Year: 1871

Mrs. Stowe, In the serial story which
she is writing for the Christian Union,
describes in most powerful piece of
word painting the disease which is in
duced by the use of stimulants. 1t is
part of letter from one young man to
another. A highly talented young man
named Bolton writes to his friend as
follows:


suppose no young fellow ever en-
tered the course of life with more self
confidence. [ had splendid health,
high spirits, great power of application,
and great social powers. lived freely
and carelessly on the abundance Of my
physical resources. / could ride, and
row, and wrestle with the best. | could
lead in all social gayeties, yet keep the
head of my class, as did the first two
years of my college life. 1t seems hard
ly fair to us human beings that we
should oe SO buoyed up with ignorant
hope and cor fidence in the beginning
of our life, and that we should be left
in our ignorance to make mistakes
which no after years can retrieve. /
thought | was perfectly sure of myself;
I thought my health and strength were
inexhaustible and that / could carry
weights that no man else could. The
drain of my wide awake exhausting life
upon my nervous system made up by
habitually overdrawing his capital, and
ignorant to what extent. In my third
college year this began to tell percepti-
bly, on my nerves. | was losing self
control, losing my way in life; was
excitable, irritable, impatient of guild
ance or reproof, and at times horribly
depressed. I sought refuge from this
depression in social exhiliration, and
having lost control of myself became a
marked man among the college author
tiles; in short, ! was overtaken in a
convivial row, brought under college
discipline, and suspended.


1t was at this time that | went into
your neighborhood to study and teach.
| found no difficulty in getting the high
est recommendations as to scholarship
from some of the college officers who
were for giving me chance to recover
myself; and for the rest | was thor
oughly sobered and determined on g
new course. Here commenced my &C
quaintance with your cousin, and there
| followed a few months remembered
ever since as the purest happiness O.
my life. l loved her with all there was
in me-heart, soul, mind and strength
with a love which can never die. She
also loved me, more perhaps than she
dared to say, for she was young, hardly
come to full consciousness of herself
She was then scarcely sixteen, ignorant
of life, and almost frightened at the in
tensity of the feeling which she excited
in me. But before we could arrive a
anything like calm understanding
her father came between us. He was {
trustee of the academy, and dispute
arose between him and me in which b,
treated me with overbearing haughti
ness, which aroused the spirit of oppo
sition in me. I was in the right ant
knew was, and | defended my ,cours
| before the other trustees In a manne
which won them over omy way OF think
! ing-a victory which he never forgave


Previously to the encounter L ha'


been in the habit of visiting In M


family quite intimately. Caroline an


l enjoyed that kind of unmatched free


dom which the customs of New Eng


ia,io allow TO young people. al" "aJ


attended her home from singing-schoo


and the weekly lectures, and the ever


ing after my encounter with the trustee


l dld the same. At the door of hi


mouse he met us, and as Caroline passe


IN he stopped me; and briefly sayin


that my visits there would no longer b


permitted, closed the door in my fac,
III tried to obtain an interview soon afte
when he sternly upbraided me as on