Year: 1872




One beautiful afternoon in August
there came 10 me the heart-brOken wife
of n State prison convict. We tried to
plan for his pardon and restoration to
home and the world. 1t was very sad
case. He was the only surviving son of
q very noble man-One who lived only
to serve the poor, the tempted and the
criminal. All he had, all he was, he
gave unreservedly to help thieves and
drunkards. His house was their home
His name their bail to save them from
prison. His reward, their reformation.
lt was happy hour to hear him tell of
the hundreds he had shielded from the
contamination and evil example of
prisons, and of the large proportion, he
had good reason to believe, permanently
saved. Out of hundreds, he once told
me only two left him to pay their bail,
forfeited by neglect to show themselves
in court according to agreement-Only
twOI


Bred under such roof the son started
in life with a generous heart, noble
dreams and high purpose. Ten years of
prosperity, fairly earned by energy, in
dustry and character, ended in a bank
Tuptcy, as is so often the case in our
risky and changing trade Then came
2 struggle for business, for bread-tenp-
tation despair ir-intemperance. He
could not safely pass the open doors that
tempted him to indulgence, forgetfuI-
ness and crime. How hard his wife
wrought and struggled to save him from
indulgence, and then to shield him from
exposure! How long wife, sister and
friends labored TO avert conviction and
the State prison. 81 would spare him





''if he would stop drinking. He shall
never 90 to prison while he is a sober
man. But all this wretchednesS and
crime come from rum"


Manfully did the young man struggle
to resist the appetite. Again and again
did he promise, and keep his promise,
perhaps month-then fall. He could
not walk the streets and earn his bread
soberly while so many open doors
opened by men who sought to coin gold
out of their neighbors' vices-lured him
to indulgence. So, rightfully, the State
pressed on and he went to prison. An
hOnOred name disgraced, loving home
broken up, n wide circle of Kindred
sorely pained, q worthy, well meaning
man wrecked; sorrow and crime, " III
comes Of T1u'," says the keen-sighted
lawyer


As parted from the sad wife on my
doorstep, | looked beyond, and close by
the laughing sea stood a handsome cot
tage. The grounds were laid out eXpen-
sively and with great taste. Over the


broad piazza hung lazily an Eastern
hammock, while around were richly
painted chairs and lounges of every easy
and tempting form. Over head were
quaint vases of beautiful flowers and the
delicious lawn was bOrdered with them.
On the lawn itself gaily dressed women
laughed merrily over croquet, and noisy
children played near. \ span of superb
horses paved the earth impatiently at
the gate, while gay salutatiOns passed
between the croquet players and the
fashionable equipages that rolled by.
1t was a comfortable home rs well rs a
luxurious one. Nature, taste and
wealth had done their best. 1t was q
scene of beauty, comfort, taste, luxury,
and wealth. Al came from ritBl. Silks
and diamonds, flowers and equipage,
stately roof and costly attendance, all
came from rum. The owner was one
who, i'm a great city, coined his gold out
of the vice of his fellOwmen.


To me il was disSOiriHg CiclC j lost
sight of the gay women, the frolicsOme
children, the impatient horses and the
ocean rolling up to the lawn. / saw in
stead the pale convict in his cell, twelve
feet by nine, the sad wife going from
Judge TO attorney, from court TO Gov
ernors Council, begging mercy for her
Orcr-temptCd husband. l heard above
[ the children's noise, the crOquet laugh,
and the surf waves, that lawyers stern
reason for exacting the full penalty of
/ the law, AU this comes from rum.
Woe unto him that giveth his neigh
| bor drink. Woe unto him that buildeth
| his house by unrighteOusness and his
chambers by wrong; for the stone shall


cry out of the wall, and the beam out OF
] the timber shall answer it. Wendell
| Phillips IN National Standard.