Year: 1876

la DOUBTFUL ASPECT.


On their return to the Wetted Whistle,
the Coroner's Court was adjourned for
refreshment, and the Coroner took his
lunch, while the bar was filled with men
whose feelings of sorrow or surprise at
the frightful incidents of the case were
allayed by anodynes concocted by the
bar maid. Mr.. afto-Grenville Hurting
ham was several times treated to pick
me-up," until his guardian, the police
man, began to fear that it would end in
a set-me-down, and wisely checked the
public generosity.


II own to the simplicity aud attrac.
tiveness of the process of discharging any
claim which we may imagine can be
made upon US by some peculiarly atten-
tive railway guard, or cabman, or porter,
or the man who brings home to our house
from the shop an article we have order
ed, or who does a chore or two, or in an
unwonted fit of diligence empties our
dust bin, or has delivered our coal, or has
done nothing-I own to the attractive of
discharging such a claim by offering the
Iefreshment of glass of wine or of beer
to the object Of our benevolence. But
did you ever consider what the response
bility of that act is? Some people, who
u
this because it is cheaper to do so, not
caring one jot about the consequences
Perhaps they have never thought of
watching a dust-cart down a street, and
observing how, as at house after house
the men took their toll of beer, they at
length grew heavy and unfit for work, if
not quarrelsome. The writer has himself
seen a well-known philanthropic member
of Parliament, in his house at eleven in
the morning, hand a glass of wine to a
man who, in discharge of his employers 8
orders, had delivered a Trademarks par
eel at the door. You may test for your
own satisfaction, if you are not afraid
what this morning stimulant means-a
temporary flush, feverish hour, reaction
and thirst, a muddle of the brain-and
you will understand how il is that a
morning once commenced in this way
too often ends in an evening of debauch
or of stupid incapacity. At ten o'clock
in the morning you will now see the
myrmidon Of an adjacent ale-house going
the round of the rising palaces in South
Kensington, and selling beer to the work
men engaged in the buildings. Were
the employer of those men, l would drub
that rascal's back until it ached again,
for stealing away so early the wits of la
| DOT Win MS lll6BdA pcNuteIy. IHcy sec
| it, and they buy it. 1t is brought to
their work, and held to their mouths.
But where are the police and the excise ?
These morfing and complimentary
drinks are the days confusion and the
nights damnation. Or their effect may
be slower and surer. They may only
show their fatal influences when the
pulpy and detoriated frame has to fight
the blue-devils who, long a-coming have
seized their prey at last If you must
| give a man gratuity, give him an obolus.
| Should he spend it in drink, you are ac-
Quilted Or offer him a healthy meal,
and he refuse that, you may bid him
| good-morning with a clear conscience.
But your glass of wine or beer may be
the fifth or the tenth OF such deadly
kindnesses; and you have helped to en-
danger the character, honesty, health
nay, perhaps the life Of a man and God
knows that is heavy burden to accept.


Mr.. Hurlingham's appearance, when
| the inquiry was resumed, showed that
influences had been at work within him
of an elevating character; but it was
demonstrated that he did not succumb
to any thing short Of extraordinary


When, some eighteen or twenty years
since, this man had come back from OK
ford, and strobe the Park, a strong and
beautiful youth, with "hyacinthine


locks, healthy complexion, and noble
frame, well displayed in handsome, fash
ionable clothes all women looked at him
with kindly eyes. You would never
have believed it possible for any inAu
ence, however active and malignant, tC
transform him ia the interval into thi,
poor, rickety, foul trembling, and de
graded sot. If you wish to know what