Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1914-01-22
HERE AND THERE
A TELLING TEMPERANCE LEsso

A TELLING TEMPERANCE LESSON
1t was at the funeral of little three
year old boy, The services had closed
and the great throng was filing past the
| little flower laden Casket TO take their
last look at that sweet face; when, be
wiIdered aud daZed, a dirty, wretChed
looking mau of perhaps fifty years
shambled into the church and took a
place il the long row of people who
were moving slowly down the isle
toward the Casket. | CHANGED TO be
next to this wretched Outcast; and, as
we moved slowly along | analysed his
makeup and drew my conclusions
Evidently he was just emerging from a
/ long dehauCh. The collar of his suiled
and Crumpled coat was turned MP
against shock of disheveled iron gray
ndir. In hi, right hand he clutChed an
I'D sWedt-soaNed derby the brlm and
crown Of which were cracked 4
dried up stream of tobacco juice startG d
1T tie corner ol his mouth meandered
down over his un-haven chin and dis.
aupe lrtd in a jungle Of twisted hair on
his brawny throat. He eXhaled a dis
! gushing OdOr of sour rum and tobacco
| He paused at the casket aud the long
| line was brought suddenly to a stand
| still. His hands were shaking. H.
was breathing hard, and his chin WIS
! 4uiyering. As he looked down on tn
dead child his face seemed hks one
| looking up from the black dep'h Of
despair. Then as tears began to we
up in his blood shot eyes he mutteI Ell
out loud these wOrds:-"Oh, God |
would that Death had been so kind to
me. To me those words came like a
weird wall from sinking ship far out
On a stormy sea. Everyone present was
now noticing him. The undertaken
was uneasy and motioued for me TO
push him away. IjOlted lightly against
| the poor wretch. He passed on and
out through the door and went shutfling
away down the street. The next morn
| ing when | went to board the train for
| D | noticed near the depot littl
| knot of excited people pressing up
| against the doorway to IN old empty
coal house. Curiosity hurried me- TO
| the spot There in that old coal hOnse
| lay the Sprawling form of a man 1t
was the poor wretch who wandered into
| the church TO look on the dead face
of the child His head; which was lying
in IA pool of ClOtted blood was thrown
back with the face upward The
mouth was gaping wide as was also a
big red tipped cash across his throat
Near his right hand, which the deaf h
throes had flung out from the body, lay
an old blood stained razor. 1t was
! clearly a case Of suici e Poor fellow
Strong drink dragged him to the Yer ge
Of great dark chaSm and flung him
shrieking into it. There he lay crushed
at the bottom of one of the blacke It
pits into which man ever fell Nv
train whistled and | turned from the
ghastly scene, but as long as | live
shall never forget the touch and the
heart rendering wall of that lost soul IS
it drifted gainst me that day on lif"'S
restless sea by that little caSket This
experience was great temperance les.
son for me. Now when see a whiSkey
flask [ can hear pitiful wall and see Il
dead man. l can see the pale face of Il
heart irOken wife pressed against a
window looking into the night for 4
well known form and listening for
footsteps she will never hear again.
Clinging to her shabby skirt is a little
half clad, starving child That wa,
once happy home. A demon crept
from that whiskey bottle and DESTROYED
that home. With such a picture before
You it is easy to brush aside the spark
ling glass and say No, that is my
most deadly enemy"