the be-
ginning of all other pitfalls. Avoid the
first glass and regard the friend who offers
you a first glass from that time as an
enemy
Old men give the advice: keep your
head" You cannot keep your head with
demons of brandy or green devils of abb
sinthe dancing in your brain.
Old women tell you to guard we'll your
heart for that way danger lies. You can
not guard your heart while fumes of
strong drink are muddling your IDEAS At
such time every one seems a friend and
everyone is enwrapped in romance.
The greatest safeguard a girl can have
is fear-a hatred-of strong drink and of
the drugs that follow.
Drink and drugs are sign posts on the
path which leads by way of the Morgueeto
Potter's Field. My way, your way, the
way that begins in forced gayety and ends
in despair, the way not of mirth, but OF
misery abject and hopeless.