Year: 1877

Tom Adams, driverSof the brickyard
wagon and signer of one of the pledges
circulated at the great Temperance
meeting, was certainly u man worth
saving. He had wife, and was rich
in children. His wife was faithful,
good-na!ured and industrious, and his
children were of that bright, irrepres-
-ihle nature which is about the most
valuable of inheritances in this land
where other inheritances do not av-
erage largely in money value. For
the good OF such a group it was very
desirable that the head of the family
should bc in the constant possession
of strong arms and all his wits. And
even for his own sake Tom was worth
Il great deal more attention than men
of his kind ever receive. He was per-
fectly honest, a hard worker, cheerier
in temperament than any pastor in
the village, quicler-witted than most
of the lawyers upon the judicial cir
cult upon which the town of Barton
was situated, and more generous in
proportion to his means than any of
his well-todo feliow-citizens. During
the season for making and delivering
bricks he worked from sunrise to sun
set, rendered fair count to seller and
buyer, and never abused his employ
ers horses. His regular pay was
seventy-fiyc cents per day, which
sum, in IL land where flour was sold at
two cents per pound and meat was
only twice rs high as flour, and COM
Portable house could be hired at four
dollars per month, paid his family ex-
pense4. But the season at the brick
yard.lasted only during six months of
the twelve. During the remaining
six months Tom gladly did any work
he could find he drove teams where
any hauling was to be done, chopped
wood, worked in the pork houses
whore merchants prepared for the
Southern market the fatted hogs which
were the principal legal-tenders for
the Indebtedness of ftrmer customers,
formed part of the crew of one of the
many fiatboatS which conveyed the
meat to market, and did whatever
other work he could fad. But in the
winter season, when the family appe-
tite WAS most industrious, Tom could
no! find employment for all his time,
while the merchants who trusted
him made more frequent requests for
money than Tom was able to honor.
When he was idle he found himself
more welcome at the liquor-shops
than anywhere else; when he grew
despondent nj his inability to pay he
sought solaee at these same places
when in the steady work and long
hours Of the summer season he became
gradually worked out" and used
Tom went to the liluor-shops for
the only relief he had ever been able
to find. His experience did not differ
greatly from that OF men of higher
social standing who under similar
mental aud physical conditions drink
high-priced wines. lie gradually in
creased the quantity of his potations,
and went through the successive ex-
periences of being unnamed by
liquor, striving to rebuild himself by
the power which had broken him, be-
coming by tarns gay, silly, boisterous,
pugnacions, sulIen, apathetic, and
finally penitent Each of his sprees
cost him several days in time and
several dollars in money-a fact which
no one realized more clearly than Tom
himseif-yet the feeling which had
made him take the first drinks of
these frightful series was one which
had its seat i'm his own better nature,
and which he had many times found
more powerful than every influence
he could bring to bear against it. He
had listened to many private lecture
on the subject of his weakness, and
had honestly admitted the truth. of all
that was said to him on the subject :;
he had signed many a pledge in the
most agonized earnest, and had broken
every one of them.


On the Monday after the first Sun
day which followed the temperance
meeting Tom Adams was nearly