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THE HARD TIMES 
 
 I 
 
 THE 
 
 CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 
 
 By ANNIE NEELES DUMOND; 
 
 Author of “The Life of a Book Agent,” “Scraps, or Sabbath School 
 Influence,” “Ravenia, or The Outcast Redeemed,” “Happy 
 at Last, or a Sequel to The Life of a Book Agent,” 
 “National Reform, or Liquor and its Con- 
 sequences,” “ Church and Sunday- 
 school Influence,” etc. etc. 
 
 St. Louis: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, 
 
 1523 Lucas Place. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1895, by 
 MRS. ANNIE NELLES DUMOND, 
 in the Offlee of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
DEDICA TION. 
 
 To all the nohle Workers in the Reform 
 that will stand firm against the liquor trafic, 
 and all monopoly, for God and Home and 
 Native Land, this volume is respectfully 
 dedicated by 
 
 The Author. 
 
 o q c C; Q q 
 
 sj o O {y 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In preparing this little volume for the public, I entered 
 upon the task with the sincere desire of saying something 
 that would open the eyes of voters to see this subject in its 
 true light, and influence them to ask God to forgive them 
 for the neglect of their duty to him and their fellow-man, 
 and then to vote as they pray. All Christians should vote 
 against liquor. They will be held responsible by God at 
 the day of Judgment, if they pray for this terrible curse to 
 be removed, and then vote to keep it and to license it to 
 make more drunkards. 
 
 Reader, have you ever given this matter a serious thought? 
 If not, I hope this little volume will lead you to more 
 earnest reflection upon the path of duty, and strengthen you 
 to walk therein. In the hope that it may be received and 
 judged by a generous public with the same kindness and 
 favor awarded her other books, the present work is respect- 
 fully submitted by 
 
 The Authoe. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 THE HARD TIMES ; THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY 7 
 
 THE REFORMED DRUNKARD. 
 
 Chapter I. 44 
 
 Chapter II. 58 
 
 Chapter III. 92 
 
 Chapter IV. 100 
 
 Chapter V. _ . . . 117 
 
 THE STORY OF A RUINED LIFE. 
 
 Chapter I. — The Murderer 127 
 
 Chapter II. — Changes 144 
 
 Chapter III. — Clouds - 172 
 
 Chapter IV. ^ — The Denouement .... 130 
 
 CALIFORNIA WINE AS A TEMPERANCE DRINK, AND 
 ITS RESULTS. 
 
 Chapter I. — More Truth than Fiction — The First Time - 194 
 
 Chapter 11. — Facts and Figures .... 193 
 
 THE AUTHOR’S APPEAL AS A W. C. T. U. TO THE 
 VOTERS. 
 
 Chapter I. — Moral Suasion 203 
 
 Chapter II. 205 
 
 FARM MONOPOLY IN CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Chapter I. — Facts — A Visit to the Millionaires 
 
 (5) 
 
 208 
 
6 Table of Contents. 
 
 A STORY OF CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 
 
 Chapter I. — Tempted and Tried — The Suicide - - 211 
 
 Chapter II. — The Christian College — The Kindness of a 
 
 Wife to a Drunkard 212 
 
 Chapter III. — The Double Wedding — The Preacher — 
 
 Nettie, a Music Teacher 216 
 
 THE W. C. T. U. APPEAL TO VOTERS. 
 
 Chapter I. — A Short History — What Prohibition in Poli- 
 tics has Accomplished 221 
 
 A W. C. T. U. REPORTER PAINTS A BAR-ROOM 237 
 
 HONEST REFORMERS - 240 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF ALCOHOL AND ITS PURPOSE - 248 
 
 NEED OF REFORM. 
 
 Chapter I. — Mixing the Load 250 
 
 Chapter II. — Tempted and Tried .... 256 
 
 Chapter III. — At the Old Home 270 
 
 ALL THE REFORM PARTIES MUST UNITE - - 277 
 
 HOW TO BE A CHRISTIAN 283 
 
THE HARD TIMES: THE CAUSE AND THE 
 REMEDY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Fiest, we say that the hard times have been 
 brought about by a long series of corrupt legisla- 
 tion, beginning almost in the commencement of 
 the war and continuing to the present term of 
 Congress. At that time the Democratic party was 
 in office, and had been for a long time. Then the 
 reins of government were turned over to the 
 Republican party, which has been in power until 
 the present administration. The Democrats had 
 a President one term, but the Republicans had 
 the majority in both houses of Congress. 
 
 The Democrats were held responsible for what 
 they did in their long term, and is it any more 
 than just to hold the Republicans responsible for 
 their control of public affairs during the many 
 years that party was in power ? 
 
 Let us examine their record a little. When 
 Abraham Lincoln, that grand old man of the peo- 
 ple, became President, he found no money with 
 which to carry on the war ; so Congress was im- 
 portuned and did actually create money, and it 
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
The Hard Times: 
 
 was legal tender for all debts, both public and 
 private, and all were prosperous as could be 
 expected. But, behold, the plutocracy of the 
 country had been ignored, so Shylock takes a 
 hand. The bankers must have a convention, and 
 have it at once. 
 
 Let it be remembered that as the war-cloud 
 began to loom up, the gold and silver money of 
 the country was withdrawn from circulation. 
 Where had it gone? Where, indeed, could the 
 Government look for money to carry on the war 
 but to the moneyed men of our own country? 
 Surely Wall street would come to the rescue and 
 pour out her wealth and treasure in defense of the 
 Government. So said justice, so said patriotism. 
 But history tells us quite another story. Neither 
 American nor foreign capitalists would loan the 
 Government any money upon anything like rea- 
 sonable terms. True, the banks would loan their 
 notes at twenty per cent discount ; that is, they 
 would exchange eighty dollars of notes for one 
 hundred dollars in Government bonds at a high 
 rate of interest, payable in gold, and backed by 
 the Government. But they had not the power to 
 make even these notes good in the hands of the 
 soldier. Foreign capitalists would not loan us 
 any money, for they hoped to see the Republic 
 destroyed, and the star of American liberty sink 
 into utter ruin amid the carnage of war. Words 
 are entirely inadequate to express the utter hope- 
 
The Cause and the Remedy. 9 
 
 lessness of the situation. But to get a glimpse at 
 the terrible greed and avarice of the money- 
 loaners we turn to Appleton’s Cyclopaedia for 
 1861, page 296. We learn that the money-kings 
 of Wall street graciously tendered loans to the 
 Government in her distress at from twenty-four to 
 thirty-six per cent interest. These same money- 
 kings to-day are quoted as those generous, patri- 
 otic capitalists, the pillars of the Government. 
 Why, the Government was almost ready before 
 the war closed to exempt them from military duty. 
 The South itself was not any more persistent in 
 its determination to sustain slavery than were 
 these same benevolent gentry to sap the very life- 
 blood from the Government by their usury. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln steps to the front and says to Con- 
 gress: “I read in the Constitution of the United 
 States that Congress shall have power to declare 
 war.” “ That’s all right,” say the bankers. Says 
 Lincoln : “ I read again that Congress shall have 
 
 power to coin money.” Then to the world he said, 
 “We will coin money;” and the Government, at 
 whose head stood the fearless, large-hearted iLin- 
 coln, would not bow down to the greed of Shylock. 
 And accordingly, on the 17th of July, 1861, and 
 the 12th of February, 1862, bills were passed 
 authorizing the issue of $60,000,000 treasury notes, 
 without interest, and payable for all debts, public 
 and private. These were demand notes, and, 
 unlike all other subsequent issues, did not have 
 
10 
 
 The Hard Times: 
 
 the infamous exception clause in them ; therefore 
 they were always good at their face value. They 
 were never depreciated in value, as all later-dated 
 greenbacks were on account of the exception 
 clause in them. But, as stated before, the gold- 
 gamblers of Wall street had been ignored, and 
 they were mad ; so they must get together ; it 
 wouldn’t do to let the Government make the money 
 for the people and ignore their gold. 
 
 So we find that four days after tbe passage of 
 the legal tender act the bankers of the country 
 held a convention in Washington, D. C. But why 
 should they meet in convention? Because Con- 
 gress had made the money of the country a full 
 legal tender for all debts, public and private, and 
 their gold was hid away for this very purpose, 
 and it was not likely to be wanted, and there 
 must be something done to make a demand for it ; 
 therefore the necessity of holding said convention. 
 And in that convention was concocted the diabol- 
 ical scheme of the exception clause, which was 
 always in all subsequent issues of money. There 
 is much more that might be said along this line, 
 but space will not permit, and we must notice 
 other acts of robbery that have been perpetrated. 
 
 Next we take a glimpse at the Banking Act, 
 one of the most diabolical robbery schemes of all, 
 in which the money was shut off from the people, 
 except through the intervention of the banks. 
 The Government simply turns all the money over 
 
The Cause and the Remedy. 11 
 
 to the bankers, without interest and only a ten 
 per cent security, giving theni the right to sap the 
 life-blood from the people as speedily as they like 
 by charging exorbitant usury. 
 
 We will now take a look at the contraction of 
 the currency by destroying greenbacks. On the 
 12th of April, 1866, there was an Act passed by 
 Congress to take up all the paper money and burn 
 it. Bear in mind this paper money bore no inter- 
 est. In this Act Congress authorized the Secretary 
 of the Treasury to sell 5-20 bonds, and with the 
 proceeds retire United States currency, including 
 greenbacks. The bonds bore interest, but were 
 not a circulating medium. 
 
 About this time, one E. Gr. Spalding, a Buffalo 
 banker and a Congressman, wrote to McCulloch, 
 who was then Secretary of the Treasury, advising 
 him to contract moderately, stating that he looked 
 for spasms of tightness for money. They knew 
 just how it would act on the public, and planned 
 deliberately to rob the people. Let us examine a 
 few of the years of contraction which followed. 
 At that time (1866), before there was any contrac- 
 tion, there was in circulation $1,996,687,770. This 
 year there were only 520 business failures in the 
 whole country, involving a loss to business men 
 of $17,625,000. 
 
 1867. Contraction was pushed with vigor. Busi- 
 ness failures, 2,386, with a total loss of $86,218,- 
 000 . 
 
12 
 
 The Hard Times: 
 
 1868. S473,000,000 burned. Business failures, 
 2,608; loss, $63,774,000. 
 
 1869. This was the year that consigned to the 
 flames the largest amount of any one year of the 
 contraction period, requiring $500,000,000 to sat- 
 isfy the greed of the gold gamblers of this coun- 
 try. Business failures, 2,799 ; loss, $75,054,900. 
 
 1870. $67,000,000 burned. Business failures, 
 3,551 ; loss, $88,242,000. Reduction of wages all 
 over the country, employees thrown out of work, 
 strikes talked of ; but the furnace is heated seven 
 times hotter than it was wont to be, and still the 
 dreadful work goes on. 
 
 1871. $35,000,000 cremated. Business failui’es, 
 2,915; loss, $85,520,000. Times get harder and 
 harder. 
 
 1872. The vandal torch only consumed about 
 $12,000,000, but the strain had been so hard that 
 the business failures reach the enormous figures of 
 4,069, with a loss of $121,058,000. Hard times 
 intensified, talk of strikes, and business depressed. 
 
 1873. The year when the storm reached its 
 
 height. Although there was but $1,909,000 burned, 
 yet the burden had become so great that the peo- 
 ple became panic-stricken, and the great panic of 
 that year was the result. The failures of business 
 firms amounted to the enormous number of 5,183, 
 with a loss to the business of the country of $228,- 
 499,000. 500,000 men were thrown out of Avork, 
 
 wages were cut down all over the country, and 
 
The Cause and (he Remedy. 
 
 13 
 
 strikes and riots were frequent. Who does not 
 remember those trying years? And still the van- 
 dal proceeds with his torch. 
 
 1874. Notwithstanding the terrible work of the 
 last year, the door of that horrible furnace is again 
 swung open and receives of the circulating medium 
 of the country $75,484,000 legal tender certificates 
 of indebtedness, $85,760,000 treasury notes, $6,- 
 385,045 legal tenders, $3,000,000 fractional cur- 
 rency, and $1,000,000 bank notes — producing 
 5,832 failures, with a loss of $155,239,000 to cred- 
 itors. A million men compelled to tramp in search 
 of work; wages go still lower, and more strikes. 
 My brother, could God point to the cause of these 
 disasters with a more potent finger than he has 
 for the wickedness of greed of this country’s jjara- 
 sites? How long, oh, how long, shall this con- 
 tinue ? But we are not done yet. 
 
 1875. Burned, $40,817,418; business failures, 
 7,740; loss, $201,060,000. Two million laborers 
 out of work, famine and hunger begin to stare the 
 people in the face. 
 
 1876. The amount of destruction this year is 
 uncertain. The best we can get is $85,000,000 
 greenbacks and bank currency. Failures, 9,092, 
 and $191,000,000 loss during the first quarter of 
 the year. 
 
 With the record of the above ten years, as 
 shown in the above quoted article, is it any won- 
 der that times are hard, and that starvation stares 
 
14 
 
 The Hard Times: 
 
 SO many in the face, and riots and strikes are so 
 frequent? But let us look a little farther. One 
 would suppose that the legislative bodies would 
 take warning and change their tactics. But no, in 
 the face of all this array of wreck and ruin, with 
 the finger-board of contraction at the close of each 
 year pointing to the cause, they go on with their 
 dreadful work at the command of their bosses, the 
 money power, while the people sleep away their 
 precious liberty and j^ray for Providence to inter- 
 pose in their behalf, while John Sherman went 
 marching on with the torch to burn the remaining 
 $300,000,000 of the people’s money. 3,000,000 
 men out of employment, bankruptcy and ruin mul- 
 tiplying with great rapidity, wages cut down to 
 starvation prices, strikes, riots and consternation 
 seize the people; the circulating medium is cut 
 down to $606,000,000 in 1877. 
 
 These are the foot-prints of the money power 
 which is still forging chains for American indus- 
 try, with a view to enslaving American labor by 
 robbing the laborers of their homes and firesides, 
 and thus controlling their life and liberty by con 
 trolling their wages through the control and 
 monopoly of money. These are God’s truths. If 
 they are heeded, we find relief; unheeded, we sink 
 deeper and deeper into poverty and want, and 
 finally into serfdom. God grant that this may be 
 averted. 
 
 But we are not done yet ; we will now take a 
 
The Cause and the Remedy. 15 
 
 look at the Credit Strengthening Act. This was 
 an Act passed for the special benefit of the gold- 
 gamblers. The law authorizing the 6-20 bonds 
 did not make them payable in gold, as you will 
 see by the records of Congress prior to 1869, but 
 this Act did make them payable in gold; thus 
 their purses were stuffed to the amount of many 
 millions. Some say more than a hundred mill- 
 ions. 
 
 But that this Act was intended to benefit a few 
 money-lenders is shown by instructions sent by 
 Baron James Rothschild to August Belmont, who 
 was chairman of the Democratic IS’ational Com- 
 mittee, that if the Democratic party did not pro- 
 vide for paying 5-20 bonds in gold, it must be 
 defeated; or, in other words, it must favor the 
 passing of this Credit Strengthening Act, or be 
 defeated. Again we refer to Thad Stephens, also 
 to John Sherman, for he, too, once was an honest 
 man, if he is not now. But we must pass this to 
 the next scene of robbery. 
 
 The next we find is the Refunding Act. This 
 Act was approved July 14, 1870, and provided for 
 the refunding of the Kational debt. What is 
 refunding this debt? Webster says that to fund 
 means to put into the form of bonds or stock, 
 bearing annual interest, and to refund is to renew 
 these bonds or stocks, probably under new form 
 or contract, which may change the rate of inter- 
 est, though the interest continues. The funding 
 
16 
 
 The Hard Times: 
 
 system is a scheme of finance or revenue by which 
 provision is made for 23aying annual interest on a 
 public debt. Mark you, it is a scheme, and no 
 provision is made for the debt itself. The funding 
 of this bonded, untaxed, interest-bearing debt is a 
 calamity upon this generation, for it j^laces the 
 burden beyond their control. We have already 
 paid interest enough to have twice paid the debt, 
 and yet it is a greater burden on us to-day than 
 ever before. The evil effect of this system has been 
 apparent at times. When we had money enough in 
 the Treasury to more than half pay off the j^ublic 
 debt, we were debarred the j)rivilege on account of 
 the Refunding Act. This vile act of refunding has 
 postponed from time to time the payment of the 
 debt from ten to twenty years, and in consequence 
 of this nefarious act about -$750,000,000 cannot be 
 paid until 1907. Consequently, with an enormous 
 amount of money in the Treasury lying idle, or, 
 what is still worse and more intolerable, depos- 
 ited with National banks, which have been 
 granted its free use for more than twenty years, 
 the people are not only deprived of its use in 
 their business, but are still compelled to jDaj^ 
 interest on the entire amount. This Act must be 
 treated fully in order to understand it, and I think 
 these legislative acts of the Republicans ought to 
 be shown up to the public. 
 
 Is it any wonder the masses are getting restless 
 under this regime ? A large debt saddled on 
 
The Cause and the Remedy. 17 
 
 them, with no provision made to pay off the prin- 
 cipal, deprived of the nse of all this vast amount 
 of money, and yet obliged to pay interest on the 
 same ! Now, would you have any confidence in 
 the business ability of a man who would arrange 
 his affairs so that he would still continue to pay 
 interest on a large debt after he had accumulated 
 enough to pay off the princij)al? Would you not 
 think it more business-like to pay off the original 
 debt than to leave it hanging over the heads of 
 his heirs? Yet this is just what our Congress is 
 doing in this refunding scheme. And, further, the 
 same Administration that has enacted this law, 
 has put forth every effort for the expenditure of 
 these vast sums of money in any and every way 
 other than to pay off this debt. 
 
 The direct tax bill, the educational bill, the 
 river and harbor bill, bills to provide for coast 
 defenses, and innumerable other bills, are schemes 
 concocted for using this surplus in a way that 
 would prevent the payment of the bonds, and to 
 continue this infernal system of taxation, which is 
 wringing the life-blood out of the people, and 
 which affords the only plausible pretext for main- 
 taining party lines between the two old political 
 organizations. 
 
 And, further, not long since Mr. Weaver made 
 the discovery that this funding bill never passed 
 Congress in the form that it appears on the 
 
 statute books. By the changing of one word the 
 2 
 
18 
 
 The Hard Times: 
 
 entire bill was so changed as to make the four per 
 cent bonds payable only after, instead of previous 
 to, thirty years. The anarchism of 1887, under 
 its worst construction, or the great strikes and 
 lawlessness of the present month, sink into utter 
 insignificance before such assassination of law. 
 
 The funding of our public debt is for the sole 
 23urpose of ajDing the English aristocracy, which 
 began two hundred years ago with the same 
 piratical funding scheme, the same nefarious 
 banking system, and almost every step has been 
 borrowed from English laws. The interest on her 
 debt sup 2 )orts a few idle aristocrats (parasites), 
 but it has reduced to ignorance and degradation 
 millions of her toiling peojDle. 
 
 Another object in funding the public debt is to 
 build up a moneyed oligarchy and an aristocracy 
 of wealth to compete with our ancient foe. That 
 those who have long been at the helm are deter- 
 mined to carry out their jfians, is shown by the 
 bill of Senator White, to refund the entire 
 iMational debt into fifty-year two and one-half jDer 
 cent bonds ; also the bill of Senator Parwell, to 
 perjjetuate the National banks. These incidental 
 circumstances add strength to the evidence that 
 they are determined to saddle this interminable 
 burden upon the American people. There is but 
 one interpretation to the funding act. Its object 
 is to compel our children and children’s children 
 throughout all generations to serve the children of 
 
The Cause and the Remedy. 19 
 
 these bondholders. Voters, is this the inheritance 
 you intend to bequeath to your children ? Is this 
 the liberty they are to thank their fathers for? 
 Yet, sir, this is the inheritance the money-kings 
 would bequeath to the posterity of American 
 labor. 
 
 This is what the old parties are asking you to 
 do. This is what for thirty years you have been 
 doing. You have been bartering away this inher- 
 itance, this blood-bought liberty, selling the 
 birthright of your children. And what have you 
 received in return? Mortgaged homes, endless 
 taxes, unremitting and unrequited toil are no bet- 
 ter than the inheritance of slaves. And will you 
 permit this bondage to continue ? Are the ties of 
 party so dear that liberty, home and family must 
 be sacrificed upon its altar? In the name of your 
 homes, and those sweet, bright children that bless 
 them ; in the name of the thousands of homes and 
 tens of thousands of wrecked and ruined lives, I 
 entreat you to break this party tie and thraldom, 
 and smite down this iniquitous legislation and the 
 miscreants who have enacted it. 
 
 It would seem that by this time the money 
 power of this country ought to be satisfied. It is 
 strange that after examining the preliminaries of 
 an infamous plot in the beginning of the civil war, 
 and the infamous banking system, whereby the 
 money power was permitted to rob the people by 
 exorbitant interest, sapping the very life-blood 
 
20 
 
 The Hard Times: 
 
 from the people, as the parasite draws the life 
 from the j^lant or shrub ; and then again, as we 
 have seen in the exception clause which gave the 
 gold-barons a treble leverage over even the soldier 
 in the field, you ask how is it that the moneyed 
 man has such great advantage ? It was thus : the 
 soldier faces death on the field of battle at $16 per 
 month; with $16 he can buy just $16 in bonds and 
 no more. The man with the gold gets $16 in gold, 
 and buys three times that amount in greenbacks, 
 and goes to the United States treasury with his 
 $48 in greenbacks, and the treasurer turns over to 
 him $48 in bonds. And then when General 
 Weaver brought up his bill to pay to the soldier 
 the difference between depreciated greenbacks and 
 the gold with which the soldier was promised to 
 be paid, but instead got greenbacks which were at 
 one time worth only thirty-three and one-third 
 cents on the dollar, one of our great men, a man 
 that was high up in the G. O. P., said that we 
 must throttle this monster (the Weaver bill) right 
 here. Will some one tell me who that man was? 
 I do not like to call his name. And then after 
 examining the contraction scheme, and its terrible 
 effects, how it ruined thousands of the best busi- 
 ness houses in the country and sent millions of 
 honest laboring men tramping over the country in 
 search of work, Avhen there was none, and the 
 funding and refunding schemes, all of which ought 
 to have awakened the voter long, long ago, one 
 
The Cause and the Remedy. 21 
 
 would suppose that the money power would be 
 satisfied. But no. Great and powerful is the 
 greed for more. After having refunded the public 
 debt and made the bonds payable in gold coin 
 which did not cost them more than sixty cents on 
 the dollar, one would naturally suppose that they 
 would be satisfied. But the only desire that 
 seems to prevail in the minds of the money power 
 is gain, gain, gain, little caring what the cost may 
 be ; and we next find these civilized brigands con- 
 summating a scheme for the demonetization of 
 silver. This act passed in 1873, and destroyed the 
 money quality of this metal, thereby causing a 
 further contraction of the currency. The object of 
 this act, first, was to prevent the payment of the 
 bonds ; and, second, to make them more valuable. 
 Never in the history of the nations was an invest- 
 ment so safe and reliable. Shylock, with his 
 hoarded millions of ill-gotten gain, could rest on 
 downy beds of ease. Neither flood nor drought, 
 fire nor famine, mildew nor blight, nor any other 
 creature brought him anxiety or worry. 
 
 He seemed to think he had obeyed the divine 
 admonition to lay up his treasure where moth and 
 rust cannot corrupt, nor thieves break through 
 and steal ; indeed, the entire country has become, 
 and is yet, sponser for his wealth, for under the 
 law every producer and millions of wage-workers 
 have been instituted a vigilance committee to look 
 after his interest. Why should he not have op- 
 
22 
 
 The Hard Times: 
 
 posed having his bond investment disturbed? The 
 Government held his bonds in safe keeping and 
 paid him interest on them, and graciously handed 
 him over ninety thousand dollars out of one hun- 
 dred thousand dollars to do banking business with, 
 without any interest, but permitted him to charge 
 all the interest that the traffic will bear ; besides, 
 the Government collected this interest on his 
 bonds and paid it over to him in gold, free of 
 charge. He was exempt from taxes, the insur- 
 ance agent was a stranger to him ; they neither 
 molested nor made him afraid. Being thus forti- 
 fied, he was content to let the producer of wealth 
 eke out a miserable existence, while he fared 
 siimptuously every day. But, sir, it was not the 
 American capitalist alone that entered into this in- 
 famous scheme for the demonetization of silver, as 
 you will see by examining a bankers’ magazine of 
 August, 1873. In 1872, silver being demonetized 
 in France, England and Holland, a capital of five 
 hundred thousand dollars was raised, and one 
 Ernest Seyd, of London, was sent to this country 
 (to this U. S. A.) with this fund, as agent of for- 
 eign bond-holders and capitalists for this same 
 'object (demonetization of silver), which was 
 accomplished one year later. 
 
 There it is in a nutshell — an English capitalist 
 sent to this country in the interest of foreign cap- 
 italists with a half million dollars to buy our 
 Congress and rob the American people! In cor- 
 
The Cause and the . Remedy. 
 
 23 
 
 roboration of this testimony we read from the Con- 
 gressional Globe of April 8, 1862, page 2304, these 
 words : “Ernest Seyd of London, a distinguished 
 writer and bullionist, is now here and has 
 given great attention to the subject of mint and 
 coinage. After having examined the first draft 
 of this bill (for demonetization of silver), he made 
 various sensible suggestions which the committee 
 adopted and embodied in the bill.” So says Mr. 
 Hooper, who was at the time chairman of the com- 
 mittee of coinage, but Judge Kelley told the Hon. 
 Gilbert He Lamater that he (Kelley) saw the 
 original draft of the bill, and it was in Ernest 
 Seyd’s own handwriting. To undertake to place 
 an expression on paper to represent the disgust 
 that ought to fill every true American patriot at 
 such vile corruption, would be like the profane 
 man who was driving up a very steep hill with a 
 load of nice apples, and at the foot of the hill was 
 a very bad mud hole, but when nearly to the top 
 his tailboard slipped out of the wagon, letting his 
 apples roll down into the mud hole. He looked 
 back and saw the condition with horror. An oath 
 was at the end of his tongue, but he checked him- 
 self and pleasantly remarked that if he under- 
 took to swear he couldn’t do the case justice. So 
 it is with the case in hand ; if we were to try to 
 express abhorrence of such contemptible corrup- 
 tion, sanctioned by most of our high officials, it 
 would be a failure. Therefore I refrain from the 
 
24 
 
 The Hard Times: 
 
 task of finding a word strong enough to apply 
 here. England failed to subjugate us by her bul- 
 lets, but with a crafty use of her gold she seeks 
 to subjugate us by controlling our congressional 
 legislation. 
 
 And to-day American industry pays tribute to 
 England, despite our blood-bought seal of inde- 
 pendence. Dear reader, space will not permit the 
 full presentation of this deep-laid plot, so we will 
 write again on the demonetization of silver. 
 
 Starting out on the suggestion that we ought to 
 put more of the financial question into our lec- 
 tures, would it not be well to write more about it 
 too? So we will add our mite to the sum total 
 of defense on the line of reform. One of Eng- 
 land’s greatest statesmen once said, “ Show me 
 the law of a country and I will show you the con- 
 dition of its people.” So standing upon this 
 ground we are led to think that there is some- 
 thing wrong with the laws of our country — hard 
 times upon us, no money to be obtained for any 
 purpose. What is the trouble ? There is nothing 
 that denotes prosperity in the near future ; where- 
 ever we turn we see discontent on every hand, 
 labor is idle, or on short time and low pay ; mill 
 after mill is silent, furnaces cold and idle, fur- 
 nishing no means for the laborer to support his 
 family; tramps marching in armies through the 
 country and the gaunt wolf of starvation staring 
 into desolate homes, strikes and low wages pre- 
 
The Cause and the Remedy. 25 
 
 vailing everywhere. Look at the many strikes 
 all over the land in the last fifteen or twenty 
 years. Just the other day there was a strike 
 and riot that looked ugly in the silk and dye- 
 ing^factories of New York, and again a few days 
 ago at Denver, Col. What is the meaning of all 
 this? Such was the case just before the downfall 
 of all [nations that have passed out of existence. 
 Riots, strikes, and then follow revolution ; and I 
 tremble for the Republic. All of this trouble has 
 an awful language in it if you will look at past his- 
 tory of former nations that have gone out of sight 
 and hearing except in history. 
 
 On the other side we see all over this land gran- 
 eries bursting with the abundance with which Grod 
 has blessed the land, palatial mansions rising 
 in fabulous magnificence and mountains of wealth 
 piled up on every hand, the product of half-starved 
 labor poured into the cotfers of the idle, affiuent 
 parasites of all communities. At every turn in 
 God’s universe we hear the cry of distress coming 
 up from poverty-stricken homes, crushing out the 
 manhood and womanhood of all human kind, 
 blighting the beauty and buoyancy of youth and 
 destroying the faith of mankind in an all-wise and 
 merciful Father. In a land of jDlenty where the 
 willing hand of industry has created untold wealth, 
 why should that hand be paralyzed for the want 
 of the very wealth it has created ? Why should 
 comfortable food, clothing and homes be denied 
 those who have produced these things in such 
 
26 
 
 The Hard Times: 
 
 great abundance ? These are questions that must 
 be met and answered correctly before the tribunal 
 of a long-suffering but determined people ; these 
 questions will not down any longer. But what is 
 the cause of this disturbance ? We answer, a long 
 series of bad legislation. Let us lay aside all 
 party prejudices and malice and look these things 
 squarely in the face and make a careful inquiry 
 into this matter. First, when a political party is 
 in power (in office) in all branches of this govern- 
 ment, is it not just to hold it responsible for all of 
 the laws that are actually passed ? Yes. Well, 
 the Democrats prior to the war were in office a 
 long time, and the war of the Rebellion was an 
 actual reality at the close of their reign. And you 
 all held the Democratic party resjponsible for the 
 bad legislation during their term of office, and 
 rightly, too. In 1860 the Democrats surrendered 
 the reins to the Republicans, and they began to 
 make and unmake laws. Under their administra- 
 tions the war was fought, the rebellion quelled, 
 reconstruction was accomplished and many grand 
 and noble laws were enacted, which we give them 
 credit for and say, bless God for all this. Ameu 
 and amen! Glory to God! But hark! what is 
 this that we hear stealing through this great ap- 
 plause and rejoicing ? It is the voice of our im- 
 mortal Lincoln. Hark ! what does he say ? Be 
 careful, get it all, don’t lose any of it, for it has a 
 meaning deep as the ocean and high as the moun- 
 tain. Read it carefully ; hear his words. At the 
 
The Cause and the Remedy. 27 
 
 close of the war, in reply to a letter from a friend, 
 he said: “ Yes, we may all congratulate ourselves 
 that this cruel war is nearing its close. It has 
 cost a vast amount of treasure and blood; the best 
 blood of the flower of American youth has been 
 freely ofiered upon our country’s altar that the 
 nation might live. It has been indeed a trying 
 hour for the Republic, but I see in the near futrue 
 a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes 
 me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a 
 result of the war, corporations have been en- 
 throned and an era of corruption in high places 
 will follow, and the money power of the country 
 will endeavor to prolong its reign by working 
 upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth 
 is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is 
 destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for 
 the safety of my country than ever before, even in 
 the 2 nidst of war. God grant that my supersti- 
 tions may j^rove groundless !” What a wonderful 
 prophecy and how minutely it has been fulfilled. 
 Great God ! is it possible that we have got to drink 
 to the dregs all of this bitter cup ? or will the 
 voters of the land rally themselves and get out of 
 the rut of party and save us ? Let us look at 
 some of the omens to which our lamented mar- 
 tyred president points (for I believe this utterance 
 cost Lincoln his life. Wall St. and London could 
 not handle him.) Space will permit only a hint at 
 the different species of legislation, so we will only 
 glance at them as we go along. As to the fulfill- 
 
28 
 
 The Hard Times: 
 
 raent of the above prediction, we cite J. J. Ingals 
 in a speech he made at Glen Echo. , He said, 
 “ That it was a fact that 31,000 people owned more 
 than half of the entire wealth of the country.” 
 This divided per capita would give to 31,000 each 
 $9,678,400, while at this rate the remaining por- 
 tion would be in the hands of sixty-five and a lit- 
 tle over millions of people. But where did it be- 
 gin, or in what law was it made possible for this 
 concentration ? We answer, during the war, when 
 the knife was plunged into our greenback. In 
 Feb. 25, 1862, Congress stipulated that greenbacks 
 should be legal tender for all debts both public 
 and private, excepting on imports, which from 
 that time forward should be paid in gold. This 
 gave the money-mongers power to begin their dirty 
 work. Of all corrupt laws that ever were enacted, 
 we think the National Bank law caps the climax. 
 By it the very life of the poor is ground out of 
 them. But we cannot dwell on these points, but 
 will in the future. Now the foundation of corrup- 
 tion is laid, the machine is made, and the crank is 
 in the hands of the National Bank, and all that it 
 has to do is to turn the crank and Congress 
 grinds out their grist to suit them. The next we 
 notice is the contraction of the currency which has 
 been already hinted at. On April 12, 1866, an act 
 was passed by Congress for a regular and system- 
 atic cremation of the greenbacks, but for all this 
 money that was borrowed there had to be an in- 
 terest-bearing bond put in its place. John A. 
 
The Cause and the Remedy. 29 
 
 Logan once said that a money famine made low 
 wages and low prices on everything hut money. 
 N’ow then, the contraction machine of the currency 
 is grinding and money becomes hard to obtain ; 
 on grinds the mill and [harder and harder get the 
 times. Let us look at a few of these years of con- 
 traction. On December 4, 1866, E. G. Spalding, a 
 Buffalo banker and a member of Congress, wrote 
 to Secretary McCulloch, ‘‘ I think you no doubt 
 now to a certain extent have control of the curren- 
 cy of the country, and I think that you will of 
 necessity contract moderately so as to perserve a 
 tolerable easy money market. There may be 
 occasional spasms of tightness for money, but 
 generally I shall look for plenty of money for at 
 least one year.''’ It would be well to state that 
 when this letter was written there was one billion, 
 nine hundred and ninety-six millions, six hundred 
 and eighty-seven thousand and seventy dollars 
 currency in circulation. During this year there 
 were only about 520 business failures in the whole 
 country, including a loss of but a little over sev- 
 enteen and a half millions ; (1867) this year, the 
 work of contraction was vigorously pushed — fail- 
 ures, 2,386. 
 
 1868. During this year four hundred and three 
 quarters millions dollars was burned up with two 
 thousand and three-quarters of business failures, 
 entailing a loss of nearly sixty-four million ; 1869, 
 money burned, five hundred million two and three 
 quarter thousand failures, losses to business men 
 
30 
 
 The Hard Times : 
 
 over eighty-five million, money scarce, wages fall- 
 ing all over the country. But we cannot give in 
 detail all of these years of disaster at this time, 
 but if it is wanted we will give it in another arti- 
 cle. Suffice it to say that the mill is still grind- 
 ing, and kept on until Uticle Sam ground into the 
 furnace up to and including the year 1871, one 
 billion, eight hundred and eight million, three 
 hundred and fourteen thousand, four hundred and 
 seventy-five dollars, and at the close of the war 
 this money was all in circulation. Then we say in 
 the face of these facts, is it any wonder that we 
 have hard times! when we all know if there is 
 jfienty of money, times are good everywhere ? 
 Now if we would remedy the condition of things, 
 we will have to reverse our course — pass laws for 
 the benefit of the poor and let the rich take care 
 of themselves. They can do it ; they have plenty 
 of money ; they need no protection. Get more 
 money in circulation — let it be gold, silver ’and 
 paper monej^, greenbacks, if you please. Let it 
 come direct from the U. S. Treasury through some 
 medium to the people. Abolish the present bank- 
 ing system, let the government be our banker ; let 
 the money out for building public highways. Post 
 Office buildings, etc. There are lots of ways to get 
 it into circulation. Then you will see good times. 
 This is the mission of the Prohibition party, and 
 we will never get back to the good old times until 
 the Prohibition party is enthroned in the White 
 House at Washington, and Congressional halls 
 
The Cause and the Remedy. 
 
 31 
 
 push the work. Light is breaking. The day of 
 our salvation is a.t hand. 
 
 CHAPTER ir. 
 
 THK LAND AND THE LABOR QUESTION. 
 
 The whole business of redemption is a miser- 
 able farce ; because the smallest amount of paper 
 currency that is redeemable is $50.00, and the 
 only place of redemption is the sub-treasury in 
 New York. Is not this clearly a scheme of rob- 
 bery to advance Shylock’s interest? Getting to 
 the sub-treasury and the large amount necessary 
 at once shuts off the masses from any advantage 
 there might be in resumption. The people are 
 told that the National Bank currency is redeem- 
 able in greenbacks, and that the greenbacks are 
 redeemable in specie. 
 
 The fact that there is not enough specie behind 
 the paper currency to redeem one-half of it, and 
 should a crisis come that would be any advantage 
 to the holders of specie, the Shylock of the counter 
 would be at the sub-treasury, while the masses, 
 with less than $50.00, would get no advantage 
 whatever. This is evidence that this act was for 
 robbing the people for the benefit of the money 
 power. 
 
 PLUNDERING THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. 
 
 The amount of land that has passed into the 
 hands of alien owners is much larger than is gen- 
 
32 
 
 TJte Hard Times: 
 
 erally supposed. This land is in the possession 
 of men and women who have no interest in the 
 welfare of our country and spend all they make 
 out of our rich soil in foreign lands. The follow- 
 ing is a partial list of them : 
 
 ACRES. 
 
 German Syndicate 12,000,000 
 
 Phil. Marshall & Co., London . 1,-300,000 
 
 Marquis of Tweedale in Mass 1 , T.50 , 000 
 
 English Syndicate in Mass 1 , 300 , 000 
 
 Sir Edward Reid 2,000,000 
 
 The Holland Land Co 4,000,000 
 
 English Syndicate in Texas 3,000,000 
 
 Anglo-American Syndicate 750,000 
 
 Byron H. Evans, London 700,000 
 
 Duke of Sutherland 400,000 
 
 British Land Co. in Kansas 320,000 
 
 Wm. Whaley, Member of Parliament 310,000 
 
 Missouri Land Co. , of Edinburg, Scotland 300,000 
 
 Robert Tenant 230,000 
 
 Dundee Land Co. , Scotland 247,000 
 
 Lord Dunmore 120,000 
 
 Lord Houghton in Florida 60,000 
 
 Lord Dunraven in Colorado 60,000 
 
 English Land Co. in Arkansas 50.000 
 
 Alex. Grant, London, in Kansas 35,000 
 
 English Syndicate in Wisconsin 140,000 
 
 M. Ellenhauser, Nova Scotia 600,000 
 
 Scotch Syndicate in Fla 500,000 
 
 A. Boysrn, Danish Consul..- 5,000 
 
 Missouri Land Co 165,000 
 
 And in addition to those named in the above 
 list there are eighteen British lords and one lady 
 who own in this country about ‘a half-million 
 acres more of American land, or an average of 
 over seventy-three thousand acres each. 
 
 The outrage imposed upon the people of this 
 country is simply appalling. To thus squander 
 our public domain ought never to have been 
 allowed. IS'early thirty million acres mostly 
 
The Cause and the Remedy. 33 
 
 owned by the subjects of Europe, and not an acre 
 of it on the market for sale. Think of this, voters 
 of America ! 
 
 This vast expanse of beautiful, fertile land is 
 being held by foreign plutocrats until our public 
 domain is exhausted and the infamous conspiracy 
 shall have been consummated, when they may 
 gather tribute from American tenant-toilers, which 
 they must pay to foreign landlords for the privi- 
 lege of toiling beneath the American flag and on 
 American soil. 
 
 In pursuance of this deep-laid plan, monopoly 
 has seized upon mines, forests, transportation 
 lines, manufactures and finances of the country, 
 until all who toil must, with few exceptions, ask 
 for the privilege to do so of those who have been 
 made wealthy masters of the country and its busi- 
 ness interests, and its toiling, wealth-producing 
 masses, through this legalized villainy, and the 
 Government, its industries and the future destiny 
 of its people, are at their mercy. 
 
 In the meantime Congress had, on the 1st day 
 of July, 1862, passed an Act which chartered the 
 Union Pacific Railroad Company, and gave it a 
 land grant of each alternate section for ten miles 
 each side of its line and bonds to the amount of 
 $20,000 per mile. On July 2, 1864, Congress 
 passed an Act amending the former one, and 
 extended the grant to twenty miles on each side 
 
 of the track ; and to induce these capitalists to 
 3 
 
34 
 
 The Hard Times: 
 
 Ibuild a road over an empire of their own, gave 
 them $20,000 j)er mile. By the provisions of the 
 first-mentioned Act, the Central Pacific, the Cen- 
 tral Branch of the Union Pacific, the Kansas 
 Pacific and Sioux City and Pacific Railroad Com- 
 panies were chartered and granted lands ten miles 
 wide on each side of their respective lines. On 
 March 3, 1863, four more were granted, twenty 
 miles of land on each side and ten miles on each 
 side in addition, to indemnify for lands within 
 their strip already settled upon. This would 
 make thirty miles wide each side (and each alter- 
 nate section). On July 1, 1864, Congress granted 
 the Northern Pacific Railroad Company a tract of 
 land one hundred miles wide, and extending half 
 way across the Continent. The grant included 
 315,000,000 acres, or over 330,000 square miles of 
 land, making a tract six times as large as Penn- 
 sylvania, eight times as large as Indiana, larger 
 than the thirteen original colonies, and larger than 
 British India, which has a population of 240,000,- 
 000 people ; it is larger than England, Scotland, 
 Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Grermany and France 
 combined. Congress at the same time raised the 
 jDrice of the land in that tract still owned by the 
 Government to $2.50 per acre, so that the strug- 
 gling pioneer who sought a home on the public 
 domain within this empire of the rich was com- 
 pelled to pay at the rate of $1.25 per acre for his 
 own tract, and the same for a like tract given to 
 the railroad, while the heritage of our children is 
 
The Cause and the Remedy. 35 
 
 being thus squandered on the corporations at 
 home. Foreign capital was invited to come over 
 and invest in our rich, productive soil. 
 
 In order that we may understand the common 
 principles which have existed through all ages 
 bearing upon the laborer and his condition in 
 society, we will glance back over the past for 
 some considerable time. We hrst tind the laborer 
 makes his appearance in English history as a serf 
 or a slave; he owned neither land, cattle nor 
 goods, but was wholly dependent upon his lord, 
 who furnished him with food, clothing and shelter, 
 and in return was entitled to his services with lit- 
 tle remuneration, and his lord was responsible for 
 his conduct. He belonged to the estate, and if the 
 estate changed hands the title to the land carried 
 in it rights to the laborer, and he served under the 
 new landlord. He had no civil rights, neither for 
 nor against any one, save through his lord of the 
 manor. This condition was not absolute. For 
 when he was not working for his lord, he was at 
 liberty to cultivate a garden, gather fuel from the 
 manor forest, and devote his time to his family, 
 and thereby accumulate a little means for himself, 
 and eventually purchase a piece of land, and thus 
 free himself ; or, if he was able to master a trade 
 as a mechanic, he received higher wages than a 
 serf, which was of little value to him. Otherwise, 
 he was considered as upon the same footing as a 
 serf. In towns and cities he had no civil rights 
 until he acquired property and entered the guild 
 
36 
 
 The Hard Times : 
 
 of his path. He then could sit upon his own 
 account and emploj^ journeymen and hold appren- 
 tices. But custom had long held him as a man of 
 low caste, and unfortunately a stigma has fol- 
 lowed the man of labor in the eyes of a certain 
 class to this day. At that time the capitalist or 
 landlord was not actuated by hostile feelings, 
 nor did he in any way seek to oj)press him. For 
 as a serf he was virtually his property ; he jDro- 
 tected him for the sole jDurpose of avoiding his 
 loss, but wages was a pretext for a quarrel at any 
 time, as it is to-day. But, in accordance with 
 God’s law of justice, this state of things could not 
 always continue, and so in 1349 God sent a 
 plague, terrible in its nature, the Black Death 
 which swept all over England. Its devastation 
 was horrible. This plague marks the beginning 
 of a new era ; it marks an era of freedom for the 
 serf, for nearly one-half of the entire population 
 was swept away, and labor assumed the phase of 
 being the most important element in the kingdom. 
 Laborers demanded quadruple pa}*, and dictated 
 their own tei’ins. The historic statutes of laborers 
 Avere passed, and then began the antagonism be- 
 tween capital and labor, and has continued until 
 the present. In 1381 the Peasants’ Avar broke out, 
 and in the settlement the King promised to free 
 them and remove the stigma forever, but the Par- 
 liament refused to ratify that promise. In a unan- 
 imous vote they declared that they Avould rather 
 perish altogether in one day. The strife con- 
 
The Cause and (he Ronedy. 37 
 
 tinned ; other civic laws were passed constantly. 
 The laborer was forbidden to leave his place of 
 abode, or travel withont a passport. In 1891 Par- 
 liament was petitioned to forbid the children of 
 the base form to attend the schools, but the strife 
 was pushed on both sides, and finally the land- 
 lords gave up the employment of serf-labor, and 
 rented their land out to tenants in small farms for 
 a money consideration. At the end of fifty years 
 serfdom was a thing of the past. Then the wages 
 of workmen was more than enough for a comfort- 
 able support, and his day’s work was eight hours. 
 With the close of the reign of Henry YIII., after 
 a period of about 150 years, legislation again 
 oppressed the laborer, and for 250 years he strug- 
 gled against laws which tended only to the inter- 
 est of the rich classes, and the prosperous work- 
 man became a beggar with a starving family. 
 The first effort of law-making in favor of the 
 laborer was the English poor law of 1601, which 
 failed of any good. 
 
 Now, reader, we have had a look at the condi- 
 tion of labor in the times back to where the mem- 
 ory of man runneth not. It would look, from some 
 applications made by our Saviour, as if these con- 
 ditions obtained in his time. Now let us look at 
 our own condition and see if we cannot find a sim- 
 ilarity in many ways during our early history im- 
 mediately following the discovery of America, 
 The Atlantic States were infested with adventurers. 
 Their jDurposes were the gathering of the jn-ecious 
 
38 
 
 The Hard Times: 
 
 metals, trading with the Indians for furs, and the 
 locating of fishing-banks from which food might 
 be obtained for Europe. In 1607, Jamestown, 
 Virginia, was occupied by the English, and finally 
 became a permanent settlement. Colony after 
 colony was established along tlie Vew England 
 shores. Religious and political oppression in 
 Europe stimulated the tide of emigration, and the 
 new world began to live. Up to this time there 
 had been no real industrial settlements made ; but 
 later, during the seventeenth century, people or a 
 different stamp were driven by ^persecution to our 
 shores, and the colonists gained an element of 
 thoughtful, diligent and religious caste. In the 
 early period of our history the man who sought 
 to live of his own labor found toil remunerative, 
 and in this country the white workman has never 
 been subjected to the hardships and iDrivations 
 which disgrace tlie pages of English history; he 
 has alwaj's been, politically, the peer of any one. 
 At that time land was free (would to God we had 
 it now to be free with !) to all who made use of it 
 for their support. He quickly learned to rely upon 
 his own efforts, and grew self-reliant and inde- 
 pendent with the exercise of his natural rights, 
 unhampered by the fetters of conscienceless legis- 
 lation, and with the pride and knowledge which are 
 inseparable from full citizenship the workman 
 developed the germ of American independence, 
 and all would have been well but for that same 
 class of infamous legislation which has been 
 
The Cause and the Remedy. 39 
 
 forced on the people of this country and Europe, 
 such as the exception clause in the greenbacks, 
 the Funding Act, the Credit Strengthening Act, 
 the Resumption, and so on. Dear reader, look at 
 our condition and compare it with the past of 
 Europe, and define, if you can, where we are drift- 
 ing. We have been giving you. a continual de- 
 scription of influences which plutocratic dema- 
 gogues have been forcing upon us, which are now 
 grinding the life-blood out of the American peo- 
 ple and causing unrest and discontent throughout 
 the length and breadth of the land. 
 
 Is it not clear why English capitalists were 
 anxious to have our silver demonetized, and why 
 they could afford to send Ernest Seyd over here 
 with a capital of half a million dollars to accom- 
 plish that object ? Gentle reader, will you pause 
 one moment to consider why the Rothschilds, who 
 controlled the financial policy of England as the 
 brokers and security holders of America control 
 our financial policy, could afford to pay, not only 
 the paltry half million, but many millions more if 
 need be to accomplish their object? 
 
 Our civil war taught England a severe lesson. 
 She found that her welfare, and in fact almost her 
 very existence, depended upon American supply 
 of cotton, meat and cereals. There was liable to 
 be a cut of either by war, famine or otherwise. 
 But England, the world’s great creditor, held the 
 bonds of all nations, and if she could make them 
 payable in the dearest money in the world, it 
 
40 
 
 The Hard Times : 
 
 would enhance her securities many millions, and 
 if she should insure herself an ample supply of 
 wheat and cotton she could be independent of us 
 under all circumstances. And since she owned 
 and controlled all India, that great wheat and cot- 
 ton country, she saw that through India’s cheap 
 labor and the demonetization of silver in this 
 country (U. S. A.) she would have a double lever- 
 age over America and her product. Silver money 
 is used exclusively in India. England coins it, and 
 if with eighty cents she can buy silver, stamp it 
 and j^ass it for a dollar in payment for India's 
 wheat and cotton, she not only gains the 20 j)er 
 cent from her own subjects, but in consequence of 
 the demonetization of silver in America, her debt- 
 ors here were compelled to pay at least ten per 
 cent more than they would have paid had not 
 silver been demonetized. 
 
 Let it be borne in mind that this discount, 
 whether it be much or little, was just that much 
 new capital in England to use in India in opening 
 it up to cultivation and bringing that vast wheat 
 and cotton country into competition with our like 
 products, and we have furnished just that much 
 capital to injure our own markets with. The in- 
 jury to the people of this country through the de- 
 monetization of silver can never be justly esti- 
 mated. 
 
 The panic of 1873, which followed immediately, 
 was one of the most disastrous that ever befell 
 any people up to that time. The English Ian- 
 
The Cause and the Remedy. 41 
 
 guage fails to describe the blighting misery that 
 desolated the country. The devastation and rav- 
 ages of war are scarcely comparable. The Dark 
 Age of our republic may well date from 1873, 
 when silver was demonetized, to the time when it 
 was again restored to its money power in 1878. 
 Bankruptcy and financial disaster brought in their 
 train their legitimate offspring, and the statistics 
 of those days and years which followed are vol- 
 uminous with the most startling and loathsome 
 crimes. Murder, insanity, suicide, divorce, drunk- 
 enness, and all forms of immortality and crime 
 have increased from that day to this in a most 
 appalling ratio. Will any man dare say that leg- 
 islation has had nothing to do with these revolting 
 conditions ? Yes, verily, and Republican legisla- 
 tion at that, for as was stated in a former page, 
 they have had full power ever since the war to the 
 present administration. These conditions can 
 only come by degrees. Every cause produces its 
 effect, and without cause there can be no effect pro- 
 duced. Every result is produced from certain 
 causes, and it is no more certain that like begets 
 like than that the increase of crime and misery in 
 our country is the direct result of legislation. 
 And it is impossible for a nation to remain free 
 whose laws are made granting special privileges 
 to the few and ignoring the rights of the many. 
 
 The contraction of the currency, commencing 
 with the destruction of the greenbacks in 1866, 
 and the stringency increased by the demonetiza- 
 
42 
 
 The Hard Times: 
 
 tion of silver in 1873, has been productive of more 
 misery and crime to the people of this country 
 than all the war, pestilence and famine that ever 
 afflicted the human family. In regard to the pol- 
 icy of contraction. Professor Walker, of Yale Col- 
 lege, who is not a politician nor a statesman, but a 
 cool, unbiased writer and teacher, says, “When the 
 process of contraction commences, the first class 
 on which it falls is the merchants of the large 
 cities ; they find it difficult to get money to meet 
 bills. The next class is the manufacturer ; the 
 sales of his goods fall off. Laborers and mechan- 
 ics next feel the pressure ; thej^ are thrown out of 
 employment. And lastly, the farmer finds a dull 
 sale for his product, and all unsuspicious of the 
 real cause has a vague idea that his difficulties are 
 on account of the hard times. There must be 
 some cause, but what ? Don’t know, never stop- 
 ping to look into the matter for a single moment.” 
 
 Recardo, another eminent writer on political 
 economy, says that commodities rise or fall in 
 proportion to the increase or diminution of 
 money. “ I hold,” said he, “ this fact to be in- 
 controvertible.” 
 
 John Stuart Mill says : “ If the whole volume 
 
 of money in circulation were doubled, prices 
 would double, or xice versaT 
 
 It Avould seem strange indeed if those who have 
 followed us through the discussion of these vari- 
 ous robbery schemes are not impressed with the 
 fact that something is wrong with the govern- 
 
The Cause and the Remedy. 43 
 
 s 
 
 ment, and so there is. But we are not done yet. 
 There are three monstrosities which we wish to 
 "bring before the reading public, viz., the Resump- 
 tion Act, the Land Question, and the Liquor or 
 Saloon Question. We will only take a glimpse at 
 the Resumption Act, for it is but the natural pro- 
 duct of legislation preceding it which we have 
 already noticed. ISTevertheless it comes in for its 
 share in the course of the present hard times. 
 The people had found the fractional currency 
 very convenient, and they had become so accus- 
 tomed to its use that when it was swept away by 
 an act of Congress, passed Jan. 24, 1875, author- 
 izing the Secretary of the Treasury to destroy all 
 of it, it was a very apparent inconvenience. But 
 underlying this act is a deep scheme of plunder. 
 For this factional currency, like the first issue of 
 the greenback, was without interest, but when this 
 was destroyed the same act authorized the Treas- 
 urer to coin silver of like denomination to take 
 its place, and it became necessary for the Treas- 
 urer to issue, or at least he did issue, non-taxable 
 interest-bearing bonds to pay for the bullion, 
 thereby saddling extra burdens upon the peo- 
 ple. Is it not clear that by the destruction of a 
 non-interest bearing currency, like the greenbacks, 
 and substituting an interest-bearing bond, a bur- 
 den has been added to the people? Not to the 
 tax-payer only, but to every consumer of food and 
 clothing. Now, dear, we will take up the results 
 of the saloon and the wine question. 
 
THE REFORMED DRUNKARD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A young physician sat alone in his office in the 
 village of Perry sburg, in the central part of IS’ew 
 York. It needed hut a single glance at his lofty 
 brow, clear eye and intellectual countenance to 
 demonstrate that in him his profession had an 
 ardent, enthusiastic votary, and science one of her 
 most devoted lovers. The evidences of hard study, 
 constant meditation and intelligent, patient reflec- 
 tion, were to be seen in every lineament of his 
 features with a clearness which left no room for 
 doubt that the young man and “ the midnight oil ” 
 were intimate acquaintances. He sat this morn- 
 ing so much absorbed in the perusal of a most 
 interesting article on contagious disease, from the 
 pages of a leading medical journal, that he scarcely 
 noticed the opening of his office door. 
 
 The person who entered wms a jmung man about 
 his own age, clad in the sable garments which are 
 said to be indicative of the clerical profession. 
 He was tall and slender, and the marks of earnest, 
 untiring mental labor were as apparent in his coun- 
 tenance as in that of the young physician. In- 
 deed, a skilled anatomist, observing him closely, 
 
 ( 44 ) 
 
The Reformed Dvunhard. 
 
 45 
 
 would have said that his mental temperament was 
 too active for his physical, and that the utmost 
 care would be necessary to enable him to live out 
 the span ordinaril}^ allotted to dwellers upon the 
 earth. His countenance withal, wore a fierce, earn- 
 est expression of benevolence and goodness which 
 accorded well with the calling he had chosen. He 
 was, without doubt, one of the most faithful, zeal- 
 ous and conscientious laborers in the vineyard of 
 his Divine Master. 
 
 A moment he stood and contemplated the young 
 physician, unwilling to interrupt his studies, but 
 the errand upon which he had come was one of 
 benevolence and mercy, and at last he spoke. 
 
 “ Good morning. Dr. Gleason, you seem very 
 much interested in something, but I must venture 
 to disturb you.” 
 
 “Pray excuse me, my friend,” said the young 
 physician rising and extending his hand with un- 
 affected cordiality ; “ but I was so much engrossed 
 in Dr. Everleigh’s theory of Contagious Diseases, 
 that I scarcely noticed your entrance. Pray, be 
 seated, Mr. Crawford,” pointing to a chair as he 
 spoke. 
 
 The young clergyman seated himself and then 
 asked, “Are you at leisure for a short time ? ” 
 
 “Entirely so,” replied the doctor, drawing a 
 chair close to his visitor, “ what can I do for 
 you ? ” 
 
46 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 “I want you to go with me u^Don an errand of 
 charity.” 
 
 “ That,” said the young man earnestly, “ is a call 
 I always heed. What is the nature of the case ? ” 
 “ Last evening,” said the minister, “ I was return- 
 ing from a visit to one of my parishioners when 
 my attention was attracted by the shouts of merri- 
 ment from a group of hoys who had collected on 
 the sidewalk. Evidently there was something of 
 more than ordinary interest to them and I ap- 
 proached them to ascertain what it was, and there, 
 lying on the ground, in a frightful state of intoxi- 
 cation, was a man who was evidently a stranger in 
 the village. He was ragged and filthy to a degree, 
 and had evidently wallowed in the very depths of 
 the mire of dissipation. But fallen and degraded 
 as he was, there was still something about him 
 which appealed powerfully to my sjmipathies. He 
 was a human being, and, though steeped in sin, it 
 was to such that the Master bade us go. Accord- 
 ingly I cared for him, raised him up, and, help- 
 less as he was, with the assistance of some of the 
 larger boys, took him away and put him to bed.” 
 “ Where did you take him ? ” 
 
 “ To the widow Stanton’s. She did not much 
 like to receive him, but at my earnest solicitation 
 consented to do so.” 
 
 “ Have you seen him this morning ? ” 
 
 “Yes,” replied the minister, “I called there 
 early, and that is why I came for you. I found 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 47 
 
 him this morning raving with an attack of what I 
 believe to be delirium tremens."''' 
 
 “ Delirium tremens ! This is, indeed, serious,” 
 said the young doctor. “ Have you any idea who 
 he is or where he is from ? ” 
 
 “ Not the least. Nobody knows anything of 
 him, and of course he is unable to give any in- 
 telligible account of himself. All that I have 
 been able to learn is that he came here on a train 
 from the west two or three days since, and has 
 been spending his time at those horrible dens of 
 iniquity, the rum-holes of tiie town, going from 
 one to another, and pouring down the fiery liquid 
 which transforms men made in the image of God 
 into the lowest types of the brute creation.” 
 
 “ It is dreadful,” said Dr. Gleason, in tones of 
 deep and earnest feeling, “ to think of the amount 
 of misery and wretchedness which those demons 
 in human form — the rumsellers — inflict upon the 
 human race. I would not bear their fearful respon- 
 sibility for all the wealth of the world. How many 
 souls, damned to eternal perdition, will justly 
 charge their ruin to them, no one save the Omni- 
 scient himself, can ever tell. It is, indeed, fearful 
 to contemplate.” 
 
 “ Yes, and to think,” said the minister, “ that 
 men claiming to be reasonable, intelligent, upright 
 members of society should be found to apologize 
 for their crime, the most hideous and gigantic ever 
 perpetrated against the human race, because it 
 
48 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 threatens alike all ranks and classes of society. 
 How many of the brightest and most glowing in- 
 tellects which ever adorned the pages of the world’s 
 history have fallen beneath its baneful influence, 
 and instead of joroving guides to their fellows have 
 been but stumbling-blocks in their way. God pity 
 and forgive them.” 
 
 While this conversation was taking j)lace the 
 doctor had been busily engaged in making the nec- 
 essary preparations to accompany his vistor, and 
 they at once set out, and after a few minutes’ brisk 
 walk reached the widow Stanton’s cottage. A ring 
 at the door-bell brought a smart, tidy-looking serv- 
 ant girl to admit them. She at once showed them 
 to the parlor where Mrs. Stanton soon joined them. 
 
 “ Good morning, Dr. Gleason,” said she, extend- 
 ing her hand with frank cordiality to him, and 
 bowing slightly to the minister whom, as the reader 
 is aware, she had already greeted this morning, “I 
 am glad you have come. Your skill is very much 
 needed, I assure you.” 
 
 “Yes,” said the Doctor smiling as he took her 
 hand and shook it warmly, “ I understand that 
 your house has been converted into a sort of hos- 
 pital.” 
 
 “ How is the patient ? ” asked the minister. 
 
 “Just the same as when you left,” replied the 
 lady. 
 
 “ Is he still as restless, and does he seem as much 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 49 
 
 terrified at imaginary objects as when I left him an 
 hour ago? ” 
 
 “Just the same, only that he seems to be some- 
 what exhausted by the violence of his exertions. 
 His conduct is at times absolutely terrifying, while 
 his curses and exclamations are enough to chill 
 one’s blood with horror. I dare not stay alone 
 with him,” said Mrs. Stanton, shuddering in spite 
 of herself. 
 
 “ How long has he been this violent ? ” inquired 
 the doctor. 
 
 “About midnight he commenced raving, and has 
 kept it up with but intervals of a few moments at 
 a time ever since.” 
 
 “Has he slept any?” 
 
 “ Not a wink since that time.” 
 
 “What seems to be the nature of his mental 
 emotion?” inquired the doctor, “Does he seem 
 angry and furious, or are his emotions chiefly 
 those of terror and affright?’’ 
 
 “ Chiefly the latter.” 
 
 “What does he seem to fear? natural objects, 
 such as serpents, reptiles, and the like, or demons 
 and monsters ?” 
 
 “ Snakes and spiders seem to be his particular 
 objects of dread,” said the lady. “He appears to 
 see, or imagine he sees, them all the time, and his 
 struggles to keep out of their way are at times 
 positively frightful. At other times he implores 
 
 his attendants, with piteous cries, and screams of 
 4 
 
50 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 agony, to keep them away from him. And all the 
 while great drops of sweat, like heads, stand all 
 over his face. Although entirely his own fault I 
 cannot help feeling the deepest pity and sympathy 
 for him. His sufferings are enough to melt a heart 
 of stone. He must have relief soon, or death will 
 relieve him,” and the widow’s eyes filled with tears 
 as she contemplated anew the sufferings of the 
 wretched victim of his own misdeeds. 
 
 “Who is with him now?” asked the minister. 
 
 “ My son Edmund, and another young man, the 
 son of a neighbor He is so violent at times,” she 
 added in explanation, “ that one person cannot get 
 along with him.” 
 
 “ Well,” said the doctor, rising to his feet, “let 
 us see him, and we will see what can be done.” 
 
 The widow also arose, and leading the Avay they 
 soon entered the chamber of suffering, whence 
 issued cries and moans of agonized terror suffi- 
 cient to appallthe stoutest heart. 
 
 What was it that, as they approached the bed 
 upon which lay the wretched sufferer, thrilled the 
 young doctor Avith such evidently intensel}^ painful 
 emotion ? Why did he start as if struck by a 
 bullet and grasp so convulsiA-ely the arm of his 
 friend and siAiritual adviser, while a marble pallor 
 overspread the whole of his features the moment 
 his eye fell upon the delirious occupant of the 
 couch? Why did his knees tremble and almost 
 refuse to support his frame as he approached the 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 51 
 
 bedside, and wliy that fearful tremulousness of 
 the usually firm and steady hand as he made the 
 necessary examination of his patient? We shall 
 see presently. 
 
 Restraining his too apparent emotion so far as he 
 was able by the most powerful exercise of his more 
 than ordinarily strong will, he began to examine 
 the patient as to the condition of his pulse and 
 such other matters as his situation would permit. 
 While thus engaged his eyes met those of the sick 
 man. The effect upon the latter was scarcely less 
 than that of the ffrst glance had been upon the 
 doctor. For a moment his gaze was arrested, and 
 then he burst into a hideous, mocking laugh which 
 curdled the blood of all his hearers. 
 
 “Aha ! ” he cried in exultant tones, “ you are 
 here in hell, too, are you ? I thought you was so 
 very good you would never come here, but it seems 
 3^our goodness hasn’t helped you much. Isn’t it a 
 joll}^ place? Do you see those snakes wriggling 
 and twisting and fighting with one another? Isn’t 
 it fun? Now, now, see! Some of them are coming 
 this way ! Don’t let them get on me ! Keep them 
 off! ” he screamed with all his might, and frothing 
 at the mouth he fell back from the half sitting 
 posture he had assumed in a convulsive paroxysm 
 of affright. 
 
 Terribly as the young doctor was moved by the 
 dreadful scene, he still retained sufficient ffrmness 
 and command of himself to perform his duty to 
 
52 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 the sick man. With features of ghastly pallor 
 and tightly compressed lips, while his hands trem- 
 bled so that he could hardly unclasp the case of 
 medicines he had brought with him, he prepared 
 some remedies, and giving the astonished attend- 
 ants the necessary instructions for administering 
 them, he took his leave, only saying that he would 
 soon return. Mr. Crawford accompanied him. 
 
 “ What can be the matter with Dr. Gleason this 
 morning ? ” said Mrs. Stanton as soon as the door 
 had closed behind the two men. “ I have seen him 
 in the sick room a good many times, but I never 
 saw him affected as he was this morning.” 
 
 “It may be that he never saw a case of this kind 
 before,” said her son, “ and his violence,” pointing 
 to the patient, “ may have been too much for the 
 doctor’s nerves. You know he is very jmung.” 
 
 “ Yes,” said the other young man, “ but there 
 was something more than the violence of the patient 
 which affected him. When Mr. Jones went crazy 
 he was as violent as this man has been, but the 
 doctor was not moved as he has been by this 
 man.” 
 
 “ But the violence was of a different character.” 
 
 “ That is true, but it was no less frightful than 
 in the present case.” 
 
 “Yes,” said Mrs. Stanton, “Joseph is right. 
 The mere violence of this man was not sufficient to 
 agitate the doctor so terribly. There was mutual 
 recognition between him and his patient, and both 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 53 
 
 were alike affected. Depend upon it they have 
 met before, and there is some dreadful secret 
 between them.” 
 
 “ But what can it be ? ” said Edmund, still 
 doubting. 
 
 “ I have no idea,” said the lady ; “ but the doc- 
 tor has always seemed to me like one who had 
 some hidden sorrow, and it may be that this man 
 is in some way connected with it.” 
 
 “We shall doubtless know all about it in good 
 time,” said Joseph ; “ so let us borrow no more 
 trouble about it now. I am very certain that, 
 whatever it may be, it is nothing in any way dis- 
 creditable to Dr. Gleason.” 
 
 “Of course not,” said Edmund, who was a warm 
 admirer of the young physician, and who, with all 
 the impulsiveness of his youth, at once repelled 
 the idea that there could be anything wrong about 
 him. 
 
 “ I presume not,” said the lady now, hesitat- 
 ingly, “but I wish we knew what it was. N’one of 
 us knew anything of the doctor until he came here 
 little more than a year ago.” 
 
 “Very true,” said Edmund, with some warmth, 
 “but his conduct since he came here has been 
 sufficient to prove that he possessed one of the 
 noblest natures which ever dwelt in man. See the 
 confidence which Rev. Mr. Crawford, who knows 
 him better than any of us, places in him. This 
 ought to be sufficient proof of his goodness.” 
 
54 National Reform. 
 
 “ Yes, but he, too, may be deceived,” said Mrs. 
 Stanton. 
 
 ‘■‘He may be,” rejDlied her son, “but I do not be- 
 lieve he is.” 
 
 “ I can hardly think he is,” chimed in the other 
 young man, “nor do I think, my dear madam, that 
 because there is something in this matter which we 
 do not understand, that we should therefore sus- 
 pect one of whom we know nothing but good. 
 Hather, let us continue to think well of him while 
 patiently waiting for the unraveling of the mys- 
 tery.” 
 
 “ You are right,” said Mrs. Stanton, candidly, 
 “ and I am wrong ; so let us say no more about it.” 
 
 Let us, meantime, accompany the clergyman and 
 doctor as they pursue their way to the office of 
 the latter. As they gained the open air of the 
 street, the physician heaved a deep sigh of relief, 
 and when the minister would have turned in the 
 direction of his boarding-house, he gently laid his 
 hand upon his arm. 
 
 “ Come with me to my office,” said he in a sub- 
 dued tone ; “ I Avant to talk Avith you.” 
 
 ‘‘ Certainly, if you desire it,” said Mr. Crawford, 
 as he resumed his place at the side of the young 
 man, and they AAmlked on in silence. 
 
 The intimacy and confiding friendship between 
 these tAvo young men Avas something remarkable, 
 almost equalling the old-time love of David and 
 Jonathan. Years before our story opens, they had 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 55 
 
 met and been room-mates at an institution of 
 learning which has, perhaps, turned out more of 
 the great men of our land than any other one in 
 the country — Yale College. Coming together there, 
 without any previous acquaintance, they had 
 within those classical walls formed ties which 
 nothing but death could sever. As has already 
 been stated, they were just about the same age, 
 and the congeniality of their dispositions, their 
 high moral character and ardent devotion to sci- 
 ence, had linked their souls together in the most 
 indissoluble bonds. Throughout the whole of 
 their collegiate course they had pursued their 
 studies together, had read the same authors, and 
 had finally graduated with high honors in the same 
 class. 
 
 But at the close of their collegiate course they 
 had separated. Mr. Crawford had long resolved 
 to become a laborer in the vineyard of the Lord, 
 while Gileason’s predilections led him to engage in 
 the practice of the healing art, and while the 
 former had entered a theological seminary, the lat- 
 ter had prosecuted his studies in the office and 
 under the instruction of one of the most eminent 
 practitioners of the city of New York. But though 
 thus separated, the affectionate regard engendered 
 between them during their collegiate days by no 
 means waned. They had corresponded constantly, 
 and when Dr. Gleason received his diploma and 
 established himself in the pleasant and thriving 
 
56 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 village of Perrysburg, lie soon learned with, un- 
 feigned joy that his old friend had accepted the 
 call of the congregation there and was about to 
 become their pastor. 
 
 Indeed, the doctor had taken no little part in 
 bringing about this state of things. Youthful as 
 he was, the ardor and fervency of his piety, and 
 his intelligent and earnest advocacy of everything 
 good and noble, had from the first given him a 
 prominent position in the church of which he was 
 a member ; and when the question of filling the 
 pulpit left vacant by the resignation of Rev. Mr. 
 Hodsden began to be agitated, his suggestion of 
 the name of his friend, Mr. Crawford, for the vacant 
 living had been favorably received and promptly 
 acted upon. And to the credit of both pastor and 
 people be it said that neither had as 5^1 seen any 
 cause to regret their action in the premises. 
 
 When Mr. Crawford came to Perrysburg, the old 
 intimacy was of course renewed, and many a 
 leisure hour did the friends pass in that wholesome 
 and unrestrained communion of soul with soul 
 which had characterized their earlier jmars. In 
 every work of benevolence or alleviation of human 
 sufiering, the jDastor found an earnest and untiring 
 co-laborer in Dr. Gleason, and thus the ties which 
 bound them together had been drawn closer and 
 closer until at the time our story opens it could 
 truly be said of them that “ their souls were knit 
 together.” 
 
The Reformed Druiikard. 
 
 57 
 
 One trait of Mr. Crawford’s character, strength- 
 ened somewhat, jDerhaps, by the fact that for at 
 least ten years he had been both fatherless and 
 motherless, deserves especial mention here, and 
 that was his iinusually ardent love for his only 
 sister, now a sweet and beautiful girl of seventeen, 
 and who resides with an aunt in his native State of 
 Massachusetts. Aside from his books, his religion 
 and his class-mate, she was the only thing on earth 
 he had to love, and u]3on her he lavished all the 
 deep and boundless affection of his soul, and in 
 his hours of confidential communication with his 
 friend, the doctor, he never wearied of speaking in 
 the most endearing terms of her goodness, her 
 many graces, and her almost perfection. 
 
 Let it not be imputed to him for weakness that 
 he thus gave free vent to one of the noblest im- 
 pulses of the human soul, for Ellen Crawford was, 
 indeed, worthy of all that poet, lover or brother 
 could say in her praise. She was tall and grace- 
 ful as an Hebe ; her complexion Avas of that Avon- 
 drous clearness and brilliancy of Avhich Ave so often 
 read in Avorks of fiction, but so seldom see in real 
 life, and was set off to the best possible advantage 
 by her azure eyes and her Avealth of auburn curls. 
 But surpassingly lovely as she Avas, here mere 
 physical beauty Avas really the least of her charms. 
 With a mind of more than ordinary strength, 
 Avhich had been most carefully trained and culti- 
 vated by the best of teachers, under the supeiwis- 
 
58 
 
 National Preform. 
 
 ion of her brother, she united a soul and heart so 
 overdowing with genuine, unaffected love and ten- 
 derness for all, that it was imjDossible for her to 
 injure by word, thought or deed the feelings of the 
 least of God’s creatures, while her perfect frank- 
 ness and truthfulness left no room for anything 
 which savored in the least of deception. And the 
 confiding trust with which she looked up to and 
 leaned upon her brother was alike creditable to 
 both, and sj)oke volumes in their favor. 
 
 Having thus acquainted the reader with the cir- 
 cumstances surrounding our characters, let us 
 resume the thread of our narrative. 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 When the young gentlemen reached the doctor’s 
 office they sat for some time in silence. Mr. Craw- 
 ford well understood that the extreme agitation 
 disx)layed by his friend in the presence of the sick 
 man was to be the subject of explanation, but its 
 effects were still apparent in the nervous restless- 
 ness of the doctor, so different from his usually 
 calm and placid manner, and the mystery sur- 
 rounding the affair was to him so inpenetrable that 
 he dreaded any allusion to it, while the doctor, 
 on his part, evidently equally shrank from its 
 introduction. At length, however, the latter spoke. 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 59 
 
 “You, of course, observed how painfully I was 
 affected upon entering that sick chamber this 
 morning? ” 
 
 “I did,” replied Mr. Crawford, “and I could not 
 help wondering at it. You are usually so calm 
 and self-possessed under all circumstances that 
 this seemed almost wonderful to me.” 
 
 “ The bystanders noticed it, of course,” said the 
 doctor musingly, and evidently pained by the 
 reflection, “what must they have thought of me?” 
 
 “ Nothing amiss, I venture to assure you. Your 
 standing in this community is too firmly estab- 
 lished for that. Besides, I know you too well to 
 imagine that there could be anything wrong,” was 
 the reply. 
 
 “Ah ! Harvey,” said the doctor warmly (for in 
 this familiar style the young men were accustomed 
 to address each other), “ your affectionate regard 
 for me would lead you to excuse me even if guilty 
 of a fault. In this instance I am not, but your faith 
 in me is none the less grateful to my feelings.” 
 
 “ Say no more of that, my dear friend,” said the 
 minister tenderly and earnestly, “ what were friend- 
 ship worth if it would not excuse and defend its 
 object? and besides, knowing you as intimately as 
 I have for the last six or eight years, sharing all 
 your secret thoughts as I have, honored as I have 
 been with your full confidence, I know that no 
 burden of guilt is resting upon you. Hence, I am 
 entitled to no credit for my confidence in you.” 
 
60 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 “But in one thing you are mistaken,” said the 
 doctor, “with sorrow I have to confess that one 
 secret I have withheld from you, and for that I ask 
 your pardon.” 
 
 “ It is granted before I know the secret,” said 
 Mr. Crawford. “And this is no doubt connected 
 with the alfair of this morning.” 
 
 “Yes, my friend; the man whom we have just 
 visited is my only brother.” 
 
 “Your brother!” echoed the divine in amaze- 
 ment. 
 
 “ Yes, my brother— one whom I have not seen or 
 heard of for years.” 
 
 “ But I never suspected that you had a brother. 
 Years ago I knew that, like myself, you had been 
 deprived by the hand of death of both your re- 
 vered parents, but always supposed that, unlike 
 myself, you were the sole surviving member of 
 your father’s family. I am astonished beyond 
 measure at what you say.” 
 
 “ For years,” said the doctor, “ I have known 
 nothing of him. Indeed, since my acquaintance 
 with you began, I have not known if he were liv- 
 ing or dead. And this is why I never spoke of 
 him, especially as the remembrance of his career, 
 as you may well imagine from what you saw last 
 night and this morning, was anything but pleas- 
 ant. Is it surprising that I should regard intem- 
 perance as the one great curse of humanity, and 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 61 
 
 the rumseller as the most dangerous enemy of the 
 race ? ” 
 
 “-No, indeed, you certainly have cause to de- 
 nounce in the most unmeasured terms this bane of 
 human happiness. But I am curious to know all 
 about this matter, so carefully and faithfully con- 
 cealed for all these years.” 
 
 “ You shall know all,” said the doctor rising and 
 walking to and fro, “ and I do not believe you will 
 blame me for having kept it from you so long.” 
 
 “ I am very sure that I shall not,” said the min- 
 ister, with much earnestness and sympathy in his 
 tones as he contemplated the evident mental pain 
 of his friend. 
 
 “ Then listen,” said the latter, and, seating him- 
 self again, he proceeded to unfold the following 
 history, which, however, we will give in our lan- 
 guage without attempting to follow his. 
 
 Samuel Gleason was one of the most highly 
 respected citizens of the seaport town of New 
 London, in the State of Connecticut. Of enlarged 
 and liberal views, and comprehensive mind, no one 
 appreciated more fully than he the importance of 
 a liberal education, especially as his own oppor- 
 tunities in that direction had been considerably 
 limited in his youthful days, and the profits which 
 he derived from the vigorous and upright prosecu- 
 tion of a somewhat extensive coastwise trade gave 
 • promise of ample means to indulge his inclina- 
 tions in this respect, so far as his two sons, James 
 
62 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 and Henry, were concerned. They were his only 
 children, and he was often heard to declare that 
 whether he left them anything else or not, they 
 should at least have the benefit of a good educa- 
 tion. And his desires in this respect were for some 
 time seconded by both the boys with a degree of 
 zeal which was most commendable, and which 
 promised the happiest results. In the district 
 schools which they attended none were more atten- 
 tive or diligent, and none stood higher in their 
 class or in the estimation of their teachers than 
 James and Henry Gleason. 
 
 Thus matters progressed, promising all that fond 
 parent could wish until James had attained the age 
 of seventeen, Henry being but little over a year his 
 junior, when both their parents, within a few days 
 of each other, were taken away by a fearful pesti- 
 lence by which New London in common with many 
 other towns and cities was almost decimated. By 
 an examination of Mr. Gleason’s will, it was found 
 that in the contingency which had arisen — the 
 death of both parents — all his fortune had been 
 devised in trust to two of his brothers who were to 
 act as guardians for the boys until they attained 
 the age of twenty-one respectively, the interest 
 accumulating upon the principal sum devised, to 
 be applied, as far as necessary, to their mainte- 
 nance and education, and the principal, with what- 
 ever accumulations might remain unexpended, to 
 go to the boys in equal proportions upon reaching 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 63 
 
 their majority. And in the event of the death of 
 either of the sons before that time, the whole was 
 to go to the survivor, while if neither attained that 
 age, then the estate was to pass in equal portions 
 to the two brothers. 
 
 As soon as the contents of the will were ascer- 
 tained, William and Thomas Grleason, the two 
 brothers, had an interview, and after consultation 
 it was decided that James should remain with 
 William in New London, while Henry went to live 
 with Thomas in the city of New York. They were, 
 accordingly, for the first time in their lives, sepa- 
 rated, to the great sorrow of James, though Henry 
 seemed to care less. For, young as he was, James 
 had already observed in Henry some disposition to 
 be what the world terms “ fast,” and though he had 
 thus far by constant and judicious watchfulness, 
 quite remarkable in one so young, been successful 
 in curbing and controlling the somewhat erratic 
 disposition of his brother, he could not help fear- 
 ing that when removed from his influence the evil 
 which he dreaded might obtain mastery over him. 
 And subsequent events proved that his fears were 
 by no means unfounded. 
 
 Immersed in the mysteries and intricacies of a 
 heavy wholesale trade, Thomas Gleason had but 
 little time to give to the mental culture of his 
 ward, and though the will expressly enjoined that 
 the most unremitting care should be given to his 
 training and education, like many other good men 
 
64 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 under similar circumstances, Thomas felt that he 
 discharged his full dutj in this respect when he 
 provided the youth with skillful instructors and 
 required him to devote the proper number of hours 
 each day to study. The rest of the time he was at 
 liberty to pursue his own inclinations almost with- 
 out restraint — a most fearful liberty to a boy of 
 his moral tendency in a place so beset with pitfalls 
 and temptations to vice on every hand as the city 
 of New York. Evening after evening the boy was 
 out till eleven, twelve and sometimes one o’clock, 
 taking all too faithfully the hideous lessons taught 
 in the dens of iniquity to be met with at almost 
 every corner, and often when he returned home and 
 crept slily to bed, the unsteady gait and thick, 
 husky voice told of disgraceful libations poured 
 out in copious measure at the shrine of Bacchus. 
 
 When Henry had been a year in New York, 
 James paid him a visit, and how was he shocked 
 to find the worst fears he had entertained at his 
 departure more fully realized than even he had 
 dreaded! His features were red and bloated, 
 marks of dissipation and debauchery, absolutely 
 hideous in one so j^oung, were visible all over him ; 
 his breath wms constantly poisoned with the fumes 
 of alcoholic drinks, and his conversation was 
 habitually interlarded with profane oaths, and 
 ribald and obscene remarks. James was terrified 
 beyond measure, and he at once set to work, by 
 remonstrance with his brother and intercession 
 
The lleformed Drunkard. 
 
 65 
 
 with his uncle, to counteract the evil influences 
 which were surely dragging him down to perdition. 
 But in vain were all his etforts for his salvation. 
 The hoy was already too much wedded to his 
 sensual gratifications to hear either the entreaties 
 and remonstrances of his brother or the voice of 
 authority exercised by his guardian. The former 
 he repulsed with words of bitterness and scorn, 
 and the latter he openly and insolently defied. 
 And when his uncle, in the hope of effecting his 
 reclamation, proposed to send him out of the city 
 and away from the influences which had acquired 
 such fearful ascendency over him, he not only re- 
 fused to go, but actually fled from his home, and 
 all efforts to induce him to return were utterly un- 
 availing. And when it was proposed to use force 
 to compel obedience to legitimate authority, he 
 fled from the city, and so effectually concealed 
 himself that all efforts to discover his retreat were 
 in vain. And thus penniless, friendless, he had 
 voluntarily become an outcast and a vagabond 
 upon the face of the earth, dependent only upon 
 his own ingenuity for the means of snpport, so 
 complete had been the ruin wrought in him in one 
 short twelvemonth by the vicious associates he 
 had chosen. Nay, more ! It was whispered that, 
 despite his youth, dissipation was not his only 
 fault ; but when the allowance made by his guar- 
 dian was insufficient to satisfy the constant drain 
 upon his purse, he scrupled not to supply his 
 
66 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 necessities by plying the vocation of a pickpocket, 
 or even signing his uncle’s name 'without his per- 
 mission. 
 
 “From that day to this,” said the doctor, “I 
 have never heard aught of the brother thus led 
 astray. The expenditure of large sums of money, 
 the most strenuous exertions of skillful detectives, 
 and all the means and appliances which love and 
 solicitude for his welfare could suggest, have been 
 resorted to in vain, until at last we came to believe 
 him dead. And now, though more than seven 
 years have passed since that time, yet the first 
 glance at the poor, miserable vagrant, raving with 
 the delirium of drunkenness, told me that it was 
 none other than the brother whom I had so long 
 and vainly sought. And if any proof that it is in- 
 deed he were wanting, his instantaneous recogni- 
 tion of me furnishes it bejmnd controversy. Can 
 you wonder that I was agitated beyond control 
 when I made the discovery?” 
 
 “No, indeed,” said his friend. “The only Avon- 
 der is that you controlled yourself sufficiently to 
 prescribe for him at all. But what do you intend 
 to do? Of course you have formed some plan.” 
 
 “ I am not sure that I have. As a matter of 
 course, now that I have him Avithin reach, I shall 
 retain my hold upon him as long as possible, and 
 make one more earnest effort for his reformation. 
 It seems to me that the hand of ProA'idence is visi- 
 ble in bringing us together again, and it may be that 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 67 
 
 though He permitted our former attempts to prove 
 unavailing, He will not now refuse to crown them 
 with success. At any rate, it is my duty to do 
 what I can for him, and I shall not prove derelict.” 
 
 “^You are right,” said the minister, warmly, 
 rising and grasping his friend by the hand. “ His 
 coming to this place was truly providential, and I 
 feel confident that He will smile upon the efforts 
 which we — for I must be permitted to share your 
 labors in this behalf — shall put forth for his re- 
 demption.” 
 
 “ God bless you for your kindness,” said the 
 doctor, as his eyes filled with tears ; “ you are in- 
 deed a friend in need. Your counsel and assist- 
 ance will be invaluable to me in my self-imposed 
 work. But it is only what I expected from your 
 well-known generosity and warm-hearted friend- 
 ship.” 
 
 “ Do not speak of generosity in the performance 
 of what is only my duty,” said the clergyman, 
 “ especially when that duty is only a pleasure to 
 me. The Lord has commanded us go ‘ to the lost 
 sheep of the house of Israel,’ and ‘ the whole need 
 not a physician, but they that are sick.’ To do 
 His will is my chief delight, and let us not claim 
 commendation therefor from mortal man. So, my 
 friend, you may depend upon my seconding to the 
 best of my feeble ability any steps you may take.” 
 
 “ Mrs. Stanton and her family must know of the 
 relationship we sustain to each other.” 
 
68 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 “Yes, it is necessary to your credit that she 
 should know it, I think,” was the reply. “And, 
 besides, she will be more willing to have him stay 
 where he is, and to aid us in oor intended work, if 
 she knows that he is bound to you by such ties.” 
 
 “Will you take the trouble to inform her?” 
 
 “ Certainly, if you wish.” 
 
 “Please do so, then, at your earliest conven- 
 ience. I should like to have her know all before I 
 go there again.” 
 
 “ I will go there immediately,” said Mr. Craw- 
 ford. “And after that?” he added, in a tone of 
 inquiry. 
 
 “After that we will decide upon something for 
 the future,” said Dr. Grleason. “At the present we 
 can do nothing more than to restore him to his 
 reason and to health. I shall stay with him all 
 the time, and trust to the influence which kind and 
 affectionate treatment may have to break the 
 bonds by which he is enthralled.” And the young 
 gentlemen parted. 
 
 Grreat was the astonishment of Mrs. Stanton at 
 the revelation made by Mr. Crawford in pursuance 
 of his promise. The good ladj^ felt very much 
 humiliated that she should have entertained the 
 I’emotest shadow of suspicion of the doctor, and 
 she strove to make amends for her want of faith by 
 the most unremitting attention to the wants and 
 necessities of the invalid. As for Edmund, he was 
 almost as much elated at the dissipation of the 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 69 
 
 mystery as he could have been by the discovery 
 of some new and important principle in physical 
 science. His faith in the doctor had been fully 
 justified by the course of events, and as a natural 
 consequence that faith, strong though it had been 
 before, received confirmation beyond the power of 
 anything earthly to shake. From this time he not 
 only loved Dr. Gleason, but he venerated him 
 almost as a being of superior order. The fraternal, 
 unselfish affection he displayed in his treatment of 
 his poor, erring and unfortunate brother, appealed 
 strongly to the generous nature of the boy, and 
 filled him with feelings of the most unbounded 
 admiration. 
 
 Nor were the Stantons alone in manifesting their 
 approbation of the feeling displayed by the doc- 
 tor. Friends who had hitherto been merely pas- 
 sive were now converted into warm admirers, and 
 crowded around with offers of assistance so numer- 
 ous as to be at times almost embarrassing. Offers 
 to watch with the sick man were freely made, and 
 when they were declined (for the doctor had re- 
 solved to share this burden with no one save Mr. 
 Crawford), fair hands were not slow in preparing 
 numerous delicacies to tempt the api^etite of the 
 invalid. Such was the empire which the upright- 
 ness and generosity of Dr. Gleason had established 
 for him in the hearts of the simple villagers. 
 
 He, meantime, was devoting himself with the 
 most untiring assiduity to the care and nursing of 
 
70 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 his brother. Fortunately, it was a time of very 
 general health in and about the village, and hence 
 he was able to give almost the whole of his time 
 to Henry without seriously neglecting any other 
 patient. How narrowly he watched every indica- 
 tion of the subsidence of his fearful disease, and 
 with what anxious care he compounded from day 
 to day the prescriptions which were designed to 
 relieve his sufferings, and to restore him to reason 
 once more ! 
 
 And in time his self-denying watchfulness was 
 amply rewarded. The struggle between himself 
 and the terrible demon of disease which had fas- 
 tened its grasp upon his brother was long and 
 painful, but at last it succumbed to his care and 
 skill, and once more the clear light of reason 
 beamed from the eyes which had been so long ob- 
 scured by the sad effects of intemperance. His 
 brother, the companion of his earlier years, and 
 the sharer of all the innocent sports of his child- 
 hood, was saved, but the burning fever had left 
 him with scarce an infant’s strength, and it was 
 apjjarent that weeks must elapse before he would 
 be able to rise from his bed. 
 
 To say that a sense of devout thankfulness filled 
 the heart of the doctor as he contemplated the suc- 
 cess with which his wearying but unwearied atten- 
 tion had been rewarded would but faintly express 
 his feelings. The emotions of his heart were 
 stirred to their depths, and with the most fervid 
 
The Reformed Drunlmrd. 
 
 71 
 
 warmth did he on bended knees pour out to his 
 Maker the meed of his grateful praise and thanks- 
 giving for this great blessing. Nor did he at the 
 same time forget to ask the aid of the Divine 
 guidance and wisdom in the discharge of the task 
 which still lay before him, but from which he 
 shrank with a feeling of diffidence and distrust of 
 self almost painful — that of attempting the refor- 
 mation of his brother. He felt truly that the ill- 
 ness from which that brother was just recovering 
 would furnish him with the most potent arguments 
 in favor of a future career of abstinence, and yet 
 he dreaded to introduce the subject, fearing to 
 wound the feelings of him whom he wished to save, 
 and thus drive him again to the very paths from 
 which he strove to rescue him. He knew the sen- 
 sitive nature of Henry, he realized that he must 
 feel degraded and humiliated by the past, and he 
 shrank from any allusion to it. Who has not thus 
 held back from the performance of some duty ap- 
 parently painful in the extreme, but which, when 
 at last it is approached, turns out to be simple and 
 easy of accomplishment? So it was in this in- 
 stance. 
 
 One day the doctor was sitting by the window 
 in his brother’s room. He was busily engaged in 
 reading, and neither had spoken for some time, 
 when by some sort of inward consciousness he be- 
 came aware that his brother was looking at him. 
 It may be, as some people teach, that some sort of 
 
72 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 spirit influence revealed it to Mm — it matters not 
 flow it was communicated — but suddenly raising 
 liis eyes he met those of the sick man fixed upou 
 him with a look of anxious, earnest, wistful in- 
 quiry, responsive to which he laid down his book 
 and drew his chair to the bedside. 
 
 “ Brother James,” said the invalid, “if I may be 
 permitted to call you ‘brother* after the past, I 
 have been very sick, have I not ? ” 
 
 “ You have, Henry, my brother, been very ill 
 indeed.” 
 
 “And you have saved my life ? ” 
 
 “ No, I do not claim the merit of that. I have 
 done what I could for you, but to One higher and 
 better than I should you return thanks for the 
 preservation of your life.” 
 
 “But you were the instrument,” he persisted. 
 “But for your care and attention, all claim to 
 which I had forfeited by my own misconduct, I 
 should now be lying in the cold and silent grave 
 with all hope or chance of repentance and refor- 
 mation forever gone. What a terrible reflection ! ” 
 “ Say not so, my dear brother. To Grod belongs 
 the praise of having saved you, and He could have 
 found other means as available as my poor exer- 
 tions.” 
 
 “And now, brother,” he continued, scarcely 
 heeding the last remark of James, I want you to 
 save me still farther. I want you to save me from 
 myself, even as you have saved me from death.” 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 73 
 
 “Anything that I can,” said the doctor earn- 
 estly, while his heart gave a great, upward leap 
 for joy, “I will cheerfully do for you.” 
 
 “ Then help me to get rid of the accursed vices 
 which have dragged me to such depths of degrada- 
 tion, and to become as good and as pure as you.” 
 
 “Do you sincerely and truly desire to repent 
 and reform ? ” 
 
 “ God knows my heart,” said the sick man sol- 
 emnly, “and He knows that the one wish of my 
 soul is in some measure to make amends for the 
 hideous life I have led for the past seven or eight 
 years. Only,” he added hesitatingly, “you must 
 teach me how, as you wished to do years ago, 
 when I scornfully repulsed you. Ingrate that I 
 was ! Had I then heeded your fraternal counsels, 
 my present humiliation, as well as a long, black 
 list of hideous crimes, had been spared to me.” 
 
 “Never mind that, my brother,” said the doctor 
 kindly. “ Let us not speak of the past. Our busi- 
 ness is with the future.” 
 
 “ But I shall think of it none the less, and I 
 must speak of it. I must tell you the dreadful 
 story of eight years of dissipation and debauchery 
 of every kind, and then if there can be forgiveness 
 for such a wretch as I, I will strive to deserve it.” 
 
 “ Christ will not withhold his forgiveness from 
 any one who is truly penitent, and who earnestly 
 turns away from the paths of sin,” said James 
 earnestly and solemnly, “and shall man be more 
 
74 National Reform. 
 
 just than his Maker? If He can forgive, shall we 
 not also?” 
 
 “But my misdeeds have been so many,” said 
 Henry anxiously, “ and of so vile a character, that 
 it seems almost beyond the power even of Omnipo- 
 tence to overlook them.” 
 
 “ • Though your sins were as scarlet, yet will I 
 make them as white as wool,’ saith the inspired 
 Word,” was the reply. “And who shall gainsay 
 His utterances ? Remember that He had mercy 
 even u]Don the thief who was expiating his crimes 
 upon the cross, and surely He will not refuse par- 
 don to you, my brother, if your penitence and 
 reformation be sincere.” 
 
 “ Then listen to the sad and shameful tale,” said 
 Henry, and turning away his head, as if fearing to 
 look his brother in the face, he began the humili- 
 ating story. 
 
 We need not inflict the whole of the painful nar- 
 rative upon our readers, and most certainly it 
 would be anything but interesting or profitable. 
 It is not often that an equal amount of crime and 
 vice is crowded into the same space of time. In 
 the eight years which had passed since Henry 
 went from Hew London to make his home in the 
 great commercial metropolis, there was scarcely 
 any form of crime and infamy in which he had 
 not freely indulged. Pocket-picking, grand lar- 
 ceny, gambling, forgery, were scarcely more than 
 common pastimes with him, Mdiile of every species 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 75 
 
 of licentiousness and debauchery he had freely 
 partaken, until his once manly and vigorous frame 
 was bent by premature old age, and his constitu- 
 tion shattered to a degree from which it would re- 
 quire years to recover, even if recovery were at all 
 possible. 
 
 Such are the awful concomitants of a life of vice 
 and crime, and such the inevitable results of a de- 
 parture from the path of rectitude, and yet, how 
 many thousands of young men — aye, and young 
 women, too — do we see upon every side, entering 
 upon the path which Henry Gleason had trodden 
 to such a frightful extent, and the end whereof is 
 one at which humanity must shudder and angels 
 weep. Oh ! beware, my young friend, how for the 
 sake of a momentary gratification you take the 
 first step in a career fraught in the end with so 
 much misery. Tamper not for a single instant 
 with the insidious and soul-destroying foe which 
 lurks at the bottom of every wine-cup. The first 
 stage may be pleasant to contemplate ; the fiery 
 stimulant may for the moment exhilarate your 
 feelings and enhance your enjoyment of the pres- 
 ent ; it may cause wit and repartee to burst forth 
 in brilliant scintillations and for the moment in- 
 crease your importance with your boon compan- 
 ions; it may even surround you for a time with 
 friends who will indulge in the most extravagant 
 protestations of devotion so long as you contribute 
 to their amusement or your purse is sufficient to 
 
76 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 meet the demands they will make upon it, bru, 
 who will desert you whenever distress comes or a 
 fresh victim is presented, but that first step is but 
 the beginning of sorrow. The second step, from 
 which it is almost impossible to refrain, is a down- 
 ward one ; the next is still lower, and so you go 
 on, and on, and on, in the downward course, until 
 at last you find yourself shunned by all the wise 
 and good, bereft of fortune, and deserted by treach- 
 erous friends — a poor, miserable, drivelling out- 
 cast, a mere blot upon the fair face of humanity. 
 Who can contemplate such results without a loath- 
 some, sickening feeling of the soul, and yet who 
 does not see and realize that thousands of the 
 brightest and best of our land are daily walking 
 in this awful path? 
 
 Dr. Gleason listened to the humiliating and pain- 
 ful account of his brother’s waywardness with no 
 manifestation of emotion save a gradually increas- 
 ing pallor of countenance as the sickening sensa- 
 tion at his heart deepened with each new revelation. 
 And when the sad narration was completed, is it 
 to be Avondered at that he experienced a sensation 
 of inexpressible relief which found utterance in an 
 audible sigh ? That sound, the only response he 
 had received to any part of his confession, attracted 
 the attention of the wi’etched man Avho was thus 
 laying bare the heinous nature of his 23^st life. 
 Turning his face quickly toward the watcher and 
 listener, he exclaimed : 
 
The Reformed Drunkard . 
 
 77 
 
 “ Said I not truly that my crimes were past 
 Divine as well as human forgiveness ? ” 
 
 “No, my brother,” said the doctor in a voice 
 which quivered with emotion, “ piled mountain 
 high though your transgressions are, still are they 
 not beyond the cleansing influence of the blood of 
 the Lamb. And if in singleness of heart you ask 
 his aid to return from your wandering way, be 
 assured he will not withhold it.” 
 
 “But I am so weak,” said he piteously, “I feel 
 that I cannot stand alone. Sin and vice have 
 sapped all the little moral strength I ever had, and 
 left me a mere infant. What can I do ? ” 
 
 “He has promised to give us strength to resist 
 every temptation if we but ask Him.” 
 
 “ Yes,” said the brother, with something like 
 bitterness in his tones, “that is what all the tem- 
 perance people say, they lift us upon our feet, 
 forgetting that we are debilitated by sin and in- 
 dulgence until we are unable to walk, and tell us 
 to go to Him, but make no effort to support our 
 halting, trembling steps. Instead of pitying, they 
 despise our weakness, and are ashamed to be seen 
 hand in hand with us, sustaining us in our totter- 
 ing walk until we have attained sufficient firmness 
 to go alone. Is it strange then, that so few of the 
 fallen inebriates are reformed?” 
 
 “ You are right,” said Dr. Gleason, thoughtfully, 
 “ there is too much of the Pharisaic ‘ I am more 
 holy than thou ’ in all our efforts for the suppres- 
 
78 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 sion of vice and immorality. But in the present 
 instance, he assured, my dear brother, that this 
 mistake shall not be laid to my charge. I will 
 stand by you and aid you in your proposed refor- 
 mation, and if I can aid you in the contemplated 
 good work by any means in my power, no service 
 will ever be more cheerfully rendered.” 
 
 “ That is but what I should have expected from 
 your past goodness to me,” said the sick man, 
 while his eyes filled with tears, “ and yet I can 
 scarcely comprehend it. It seems to me that you 
 must despise me in view of my long career of 
 crime and wickedness, and how then can j^ou stoop 
 so low as to take me by the hand and lead me to 
 higher and better ground?” 
 
 “Your sins I may desj)ise,” said the_ doctor, as 
 with a touch as tender as that of the most delicate 
 lady he stroked the brow of the invalid, “ but your- 
 self never. Yo matter how far you may have been 
 led astray by evil influences and evil associations 
 I can never lose sight of the fact that j’ou are my 
 brother — the son of a revered father and mother — 
 and never shall it be said that I deserted an only 
 brother when my hand might have rescued him 
 from a fearful gulf which otherwise threatened to 
 overwhelm him.” 
 
 “ Then by the help of God,” said the sick man 
 with energetic fervor, “I will j^et be a man. God 
 only knows how I have loathed and despised my- 
 self and the life I was compelled to lead, and how 
 
The Reformed Drmikard. 
 
 79 
 
 I have striven to escape from the hated thrall. 
 But when I strove to climb up out of the abyss of 
 degradation into which I had fallen, I was greeted 
 on every hand with averted, scornful, loathing 
 looks ; the doors of respectable society were shut 
 in my face, and all that I could look or hope for 
 was a few words of repi’obation, and no doubt well 
 meant but impracticable advice, while the giver, 
 like the priest and the Levite, looked coldly upon 
 me and passed by on the other side. Society of 
 some sort, I, in common with every human being 
 must have, and when refused admission to that of 
 the more respectable class, what could I do but 
 turn for companionship to the debased circle which 
 alone would accord me its sympathy and counte- 
 nance ? And thus the chains which I was striving 
 to break, with each renewed effort became but riv- 
 eted and strengthened, until at last I became the 
 vile thing I have just described to you.” 
 
 “ God forgive us all,” said the doctor with deep 
 emotion, “ we have indeed much to answer for in 
 our treatment of those who are more unfortunate — 
 I will not say weaker, for it is more misfortune 
 than weakness — than ourselves. This conversa- 
 tion has ojDened my eyes to a great many things 
 which never occurred to me before, and in the 
 future I shall not be found derelict in my duty in 
 the matters of which we have been speaking.” 
 
 “But what shall I do? I have been so long 
 under the dominion of vice that mentally as well 
 
80 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 as morally I am as weak as a child, and am in- 
 capable of rational thought or action. I must 
 depend upon you not only for strength but also for 
 guidance,” and the tears rolled down his attenuated 
 cheeks as he spoke. 
 
 “For the present,” said the doctor tenderly, 
 “you must do nothing but remain quiet and re- 
 gain physical health and strength, with these will 
 come more mental vigor, and then it will be time 
 enough to decide upon a future course. What 
 little strength I may be able to impart shall ever 
 be at your command. And now,” he continued, 
 “ you must rest. This long conversation has ex- 
 cited and wearied you, and you need repose. So 
 turn your face to the wall and sleep while I watch 
 with you.” 
 
 With the docility of an obedient child the sick 
 man assumed the position indicated by his brother. 
 The events of the past two hours had relieved his 
 mind of a mighty burthen, and in a short time he 
 was buried in a calm and refreshing slumber, while 
 the faithful friend and brother sat beside him with 
 his heart swelling with rapture and his spirit vocal 
 with the music of praise and thanksgiving to that 
 Beneficent Being by whom this long deferred but 
 mighty deliverance had been wrought. For years 
 he had on bended knees implored the interposition 
 of the Omnipotent to restore to him, redeemed and 
 purified, his long-lost brother. Months and sea- 
 sons had come and gone and his intercessions had 
 
The Reformed Drunhard. 
 
 81 
 
 remained unanswered ; that hope long deferred 
 which “ maketh the heart sick,” had well nigh 
 given place to the darkness of despair, and now 
 at a moment when he least expected it, and when 
 the conviction that that brother was no longer in 
 the land of the living, had well nigh taken posses- 
 sion of his soul, his brother was not only in this 
 remarkable manner restored to him, but restored 
 with the barrier which the devices of the Evil one 
 had erected about his soul smitten down by the 
 mighty power of truth, the crust which sin had 
 formed upon his seared conscience broken, and his 
 heart softened and made ready to become a fit 
 temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Is it 
 strange, then, that deepest emotions of gratitude 
 welled up from his soul, and filled his heart with 
 ecstacies of joy to which it had long been a 
 stranger, or that to him that sick room seemed 
 illumined with an almost heavenly radiance, while 
 his spirit murmured, “ Surely the Lord is in this 
 place and I knew it not ? ” 
 
 Long time he sat and mused upon the remarka- 
 ble manner of his discovery of his lost brother, 
 and the infiuences and circumstances by wliicli his 
 reformation had been accomplished. So wonder- 
 ful, so incomprehensible it all seemed, that he 
 could scarcely realize that it was not all a dream, 
 and he found himself repeating the beautiful and 
 
 almost inspired words of the poet : 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 “ God moves in a mysterious way 
 His wonders to perform.” 
 
 But however inscrutable it all appeared to him, 
 certain the one fact remained — that his brother 
 was redeemed — and upon that spot memory then 
 and there erected a golden monument to which in 
 after times she could look back with peculiar sat- 
 isfaction as the beginning of an epoch in the doc- 
 tor’s life. Years have passed since that day but 
 still the monument stands, the same glistening 
 pillar as when first erected, and still does memory 
 gaze with never-failing delight upon its undimmed 
 beauties, for the fair, fond hopes that day called 
 into existence have never faded or withered, but 
 have gone on to perfect fruition. But let us not 
 anticipate. 
 
 In his proposed work of strengthening, sustain- 
 ing and invigorating his brother until he should so 
 far have recovered from the effects of his long 
 career of vice as to be able to stand alone, the 
 doctor found powerful and willing coadjutors, not 
 only in Mr. Crawford and Mrs. Stanton and her 
 family, but in the host of friends which his up- 
 right conduct had won for him in the village, and 
 to whom of course the relationship between him- 
 self and his patient became speedily known. F or 
 it was not in the nature of things that a matter of 
 so much importance should remain concealed in 
 a rural community like that of Perrysburg, and 
 many were the wondering comments made by the 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 83 
 
 villagers upon tlie strange event. But wonder as 
 they might at the romance attending the meeting 
 and reunion of the two brothers so long separated, 
 their hands were ever ready to do whatever was 
 necessary for the comfort of the sick man, and 
 warm words of cheer and encouragement to perse- 
 vere in his reformation were ever on their lips. 
 
 Amid such influences, and surrounded by such 
 incentives to good, and daily cheered by the pres- 
 ence and fraternal care of his brother, it is not sur- 
 prising that Henry Gleason constantly gained in 
 strength, and that with returning health came re- 
 newed vigor to an intellect which had once ranked 
 second to none, but which had for years been 
 dwarfed, clouded and debased by the indulgence 
 of the most hideous and degrading vices to which 
 humanity is ever subject. Indeed, it would have 
 been strange had it been otherwise. With the 
 living, vivid example of his brother’s high-toned 
 moral sense constantly before his eyes, and his 
 mind attuned to appreciate in all its force the 
 measureless distance between morality and im- 
 morality; at all times enjoying the most familiar 
 and unrestrained intercourse with the noblest, the 
 purest and best of the excellent little community 
 in Avliich his lot was so fortunately cast, it would 
 have been strange indeed if his spirit had not been 
 the recipient of the best and most lasting impres- 
 sions. 
 
 How highly favored was his situation as com- 
 
84 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 pared with that of a large majority of the poor 
 wretches who seek to escape from the deadly 
 clutches of the foul demon of Intemperance ! How 
 often is it the case that men who have become con- 
 vinced of the error of their ways, and who would 
 gladly turn from the paths of crime to the higher 
 and nobler walks of sobriety and uprightness, have 
 been forced back into the dark and devious lanes 
 they so much desire to quit by the almost scornful 
 coldness with which they have been met on the 
 very threshold of their attempted reform, and that, 
 too, by men whose voices were ever loudest in 
 denunciation of intemperance and its kindred 
 vices, and in sounding the praises of virtue and 
 total abstinence — men who were bright and shin- 
 ing examples of the faith they professed, but who 
 were unable to realize and comprehend the fact 
 that inebriates, when they first attempt to throw 
 off the chains, are like children Avhen they first 
 essay the task of walking. It will not do to place 
 them upon their feet and tell them to walk. The 
 mother, when she undertakes to give her infant its 
 first lesson in walking, knows that she must sus- 
 tain and support and guide its tottering footste23S ; 
 she realizes full well that the most trifling little 
 obstacles, an inequality in the floor or carpet, a 
 small stick, one of the toj^s Avith AAdiich the little 
 adventurer has been Avont to amuse himself as he 
 sat uj)on the floor — any such trivial obstruction — 
 is quite sutticient to overcome the feebly-sustained 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 85 
 
 Ibalance and to precipitate the little pupil head- 
 long, only thankful if he escapes a severe hump 
 in falling. With what care, then, does she follow 
 his every movement, with hands outstretched and 
 ready at the first indication of unsteadiness to 
 clasp and sustain the trembling little frame until, 
 encouraged and strengthened by her patient 
 watchfulness, he runs everywhere without fear or 
 danger. 
 
 So with the poor victim of intemperance whose 
 reformation you ask. When by faithful, loving, 
 persistent effort you have succeeded in awakening 
 him to a sense of the horrors of intemperance and 
 the delights of sobriety and virtue ; when you have 
 succeeded in loosening the loathsome and degrad- 
 ing shackles by which he has been so long en- 
 thralled; when you have aroused him from the 
 filth and mire in which he has so long been 
 prostrate, and have enabled him to stand upon 
 his feet in the dignity of manhood, think not 
 that your work is accomplished, and that he may 
 safely be left to do the rest himself. Oh, no ! So 
 far is your task from being finished, that it is 
 only just begun. Every step which he takes in 
 the new direction is as feeble, uncertain and tot- 
 tering as those of the infant when he first starts on 
 his adventurous journey across the room, and he 
 requires the same watchful care and attention. Do 
 not then forsake him, but stand by him, cheer, 
 comfort and sustain him ; surround him with 
 
86 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 pleasant and attractive associations ; be read}^ to 
 support him if he stumbles ; assist him to rise if 
 perchance he should fall, and in time j^ou will 
 have the proud satisfaction of contemplating a 
 soul redeemed from endless perdition by your ex- 
 ertions and the blessing of Heaven. 
 
 In the case of Henry Gleason, as we have seen, 
 none of these appliances were wanting. Sur- 
 rounded constantly by the pleasant associations 
 and allurements we have portrayed, his transition 
 from the condition of an inebriate to that of a sin- 
 cere, earnest, and devoted adherent of the temper- 
 ance cause, was as rapid as it was permanent and 
 steadfast. And with his reformation his physical 
 frame resumed the vigor and healthfulness of 
 which years of debauchery and dissipation had 
 robbed it. His step grew firm and elastic, his 
 eye became clear and piercing as that of an eagle, 
 and the marks of vice and degradation rapidly 
 disappeared from his countenance. At the end of 
 a year from the time of his meeting with his 
 brother, so complete was the transformation he 
 had undergone that no one would have recognized 
 in him the poor wretch who that night lay upon 
 the ground the object of the jeers and merriment 
 of a thoughtless crowd of boys. 
 
 Another, and not less important, change, too, 
 had taken place in him since that eventful night. 
 From being, as almost necessarily follows the life 
 of vice he had led, an habitual scoffer at things 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 87 
 
 Divine, he had become a firm believer in the truths 
 of the Christian religion, and had finally united 
 himself with the church of which his brother was 
 such a consistent member. Words can hardly 
 portray the joy of James Gleason when the 
 brother whom he had so long mourned as lost, 
 by taking his position in the ranks of the followers 
 of Christ, testified in the most unequivocal manner 
 the sincerity of his repentance. Henceforth he 
 felt no uneasiness or apprehension of his again re- 
 lapsing into the ways of evil, for he had now a 
 double motive to perseverance in the good path he 
 had chosen. 
 
 Thus matters had gone on for a year or more, 
 and Henry had been a member of the church for 
 several months. He had as yet engaged in no 
 employment, but still remained a pensioner on the 
 bounty of his brother. As often as he proposed 
 engaging in any business, the doctor would say, 
 
 “ Never mind, brother ; there is plenty of time 
 yet. You must not think of leaving me until you 
 have made up for all the long years in which we 
 did not see each other ; ” or something of similar 
 import, thus efiectually silencing all importunity 
 on the subject. 
 
 But at last came a time when he could no longer 
 be silenced. A voice was awakened in his bosom 
 which demanded that he should go forth and 
 labor to repair the evil he had done during these 
 long years of debauchery and crime — a voice 
 
88 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 which spoke in thunder tones and would not be 
 hushed. It was the voice of conscience and of 
 duty calling him to labor in the vineyard of the 
 Lord. 
 
 We have already mentioned the fact that Henry 
 had become a member of the church to which his 
 brother belonged. Some months after this event 
 had taken place the brothers were sitting in the 
 Doctor’s office. They were silent, for James, as 
 was his wont when not otherwise engaged, was 
 immersed in study, and Henry was in silent com- 
 munion with his own thoughts. At length, how- 
 ever, the latter arose, and drawung his chair close 
 to his brother, said, 
 
 “Excuse me for interrupting you, but I have 
 something on my mind about which I have long 
 desired to speak to you, and now it seems to me 
 that I can withhold it no longer.” 
 
 “ Si3eak freely, my brother,” said James kindly, 
 closing the book as he sjDoke, “ and do not deem 
 it necessary to ask an excuse whenever you have 
 anything to say to me.” 
 
 “ You know,” said Henry, coloring and speak- 
 ing Avith no little embarrassment, “ that all the 
 best years of my life thus far have been spent in 
 open and unblushing rebellion against the Avill of 
 our Divine Master. I persistently closed ears 
 against His commands and the admonitions of His 
 word, and Avent steadily forward on my career of 
 crime and iniquity until it seemed as though there 
 
The Reformed Drunhard. 
 
 89 
 
 was no help for me. Bat I have at last, as I trust, 
 found mercy through his precious blood, and now 
 it seems as though duty demanded that I do some- 
 thing to repair, so far as is in my power, the evil I 
 have done. In other words, I feel as though duty 
 demanded that I should become a laborer in my 
 Master’s field, to warn others against the sins I 
 have committed.” 
 
 He paused and looked earnestly at his brother, 
 who mused for a moment and then, raising his 
 eyes to Henry’s face, asked, 
 
 “Have you thought well of this, Henry, or is it a 
 mere passing fancy ? ” 
 
 “ I have thought of it,” he replied, “ almost ever 
 since the hour in which I united with the church. 
 It has been present to me night and day, and 
 though I strove hard to stifle it, the voice sounded 
 louder and louder in my ears until I can evade it 
 no longer.” 
 
 “ Then, my brother,” said the Doctor, earnestly 
 and solemnly, extending his hand as he spoke, 
 “ obey the call, and may heaven bless your labor 
 with abundant fruitfulness.” 
 
 “But,” said Henry with increasing embarrass- 
 ment, “ there is one serious difficulty in the way. 
 My education, as you are well aware, for the last 
 several years has been such as to fit me for any- 
 thing else rather than a preacher of the gospel. 
 The little foundation laid by the kindness of our 
 father in my mind for such a calling has long since 
 
90 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 been buried and bidden beneath the waves and 
 sands of vice and crime. What can I do ? ” 
 
 “You can enter a theological seminary,” said 
 the doctor, “ and in a very short time, with your 
 natural quickness and ability, you can qualify 
 yourself admirably for the station you seek to 
 hll.” 
 
 “ But that will take money, and that I have not 
 got.” 
 
 “ I will furnish the means,” said James quietly. 
 
 “ I cannot consent to tax your generosity to that 
 extent,” said Henry earnestly. “ You have already 
 done for me a thousand fold more than my deserts, 
 and I am unwilling to be a bui’den upon you any 
 longer.” 
 
 “It is not generosity but justice that commands 
 me to furnish you the means to prosecute your 
 studies,” said the doctor. 
 
 “ How so ? ” 
 
 “Listen and I will explain. By our father’s 
 will his entire estate, amounting to several thous- 
 and dollars, was devised to us in equal propor- 
 tions, to be paid to us on our attaining the age of 
 twenty-one. We had long lost all trace of you, 
 and so in accordance with the further jDrovisions of 
 the will it was all paid to me. Your share I have 
 kept untouched and in a shape to be surrendered 
 at any time. It now amounts, with its accumula- 
 tions, to something in the neighborhood of fifteen 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 91 
 
 thousand dollars which I am ready to make over 
 to you at any moment.” 
 
 Surprise, wonder and gratitude were all depicted 
 in Henry’s face as he listened to this communica- 
 tion. A short time he sat in silence, and then as 
 his eyes filled with tears, he leaned forward, and 
 burying his face upon his shoulder exclaimed in a 
 tremulous voice : 
 
 “ God bless you, my noble brother, for your 
 kindness to a poor, miserable, undeserving wretch 
 like myself. Heaven will reward you, but I never 
 can.” 
 
 “Yes,” said James tenderly embracing him, “I 
 am already more than rewarded by seeing my only 
 brother assuming the station to which his talents 
 and native goodness entitle him. True, you were 
 long gone astray, but oh ! how earnestly I prayed 
 for your return, and God has answered my prayer. 
 And shall I now refuse to do an act of simple jus- 
 tice when He has dealt so mercifully with me ? ” 
 
 Long time the brothers sat and communed of the 
 future, and when they left the office for their board- 
 ing house it was with the distinct understanding 
 that Henry should enter the theological seminary 
 at , at the commencement of its next term. 
 
 Great was the satisfaction of Mr. Crawford when 
 informed of the state of affairs. Although we have 
 to some extent lost sight of him in this hurried re- 
 view of events, it must not be supposed that he 
 had in any wise changed or that his interest in the 
 
92 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 two brothers had in the least abated, but on the 
 contrary had rather increased. James still contin- 
 ued the same faithful assistant in the work he was 
 striving with such singleness of purpose to per- 
 form. Henry he had seen converted and brought 
 into the fold under his ministrations, and now that 
 he was about to become a co-laborer with him in 
 the great harvest of the Lord, it created a new 
 bond of sympathy and affection between them. 
 Henceforth, until Henry’s departure, they were 
 almost inseparable companions, and many a les- 
 son of grace and spiritual strength did the young 
 divine impart to his earnest friend and pupil dur- 
 ing this season. 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 About two months after the conversation de- 
 tailed in our last chapter, Henry Gleason took 
 leave of the kind friends among whom he had 
 passed the happiest period of his life, and set out 
 
 for the city of . His parting with the many 
 
 Avho had learned to love and esteem him during 
 his stay there was affectionate in the extreme, and 
 many a kind and earnest wish and heartfelt prayer 
 for his future safety and guidance followed him as 
 he set forward on his journey. 
 
 But it was only to his brother and his spiritual 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 93 
 
 preceptor that he fully unbosomed himself. The 
 good work which they had begun and wrought out 
 in him had so inwoven a feeling of gratitude and 
 reverence for them that it seemed almost like part- 
 ing with his very self to bid them adieu. And he 
 must not be accused of unmanly weakness if, upon 
 taking leave of them, he shed tears of regret, or 
 that, distrustful of his own strength, he trembled 
 lest he should fall from the high estate to which 
 they had elevated him and again relapse into his 
 evil ways, blot that he really feared anything of 
 the kind — he had learned to look upon his past 
 life with too sincere loathing and hatred for any- 
 thing of the kind to be reasonably apiDrehended — 
 but the only period of his manhood’s estate which 
 he could contemplate with anything like satisfac- 
 tion had been passed in their immediate compan- 
 ionship, and now that that companionship was 
 about to be terminated, the contrast between it 
 and the life he had before led was so vividly pre- 
 sented by the phantasmagoria of memory as to 
 cause a sort of shuddering lest the former gloomy 
 cloud might once more envelop him in its darken- 
 ing folds. 
 
 As for them, they entertained no fears of 
 Henry’s departure from the path into which they 
 had succeeded in turning his feet, for in addition 
 to his own strength he was clad in the impenetra- 
 ble armor of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Still 
 the separation was by no means devoid of sadness 
 
94 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 on tlieir part. James loved liis brother with all 
 the earnestness and fervor of fraternal affection, 
 intensified and strengthened by the peculiar cir- 
 cumstances which had surrounded them ; and Mr. 
 Crawford loved him as one of the most grateful 
 fruits of his labors in the ministry. They, there- 
 fore, while regretting the necessity which induced 
 his departure, cheerfully acquiesced in it, and, 
 with many an invocation of blessings upon his 
 head, they bade him an earnest, hearty Grod-speed 
 in the walk he had chosen. 
 
 Without any incident worthy of note, our 
 
 student reached the city of , and was at 
 
 once installed in the proper department of the sem- 
 inary. It is by no means our purpose to follow 
 him throughout the years of his academical course, 
 or to comment upon the steadiness and untiring 
 assiduity with which he prosecuted his studies, 
 and which, besides winning for him the favorable 
 regard and esteem of the professors, carried him 
 forward in the course of instruction prescribed in 
 tlie rules of the institution with a rapidit}" almost 
 unparalleled in its annals. Indeed, he seemed 
 disposed, by the most extraordinary diligence, to 
 fully make uj) for the time he had worse than lost 
 in his debaucheries, and many a brilliant predic- 
 tion of future greatness for him was made by the 
 gray-headed sage who presided over the destinies 
 of the seminary. 
 
 His correspondence ^^fith his brother during this 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 95 
 
 period, which it has been my good fortune to ex- 
 amine and which may some day be given to the 
 public, was constant and unremitting, and never 
 failed to breathe forth the most reverential affec- 
 tion and deepest gratitude for v/hat that brother 
 had done for him, while at the same time it evinced 
 a vigor and originality of thought and expression, 
 combined with a line poetic fancy, which gave 
 promise of a brilliant future. 
 
 The doctor, on his part, was delighted at the 
 prospect of future usefulness opening out before 
 his brother. The depth of his sorrow at the pre- 
 vious fall of that brother and his departure from 
 the path of rectitude ; the scrupulous fidelity with 
 which he had guarded the dreadful secret until it 
 had become, as it were, a part of his very self ; the 
 almost miraculous manner in which they had been 
 brought together after such a lengthened separa- 
 tion, and the part he had borne in his reformation 
 and in placing him in the enviable position he now 
 occupied, all had endeared that once errant brother 
 to him above the ordinary degree of fraternal affec- 
 tion, and he watched his progress with a solicitude 
 and keen satisfaction only equalled by that which 
 a fond mother experiences at witnessing the on- 
 ward and upward course of her first-born. And 
 the letters addressed by Dr. Gleason to his brother 
 during this period, many of which are still extant, 
 bear ample testimony to the existence of this state 
 of feeling. Though lacking to some extent the 
 
96 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 poetic fire which characterized the productions of 
 the latter, they hear none the less positive evi- 
 dence of the most devoted affection. 
 
 The intimacy between Dr. Gleason and Mr. 
 Crawford meantime continued unabated. But 
 though nothing could sever their friendship or the 
 spirit-communion which existed between them, the 
 delights of personal intercourse and of that daily, 
 unreserved and unrestrained interchange of thought 
 and sentiment which had so long characterized 
 them, were about to be taken away from them. 
 The cause is best explained in an extract from a 
 letter addressed by the doctor to his brother about 
 this time: 
 
 “ I have to call upon you, my brother, for your 
 sympathy and condolence — not only for myself, 
 but for our entire church here. We are about to 
 lose the services of one whom we can ill afford to 
 spare, and who has been more thoroughly identi- 
 fied with the prosperity and usefulness of our 
 church here than any other man — I mean our 
 friend, the Rev. Mr. Crawford. 
 
 “ The reasons of his leaving us are briefly as fol- 
 lows ; You are aware that when he came to take 
 the pastoral care of our church he left behind him 
 in Massachusetts a sister, to whom he was most 
 devotedly attached. A few weeks since he receiv- 
 ed a telegram from his sister conveying the sad 
 intelligence that the aunt with whom she was 
 living was stricken down with paralysis and was 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 97 
 
 not expected to live. Of course he lost no time in 
 hastening home, where he arrived to find his aunt 
 alive but speechless. She breathed her last two 
 days later. 
 
 “ His sister being then left alone, he naturally 
 felt it his duty to make provision for her proper 
 support, and while debating in his own mind the 
 best means of accomplishing this object, he was 
 waited upon by a deputation of the elders of the 
 parish there, who invited him to accejpt the minis- 
 try of their church, the place being at the time 
 vacant. This call, seeming to remove all the diffi- 
 culties in his way, for it enabled him to take per- 
 sonal charge of his sister without interfering with 
 the arrangements already made for her attendance 
 at school, he decided to accept. He is now here, 
 but will on next Sabbath preach his farewell ser- 
 mon, after which he will at once proceed to enter 
 upon his new charge. 
 
 “ The entire congregation deeply regret parting 
 with him, and I peculiarly so. You are aware of 
 the j)eculiar and intimate relations which have ex- 
 isted between us, and can readily understand why 
 I should feel as I do about the matter. But we all 
 realize that duty calls him there, and we would 
 not restrain him if we could.” 
 
 The parting of Mr. Crawford with his congrega- 
 tion, alluded to in the foregoing letter, was a most 
 affecting one. He had served them so long and 
 
 faithfully, and so much to their satisfaction and 
 7 
 
98 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 spiritual good, that they had become attached to 
 him to a degree rarely witnessed between pastor 
 and congregation, and when in his farewell sermon 
 he recounted the incidents of his ministrations 
 among them and spoke of the painful emotions 
 with which he abandoned a field where he had 
 been so useful and which was endeared to him by 
 so many pleasing recollections there was scarcely 
 a dry eye in the audience. And when the dis- 
 course was ended, and the clergyman descended 
 from the pulpit to mingle with his flock ; and when 
 old fathers and mothers in Israel, as well as the 
 babes of the church, pressed forward to take him 
 by the hand perhaps for the last time, there was 
 manifested in all its power the almost boundless 
 dominion which pure and simple goodness can 
 achieve over the human heart. Time and space 
 would fail us to record the one-hundredth part of 
 the blessings invoked upon his head as he went 
 forth from among them to enter upon his new field 
 of labor, and we must leave much to the imagina- 
 tion of the reader. 
 
 But to Dr. Gileason, as he had stated in his letter 
 to his brother, the parting was especiall}^ painful. 
 The relations between them had been of such 
 peculiar intimacy ; they had been co-laborers in 
 so many works of charity and benevolence, not 
 the least of which was the reclamation of that 
 brother whose career he was watching with such 
 soulful hope of the futui-e, and their spirits were 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 99 
 
 so linked together by unity of thought and senti- 
 ment and feeling that in the severance of those 
 bonds by which they had been so long and closely 
 united, it seemed as though he was parting almost 
 with his very self. Surrounded with warm and 
 ardent friends he undoubtedly was ; friends to 
 whom scarcely any appeal he might make would 
 be in vain, and yet he felt oppressed with a sense 
 of loneliness almost inexpressible. To whom could 
 he turn with the same degree of freedom and con- 
 fidence under any and all circumstances as to the 
 friend from whom he had just parted perhaps for- 
 ever? Who could or would advise him in any 
 delicate matter with the same clearness and per- 
 spicuity of judgment, or who could as fully enter 
 into, and comprehend all the hidden springs by 
 which his mind might be actuated in any given 
 case ? Ah ! who could do for him what this man 
 had done during the many years of their associa- 
 tion ? 
 
 Snell were the questions which Dr. Gleason asked 
 of himself when he had bidden his friend farewell, 
 and vain seemed to him the effort to procure a sat- 
 isfactory answer. But at the same time he realized 
 the truth that this world is full of mutation and 
 constant change, and that he is the truly wise and 
 good man who submits without murmuring to the 
 dispensations of Providence, and he endured this 
 separation without repining. 
 
 As for Mr. Crawford, though deeply deploring 
 
100 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 the necessity which called him away from the con- 
 gregation where so many of the best years of his 
 life had been spent, he went to work in his new 
 field with the same earnest zeal, and the same self 
 abnegation which had so won the hearts of his 
 parishioners at Perrysburg, and he soon occupied 
 in the estimation of his new fiock a position 
 scarcely less exalted than the one he had held 
 there. So for the present, and in the earnest. God- 
 fearing dischai’ge of his duty, let us leave him for 
 a time while we turn to glance at other characters 
 and other events connected with our story. 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 Time in his ceaseless revolution had brought 
 about the year of grace 18 — , the year which wit- 
 nessed the inauguration of a mighty reformation 
 in the cause of temperance. The dark waves of 
 drunkenness and intemperance had been for a long 
 time gathering increased volume and force and 
 swelling and mounting higher and higher until 
 they threatened to engulf the whole land, and to 
 submerge all ranks and classes of the community 
 within their boiling, seething, soul-destroying 
 depths. Then it was, when thousands of the most 
 gifted and talented of our country had been sub- 
 jected to its fell sway, that a few noble spirits, 
 
The Reformed Rrimkard. 
 
 101 
 
 moved with pity for the helpless victims, organized 
 an untiring and unsparing crusade against the 
 demon intemperance which, loud-mouthed and de- 
 fiant, arrogantly boasted its intention to subject 
 the whole race to its degrading domination. 
 
 It was a contest from which the stoutest spirit 
 might have shrunk appalled. For aside from the 
 direct conflict with the vice which called their 
 organization into being, these brave men had to 
 encounter the frowns and sneers, the contumely 
 and contempt of those very persons whom they 
 were endeavoring to rescue from a worse than 
 Egyptian bondage, as well as the accumulated 
 prejudices of years. And the history of the times 
 shows that in not a few instances these reformers 
 were assailed with weapons of a more substantial 
 and hurtful nature than any words, however bitter 
 or reviling. 
 
 Yet, strong in their convictions of duty and 
 armed in the impenetrable panoply of right, they 
 pressed steadily onward until they had wrought a 
 work which shall endure long after their names 
 shall have been forgotten. They could not, it is 
 true, entirely stem the tide, but they educated and 
 enlightened public sentiment until it came to re- 
 gard drunkenness, if not as a crime, at least as 
 degrading, and erected around the temple of 
 Bacchus a barrier of public opinion which has 
 done, and is doing, much to restrain young men 
 from entering therein. The fruits of their labors 
 
102 
 
 National Beform. 
 
 are to be seen in the various prohibitory and re- 
 straining statutes of many of the States and in the 
 numerous temiDerance organizations abounding in 
 the land, while the names of thousands of drunk- 
 ards reformed through their efforts constitute for 
 them a monument more enduring than marble or 
 brass, and more glorious than the noblest shaft 
 ever erected by conqueror to commemorate his 
 victory. 
 
 Among the most earnest and zealous of the 
 laborers in this good work was Henry Gleason. 
 He had tasted in its depths the full measure of the 
 degradation of a drunkard’s life, and who so well 
 qualihed as he to warn others of the dangers from 
 which he had, almost miraculously as it were, been 
 so completely rescued! ISTo sooner, therefore, had 
 the trumpet sounded the call to battle with this 
 worst foe of his race, than he abandoned the closet 
 and his studies, and, with the full sanction and 
 hearty concurrence of his brother, to whom he had 
 communicated his intentions and desires, he 
 plunged headlong into the strife. IS’o one was 
 more untiring in the conflict than he ; no one made 
 more earnest or heartfelt appeals to the young to 
 refrain from entering into the path the end 
 whereof was certain death to both soul and bod}^ ; 
 none more trumpet-tongued and none whose ex- 
 hortations were more effective than his. With 
 tireless assiduity he went from place to place and 
 in spirit-stirring tones, which told with tremendous 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 103 
 
 elfect, ne warned his hearers of the hidden dan- 
 gers which lurked in the depths of the flowing 
 bowl. He soon became renowned as one of the 
 most earnest workers and effective champions of 
 the temperance cause, and invitations to address 
 temperance meetings, not only in his own but in 
 other States, poured in upon him with such rapid- 
 ity that he was utterly unable to comply with 
 them all. 
 
 As was to have been expected, the Rev. Mr. 
 Crawford took an early and deep interest in the 
 temperance movement, and gave to it all the time 
 and attention he could possibly spare from his 
 ministerial duties. True, his position was not 
 such as to admit of his leaving home and entering 
 the. lecture field in this cause, but he labored none 
 the less earnestly in his own home circle to fur- 
 ther the good work. He was active and zealous in 
 getting up and organizing meetings in his own and 
 the adjoining parishes, and was ever ready to lift 
 his voice in denunciation of the mighty evil with 
 which the land was cursed. 
 
 In this exalted work he for some time found a 
 hearty coadjutor in his sister. With strong im- 
 pulsive convictions of right, she entered with all 
 her might into all her brother’s projects, and sec- 
 onded his efibrts with a zeal no less devoted than 
 his own. But she was young, and consequently 
 more volatile than he, and she sooner tired of the 
 toil of the conflict, and at last came to a pitch of 
 
104 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 almost indifference upon the subject. Nay, more! 
 at times it was almost impossible to persuade her 
 to attend even the stated meetings of the temper- 
 ance club which had been organized in their own 
 town, so complete had come to be her apathy upon 
 the subject. 
 
 One evening Mr. Crawford came home from the 
 postoffice, with something like excitement in his 
 manner. Throwing a letter into his sister’s lap, he 
 exclaimed hurriedly ; 
 
 “Read that, Ellen.” 
 
 “What is the matter, Harvey? You seem un- 
 usually excited,” said the fair girl as she raised 
 the letter. 
 
 “Read that, and it will explain all,” said the 
 clergyman as he threw himself into an easy chair. 
 
 Without further remark, she raised the letter, 
 and, removing it from the envelope,read it care- 
 fully through. It was from Henry Gleason, accept- 
 ing an invitation to lecture before their village club 
 on the next Thursday evening. 
 
 “ AYho is Henry Gleason ? ” she asked with a 
 decided degree of indifference in her tones, as she 
 finished the perusal. 
 
 “ Who is Henry Gleason ! ” repeated her brother 
 with some astonishment. “ You surely cannot 
 have forgotten either him or his brother. Dr. James 
 Gleason, so often have I spoken of them since my 
 return from Perrysburg. The Doctor was my 
 most intimate friend while there, and Henry is the 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 105 
 
 brother whom we rescued from the bondage of 
 drunkenness, as I have so often told you. Since 
 his reclamation he has been a student at the Theo- 
 logical Seminary at , and is said to be one 
 
 of the most eloquent and effective advocates of the 
 cause. I wrote to him about a week ago asking 
 him to come here and deliver a lecture before our 
 society, and, as you see, he has consented to do 
 so.” 
 
 “ Yes, I remember him now,” said the girl, “ and 
 I suppose we will have the same old story to Avhich 
 I have listened until I am heartily tired of hear- 
 ing it.” 
 
 “ I am aware, my sister,” said the brother kindly, 
 “ that you have become weary of this matter. I 
 cannot blame you, for to one of your years and 
 temperament anything oft repeated becomes irk- 
 some, but I would like to have you go and hear 
 this man. He comes with a high reputation for 
 eloquence, and I feel assured that his lecture will 
 be very interesting.” 
 
 “After all it will doubtless be the same old 
 story,” said Ellen, coldly, “ and I have heard it so 
 often that I know it by heart.” 
 
 “ But you will go and hear it once more, will you 
 not? ” 
 
 “ I am by no means sure that I will,” said she 
 with the pouting, willful air of a spoiled child. 
 
 “ I really wish you would, sister mine,” said he 
 tenderly, approaching her and passing an arm 
 
106 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 around her waist, “ he and his brother are special 
 friends of mine and I would like to have you show 
 them this degree of respect. Besides, I want to 
 invite him to make his home here during his stay 
 in town.” 
 
 “ You can do that with my free consent, I assure 
 you,” said the girl; “whether I hear his lecture or 
 not I shall never be found derelict in extending 
 the duties of hospitality to any friend of my noble 
 brother.” 
 
 “ No doubt of that, my dear sister,” said he, 
 kissing her, “ and yet I really wish you would go 
 and hear him.” 
 
 “If you really so much desire it, Harvey,” said 
 Ellen tenderly, “I will go, and yet it will be no 
 little task for me to go and listen to a story which 
 I have already heard until it has lost all interest 
 for me.” 
 
 “A good story never loses its interest to me by 
 being often told,” said the young man gravely. 
 “And besides,” he added, in a tone of pleasantry, 
 “ it has been so long since you have heard this 
 story that it will seem like a new one to you.” 
 
 “Well, well, I will go,” said she in a similar 
 vein, “ and I venture the prediction that you will 
 be as much disappointed in your crack speaker as 
 I was in the last lecture to which I listened.” 
 
 “We shall see,” said he, “and now let us have 
 tea, for I have much to do this evening.” 
 
 The Thursday evening of the lecture came, and 
 
The Reformed DrunTcard. 
 
 107 
 
 an immense crowd had assembled at the hall. The 
 fame of the speaker had preceded him, and the ex- 
 ertions of Mr. Crawford, and others who felt an 
 interest in the temperance cause, to give currency 
 to the appointment, had drawn together the largest 
 audience which had graced a similar occasion since 
 the movement was first inaugurated. All the elite 
 and fashion of the town were there at an early 
 hour, and all impatiently waited the coming of the 
 train which was to bring the lecturer, for he was 
 not expected to arrive until it was fully time for 
 the lecture to commence. 
 
 He came, and scarcely had he commenced speak- 
 ing before every one in the congregation felt and 
 realized that they were to be amply repaid for 
 their attendance. His presence was commanding, 
 his diction clear and distinct, his knowledge of his 
 subject was perfect and he had, withal, that pecu- 
 liar magnetism which gives so many speakers such 
 23erfect control of their audiences. His illustra- 
 tions were clear and pointed and singularly apjDO- 
 site ; his humor Avas irresistible and convulsed his 
 hearers with laughter ; his 2 )athos was sublime 
 and compelled every one to hold his breath with 
 silent awe, and Avhen he drew upon his own ex 2 )e- 
 rience and jAortrayed the miseries, the horrors and 
 wretchedness of the drunkard’s life there was 
 scarcely a dry eye in the room. And when the 
 hour and a half which he devoted to the subject 
 was exhausted, and the speaker was silent, the 
 
108 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 entire audience sat for a moment as if in a trance, 
 and when the spell was broken and they started 
 to their feet, no word of applause greeted the mas- 
 terly address to which they had listened. JSTo. 
 Their spirits were wound to too high a pitch by 
 the brillianc oratory they had heard, and silently 
 they dispersed to their homes, each one feeling 
 that it had been good to be there. 
 
 A few there were, however, who remained to 
 greet the orator and to congratulate him u^Don the 
 success with which his effort had been crowned, 
 and among these were Mr Crawford and his sister. 
 
 The greeting between the two gentlemen, as 
 might have been expected from their past associa- 
 tions, and the length of time which had elapsed 
 since their parting (for they had not met since 
 Henry’s departure from the village of Perrysburg 
 nearly a year and a half before) was cordial in the 
 extreme, and when their salutations had been ex- 
 changed and Mr. Crawford had introduced his 
 sister, it needed no urging to induce the speaker 
 to accept the cordial invitation of his old friend to 
 pass the night at his house. We cannot say pre- 
 cisely what effect the glance which the lecturer 
 cast upon the lovely and intelligent features of 
 Ellen Crawford had in determining him to accept 
 the invitation — certain it is that she had never 
 looked more radiantly beautiful than she did at 
 this time. 
 
 Her azure eyes sparkled with emotion, and the 
 
The Heformed Drunkard . 
 
 109 
 
 interest excited by the discourse to which she 
 had just listened had lent an unwonted lustre 
 to her complexion, and as she eagerly seconded 
 the invitation of her brother, Henry Gleason 
 thought he had never beheld any one so surpass- 
 ingly beautiful. In that first moment of their 
 acquaintance was laid the foundation of events 
 which were to color the whole of the future lives 
 of both. 
 
 As they walked home from the hall in which 
 the meeting had been held Mr. Crawford slily 
 rallied his sister on the disinclination she had 
 shown to attend the lecture. 
 
 “Well, sister,” said he, “shall I apologize for 
 my cruelty in compelling you to attend this meet- 
 ing, and promise never to do the like again ? ” 
 
 “ There,” said she, “ say no more about that. I 
 frankly confess that you were right and that I was 
 wrong, and with this concession to your superior 
 sagacity and wisdom you ought to be content.” 
 
 “ What ! ” said Mr. Gleason, with some aston- 
 ishment in his tone and manner, “ does Miss Craw- 
 ford require a command to lend the powerful influ- 
 ence of her countenance and support to so noble 
 and holy a cause as that of temperance? ” 
 
 “ No, not that,” said Ellen, “ my heart approves 
 of the cause, and of all that is being or can be 
 done to advance it, but I am such a useless little 
 body that it never seemed to me possible for me 
 to accomplish anything at all. And inasmuch as 
 
110 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 all the lectures we have had here have all been 
 about one and the same thing, I had naturally 
 come to feel some indifference about attending our 
 meeting.” 
 
 “No one,” said Mr. Gleason, gravely, “can 
 afford to be indifferent in a cause of so much 
 importance to the great interest of humanity. 
 And no one is without his influence, and no one 
 should shrink from exercising it.” 
 
 “ But what can a person like me do ? ” asked the 
 young lady. “ I cannot get up and speak in advo- 
 cacy of the cause, nor can I go around among the 
 audience and solicit signatures to the pledge of 
 total abstinence.” 
 
 “ Very true, but if you cannot exercise an active 
 you can a passive influence. Every cause gathers 
 its strength from the number of its open adher- 
 ents, in part at least, and when one regularly 
 attends the meetings held in the interest of such 
 cause, even though they take no active part in the 
 exercise, they thereby testify in the strongest 
 manner their adherence to and support of that 
 cause. And thus whatever influence they may 
 possess is at once transferred to and inures to the 
 benefit of the cause. Hence I say no one can 
 afford to be indifferent or even negligent.” 
 
 “ That,” said Mr. Crawford, “is precisely what I 
 have been trying to impress upon our wayward 
 Ellen for the last three months, but she is almost 
 beyond my influence.” 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 Ill 
 
 “Now, brother,” said Ellen poutingly, “you are 
 too bad. If you will say no more I promise to 
 attend every meeting without question or urging.” 
 
 “ Bravo ! Gleason, you have made one convert,”’ 
 said Mr. Crawford, laughing, while Ellen — they 
 having by this time reached home — sprang away 
 from them and up the steps into the house. 
 
 The gentlemen followed more leisurely and were 
 soon in Mr. Crawford’s elegantly furnished parlor, 
 where they passed one of the most delightful 
 seasons either had ever known in reviewing old 
 acquaintanceship and talking over the incidents of 
 the past. Midnight came and found them thus 
 engaged; the clock from an adjoining steeple 
 pealed the hour of one and still the two friends 
 scarcely thought of retiring, so deeply were they 
 interested in all that concerned each other. At 
 last, however, wearied nature asserted her claims 
 and they retired to rest, but not until Henry 
 Gleason had yielded to the earnest solicitations of 
 his friend to remain his guest for a day or two 
 longer. Whether the brief interview with the 
 clergyman’s sister had any influence in procuring 
 the acceptance of the invitation we are not able to 
 positively inform our readers. We have our own 
 opinion and they may have theirs. In all candor, 
 however, we must confess that he had been some- 
 what attracted by her, and that, having decided to 
 remain their guest for a few days, he determined 
 to know more of her before he left. 
 
112 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 For the next three days Mr. Gleason remained 
 an inmate of Mr. Crawford’s mansion, when he left 
 to fill an appointment, of some weeks standing, to 
 address a temiDerance convention. Bat while there 
 he had so assiduously followed up his laudable 
 determination to know more of Ellen Crawford, and 
 so satisfactory had been the result of his investi- 
 gation, that the invitation to repeat his visit at no 
 distant day, which he received both from Mr. 
 Crawford and Ellen, was scarcely necessary to in- 
 duce him to do so. 
 
 In fine, dear reader, notwithstanding the pre- 
 occupation of his mind with devotion to the cause 
 of temperance and to his theological studies, Henry 
 Gleason had in those three days learned to love 
 Ellen Crawford as he had never loved before. Her 
 beauty had made a powerful impression upon him 
 from the first, and further acquaintance had con- 
 vinced him of the fact that the charms of her per- 
 son were more than equalled by those of her mind. 
 Her nnalfected frankness and good sense, and her 
 unmistakable refinement and cultivation had com- 
 ]3leted the conquest which her loveliness had 
 begun, and when he went away from the home of 
 her brother it was with a fixed determination to 
 return and, if possible (and if he was successful in 
 obtaining her brother’s consent, of which he had 
 but little doubt), to win her for his bride. 
 
 In pursuance of this determination, he came 
 again in a few weeks and was received by Mr. 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 113 
 
 Crawford and Ellen with a warmth of welcome and 
 heartiness of greeting which showed the high esti- 
 mation in which he was held, and which certainly 
 augured well for the success of the suit which he 
 was fully resolved to urge. At least, so far as Mr. 
 Crawford was concerned, he felt a reasonable de- 
 gree of assurance, and as he had not learned to rid 
 himself of the ancient notion of propriety in ad- 
 dressing a young lady — that the proper course was 
 first to win the consent of her parent or guardian — 
 he took an early opportunity to address his friend 
 upon the subject. 
 
 It is quite unnecessary to inflict upon the reader 
 the details of the interview which he sought upon 
 this subject. It is sufficient for the purposes of 
 this story to say that the conference was eminently 
 cordial, frank and satisfactory to both, and that 
 when he left the presence of Mr. Crawford it was 
 with his free consent to make Ellen his wife if he 
 could, and with the heartiest wishes of the brother 
 for his success. 
 
 Thus far all was well. But it was with some 
 degree of trepidation that he ajjproached the task 
 of making the conquest which he had obtained 
 permission to attempt. True love is proverbially 
 modest, and in all her intercourse with him the 
 closest scrutiny failed to discover to him anything 
 more than an attempt on her part to treat her 
 brother’s favorite guest with proper and becoming 
 
 respect. And even if at times she manifested some 
 8 
 
114 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 degree of pleasure in liis society, he was still un- 
 able to detect more than the pleasure of friend- 
 ship, and he felt at no small loss whether to ask 
 for more, and so risk losing all, or to await the 
 development of events in the hope of a warmer and 
 stronger feeling springing up in her bosom. Who 
 that has attained to manhood’s estate has not felt 
 himself in a similar dilemma ? 
 
 Thus several days passed in painful indecision, 
 and the time which he felt that he could spare for 
 this visit had expired, and still he had made no 
 advances in his wooing. “Many a time and oft” 
 he had resolved to ask the all-important question 
 and learn his fate, and as often the fear of repulse 
 had kept him silent, but now he felt that it conld 
 be postponed no longer. 
 
 On the evening before his departure, therefore, 
 he asked her to take a walk with him to a leafy 
 grove a short distance from the house, which 
 was a favorite resort of theirs. There was nothing 
 unusual in his asking her to walk out there with 
 him — he had often done so before — but on this oc- 
 casion there was an undefinable something, she 
 could not tell what, either in his tone, his looks or 
 his manner, as he preferred his request which 
 caused the Hush upon her cheek to deepen and her 
 eyes to droop beneath his glances. There was, 
 however, no other manifestation of emotion; her 
 simple preparations were soon made, and the}^ 
 wended their way almost in silence to the shady 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 115 
 
 dell. Perhaps it was the thought of his approach- 
 ing departure which rendered them both so unusu- 
 ally reticent. Who knows? 
 
 They pursued their way until they came to a 
 rustic bench which had been erected for the accom- 
 modation of loungers beneath the branches of a 
 mighty oak, monarch of an hundred years. Here 
 Mr. Gleason paused, and facing his companion said 
 in a low and tremulous voice : 
 
 “ Sit down here, Ellen, please. I have something 
 of vast importance to me to tell you.” 
 
 She started and blushed violently, for it was the 
 first time he had ever addressed her thus famil- 
 iarly, but, in obedience to his appealing look, she 
 sank upon the seat. He placed himself beside 
 her, and taking her unresisting hand in his, he 
 poured into her ear in earnest, manly utterances, 
 and yet as soft almost as the whisper of the zephyr 
 in the leaves abo\^e their heads, that tale which 
 has been told and listened to ever since the world 
 had a being, and which is yet ever new and full of 
 interest to both speaker and hearer. And when 
 he had finished his story, and raised the head 
 which drooped upon his shoulder, one glance into 
 the crimson face and love-beaming eyes of the fair 
 girl at his side told him that his suit was not in 
 vain. For, carefully as she had guarded her se- 
 cret, Ellen had long cherished in her inmost soul a 
 deep and earnest love for the handsome, talented 
 and eloquent temperance orator. And as he read 
 
116 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 his answer in that glowing face, he folded her to 
 his hreast in a strong, passionate embrace, and the 
 first, warm kiss of love pressed uj)on her willing 
 lips sealed the compact they had made. 
 
 How long they sat there, indulging the dreams 
 which their impassioned afiection conjured ujd, we 
 know not, but the shades of night had fallen, 
 
 “And the sentinel stars kept their watch in the sky,” 
 ere they left the place which henceforth was hal- 
 lowed by the most sacred associations and returned 
 to the mansion of Mr. Crawford. Here, hand in 
 hand, they sought that gentleman in his study to 
 inform him of what had taken place and ask his 
 blessing upon their projected union. 
 
 That that blessing was freely given the reader 
 will, of course, have no difficulty in understanding, 
 and then followed an earnest conference as to future 
 movements. It was finall}^ settled that the wed- 
 ding should not take place until Henry had com- 
 pleted his course and entered upon the work to 
 which he had devoted his life, and that as soon 
 after this as circumstances would admit they 
 should be united. 
 
 The next morning Hemy took his departure for 
 the scene of his studies, having found in the inci- 
 dents of this evening an incentive to, if jjossible, 
 still greater exertions in the effort to fit himself 
 for his chosen calling. 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 117 
 
 CHAPTER y. 
 
 It lias been said that ‘‘ the course of true love 
 never did run smooth,” but we confidently offer 
 the case of Henry Gleason and Ellen Crawford to 
 prove by one instance, at least, that the time-hon- 
 ored adage is not of universal application. For 
 during the little more than a year which inter- 
 vened between their engagement and their mar- 
 riage, not a single cloud arose above the horizon 
 of their happiness. True, they saw but little of 
 each other, for Henry had now a fresh incentive to 
 even increased diligence in his studies, and was 
 unwilling to spare much time even to visit his be- 
 trothed, but their separation was cheered by the 
 constant and frequent interchange of white- winged 
 messengers of love which, gliding from each to the 
 other, bore the oft-repeated assurance of unaltera- 
 ble affection and never-failing confidence. And 
 the occasional interviews which they enjoyed were 
 marked by a tender and‘'appreciative regard of and 
 consideration for each other’s feelings which gave 
 promise of the highest degree of hapjpiness in store 
 for them in the future. 
 
 Immediately after his return from his successful 
 wooing, to the seminary, Henry communicated the 
 engagement he had formed to his brother, who still 
 resided at Perrysburg, and never was brother more 
 warmly, or with more heart-felt sincerity congratu- 
 lated than he was by the good doctor. For though 
 
118 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 the latter had never entertained any apprehension 
 of Henry’s relapsing into the evil ways from which 
 he had rescued him, still, aside from the pleasure 
 he experienced at the closer relation with his friend 
 Crawford into which he would thereby be brought, 
 he felt that this new association would afford a still 
 stronger safeguard, if any were needed, against so 
 dire a calamity as this would be, and the letter in 
 which he communicated his approval of the con- 
 tract was such a model of fraternal affection, and 
 abounded with so many expressions of practical 
 good sense, that I am almost tempted to reproduce 
 it here, but upon reflection will forbear. 
 
 ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 
 
 A year has passed away since Henry formed his 
 engagement with Ellen Crawford. Let us go to the 
 Theological Seminary at , for it is commence- 
 
 ment day, and we shall be certain to meet old 
 friends there, and to witness an assemblage of 
 learning, talent and i^iety such as one seldom sees. 
 Beauty, too, will be there, in all its radiance, for 
 the mothers, sisters — aye, and sweethearts — of the 
 aspirants for honor will be present, all filled with 
 brightest anticipations for tlieir loved ones. 
 
 Let us enter the magnificent hall devoted to the 
 exercises of the day. At one end a stage, extend- 
 ing entirely across, affords seats for the officers 
 and faculty of the institution, as well as space for 
 the declamation of the graduates, and the seats in 
 front, arranged in the form of an amphitheater. 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 119 
 
 afford the best possible opportunity for the spec- 
 tators to hear and see all that is said or done. 
 
 As we glance around the hall, already tolerably 
 well filled, our eyes light upon the well-remem- 
 bered form and features of Dr. James Gleason. 
 For this day terminates the connection of his 
 brother with the institution and he, consequently, 
 feels more than a passing interest in the exercises 
 of the hour. He experiences no anxiety or uneasi- 
 ness as to the manner in which that brother will 
 acquit himself — he understands too well his stand- 
 ing in the institution — but he is his last living 
 relative, and he naturally feels anxious to witness 
 him in the hour of his triumph. 
 
 Turn your head. Coming down the aisle we see 
 Rev. Mr. Crawford, and, hanging upon his arm, in 
 all her radiant loveliness, his sister Ellen, the in- 
 terest and excitement of the scene lending, if pos- 
 sible, an increase of beauty to that by which she 
 was usually adorned. 
 
 As they came near where the doctor was sitting, 
 he hastily rose from his seat, and the two friends, 
 so long separated (for they had never met since 
 Mr. Crawford left Perrysburg), grasped each other 
 by the hand with a warmth and earnestness which 
 spoke more eloquently than words could have 
 done of the depth and sincerity of their attachment 
 to each other. When the cordiality of their greet- 
 ing gave time to think of matters of ceremony, Mr. 
 Crawford turned to Ellen and said : 
 
120 National Reform. 
 
 “My old friend, Dr. Gleason. Doctor, my sister 
 Ellen.” 
 
 “And, I suppose,” said the doctor extending Ms 
 hand with easy frankness, “ I may almost say ‘ my 
 sister,’ from what Henry has written me ; and cer- 
 tain am I that I shall never blush at the thought 
 of the relationship,” he added gallantly. 
 
 “ My brother,” said Ellen in a similar strain, 
 “has often warned me of the evil consequences of 
 forming hasty conclusions, and I fear he will have 
 to read you a homily on the same topic. AMu do 
 not know me yet.” 
 
 “ Oh ! ” said the doctor laughing, “ I am by no 
 means so much of a stranger to you as you think, 
 though I have never been so fortunate as to meet 
 you before. But if you could see the letters I have 
 received from my brother during the last year, you 
 would not accuse me of forming my conclusions 
 hastily, at least upon this subject.” 
 
 Ellen blushed at this proof of how completely 
 she had filled the thoughts of her lover during 
 their separation, but it was with a pardonable 
 feeling of pleasure, as much as of maidenly mod- 
 esty, at having been made the subject of his cor- 
 respondence. 
 
 “Come, doctor,” she said, “let us say truce to 
 this matter. I admit you have the best of me, and 
 I desire to make peace.” 
 
 “I agree, upon one condition.” 
 
 “What is that?” 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 121 
 
 “^That you lay aside formality with me, and call 
 me ‘James’ instead of the high-sounding ‘Doctor’ 
 with which you have been wont to address me,” 
 said the doctor. 
 
 “ That is certainly very reasonable,” interposed 
 Mr. Crawford, “ in view of the fact that you are so 
 nearly brother and sister.” 
 
 “Now, if you are going to take up arms against 
 me, too,” cried Ellen merrily, but in the undertone 
 in which the conversation had thus far been carried 
 on, “I shall openly rebel, and defy you both.” 
 
 “ Let us say no more, my friend,” said Mr. Craw- 
 ford with mock terror and alarm in his tones ; 
 “Ellen now seems very gentle, but her wrath is 
 dreadful when aroused, as I very much fear your 
 poor brother will find to his cost.” 
 
 “ Judging from the letters he has written me,” 
 said the doctor smiling, “ he seems very willing to 
 take the risk.” 
 
 “ Gentlemen, I cry you mercy ! ” said Ellen. 
 “Let us drop this unprofitable subject and find 
 seats; for, see, the exercises are about to com- 
 mence.” 
 
 There was the usual little rustle and confusion 
 which attends the final seating of any audience of 
 the size of this one, and then the examination be- 
 gan. We have neither time, space nor inclination 
 to go into the details of this hour ; suffice it to say 
 that the exercises, of whatever character, were in 
 the highest degree entertaining, and reflected the 
 
122 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 utmost credit alike on the institution and the 
 students. But one there was who, at least in the 
 opinion of our three friends, excelled all his fellow- 
 graduates in profound knowledge of his subject, in 
 grace and eloquence of diction and delivery, and 
 in the poetic imagery with which his thoughts 
 were clothed. Need we say that this was none 
 other than Henry Gleason ? 
 
 And indeed it would be difficult to conceive of 
 a more finished and eloquent address than he 
 delivered upon that occasion. He had taken the 
 utmost pains, and employed all the resources of 
 his highly-cultivated mind in its preparation. His 
 experience upon the rostrum as a temperance lec- 
 turer had given him a confidence and consequent 
 grace and freedom of delivery which many of his 
 classmates lacked, and when he had concluded 
 and taken his seat, scarcely one in the vast audi- 
 ence but whose heart awarded the decision — which 
 the j udges afterwards pronounced — that to him be- 
 longed the first prize of the day. Even among his 
 fellow-graduates the awarding to him of this dis- 
 tinction created neither envy nor jealousy, for the}' 
 one and all recognized his intellectual superiorit}', 
 and with a frankness and freedom from selfishness 
 which did them infinite credit, they freely yielded 
 him the palm. 
 
 How proud of her betrothed was Ellen Crawford 
 as he thus towered above his associates, and how 
 the love-light kindled in her eye and flamed up 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 123 
 
 anew on the altar of her heart as she reflected 
 that this mighty intellect and noble mind had 
 given its choicest treasures to her. And Henry. 
 Hot all the plaudits, and the clapping of hands 
 which greeted him Avhen his address was con- 
 cluded were half as dear to him as the glance of 
 loving approbation which he received from those 
 azure eyes. And not even the heartfelt congratu- 
 lations of his brother and Mr. Crawford afforded 
 him one-half the satisfaction which did the few 
 half-whispered words in which Ellen expressed 
 her pleasure. 
 
 The next morning all was excitement and bustle 
 
 in the little town of , for there was to be a 
 
 long vacation, and the hundreds of students who 
 had imparted life and animation to the social cir- 
 cles were about to leave for their homes. Many 
 were the warm wishes and God’s speeds which 
 followed each train of cars as it bore away those 
 who by their upright and correct deportment had 
 won the kindly regard of the community amid 
 which so many happy days had been spent. 
 
 Among the crowd of leave-takers who thronged 
 the platform of the depot (for nearly the entire 
 population of the village had turned out to bid the 
 young collegiates farewell), one little group of 
 four persons attracted more than ordinary atten- 
 tion and interest, for among them were Henry 
 Gleason and Ellen Crawford. He was a universal 
 favorite, aside from the high position he had won 
 
124 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 the day before, and Ellen’s rare and wondrous 
 beauty would attract attention anywhere. The 
 other members of the group were, of course. Dr. 
 James Gleason and Mr. Crawford, and as they 
 stood slightly apart and conversed in a low tone, 
 they were the recij)ients of many a glance of 
 admiration from the bystanders. And not a few 
 of the village fair, we fear, mingled with their 
 glances a slight tinge of envy at this monopoly by 
 a stranger of the prize orator of the day. But she 
 was too happy to heed or care. 
 
 “ Come, Ellen,” said her brother, as the train 
 drew up to the platform, “ this is ours. Good-bye, 
 Doctor, good-bye, Henry,” shaking hands with 
 each in turn, “I hope soon to greet you in our own 
 home.” 
 
 The parting between the betrothed lovers was 
 indeed tender and affectionate, but grave and dig- 
 nified. There were too many witnesses to admit 
 of any extraordinary demonstrations, and besides, 
 they knew that in all human probability their 
 separation was but for a brief season. For in two 
 months the engagement, entered into a year and 
 more before, was to be consummated, Henry 
 having already been solicited by the congregation 
 of which his brother was a member to assume the 
 pastoral charge of their church. And an hour 
 later the two brothers were whirling away with all 
 the speed of steam in the direction of Perry sburg, 
 where they were greeted with a warmth and earn- 
 
The Reformed Drunkard. 
 
 125 
 
 estness which, gave the most happy auguries of 
 the usefulness of the new pastor. 
 
 And those auguries were more fully realized 
 than even the most sanguine dared to hope. The 
 eloquence, zeal and earnestness which Henry 
 Gleason brought to the service of his Master 
 among this people, his untiring assiduity and 
 unseltish devotion alike to the temporal and spir- 
 itual necessities of his flock, soon won for him a 
 place in their hearts equal if not superior to that 
 enjoyed aforetime by Mr. Crawford. 
 
 Two months from the commencement of his 
 labors among them, he brought home to be a 
 co-worker with him, one who, although a stranger 
 to every member of the congregation save his 
 brother James, still occupied no small empire in 
 their hearts by reason of her relation to their 
 former much loved and revered pastor — Ellen 
 Crawford — now, however, no longer Ellen Craw- 
 ford, but his loved and honored bride. 
 
 And from that time to the present she has con- 
 stantly and untiringly shared his labors. In the 
 sick room she is ever ready to administer comfort 
 and relief ; in every circle and society for the aid 
 of the suffering poor of the parish she is a leader ; 
 in the Sabbath-school, and every similar institu- 
 tion for the promotion of good, none is more 
 earnest or unwearied than she. She has ever been 
 to the needy and suffering of whatever grade or 
 class a very angel of mercy, and the love which 
 
126 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 was first extended to her because of her relation- 
 ship to their former as well as to their present 
 pastor, has been transformed into the most devout 
 affection and veneration because of her own 
 worth. 
 
 And here we take leave of The Eeformed 
 Drunkard. 
 
THE STORY OF A RUINED LIFE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE MURDERER. 
 
 Mrs. Dr. Dick sat quietly sewing, only glancing 
 occasionally at the little clock on the mantel whose 
 hand almost pointed to the hour at which she 
 might expect the coming of her husband, for though 
 nearly a quarter of a century had passed since their 
 marriage, she still looked with the same eagerness 
 for his return from business as in the days when 
 they were first united, and upon his part, the 
 Doctor always experienced the same feeling upon 
 turning his footsteps homeward as when he was a 
 bridegroom of but a few days’ standing. Theirs 
 was one of the few households in which over 
 twenty years of conflict in the great battle of life 
 had neither dimmed nor in any degree obliterated 
 the feelings which had first induced them to link 
 their fortunes together. 
 
 The room in which Mrs. Dick was seated afforded 
 ample evidence that the Doctor had been, in the 
 language of the world, “ successful.” The elegant 
 furniture and luxurious carpets, the rich paintings 
 
 ( 127 ) 
 
128 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 which adorned the walls, and the extensive collec- 
 tion of rare and costly books, could have been the 
 property only of a man of intelligence and correct 
 taste with ample means to gratify it. 
 
 But while the practice of his profession had 
 brought him wealth and honor, no part of his 
 ample fortune had been accumulated b}^ opi^ression 
 or grinding the faces of the poor. His well-earned 
 reputation for generosity towards the unfortunate 
 who crossed his pathway was as widely extended 
 as his probity and professional skill were recog- 
 nized and admitted. Many a poor patient, with- 
 out the means to pay the most insignificant fee, 
 was indebted to him, not only for gratuitous res- 
 toration to health, but for the veiy food which 
 kept them from the pangs of hunger. 
 
 Suddenly Mrs. Dick was startled by a footfall 
 upon the doorstep so unlike the usual tread of her 
 husband — so hasty and apparently excited — that 
 she sprang to her feet. The next moment the door 
 of the room was violently thrown open and the 
 Doctor rushed in with an infant in his arms. His 
 manner betokened the most intense excitement, 
 and for an instant she was considerably alarmed. 
 
 “Here,” said he, holding the babe towards his 
 wife as she advanced to meet him, “ is a child 
 whose life I saved from the fury of its unnatural 
 and brutal father.” 
 
 “ What do you mean, Robert ? ” 
 
 “ I have not time to explain now — will tell you 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 129 
 
 all when I return,” he replied, and again rushed 
 out into the street. 
 
 Mrs. Dick, though naturally very much terrified, 
 turned her attention to the little innocent which 
 had been so strangely placed in her charge, and 
 which had begun to manifest its want of something 
 in the only mode known to the infantile world — 
 by crying. Summoning a good-natured domestic, 
 she caused some nourishment to be prepared for it, 
 and when its hunger had been appeased, and its 
 wailing consequently stopped, she contemplated it 
 with almost maternal interest. 
 
 It was a girl about five months of age, with beau- 
 tiful features, as far as the features of an infant of 
 that age can be called beautiful, and had “ the 
 most wondrous blue eyes,” as Mary, the cook, ex- 
 pressed it, “ that she had ever seen in all her 
 born days.” 
 
 It needed not the mystery which surrounded the 
 little stranger to interest Mrs. Dick in her. She 
 had borne children — a daughter and a son, the first 
 of whom was already married, and the last absent 
 at college — and her mother’s heart throbbed with 
 true womanly sympathy and pity for the helpless 
 innocent which now lay in her arms, and over whose 
 young life she well realized that a cloud of some 
 sort had been cast. But little time was allowed 
 her for speculation as to who or what the little one 
 might be, for her husband again entered the room. 
 
 But in what a condition ! His hat was crushed 
 9 
 
130 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 and battered, his coat was torn, and he was cov- 
 ered with blood from head to foot. She had never 
 seen him in such a plight, and though by no means 
 a person of weak nerves, the suddenness of this 
 ghastly apparition gave her such a shock that she 
 fell fainting to the floor. Mary, though scarcely 
 less terrified than her mistress, yet retained suffi- 
 cient presence of mind to catch the babe as Mrs. 
 Dick fell, and so saved it from injury. 
 
 “Now, my dear,” said the Doctor, when Mrs. 
 Dick had been restored to consciousness, and he 
 had made the necessary changes in his appear- 
 ance, “ I will tell you the story of our little found- 
 ling. It is a sad one.” 
 
 “ Whose child is she ? ” 
 
 “She is the child of Joseph Davis, the lawyer, 
 
 who lately came here from , and who lives, 
 
 as you know, on the next street,” replied her hus- 
 band. 
 
 “ But whence came the blood upon jmur clothes 
 and person, my dear husband?” inquired the lady, 
 her thoughts recurring to the appearances which 
 had so much alarmed her. 
 
 “ Listen and I will tell you. A most horrible 
 crime has been perpetrated. As I was passing 
 Davis’ house on my way home, I was startled by a 
 terrific scream from within, and rushing into the 
 house I beheld a sight which curdled the blood in 
 my veins. Davis, in a frenzy of di'unkenness, had 
 this innocent babe in his hands and was in the act 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 
 
 131 
 
 of dashing out its brains. His wife was on the floor 
 gasping in the agonies of death, her throat cut from 
 ear to ear, while the bloody knife with which the 
 fiend had done his murderous work, lay in the pool 
 which flowed from the fearful, gaping wound in her 
 neck.” 
 
 “ How horrible,” said Mrs. Dick. 
 
 “ It is, indeed,” returned her husband. “ I 
 snatched the babe,” he continued, “ brought her to 
 you, and then went with some officers to arrest 
 him. We found him in the house singing some 
 Bacchanalian song, and as soon as we entered he 
 rushed upon me and threw me upon the floor in 
 the blood of the murdered woman, while he strove 
 to get hold of the knife, evidently with the inten- 
 tion of taking my life. However, he was secured 
 before he could do any further mischief.” 
 
 “Why, husband,” said Mrs. Dick shuddering, 
 “ I tremble to think of the danger you were in. 
 But what cause of enmity had he against you?” 
 
 “jSTone whatever. We never met before, and in- 
 deed I do not think he knows me at all. He 
 merely attacked me because I was the first to enter 
 the room.” 
 
 “Such are the awful eifects of intemperance,” 
 said Mrs. Dick, solemnly. “ God forbid that our 
 son should ever fall a victim to its demoralizing 
 influences. Do you know how long this wretched 
 creature has been addicted to the terrible vice ? ” 
 
 “ I was told by a man who professed to know 
 
132 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 something of his antecedents that he was at one 
 
 time a prominent lawyer of . Though but 
 
 a young man, he had already won a position which 
 many an old practitioner might envy, was a mem- 
 ber of the church, and one of the leaders of the 
 temperance society there. But he violated his 
 pledge, went from bad to worse, and linall}^ be- 
 came a confirmed inebriate. He lost his business, 
 spent all his property, as well as a very handsome 
 dower received with his wife, and finally came 
 here to commit the horrid deed which has this 
 evening so shocked our whole community. This is 
 briefly what I learned of his past history from one 
 who knows.” 
 
 “ It is almost too horrible for comprehension,” 
 replied his wife. “But what has been done with 
 the poor murdered lad}^ ? ” 
 
 “Her corse was being prepared for interment 
 when I left the house,” said the Doctor. “ She will 
 be buried to-morrow or the day after. But what 
 shall we do with the little one?” 
 
 “ Had Mrs. Davis no friends who would be glad 
 to adopt and care for her ? ” 
 
 “None, I believe,” said Dr. Dick. “She was an 
 only child ; her mother was a widow at the time of 
 her marriage, and has since died.” 
 
 “ Then let us keep and adopt her as our own,” 
 said Mrs. Dick. “ Sweet little creature,” she con- 
 tinued, turning towards the sofa on which the in- 
 fant was quietly sleeping. “ Is she not a beauty ? ” 
 
The Story of a lluined Life. 133 
 
 “ Certainly,” replied the Doctor good-humoredly, 
 “ all children of that age are perfection in the eyes 
 of women, I believe, and this can never be an ex- 
 ception to the general rule.” 
 
 It would be difficult to interpret the grimace 
 with which Mrs. Dick replied to this sally of the 
 Doctor’s. It might have expressed either disgust 
 at his apparent want of feeling, or contemjjt for his 
 implied slur upon the female sex in general, or 
 almost any other feeling which anyone chose to 
 imagine. Certain it is that she made no reply in 
 words, but that the expression of her face was sig- 
 nificant of almost anything which anyone saw fit 
 to suppose it might mean. However, the Doctor 
 made no quarrel about it ; having said his say, he 
 appeared entirely contented to allow his good wife 
 to indulge any feeling she chose in the matter. 
 
 And in good sooth, the little girl who had come 
 so, almost providentially as it seemed, into their 
 care and custody, seemed to justify Mrs. Dick’s 
 encomium upon her. She was remarkably sprightly 
 and attractive for a child of her age, while her 
 deep, blue, transparent eyes seemed indeed the 
 “windows to her soul.” Hard must have been the 
 heart which would not be moved by the beauty 
 and angelic innocence depicted upon that counte- 
 nance. 
 
 Turn we for a moment to the guilty murderer in 
 his cell as he watches the slowly-passing moments, 
 every one of which brings him nearer and nearer 
 
134 
 
 National lieform. 
 
 to the hour of doom which he had j)rej)ared for 
 himself. At first he appeared totally unconscious 
 of the damning guilt which his own act had fas- 
 tened u]Don his soul. When sufficiently sobered, 
 after being taken into custody, he asked for what 
 he was arrested. Upon being informed that it was 
 for the murder of his wife, he evinced no recollec- 
 tion of the matter, but when confronted with her 
 lifeless and pallid corse, the firmness which he had 
 manifested gave way, and with loud cries and 
 lamentations he besought them to inflict ujpon him 
 the vengeance which his conduct had merited. 
 
 “Hang me! hang me!” he cried, as he smote 
 upon his breast in unavailing remorse. “ Grod 
 knows I have deserved no less.” 
 
 So violent appeared the stings of his conscience 
 that it was deemed necessary to watch him con- 
 stantly lest he should inflict personal violence 
 upon himself. The utmost care was exercised to 
 prevent him from committing suicide ; his food was 
 carefully examined to see that no friend from out- 
 side had supplied him with poison, and an attend- 
 ant always remained with him at meal time to 
 prevent him from making any improper use of the 
 utensils furnished him with which to eat his food. 
 And yet, as will appear farther in the progress of 
 our tale, these precautions were entirely unneces- 
 sary. Self-destruction was the farthest thing from 
 his thoughts, consummate hypocrite that he was. 
 
 Time passed, and the court in which Joseph 
 
The Story of a limned Life. 135 
 
 Davis was to be put upon his trial for the crime of 
 willful murder, convened. Despite his apparent 
 poverty, and the strong current of public opinion 
 which was setting against him, he had succeeded 
 in retaining the ablest counsel of the circuit for his 
 defense. 
 
 Never, perhaps, had a case of such surpassing 
 interest to the public been called in the court over 
 which Judge Worthington presided with so much 
 dignity and ability. Mrs. Davis was a woman of 
 jemarkable sweetness and amiability of disposi- 
 tion, and even in the short time that she had 
 
 resided in , she had won numerous friends 
 
 to whom the intelligence of her terrible death came 
 like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, and awak- 
 ened at once the most unappeasable demand for 
 vengeance upon her murderer. And to those who 
 knew her not, the atrocious crime of which she had 
 been the victim appealed in thunder tones for the 
 stern retribution of the law. 
 
 His counsel went into his defense with the most 
 tremendous pressure against them, but with a zeal 
 and assiduity which were at once their highest 
 commendation. Not that they made use of any 
 improper or undue influences to secure his acquit- 
 tal — they were far too high-minded and honorable 
 to resort to any unworthy means to obtain a ver- 
 dict in his favor — but they fully realized the truth 
 of the proposition that any man, however guilty, 
 was entitled to have a fair trial, and to have his 
 
136 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 case presented in the most favorable light of which 
 it would admit, and this and no more they set out 
 to do. 
 
 The defence was the somewhat hackneyed one 
 of insanity, but in this case there seemed more 
 foundation for such a defense than is usual. He 
 had been so long under the influence of alcoholic 
 stimulants that it hardly seemed strange that his 
 brain should have been influenced by it, and his 
 counsel made the most that could be made of that 
 fact. But their ingenuity and the brilliant and 
 persuasive eloquence in which they indulged 
 before the jury were alike unavailing. At the 
 close of a protracted trial, every step of which 
 was watched with the most intense eagerness by 
 the excited crowd who filled the court-house from 
 first to last, the jury returned a verdict of guilty 
 of murder in the first degree, and Joseph Davis 
 was sentenced to atone for his hideous crime upon 
 the scaffold. 
 
 There was but one sentiment throughout the 
 vast audience, or indeed in the entire community, 
 in regard to the justice of his conviction. Ho one 
 entertained the slightest doubt of his guilt, and 
 though in this community, as elsewhere all over 
 our free land, there was a class of philanthropists 
 who conscientiously denied the right of frail 
 humanity to take life even as a punishment for the 
 most atrocious crimes, these would not have 
 reversed his conviction if they had possessed the 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 137 
 
 power. The utmost that even their tender consid- 
 eration for the lives and rights of others would 
 have asked was, that his sentence might have been 
 mitigated from hanging to imprisonment for life, 
 and we are by no means sure that they are in 
 error in their views. It is certainly a most fearful 
 responsibility to take away the life of a fellow- 
 creature under any circumstances, and so long as 
 humanity remains the finite, imperfect thing it is, 
 so long will the liability to mistakes continue. 
 And what can atone for the wrong done to an 
 innocent person, and to those whose hearts have 
 indissolubly linked themselves together with his, 
 when his life is taken away by judicial sentence? 
 That, despite the machinery provided by the ten- 
 der care of the law for eliciting truth, hundreds of 
 innocent persons have been convicted of heinous 
 crimes, and have perished upon the scaffold, is not 
 and cannot be doubted by any one at all familiar 
 with the history of criminal jurisprudence in this 
 and every other country, and it may be that it 
 would be better, if the punishment awarded to 
 supposed crime were such as to admit of at least 
 a partial reparation if the innocence of the sup- 
 posed criminal should in time become manifest, as 
 has often been the case. But pardon this digres- 
 sion, dear reader. 
 
 From the time that sentence was pronounced 
 upon him, Joseph Davis seemed to be a changed 
 man. The air of reckless abandon which had 
 
138 
 
 National Refonn. 
 
 characterized him before disappeared, he passed 
 hours in reading the scriptures and in apparently 
 solemn meditation upon his awful situation ; he 
 sought eagerly for the society of ministers of the 
 gospel and other pious persons, to whom he spoke 
 freely of his sense of sin, his earnest penitence 
 and his hope that the Omnipotent would show him 
 the mercy he had denied to others, and not unfre- 
 quently the jailer, as he went his round, was 
 arrested by the voice of the condemned p»risoner 
 as he pleaded earnestly with the Almighty for par- 
 don and forgiveness. 
 
 The jailor was a very humane and kindly man, 
 of sincere piety, and a devout Christian, and to 
 him these evidences of repentance and contrition 
 for his great crime, on the part of his prisoner, 
 were in the highest degree gratifying. He spoke 
 freely to his friends of the change which had 
 taken place in the culprit, repeatedly expressed 
 his belief in the genuineness of his conversion, and 
 treated the prisoner with a degree of kindness and 
 consideration which he humbly hoped and trusted 
 would have the effect of leading him still nearer to 
 the One who alone can atone for human sin and 
 give peace to the troubled conscience. Poor man ! 
 he little suspected that he for whom he was so 
 willing to do any thing in his power was merely 
 acting a part, the better to carry out a scheme 
 which had been matured in his corrupt bosom, 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 139 
 
 and which involved still another crime shocking to 
 the sense of the entire community. 
 
 As the day fixed for his execution drew near the 
 apparent piety and penitence of Davis became 
 more and more intense, his requests for the society 
 and religious conversation of his jailer more fre- 
 quent, until it almost seemed that he was unwilling 
 to have him out of his sight for a moment. And the 
 kind official, willing and anxious by all means in 
 his power to deepen and confirm the good impres- 
 sion which he was sure had been made, never turned 
 a deaf ear to these requests. Every moment of 
 time which could be spared from his duties was 
 spent in the cell of the condemned man, and every 
 ministration which his experience could suggest, 
 and which would have a tendency to relieve the 
 apparently sorrowing spirit was freely carried into 
 effect. 
 
 So time passed, and the night preceding the day 
 of execution at last arrived. All necessary prepa- 
 rations for the sad event of the morrow had been 
 made. At this time the absurd idea that execu- 
 tions must be in public for the sake of their exam- 
 ple had not been eradicated from the minds of our 
 legislators, and hence the gallows upon which Davis 
 was to pay the penalty of violated law had been 
 erected upon a gentle eminence in the outskirts of 
 the village, and some distance from the jail. 
 
 On this evening when the jailer came to the cell 
 of Davis with his supper, the latter said : 
 
140 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 “ To-morrow, I believe, is — is — the day — on — 
 which — I — am — to die, is it not, Mr. Bradley ? ” 
 
 “Yes,” said the kind-hearted man in a low and 
 feeling tone, “to-morrow is the last day of your 
 life. Is there anything I can do for you in addi- 
 tion to what I have done ? ” 
 
 “ I do not know that there is,” returned the pris- 
 oner with well-affected emotion, “ you have been 
 so kind to me that I dislike to tax you farther. 
 And yet,” he continued, hesitatingly, “ I hate to 
 pass this, the last night of my life, alone.” 
 
 “ There is not the least necessity of your doing 
 so,” Bradley hastened to rejDly, “ I will get who 
 ever you wish to spend the night with you. Who 
 shall it be ? ” 
 
 “If it is not asking too much,” said Davis in a 
 tone of humility, “ I should prefer your company 
 to that of any one else. If jmu can come in after 
 you have locked up for the night, and sta}^ with 
 me till the morning, I feel that it will enable me to 
 meet my awful fate with more Christian courage.” 
 
 “ I Avill do so with pleasure,” returned Mr. Brad- 
 ley, while down deep in his heart glowed a little 
 feeling very much like self-gratulation that he had 
 been selected for this office in preference to so many 
 others of more pretentious ability who had from 
 time to time administered consolation to the con- 
 demned man. 
 
 “And then,” continued Davis in the same humble 
 manner, “ I would like to have you in the morning 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 
 
 141 
 
 send for Rev. Mr. Whitney to pray with and accom- 
 pany me to — to — the gallows.” 
 
 ' “It shall be as yon wish,” said the jailer, “ and 
 now is there anything else ? ” 
 
 “No, I ’thank you. Grood-bye for the present.” 
 
 Under the pretext that tlie noise and revelry of 
 the other prisoners jarred harshly upon his pious 
 meditations, Davis had induced the jailer to give 
 him a cell in a remote part of the building, and now 
 as the official walked down a long corridor which 
 led to the cells of the other prisoners, the murderer 
 looked after him with a smile of such fiendish glee 
 that had he chanced to look back and caught the 
 Satanic gleam through the grated door of the cell 
 he had just left, he would have been very far from 
 returning to it that night notwithstanding his 
 promise. But he saw it not, and with his heart 
 lightened at the thought of cheering, to some ex- 
 tent, the last hours of a man whom he believed to 
 be sincerely contrite, he went about his usual 
 evening duties. 
 
 About eleven o’clock, according to his usual cus- 
 tom, Mr. Bradley went the rounds of all the cells 
 to see that everything was safe for the night, after 
 which he bent his steps in the direction of Davis’ 
 cell, carrying with him two or three tracts of a re- 
 ligious character. The prisoner, who was standing 
 in a corner of the cell near the door, greeted him 
 kindly as he entered, and then, as Bradley turned 
 to secure the door, the prisoner struck him a tre- 
 
142 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 mendous blow from behind with a j)ost he had torn 
 from one of the two chairs with which the cell was 
 furnished. 
 
 The stroke was sufficient to fell him senseless to 
 the floor, and the next moment, and before he had 
 in the least degree recovered, the murderer had torn 
 off the fallen man’s coat, after which, feeling in the 
 pockets of his still insensible victim, he drew forth 
 a common pocket knife with which he cut his throat 
 from ear to ear, then arose and gazed with an un- 
 moved countenance upon the rapidly flowing life 
 blood of the man from whom he had never received 
 aught but kindness. Watching the rapidly paling 
 countenance of this, his second victim, he said in 
 mocking accents which might well befit the lips of 
 the arch-fiend himself : 
 
 “ Well, Bradley, you will stay with me to-night 
 and then send for Whitney in the morning, ^vill 
 you ? How very kind of you. But I have no idea 
 of staying with you, or of seeing Whitney, or 
 dancing at the end of a rope for the amusement of 
 a crowd of fools. Ha! Ha! Won't there bean 
 excitement when they find the delectable little 
 show is not to come off, as advertised? Unavoida- 
 bly postponed on account of the absence of the 
 principal actor. Pretty good, isn't it? But I've 
 no time to waste, apostrophizing here.” 
 
 So saying, he proceeded to remove the murdered 
 man’s pants, and in a short time had replaced his 
 own with them. He then put on the coat and hat 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 143 
 
 which Bradley had worn, and as they were just 
 about the same size and form, with hair and 
 whiskers very much alike, he anticipated no diffi- 
 culty in personating his victim sufficiently to make 
 his escape. Possessing himself of the keys of the 
 prison, and the jailer’s lainp, he walked quietly 
 out, passing in full view of one of the turnkeys, 
 who supposed it to be Mr. Bradley on his way 
 home, and hence offered no opposition to his exit, 
 carefully locked the outer door, and deliberately 
 walked away. Two or three persons passed him 
 while engaged in fastening the door but recogniz- 
 ing, as they supposed, the well-known figure of the 
 jailer, they merely gave him a passing salute and 
 hurried on their way. 
 
 The flight of the double murderer was not dis- 
 covered until morning. As Mr. Bradley had com- 
 municated to his family his intention of passing 
 the night with the condemned man, of course they 
 felt no uneasiness at his absence, and it was not 
 until one of the turnkeys in his morning rounds, 
 came to the cell of the murderer that the horrid 
 tragedy which had been there enacted, and the 
 escape of the prisoner were discovered. Of course 
 the alarm was immediately given ; men were sent 
 out to scour the surrounding country in all direc- 
 tions ; large rewards were offered for the apprehen- 
 sion of the double murderer, and every effort that 
 could be devised to compass his arrest were at once 
 put in force. 
 
144 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 But the seven or eight hours’ start which he had 
 gained, and the absence of anything peculiar in 
 his aj^pearance which could serve to guide his pur- 
 suers, and which rendered a minute description of 
 his person somewhat difficult, enabled him to elude 
 those who were in search of him, at least for the 
 
 present. He was never seen in again. For 
 
 weeks the search was prosecuted with unabated 
 eagerness, but he had too effectually concealed his 
 course ; the unavailing ardor of his pursuers at 
 last began to abate; other incidents effaced the 
 recollection of these double tragedies from the 
 minds of the good people of to a certain ex- 
 
 tent; people ceased to talk about them, and life 
 flowed on as though its surface had never been 
 rij^iDled and stained by so much crime and blood- 
 shed. 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 CHANGES. 
 
 “ Good morning. Dr. Dick. I am glad that you 
 are once more able to be out. How do you feel 
 this morning ? ” 
 
 “ I am gaining strength slowly, I thank you,’’ 
 replied the Doctor ; “ but my long illness has left 
 me very feeble, and it will be some time, I fear, 
 before I am myself again.” 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 
 
 145 
 
 “Yes, indeed,” said Mr. Simpson, “ three or four 
 months of illness necessarily reduces one very 
 much. It has been about that length of time since 
 you were taken ill, has it not ? ” 
 
 “Much more than that,” replied the Doctor. “It 
 is a few days over six months since I have been 
 outside of my house, and this is the third time I 
 have ventured to take the air.” 
 
 “Why, bless me, so it is! What a memory I 
 have, to be sure ! I remember now that you were 
 not able to attend as a witness at the Davis trial, 
 and that was live months ago. By the way, you 
 of course knew he had escaped.” 
 
 “Yes, I heard of that. No trace of him has 
 been found, I believe ? ” 
 
 “None whatever. Is his child still with you?” 
 
 “ She is,” replied the Doctor. “And that re- 
 minds me, Mrs. Dick and I have decided, after 
 mature reflection, that the best thing we can do is 
 to adopt her in legal form, and I wish you to pre- 
 pare and present the proper application to the 
 court at its next term.” 
 
 “With pleasure,” replied the worthy attorney, 
 producing a memorandum book and beginning to 
 write rapidly. “ What is her name and age ? ” 
 
 “We have called her Antillo,” replied the Doc- 
 tor, “and she is about one year old. Is there any 
 other information you desire ? ” 
 
 “No, that is all. Doctor.” 
 
 “ Then I will bid you good morning. I And my- 
 10 
 
146 
 
 ISFational Reform. 
 
 self getting very weary and must hasten home. 
 Drive on,” he added to the boy who held the reins. 
 
 “ Good morning, Doctor. Hope you will soon be 
 yourself again,” called out Mr. Simpson pleas- 
 antly, and they parted. 
 
 In accordance with the good old Doctor’s re- 
 quest, Mr. Simpson took the necessary steps, and 
 at the next term of the court an order was made 
 permitting him to adopt Antillo Davis as his own 
 child, to give her his name, and to rear her as his 
 own, the Judge remarking that he was pleased to 
 make an order so manifestly for the interest of the 
 worse than orphan as this must be. And from this 
 time she was universally recognized throughout 
 the community as in reality, what she had been 
 virtually from the hour in which he saved her from 
 the drunken fury of her father, his own child. 
 And as time passed, and she grew from a puling 
 infant into a lovely, sprightly little girl, whose 
 gay laughter, and pattering little feet, and almost 
 wondrous beauty carried joy and sunshine into 
 every corner of the Dick mansion, there were not a 
 few who almost envied the Doctor and his good 
 wife the possession of their little treasui’e. 
 
 And it was not alone her beauty, marvelous as 
 it was, which endeared her so much to the heart of 
 every one who knew her. Her quickness of intel- 
 lect, and the sweetness and affectionate tenderness 
 of her disposition were really wonderful, and 
 seemed almost angelic. Indeed there were ^o^e 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 147 
 
 wise ones who shook their heads and sapiently 
 observed that she was too refined for this polluted 
 world, and that she would soon return to the 
 heavenly home whence she had come for a brief 
 visit. But these superstitious prognostications had 
 little effect upon Dr. Dick and his good wife. 
 With true parental care and assiduity they went 
 forward training and developing, both mentally 
 and physically, the little one whom circumstances 
 had placed in their charge, and well were their 
 exertions repaid. 
 
 Meantime, the health-giving effects of Califor- 
 nia’s salubrious climate had become famed in the 
 region in which Dr. Dick lived, and as the rem- 
 nants of the old disease which had so sorely 
 threatened his life still lingered around him and 
 gave him no little trouble, especially with each 
 recurring spring, he decided to remove thither. 
 Accordingly, when the little Antillo had reached 
 the age of four 3 mars, they set out upon their 
 journey. 
 
 The iron horse had not yet performed the almost 
 supernatural feat of whirling hundreds of passen- 
 gers from the eastern to the western ocean in the 
 space of a few hours, and a trip to the modern El 
 Dorado was far from being the mere pleasure jaunt 
 it has since become. At this time the tide of emi- 
 gration thither either went by water from New 
 York, or stretched away in long trains of canvas- 
 covered wagons, drawn by patient oxen, across the 
 
148 National Reform. 
 
 mighty desert of the West at the rate of a few 
 miles a day. 
 
 The former was the route selected by the Doctor 
 and his little family, though Mrs. Dick, who, 
 despite her somewhat advancing years, had still 
 a tinge of romance in her composition, had at one 
 time advanced the idea that it would be delight- 
 ful to go across the jjlains in an ox-train, camping 
 out each night like so many gypsies. ” But when 
 the Doctor suggested that such a course might 
 have a tendency to aggravate the very evils which 
 it was the prime object of the journey to remove, 
 she at once yielded her inclination, and the voyage 
 was determined upon. 
 
 It is not necessary that we should follow them 
 throughout the course of their somewhat tedious 
 voyage ; suffice it to say that their experience was 
 not unlike that of the generality of voyagers to the 
 nolden shores of the Pacific in those davs, and 
 that in due time they arrived in safety in the Gate 
 City of the West. Proceeding some distance into 
 the interior and southern portion of the State, the 
 Doctor finally settled in a pleasant little village 
 and resumed his practice, finding in that genial 
 climate the relief in hopes of which he had crossed 
 a hemisphere. 
 
 Years passed away and Antillo had attained 
 the age of fourteen. Her sweetness of disposition 
 and intelligence had suffered no diminution with 
 the passage of time, and she was known far and 
 
The Story of a liuined Life. 
 
 149 
 
 near amid her acquaintances by the pet name of 
 “The doctor’s angel. ” 
 
 “ My dear, ” said Mrs. Dick to her husband one 
 morning as they sat around the breakfast table, 
 “ What shall we do in regard to the education of 
 our little Antillo? She is getting into quite too 
 deep water for me, and something must be done. 
 What shall it be ? ” 
 
 “ I hardly know, ” replied the doctor, “ what do 
 you propose ? ” 
 
 Now they had fully discussed this matter before 
 and had arrived at a conclusion, but they desired 
 to see how their child would relish the proposition 
 of leaving home, for this was what had been deter- 
 mined upon between them. 
 
 “ I suppose, of course, ” said Mrs. Dick musing- 
 ly, “ that she will have to be sent from home. 
 How would you like that, my child? ” turning to 
 her daughter. 
 
 “ Of course, my dear mamma, ” replied the 
 lovely girl, “ you know it will be very painful 
 for me to leave you and dear papa, but then I want 
 a good education, and if I cannot get that here, I 
 am willing to go anywhere that you may deem 
 best. ” 
 
 “ Spoken like yourself, my own sweet child, ” 
 exclaimed the doctor, turning on her a look of love, 
 “ and just what we might have expected. ” 
 
 “ Why, papa, what else could you have expect- 
 ed? ” said the girl. “ After the uniform kindness 
 
150 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 with which I have been treated by you and my 
 dear mamma, it would certainly be most ungrate- 
 ful in me to set uj? my wishes or inclinations in 
 opposition to your judgment of what is for my 
 good. ” 
 
 “ Bless you, my dear daughter, ” said the 
 mother, while her ej^es filled with tears, “ such 
 regard for our wishes more than repays us for all 
 we have done for you. ” 
 
 “ Well, ” said the doctor, while a suspicious 
 moisture gathered in his eye, “ it seems to be 
 settled that she must go away. Where had we 
 best send her ? ” 
 
 “ I suppose there are good schools in San Fran- 
 cisco, ” replied Mrs. Dick, “ but there she would 
 be among entire strangers. ” 
 
 “ There is a male and female seminary at 
 Holyoke, Massachusetts, ” said the doctor, “ the 
 female department of which is presided over by an 
 old and highly valued friend of mind, and where 
 the course of instruction is equal to the best 
 college in the land. By sending our daughter 
 there we would place her in a situation where she 
 would not only receive the most thorough cultui'e 
 and training, but would also be treated with all 
 the care and kindness which a mother would 
 bestow upon her. What think you of sending her 
 there ? ” 
 
 “ It is a long distance away, and would keep 
 her from us a long time, would it not ?” 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 
 
 151 
 
 “ Yes, I hardly suppose it would be best in that 
 event for her to come home at all during her whole 
 course, ” said the doctor. “ But would not the 
 advantage of having her in the charge of some one 
 who will take more than a mercenary interest in 
 her counterbalance this ? ” 
 
 “ Perhaps it might, ” replied the mother. 
 “ What do you say to this, my daughter ?” 
 
 The little girl felt a choking sensation in her 
 throat at the thouglit of going so far away from 
 home, but she repressed it, and bravely answered, 
 “ I will cheerfully submit to any arrangement 
 you may deem for the best. How long would I 
 probably have to stay there ? ” 
 
 “ Three or four years, probably, ” said her 
 father. 
 
 “ It’s a long time to pass without seeing my dear 
 papa and mamma,” said Antillo, while the tears 
 gathered in her eyes, “ but we can hear from each 
 other very often, and if you think it best I am 
 content.” 
 
 And so it was settled that with the coming 
 spring Antillo should proceed, in company with a 
 friend of the doctor’s who was going east at that 
 time, “ to the States,” and became an inmate of 
 the Holyoke Seminary. Amid the bustle of 
 arrangements for her departure, the preparation 
 of a suitable wardrobe, and the thousand and other 
 matters which the contemplated prolonged absence 
 rendered necessary, the day upon which she was 
 
152 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 to leave her pleasant home at last arrived. The 
 doctor was going with her as far as San Francisco, 
 to see her on hoard the steamer and place her in 
 charge of his friend, after which he would return 
 to their valley home. 
 
 Up to this time the little girl had borne up 
 bravely, but when the hour came in which she 
 was to part from that dear mother (for it must be 
 remembered that she was the only mother Antillo 
 had ever known,) for so long a time, perhaps for- 
 ever, the pent-up emotions of her soul refused to 
 be longer restrained and, clinging to her neck, she 
 sobbed as though her heart would break. But 
 when that overcharged heart had somewhat 
 relieved itself, she looked up and smiling brightly 
 through her tears, exclaimed, 
 
 “Forgive, dear mamma, the violence of my emo- 
 tion. It is not because I do not wish to comply 
 with your and dear paj)a’s desires, but the thought 
 of not seeing you for four long years overwhelms 
 me.” 
 
 “ Do you repent of your determiuation to go, my 
 daughter, and wish to stay?” asked the mother in 
 a voice as full of emotion as Antillo's. 
 
 “1^0, mamma,” replied the girl, “I do not. I am 
 willing to go because you and papa think it is 
 best for me, but it is natural that parting* should 
 affect me thus.” 
 
 “ True, my child, and your sentiments relative 
 to it are in the highest degree creditable both to 
 
The Story of a Ruiaed Life. 153 
 
 your liead and heart. This separation is none the 
 less painful to me than to yon, but I submit be- 
 cause I know it is for your good. You will be 
 present to my mind every moment of your ab- 
 sence, and in every prayer to God I shall mingle a 
 petition for your safety and protection. You will 
 not fox’get, my daughter, to pray to Him every day 
 of your life?” and the mother strained her child 
 again to her bosom. 
 
 “ That shall be my first and last daily duty,” 
 said the girl solemnly and fervently. 
 
 “That is right,” returned the mother. “ He will 
 never neglect or forsake those who call continually 
 upon His name. And now, good-bye, my love.” 
 
 “Good-bye, dear, dear mamma,” said she. 
 
 And with that most potent talisman, a mother’s 
 fervent, long, earnest kiss upon her lips to shield 
 her from harm, Antillo took her seat in the car- 
 riage beside her father and they rapidly rolled 
 away in the direction of the great metropolis of 
 the Pacific coast. 
 
 The parting between Antillo and her father was 
 scarcely less emotional than that between herself 
 and her mother, though the Doctor’s habitual self- 
 control restrained to some extent the manifestation 
 of his feelings. His love for her was as deep and 
 earnest as that of his wife, but sought other modes 
 of displaying and making itself felt. But the last 
 adieus were said, and when the gun of the steamer 
 signalled her departure, the Doctor stepped upon 
 
154 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 the wliarf, where he remained gazing after the ves- 
 sel with its precious freight till it disappeared be- 
 hind one of the points which form the entrance to 
 the Bay of San Francisco, when with an aching 
 void in his heart he sought his carriage and pro- 
 ceeded in the direction of the home from which 
 one gleam of sunshine had dej^arted for a long 
 time — it might be forever. 
 
 But whatever his feelings might be, at thus part- 
 ing for years with one whom the good old Doctor 
 and his wife had learned to love with a degree of 
 intensity which could not have been excelled had 
 she been in very truth of their own flesh and 
 blood, those feelings found the fullest echo in the 
 heart of the fair young girl who stood upon the 
 deck of the fast-receding steamer and strained her 
 eyes to catch the last glimpse of his much-loved 
 form. He was the only father she had ever known ; 
 his roof the only one which she remembered ever 
 to have sheltered her ; the kindness and constant 
 aflection with which she had ever been treated by 
 those whom she regarded as really her parents had 
 developed in her tender and emotional nature a 
 depth and holiness of love seldom equalled, and 
 the rapidly-increasing strip of water between her- 
 self and that father seemed to her a great gulf be- 
 tween herself and all happiness, which each 
 revolution of the huge wheels but widened and 
 made more and more impassable. She had no 
 fears but that iu the new relations she was about 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 155 
 
 to assume slie would be treated with the tenderest 
 and most thoughtful care — the repeated assurances 
 of her parents were sufficient proof that this would 
 be so — but yet it would be the love and care of 
 strangers, and how inadequate this seemed to sup- 
 ply the place of that to which she had been accus- 
 tomed ! 
 
 Her heart was full, and when the form of her 
 father could no longer be distinguished, and she 
 was as it were alone upon the heaving world of 
 waters, she abruptly broke from her companion, 
 who till that moment had been standing beside 
 her upon the deck, a]\d hastened to her state-room, 
 there to give free vent to the tears she could no 
 longer restrain. 
 
 “ Poor child ! ” soliloquized he, looking compas- 
 sionately after her as she descended the companion- 
 way, “ she does well to weep at this, her first leaving 
 home, for few children have been blessed with as 
 kind and noble parents as she has. Well, let her 
 indulge her grief in quiet for a time, and then it 
 will go hard with me if I do not find means to divert 
 her mind for the rest of the voyage, for I already 
 love her almost as if she were my own child.” 
 
 At the end of an hour Antillo again made her 
 appearance and came timidly towards Mr. Temple- 
 ton, who was promenading the deck. As soon as 
 he saw her he hastened to meet her. 
 
 “And how is my little girl by this time ? ” he 
 asked smilingly, as he extended his hand. 
 
156 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 “ Oh, sir ! ” she replied, her cheeks flushed aud. 
 her eyes still red from her recent weeping, “ you 
 must think me very foolish and very rude. W ill 
 you pardon the abrupt and unladylike manner in 
 which I ran away from you a short time ago ? ” 
 
 “ There is nothing to pardon, my dear child,” he 
 said kindly, “ it is but natural that you should 
 have wanted a good cry all by yourself upon leav- 
 ing the best of parents. Oh ! no, you were neither 
 rude nor unladylike.” 
 
 “And you are neither hurt nor offended?” she 
 queried, a little hesitatingly. 
 
 “ Why, bless you, no. AYhy should I be ? ” He 
 continued, “ Your emotion, so far from being a 
 cause of offense, is in the highest degree creditable 
 to your pure and loving heart.” 
 
 “ I am glad you are not offended,” said she sim- 
 ply and innocently. 
 
 “ Why, of course I am not. How could I be ? 
 But let us say no more about it,” he said, and 
 then, changing the subject, he added, “ the evening 
 is really very fine. Would you enjoy a promenade 
 upon the deck ? ” 
 
 “ If you please,” said she, and taking the arm 
 he offered, they began walking up and down. 
 
 Mr. Templeton was a man about fifty years of 
 age, possessed of a considerable degree of educa- 
 tion, culture and refinement, had travelled to some 
 extent, and was quite familiar with the coast along 
 which they were running in easy view, having at 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 157 
 
 one time been connected with a surveying party 
 which had made a very thorough exploration of it. 
 He ]3ointed out to her the various peaks and in- 
 dentations with which it was diversified; gave 
 their names ; told some quaint and curious story 
 or romantic legend connected with almost every 
 one ; drew comparisons with similar scenery he 
 had encountered in foreign travel, and around all 
 his conversation threw a charm which completely 
 beguiled the mind of his companion from the con- 
 templation of her sorrow at leaving home. So ab- 
 sorbed and interested was she that she had not 
 noticed the gathering gloom of the evening and its 
 attendant chilliness until he exclaimed : 
 
 “ But here I have been rhapsodizing, and never 
 once noticed that my little girl was getting cold. 
 Come, let us go into the cabin, and after tea we 
 will procure additional clothing and come on deck 
 if you desire. A night at sea is very beautiful, 
 and this promises to be fair,” said he, looking 
 carefully around the horizon. 
 
 “I was so much interested in what you were 
 saying,” replied Antillo, “ that I really had not 
 noticed the cold. But now that you have mentioned 
 it I do feel a little chilly. Let us go below,” and 
 they descended the companion stairs. 
 
 A moonlight night at sea ! Poets have sung of 
 its charms, and painters have exhausted the treas- 
 ures of their art in the vain attempt to convey a 
 correct idea of its beauties. The most exalted 
 
158 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 ideas which the mind gathers from animated page 
 or illuminated canvas fail to represent a tithe of 
 the witchery and tranquil splendor of the scene. 
 Description fails, and the brush becomes power- 
 less — it must be seen to be appreciated. 
 
 When our voyagers a,gain came on deck the 
 moon, almost at its full, was pouring a flood of 
 soft, silvery light across the gently heaving waters 
 of the mighty Pacific, bringing out into brilliant 
 outline the tall spars and mazy rigging of the gal- 
 lant steamer, and changing the column of smoke 
 which streamed back from her tall funnel into a 
 long line of vapory, phosphorescent light, like the 
 tail of a comet, until it imperceptibly melted into 
 and blended with the surrounding atmosphere ; 
 myriads of stars were twinkling in the rich ethe- 
 real blue of the firmament ; little flashes of phos- 
 phorus gleamed out from the fathomless depths 
 around them as their stanch vessel heaved the 
 waters from her quivering sides, and around and 
 over all hung a calm and holy tranquillity which 
 seemed more of heaven than of earth. 
 
 In the presence of such sublime and peaceful 
 beauty the feelings of Antillo were hushed into a 
 quietude and repose in harmony with the sur- 
 roundings. In reverential awe and silent admira- 
 tion she stood by the side of her companion, and 
 in unspoken delight feasted her eyes upon the 
 magnificent panorama spread out before her, 
 while she almost held her breath lest it should 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 159 
 
 dissolve away out of her sight. And in that silent 
 and holy hour her spirit was drawn up to the 
 Infinite with a hallowed power of elevation she 
 had never known before, while a more perfect 
 realization of the frailty and insignificance of 
 humanity than she had ever known took posses- 
 sion of her soul. For hours she staid upon deck 
 and drank in the beauties of the scene, and when 
 she sought her cabin couch it was with a clearer 
 conception of the wisdom, power, and goodness of 
 the Almighty than she had ever enjoyed before. 
 
 Day after day of the journey passed in a sim- 
 ilar manner ; fresh evidences of the Omnipresence 
 of the Great Jehovah, and new beauties of nature 
 were unfolded to her imaginative and appreciative 
 spirit with each successive hour, and when she at 
 length reached Holyoke Seminary it was with a 
 clearer comprehension of the attributes of the 
 Majesty of Heaven than the careful parental 
 training of Dr. Dick and his excellent wife had 
 been able to impart to her. 
 
 “ Say to my dear father and mother,” she said 
 to Mr. Templeton at parting, while the tears stood 
 in her eyes, “ that from the bottom of my heart I 
 thank them for having sent me on this journey, 
 painful as the separation from them was. Before 
 leaving home I had only confused views of the 
 power and majesty of God — now I have seen His 
 works and I recognize Him as He is, the one All- 
 
160 National Reform. 
 
 wise, Almighty and Supreme Ruler of the 
 universe.” 
 
 “Rest firmly in that faith,” said Mr. Templeton 
 with sincere and unaffected, piety, “ upon that 
 rock you may withstand all the assaults of Satan 
 and his ministers.” 
 
 Antillo entered upon her studies at the Sem- 
 inary with a zeal and earnestness which promised 
 the most satisfactory results, and endeared her in 
 the highest degree to principal and teachers. 
 And at the same time her kind and unaffected 
 deportment, and considerate treatment of all her 
 school-mates made her a universal favorite, and 
 did much to increase the happiness of her stay 
 there. Her foster parents had earnestly labored 
 to root every selfish principle out of her nature 
 and had taught her always to prefer the happiness 
 of others to her own, and the fidelity with which 
 she adhered to and practiced the lessons they had 
 taught won her hosts of friends among those with 
 whom her lot was now cast. 
 
 But among them all there was none who so thor- 
 oughly appreciated her innate goodness and native 
 purity, as young Willard Austin, the son of a 
 country clergyman whose limited means, by the 
 most prudent economy in the support of his fam- 
 ily, could be eked out barely suflicient to give 
 Willard the education he had determined his son 
 should have. And right nobly did the young 
 man repay the self-denial which his father and 
 
The /Story of a Ruined Life. 161 
 
 family sternly imposed upon themselves in order 
 to give him that education. Utterly ignoring the 
 mad pranks and sometimes almost disgraceful 
 revels in which too many of his class-mates occa- 
 sionally indulged, he had steadily devoted to his 
 books the time which they wasted in riotous mer- 
 riment, and had consequently progressed in his 
 studies with a rapidity which was astounding to 
 them, as it was gratifying to his teachers as well 
 as his parents. 
 
 Entering the male department of the Seminary 
 at about the same time that Antillo was installed 
 in the female branch, over a year had passed 
 before he had formed anything like an intimate 
 acquaintance with her. They had met occasion- 
 ally at the customary Saturday evening re-unions 
 in the parlors of the institution, and, like others, 
 young Austin had been impressed by her almost 
 wondrous beauty, but it so happened that they 
 had never been thrown particularly into each 
 other’s society. In the parlor she had always 
 been surrounded by a crowd of friends and admir- 
 ers whose superior brilliancy had effectually 
 eclipsed his modest merit, while the diffidence 
 which is the inseparable companion of substantial 
 worth, had kept him comparatively aloof from her. 
 He had, however, been sufficiently attracted to 
 make him wish to know more of her, and patiently 
 he waited his opportunity to improve and cultivate 
 
 her acquaintance. 
 
 11 
 
162 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 And at last it came. Walking in the garden 
 one pleasant summer eve, and soothing his senses 
 with the fragrance of the flowers which bloomed 
 on eveiy hand, he had come upon Antillo alone in 
 a rustic bower with a book in her hand. She was 
 so much absorbed that she did not notice his 
 approach until he had addressed her. 
 
 “Good evening. Miss Dick, I did not intend to 
 intrude upon you, and in fact did not know you 
 were here until I came to the door of the house.” 
 
 Antillo started in surprise at the sound of his 
 voice, but recovering herself in a moment, replied, 
 “ Good evening, Mr. Austin. So far from your 
 presence being an intrusion, I am very glad j^ou 
 have come. I find myself sorely puzzled with a 
 difficult Latin translation, and will be very much 
 obliged for your kindness if you will only assist 
 me to find the key to it.” 
 
 “ I will do so with pleasure, if I can,” replied 
 he, taking a seat beside her, “ but do you not find 
 it more pleasant to rest and enjoy the beauties of 
 this hour than to rack 5mur brain with difficult 
 problems after the usual close of a hard day’s 
 labor, as I doubt not this has been to you ? ” 
 
 “I do not know,” she replied mischieviously, “by 
 what authority you charge me with having labored 
 hard this, or any other day, but I am very 
 anxious to master this translation, after which I 
 hall doubtless find rest as pleasant as any one.” 
 
 “ I only know,” he replied gravely, “ that with- 
 
The. Story of a Ruined Life. 163 
 
 out hard labor no one can make the progress you 
 have since you came here.” 
 
 “ And how happens it that you know anything 
 of my progress ? ” she asked. 
 
 “My aunt, Mrs. Clarkson, has spoken to me 
 of you as one of her most studious pupils. But 
 come,” he added, as he saw her countenance flush 
 at the thought of having been made the subject of 
 conversation, “ let us look at your lesson and see 
 what can be done for it.” 
 
 With his help the lesson was soon mastered, 
 and then Antillo rose to go into the house. 
 
 “ Stay, Miss Dick,” said he respectfully, “ do 
 not run off at once, but please favor me with 
 your company for a walk in the garden till tea- 
 time.” 
 
 She yielded to his request, and for half an hour 
 they promenaded about the grounds, during which 
 they learned more of each other’s tastes and 
 dispositions than they had ever known before. In 
 that brief interview each became aware of the 
 existence of that harmony of sentiment and 
 feeling which was destined to make them ardent 
 friends, and, indeed, to finally lead them into still 
 closer relations to each other, and when the tea- 
 bell rang and they parted, each had a higher 
 appreciation of the other than they had ever 
 before experienced, and from this time until the 
 close of their stay at the Seminary, their friend- 
 ship continued without abatement or interruption. 
 
164 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 and many a task for Antillo was lightened hy the 
 assistance and instruction of her friend. 
 
 But the time at last came when they must leave 
 the school in which they had passed so many 
 happy days. Both had graduated with high 
 honors, and Antillo was to return to her home 
 in the far distant west, while Austin was to go 
 abroad into the world and seek his fortune. He 
 had no definite plans for the future. His father 
 had exhausted his means in giving him an educa- 
 tion, and henceforth he must rely upon his own 
 exertions. His predilection was for one of the 
 learned professions, but from this his poverty 
 seemed to debar him. 
 
 “ But I will not be discouraged,” he said to 
 Antillo, as they stood together in the porch on the 
 evening before her departure for Xew York, where 
 her passage to San Francisco was already 
 engaged, “ I am young, strong, and vigorous, and 
 have a good education. In a country like ours no 
 man need fail of success, and I will yet win a 
 name in the world.” 
 
 “ I have no fears of your future, my dear friend,” 
 said the fair girl, “ with j^our principles, youi* 
 energy and ability, failure is impossible. But 
 why do you not go west ? You wish to study a 
 profession, and I am sure my father will give you 
 an opportunity to do so. He is w-ealthy and will 
 aid you by any means in his power.” 
 
 “ I do not doubt what you say,” he replied, 
 
The /Story of a Ruined Life. 165 
 
 “ but I cannot consent to be dependent upon any- 
 one. I must ‘ paddle my own canoe,’ and success 
 will sooner or later crown my efforts. But I have 
 a favor to ask of you. Will you come into the 
 garden?” 
 
 He led her to the bower where their intimate 
 acquaintance had begun, but we need not follow 
 to listen to their conversation. It is suthcient 
 for our purpose to say that there upon the self- 
 same seat where he had helped her with her Latin 
 lesson, each confessed their love for the other and 
 exchanged vows of unalterable fidelity — vows 
 which angels might joy to record. The hours flew 
 by on silvery wings, and it was not until the bell 
 from a neighboring spire chimed the hour of 
 twelve that they parted, with hopeful trust that at 
 some time in the distant future those recorded 
 vows would be faithfully redeemed. 
 
 Six weeks had passed since the parting of the 
 lovers in the garden at Holyoke, and on a beauti- 
 ful morning in autumn the steamer Groldeu Gate 
 was steering into the Bay of San Francisco. 
 Among the crowd of jDassengers who thronged her 
 decks as she neared her wliarf, none gazed more 
 eagerly upon the groups assembled there to wel- 
 come her than did our heroine. Although not yet 
 able to distinguish his form, she felt assured that 
 the father from whose heart and home she had 
 been for so many years an exile was there to wel- 
 
16(3 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 come her return, and she strained her eves to their 
 utmost capacity to catch a glimpse of the loved 
 face. 
 
 Soon her heart gave a great upward leap of in- 
 tensest joy, and tears of gladness gushed from her 
 eyes, for standing near the end of the wharf she 
 spied, not only her father, but that other face, to 
 her more radiantly lovely than aught else of 
 earthly inold — the features of her mother, and in a 
 few moments she lay sobbing, crying and laugh- 
 ing with hysterical joy in her arms. Her banish- 
 ment had been so long and painful (though it is 
 true not devoid of its joys) that now, realizing that 
 it was ended, she scarcely knew how to contain 
 herself for very delight. Again and again she 
 alternately kissed and embraced her parents, while 
 language was all inadequate to express her pleas- 
 ure at once more being restored to their arms. 
 
 “AVhy, Tilly,” said the Doctor, holding her off 
 at arm’s length to get a better view of her lovely 
 features, when the first transport of delight at 
 meeting had somewhat subsided, “ how beautiful 
 you have grown. Our little girl will make a sen- 
 sation among the belles and beaux of San Fran- 
 cisco — don’t you think so, mamma? ” 
 
 “ She has certainly grown very lovely,” said 
 Mrs. Dick, with grave maternal affection, “ but I 
 trust that in mere personal appearance is the least 
 of the improvement she has made dming her long 
 absence.” 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 
 
 167 
 
 “ I should be the most ungrateful child in the 
 world,” returned the daughter, while her beautiful 
 eyes tilled with tears, “ if I had not labored to im- 
 prove the opportunities you have given me. For 
 mere improvement in personal appearance, if there 
 has been any, I am entitled to no credit; but I 
 trust when you come to examine me you will find 
 I have not been idle nor altogetheiwithout success 
 in the improvement of my mind.” 
 
 “No fear of that, no fear of that,” said the Doc- 
 tor gaily. “But, come; the carriage waits; let us 
 go home.” 
 
 “ Oh ! there is dear old Henry,” cried Antillo, as 
 she caught sight of the well-known features of the 
 old coachman. “ Why, Henry, how do j^ou do ? 
 Come, I must kiss you. And dear old Romeo, 
 too,” as the great, black Newfoundland came for- 
 ward to greet her, his stately dignity somewhat 
 increased by the weight of years. “ Oh ! how 
 delightful ! ” 
 
 “ Papa,” said Antillo when they were seated in 
 the carriage, “ what did you mean by speaking of 
 the belles and beaux of San Francisco ? Have you 
 left our dear old home for the city ? ” 
 
 “Yes, daughter, we have lived in this city for a 
 year or more.” 
 
 “ Why have you never mentioned it in your let- 
 ters to me ? ” 
 
 “I did inform you that I was one of the pro- 
 fessors of the medical college here.” 
 
168 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 “Yes, but I supposed that was only a temporary 
 arrangement, and would not necessitate giving up 
 our dear old residence in the valley,” said the girl 
 in something like a regretful tone. “Yo doubt, 
 however,” she hastened to add, “we shall be just 
 as happy here.” 
 
 “We have found it very pleasant here,” said 
 Mrs. Dick, “ and it requires so much less labor on 
 the part of your father to attend to his duties than 
 it did there.” 
 
 “Of course,” said the girl quickly, “I would not 
 ask you to make any change on my account, but I 
 cannot help a little longing feeling to see the dear 
 old place again.” 
 
 “ Oh ! we often drive out there,” said her 
 mother, “and as soon as you are sufficiently 
 rested from the fatigue of your journey we will 
 pay it a visit.” 
 
 By this time they had reached their home, and 
 if Antiilo had experienced something very much 
 akin to sadness at the thought of abandoning the 
 home of her childhood, she soon forgot it in con- 
 templating the beauties of her new abode. Situ- 
 ated in one of the most delightful localities to be 
 found in the suburbs of the Golden City, the wealth 
 and taste of the Doctor had surrounded it with 
 everything which could charm the eye or please 
 the senses. Beautiful walks and drives, shaded by 
 magnificent trees and perfumed with the fragrance 
 of the autumnal flowers of the Pacific coast, ex- 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 169 
 
 tended in every direction about -the grounds ; a 
 closely shaven lawn, bordered with evergreens, 
 stretched away in front of the mansion, while in 
 the center a delicate fountain threw up its column 
 of sparkling water in a dozen different jets, each 
 one of which found its way, by its own peculiar 
 curve, back into the basin. 
 
 In this lovely retreat time flew by on golden 
 wings. Rich in the love of her father and mother ; 
 surrounded by all that could minister to her com- 
 fort ; the center of an admiring and loving circle 
 of friends and suitors, Antillo felt that there was 
 but one element necessary to complete the picture 
 of her happiness. He whom she loved with all the 
 fervor of her young soul, to whom she had plighted 
 her troth, was far away, and his absence left a void 
 which none other could fill. At the earliest oppor- 
 tunity after her arrival at home she had communi- 
 cated the fact of her engagement to her father and 
 mother: had learned that her betrothed was the 
 son of an old and highly valued friend of the 
 Doctor’s, and had received their warmest bless- 
 ing, but their approval could not remove, or even 
 scarcely soften, the feeling of loneliness with which 
 she sighed for his coming. A change, however, 
 was at hand. 
 
 One evening the Doctor returned from his ofiice 
 at about the usual hour, but not alone. With him 
 came a young man whom he showed into the 
 library, and then sought the room where he was 
 
170 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 certain of finding liis wife and Antillo. Remov- 
 ing, as was Ms wont, his coat and boots, he put on 
 the gown and slippers which his daughter brought, 
 and then, as he threw himself into an easy chair, 
 he said : 
 
 “ Tilly, I wish you would go into the library and 
 bring my portfolio.” 
 
 As she started to execute his commission the 
 Doctor smiled good naturedly at his wife and said : 
 
 “ I fear she will be a long time doing this errand.” 
 
 “ Why so ? ” 
 
 Before he could answer a cry of glad surprise was 
 heard from the direction of the library, and when 
 the Doctor went, half an hour later, to administer 
 a pretended rebuke for having neglected his orders, 
 he found her seated upon her lover’s knee, her head 
 resting upon his shoulder, while his arms clasjDed 
 her in a close and strong embrace to his bosom. 
 
 Yes, it was indeed he. After taking a course of 
 instruction as book-keeper of a large mercantile 
 house in New York, and acquiring a very good 
 knowledge of business in general, young Austin, 
 like thousands of others, had turned his face 
 towards the metropolis of the Pacific coast in 
 search of that fortune which he had resolved to 
 acquire before claiming of Antillo the fultillnient 
 of her promise. Whether her presence there had 
 anything to do with his choice of a location is a 
 question we will leave each reader to decide for 
 himself. Certain it is that here he was, and that 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 171 
 
 lie was greeted by Antillo in a manner which, if 
 he had before entertained any doubts of her love 
 for him, must speedily and effectually have dis- 
 pelled those doubts. 
 
 And equally certain it is that fortune seemed 
 disposed to lavish her smiles upon him almost 
 from the day of his arrival. In a very short time 
 he had, through the instrumentality of Dr. Dick, 
 formed the acquaintance of a gentleman by the 
 name of Gross ; a man of great wealth, but with 
 very little knowledge of business, who had formed 
 the design of establishing a large wholesale and 
 commission house, and was in search of a partner 
 whose knowledge of business should be an offset 
 to the capital he (Gross) would put into the con- 
 cern. A few interviews with Austin, and an ex- 
 amination of the recommendations he had brought 
 from his late employers, convinced Gross that he 
 was the man for whom he had been seeking, and 
 no time was lost in perfecting the arrangements 
 necessary to entering into business. 
 
 Articles of copartnership were drawn, suitable 
 buildings and docks were leased, and in six weeks 
 from the time of his arrival in San Francisco 
 Willard Austin found himself the managing head 
 of the house of Gross & Austin, and to all appear- 
 ance on the high road to prosperity and wealth. 
 The future certainly appeared to him in roseate 
 and glowing colors, but he could not see the pall, 
 
172 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 dark and gloomy, which was about settling around 
 him and enveloping him in its rayless folds. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CLOUDS. 
 
 Six months had passed since the house of Gross 
 & Austin had commenced business. Prosperity 
 had attended their footsteps and waited upon 
 their every movement, and Austin was beginnings 
 to urge his betrothed to name a day for their 
 union. But suddenly there came a reverse so 
 terrible, so crushing, so unexpected, that for a 
 time all held their breath in silent awe and won- 
 der. 
 
 A foul, dark deed had been perpetrated — one 
 which thrilled the whole community with horror, 
 and made men think seriously of recalling into 
 life that famous Vigilance Committee which in 
 earlier days had accomplished so much for the 
 safety of life and property in California. The 
 senior partner of the house of Gross & Austin, a 
 mail who by his urbanity and honorable dealing 
 had won hosts of friends, and who was not sup- 
 posed to have an enemy in the world, had been 
 most foully murdered. Xo clew was left to the 
 perpetration of the damnable deed, and evidently 
 avarice had not prompted it, for a considerable 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 173 
 
 sum oi money liad been left untouched in his 
 pockets. Who then could have done it? 
 
 For some time men sought in vain for an answer 
 to this question, and then arose a whisper — no one 
 knew how, or whence it came — that Willard 
 Austin was the guilty party. The motive assigned 
 for the deed — that he might get the entire control 
 of the business — was no less absurd than the 
 rumor itself, but the entire community were just 
 in that wild state of excitement which fitted them 
 to believe any story, however improbable, and as 
 the rumor spread it gained force, volume and 
 credence, until at last it came to be generally 
 received with faith strong as proof of Holy Writ. 
 Lynch law was freely talked of, and would no 
 doubt have been put in practice but for the 
 prompt arrest and incarceration of the suspected 
 criminal. 
 
 But immovable amid the wild torrent of con- 
 demnation which swept around the head of poor 
 Austin, stood at least three persons who stead- 
 fastly refused to believe his guilt, and stoutly 
 maintained their conviction of his entire inno- 
 cence. These were Dr. Dick, his wife, and Antillo. 
 Shortly after his arrest they had visited him in his 
 cell, and after listening to his solemn asseveration 
 that he was innocent of the hideous crime, they 
 had come away with a degree of faith in him 
 which nothing could shake. But they stood 
 alone. The community around them were clamor- 
 
174 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 ing and howling like hungry wolves for his blood, 
 in expiation of the crime they believed he had 
 committed, and to any thing that reason could 
 urge in his behalf they turned a deaf ear. 
 
 In the midst of this fearful tempest of excite- 
 ment Willard Austin was put on trial for his life. 
 Although Dr. Dick had freely lavished his means 
 to secure for him the most eminent counsel — 
 although he sat beside him and sustained him 
 with his presence during the whole of the fearful 
 ordeal, his trial under such circumstances was 
 little less than a farce. Despite the entire 
 absence of evidence connecting him in any man- 
 ner with the heinous crime ; desj^ite the most 
 strenuous efforts of his able and eloquent counsel; 
 despite the clear and intelligent charge of the able 
 judge who presided at the trial, the jury, in obedi- 
 ence to the demands of an excited and angry 
 popular opinion, returned a verdict of guilty of 
 murder in the first degree ! 
 
 Of course an application for a new trial was 
 immediately made by his counsel, and equalh^ of 
 course it was granted, the Judge in delivering his 
 oj)inion taking occasion to make some remarks in 
 relation to the madness and tyranny of public 
 opinion which, coming from the able and impar- 
 tial source they did, seemed to throw a new light 
 upon the matter. Men who had been the most 
 zealous in urging on the prosecution began to 
 think they might have been led by prejudice 
 
Tlie Story of a Ruined Life. 175 
 
 instead of reason, and to admit that there still 
 might be a possibility of Austin’s imnocence. 
 Altogether it seemed tolerably evident that a 
 reaction was setting in. 
 
 Six months rolled away, and again Austin was 
 arraigned at the bar of his country. But by this 
 time reason had resumed her sway, and he was no 
 longer surrounded by a pack of ravenous human 
 wolves, clamoring for their prey. Other events 
 had driven the murder of Oross from the public 
 mind, and now all seemed willing that the law 
 should take its due and unrestrained course. 
 
 As might have been expected, the result of this 
 trial was far different from the former one. It was 
 watched from first to last with the most profound 
 interest, but when at the close of a calm and dis- 
 passionate, though very thorough, investigation of 
 all the circumstances attending the murder, the 
 jury without leaving their box returned a verdict 
 of “not guilty,” there was scarcely a person pres- 
 ent but who felt that strict and impartial justice 
 had been done. 
 
 To Dr. Dick and his lovely daughter, both of 
 whom had watched this trial, as well as the former 
 one, with the most intense eagerness from first to 
 last, this verdict was the removal of a great and 
 crushing weight. Though they had never for a 
 moment indulged even the faintest suspicion of his 
 guilt; though they had sternly and indignantly 
 repelled even the most distant insinuation that he 
 
176 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 might after all be the murderer, still the suspicion 
 under which he labored amid the community ha i 
 weighed them down with fearful force, and now 
 that the tongue of imputation had been silenced 
 by the solemn decision of twelve honest men, they, 
 and especially Antillo, felt that a dark cloud was 
 lifted from their horizon as well as his. Loving 
 Willard Austin Avith all the fervor of her pure and 
 trustful nature, Antillo had felt that his fate was, 
 as it were, linked with her own, and that every 
 assault upon his character was a blow aimed at 
 her own. 
 
 As soon as he was released from custody and 
 had received the congratulations of the few, very 
 few, friends Avho had stood by him throughout his 
 great sorrow, he sought a private interview with 
 Dr. Dick. Poor fellow ! The fearful ordeal through 
 which he had passed had broken his once j)roud 
 spirit, and had well-nigh disheartened him. The 
 Doctor received him in the library. 
 
 “Well, my boy,” said he rising, as the young 
 man entered the room, and grasping him Avarmly 
 by the hand, “ the cloud is at last removed, and 
 you must allow me to congratulate jmu uj)on the 
 manliness Avith Avhich you met the terrible trial.” 
 
 “Your S3nnpathy,” rejDlied the 3'oung man 
 mournfully, “ is and has been invaluable to me. I 
 feel that it Avould have been impossible for me to 
 have endured the ordeal without it. And, as yon. 
 say, the cloud is to some extent removed, but still 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 
 
 177 
 
 I feel that my day of usefulness here is gone for- 
 ever. I must go away.” 
 
 “ Must go away ! ” echoed the Doctor in aston- 
 ishment, “ why must you go, away ? Has not the 
 verdict cleared away every shadow of suspicion 
 from your name ? ” 
 
 “ I think not. Whatever may be the legal effect 
 of the decision just rendered, it still leaves me a 
 disgraced and degraded man.” 
 
 “ Say not so,” returned the Doctor quickly. ^‘It 
 is the actual commission of crime, and not the un- 
 just suspicion, which debases and degrades a man. 
 From this you are free.” 
 
 “ What you say is in part true,” replied Austin, 
 “but, despite the verdict, there is still a very large 
 proportion of the community who believe that it 
 was I who committed the deed, at the mere thought 
 of which I still shudder.” 
 
 “What reason have you for thinking thus?” 
 
 “ I see it in the coldness with which I am passed 
 by those who before the murder were my warm 
 friends, and who now pass me by with merely a 
 formal nod, or at most a mere passing word of 
 greeting, if indeed they do not fail to see me at all ; 
 in a variety of ways the feeling is manifested, and 
 I cannot endure it.” 
 
 “ But may you not be mistaken ? You are, as a 
 natural consequence, feeling rather gloomy, and is 
 it not possible that that fact may have caused you 
 12 
 
178 National Reform. 
 
 to look upon these things through a disrorted 
 medium ? ” 
 
 “ I am not mistaken in this particular,” replied 
 the young man. “ I am very sure I can never 
 accomplish anything of good here, and I must try 
 elsewhere. So urge me no more, my more than 
 friend — my resolution is taken and immovable.” 
 
 “ But what of Antillo ? ” asked the Doctor in a 
 low tone. 
 
 “ The thought of leaving her is the most painful 
 one connected with the resolution I have formed,” 
 replied the young man in a tremulous tone. “ But 
 it is unavoidable. I will go far away, and when I 
 have succeeded in establishing a home for her, and 
 in some measure repaying you the money you 
 have advanced to secure my liberation — your 
 kindness I can never repay — I will return and 
 claim her if she chooses to wait for me. But till 
 then I must bid her and you farewell.” 
 
 “ Speak not of repayment for the little I have 
 done for you,” cried the Doctor. “ I have already 
 been more than repaid by the thought of having 
 done something, however small, to sustain a dear 
 and worthy friend under a most fearful trial, and 
 by the gratitude of my daughter.” 
 
 “Well, let us say no more about it at the pres- 
 ent,” said the young man, while his eyes filled 
 with tears ; “ the future, if I live, shall prove my 
 gratitude both to you and her for your kind sym- 
 pathy and support in my hour of fiery trial.” 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 
 
 179 
 
 “ But where are you going ? ” asked the Doctor, 
 who, seeing that the young man’s resolution was 
 unalterably fixed, deemed it useless to argue fur- 
 ther. “ Have you selected a location ? ” 
 
 “ Yes, I am going to Oregon. In that new coun- 
 try I shall find an easy opening, and when I have 
 made a home for my bride, I will return and bear 
 her to it.” 
 
 The Doctor was silent. Though he had com- 
 bated the young man’s resolution, he could not but 
 secretly commend it, and his heart swelled with 
 pardonable pride as he reflected upon the manli- 
 ness and high principle of him who would one day, 
 he felt assured, be the husband of his loved foster- 
 daughter. 
 
 “Would you like to see Antillo?” he asked 
 after a pause. 
 
 “Yes,” he replied, “I would like to bid her 
 good-bye. It may be a long time before we will 
 meet again.” 
 
 “ When will you go ? ” 
 
 “ The rising of to-morrow’s sun will not find me 
 in San Francisco,” replied the young man. 
 
 “ You may wait here and I will send her to you,” 
 said the Doctor as he left the room. 
 
 Over the meeting and parting of the lovers let us 
 kindly draw the vail of secrecy. Like her foster- 
 father, Antillo strove by all the arts at her com- 
 mand, by argument, entreaty and even tears to 
 induce him to change his resolve and remain in 
 
180 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 California, but it was all in vain. And yet, though 
 almost imploring him to remain with her, Antillo 
 could not but approve his course, and from that 
 hour her faith in and love for him were, if possible, 
 more firmly fixed than ever before. And in the 
 innermost chambers of her heart she recorded a 
 sacred and solemn vow that come what might she 
 would be true to him so long as they both should 
 live. 
 
 For hours they remained in that sweet inter- 
 spirit communion which only love can produce, and 
 many were the vows and protestations of undying 
 faith which they made to each other. But the 
 hour of separation at last arrived, and with many 
 a loving kiss they parted, she to her room, and he 
 to a packet-ship lying in the harbor, upon which 
 he had already engaged passage for Astoria. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE DEXOUEMEXT. 
 
 The leading counsel in the prosecution of Austin 
 for the murder of Gross was a man by the name of 
 Roberts, who had resided in San Francisco for 
 several years. Whence he came or what his ante- 
 cedents none seemed to know or care. Rumors of 
 a character not very creditable to him had been rife 
 for some time after his arrival — it was said that he 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 181 
 
 .<vas a gambler, a drunkard, and a debauchee, and 
 for some time his conduct was not such as to give 
 the lie to any of these charges. 
 
 At the time of a great revival of religion, how- 
 ever, he had seemed to become interested in that 
 all-important subject ; had abandoned all his evil 
 ways and connected himself with one of the lead- 
 ing churches in the place, of which he soon became 
 a bright and shining light. His repentance 
 appeared to be sincere, and from this time his 
 conduct was as exemplary as it had before been 
 vicious and disgraceful. His undoubted talents 
 and exceedingly gentlemanly deportment gained 
 him admission to the best society, and in compar- 
 atively a short time he came to be regarded as 
 one of the leading citizens of San Francisco. 
 
 He had become acquainted with Antillo shortly 
 after his reformation, and, though much older than 
 she, he had been smitten with her rare beauty, 
 and had formed the resolution to win her for his 
 wife. But his first advance in that direction, 
 though not absolutely repelled, had been met by 
 her in a manner which convinced liim that he had 
 more than ordinary difficulties to overcome before 
 he could hope to effect a conquest. He was not 
 long in discovering that she loved another, and 
 by cautious investigation he learned that young 
 Austin was his favored rival, and he had engaged 
 in the prosecution against him with a zeal and 
 earnestness which were stimulated to the highest 
 
182 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 degree by Ms anxiety to get rid of Mm. But 
 though conducting the prosecution with all the 
 ardor of which he was capable, he had, for fear of 
 embittering her against himself, so skillfully 
 concealed his feelings as to make it appear that 
 he was only actuated by a desire to discharge his 
 duty in the position he was compelled to fill, 
 rightly judging that, notwithstanding her interest 
 in the accused, her good sense would lead her 
 to approve, or at least not to condemn, his course. 
 
 And now that, through the agency of his prose- 
 cution, young Austin had been driven in exile 
 from his home, and had been to a certain extent 
 degraded, he entertained great hopes of his suc- 
 cess. To his credit be it said, that no thought 
 of dishonor to her had ever entered his bosom ; he 
 loved her as earnestly and ardently as a man 
 so thoroughly selfish as he is capable of loving 
 any one, and to make her his bride, the mistress 
 of his household, was the object he sought to 
 accomplish. 
 
 In apparent sympathy with the feelings of the 
 family whom he knew had stood up for Austin 
 from first to last, he refrained from calling upon 
 upon them for some time after his departure, but 
 when he supposed a sufficient length of time had 
 elapsed for the wound to become partially healed, 
 he made his way one pleasant afternoon to the 
 house and inquired for Antillo. 
 
 She received him politely, but in a manner 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 183 
 
 which indicated very plainly that his presence 
 awakened none but unpleasant recollections of a 
 scene the most painful she had ever witnessed. 
 Comj)rehending aright the feelings which his 
 presence excited in her bosom he set himself with 
 consummate tact to remove them. Referring in a 
 symjDathizing tone and manner to the painful 
 subject, he deplored its existence, deprecated his 
 own connection with it, and hypocritically 
 expressed the hope that circumstances might at 
 some future time more clearly establish Austin’s 
 innocence. 
 
 Antillo was just in that state of mind in which, 
 notwithstanding the part Mr. Roberts had borne 
 in inducing her misery, his manly sympathy 
 powerfully appealed to her tenderer feelings in his 
 favor, but his last remark grated harshly upon 
 her ears, and she replied quickly, 
 
 “ Pardon me, Mr. Roberts, but that is a matter 
 about which I require no further proof.” 
 
 “ And yet, my dear Miss Dick,” he replied with 
 oily smoothness, “ you must not blame me if I 
 venture to differ with you. While I am inclined 
 to think he may be innocent, still, connected with 
 the case as I was, I could not help seeing many 
 things which tended to awaken suspicion in my 
 mind.” 
 
 “ Then why were they not produced upon the 
 trial ? ” 
 
 “ For the reason that they were not in such 
 
184 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 tangible shape as to be susceptible of legal proof.”* 
 “ What were those matters, may I ask ? ” 
 
 “ That, lady, I cannot tell,” he replied, ‘ ‘for the 
 same reason that we could not prove them at the 
 trial. But I have an agent engaged in the 
 endeavor to ferret them out. Not that it could 
 now affect the case,” he hastened to add, as he 
 saw her start and turn a shade paler, “ but merely 
 for my own satisfaction.” 
 
 “ How do you say? ” she asked with some eager- 
 ness. “ Could not this investigation have any 
 effect hereafter ? Suppose, for instance, what I do 
 not for a moment believe possible, that this inves- 
 tigation should develop beyond question the fact 
 that he was guilty of that terrible charge — could 
 he not be again arrested and tried? ” 
 
 “ Not at all. If he could I should be far from 
 prosecuting the inquiry, for I have simply done 
 my duty in the matter and have no desire to 
 do more. But a verdict of acquittal having been 
 rendered, that is the end of the matter forever.” 
 
 “ Then for my sake,” she said earnestly, “ if not 
 for your own satisfaction, go on with the investi- 
 gation. I am so anxious to know the whole truth.” 
 
 “ Your request, my dear lady, would be a suffi- 
 cient motive for me to probe the matter to the very 
 bottom, even if my own inclination did not point 
 in the same direction.” 
 
 “ Thank you,” she replied simpH and was silent. 
 Roberts soon after took his leave, and as he left 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 
 
 185 
 
 tlie house he muttered to himself with fiendish glee, 
 ‘‘ I have succeeded in instilling into her mind some 
 lingering doubts of the purity of her angel, and 
 henceforth my task is an easy one. She will yet 
 be mine.” 
 
 From this time his visits were frequent, and by 
 his blandishments, his pretended sympathy and 
 his uniform urbanity he was actually beginning to 
 awaken a feeling of interest in the heart of Antillo. 
 Not that she for a moment faltered in her love and 
 devotion to Willard Austin, but she was lonely, 
 and the apparent harmony of their feeling upon 
 the one subject which was paramount in all her 
 thoughts ; his ready condolence with her, and the 
 investigations he pretended to be pursuing for the 
 purpose of removing all doubts, were giving him a 
 hold upon her esteem which she had once deemed 
 impossible. 
 
 For some time he forebore to press his suit, but 
 with cool deliberation and skill went on, daily 
 strengthening his position, not doubting that when 
 the proper moment arrived his efforts would be 
 crowned with complete success. And the result 
 justified his sagacity, for after many months of 
 patient watching and scheming and plotting he 
 was able to obtain the promise for which he had 
 so long labored. 
 
 His first step to that end was to interrupt the 
 correspondence between Antillo and her lover. By 
 means of a heavy bribe he induced a post-office 
 
186 
 
 National Beform. 
 
 clerk to detain and deliver to him all letters pass- 
 ing between them, and when Antillo (as he knew 
 she would) spoke to him of the non-arrival of let- 
 ters from her lover, he made so many j)lausible 
 excuses that no one could by any possibility have 
 suspected him of any connection with Austin’s 
 silence. And meanwhile the doubts with which he 
 had succeeded in arousing in her mind were daily 
 and hourly gaining strength and he was in the 
 same proportion becoming more and more neces- 
 sary to her. At the same time he was upon all 
 convenient and proper occasions imploring her 
 favorable consideration of his suit for her hand. 
 
 One day he came to her with considerable 
 apparent excitement in his voice and manner. 
 
 “The investigation is at last ended,” he said 
 abruptly when he was admitted to her ju’esence. 
 
 “ How so ? ” she eagerly inquired, “ what is the 
 result?” 
 
 “Read that, and it will tell you all,” and he 
 handed her a newspaper published in Astoria and 
 containing a marked paragraph. 
 
 It was as follows : 
 
 “ MELANCHOLY SUICIDE. 
 
 “At the Washington House, in this place, a 
 young man by the name of Willard Austin, for- 
 merly of San Francisco, Cal., was found dead in 
 his bed this morning. An empty phial labeled 
 ‘ Laudanum ’ told the painful story of his death. 
 
Tha Story of a Ruined Life. 187 
 
 He left a written confession of having been guilty 
 of the murder of a former partner of his by the 
 name of Gross, as well as of other crimes. Re- 
 morse for his past misdeeds was, doubtless, the 
 moving cause. The coroner’s jury returned a ver- 
 dict of ‘Suicide by Poison.’ We will give fuller 
 details to-morrow.” 
 
 She read every word of this cruel paragraph, 
 which contained within itself the death-blow to all 
 her hopes, and then the paper dropped from her 
 nerveless grasp as she sank in a swoon upon the 
 floor. 
 
 Roberts was terrifled at the effect produced, but 
 it was no j)urt of his programme to have any one 
 else present at the grand finale of the drama he 
 had been for so many months enacting. Looking 
 hastily around he discovered a pitcher of water 
 with which he drenched her face for some time be- 
 fore she showed any signs of returning conscious- 
 ness. At length, however, she opened her eyes, 
 and a sigh which seemed drawn from the very bot- 
 tom of her heart told how fearful was the blow 
 which had been inflicted upon her. 
 
 “It is over now,” she said, “let me rest. After 
 all,” she continued, as a sudden hope entered her 
 mind, “ is it not possible that it may be false ? ” 
 
 “ I had hoped that such might be the case,” he 
 returned with apparent sympathy, “ but a letter 
 from my agent there — a man of undoubted verac- 
 ity — confirms the account and leaves no room for 
 
188 National Reform. 
 
 doubt. We cannot but give credence to tlie dread- 
 ful story.” 
 
 “ Then let us forever banish the subject.” 
 
 And as she spoke such a look of bitter, wan de- 
 spair settled down over her features that he felt it 
 would be useless to urge his suit any farther at 
 this time. He therefore took his leave for the pres- 
 ent and left the house with a feeling of ill-concealed 
 exultation at the evident success of his nefarious 
 scheme. 
 
 A few da3^s later he called again, and when he 
 begged permission to take her to his home and 
 shield her from the consequences of the dreadful 
 fate which her love for Austin had entailed upon 
 her, she laid her icy cold hand in his and said : 
 
 “ You, who know the whole of my past life, 
 know that my heart is buried forever in the grave 
 where Willard Austin lies. heart is dead and 
 cold, and can never beat responsive to the music of 
 love again. But I can be true and faithful to 3*011, 
 and if you are willing to accept mj^ aimless life, I 
 will be your wife.” 
 
 This was all he had expected, and his joy and 
 exultation knew no bounds. He pressed her to his 
 bosom, covered her cold face with ardent kisses, 
 vowed he would teach her to love him, and finally 
 took his leave in search of Dr. Dick to procure his 
 consent to their earl}^ union. 
 
 The good Doctor was not a little surprised at the 
 turn affairs had taken, but he had been quite un- 
 
The .‘Story of a Ruined Life. 189 
 
 easy at tlie state of settled melancholy in which 
 Antillo had been since the news of the death of 
 Austin, and hoping that some change would rouse 
 her into a state of activity and life more like her- 
 self, he finally yielded a reluctant consent. And 
 yet as he did so his heart was not entirely at ease, 
 for often during his acquaintance with Roberts, he 
 had experienced a feeling of repulsion for which 
 he could not account but which annoj^ed him like 
 the indistinct recollection of some hateful dream, 
 and at the moment of his consent this feeling was 
 stronger than ever. But he believed that he was 
 acting for the best interest of his loved foster child, 
 and so stifled what he considered a mere personal 
 prejudice. 
 
 We pass rapidly over the time intervening 
 before the wedding day. The preparations upon 
 Antillo’s part were few and simple, for her heart 
 had no part in the ceremony which was about ot 
 be performed. She married Roberts, not because 
 she had the least feeling of love for him, but she 
 felt grateful to him for what she considered his 
 unselfish efforts to ferret out the mystery which 
 surrounded the murder of Gross, and this was the 
 only return she could make him. 
 
 The day at last arrived and a goodly audience 
 had assembled in the church in which the 
 ceremony was to be j)erformed. All were waiting 
 in eager anticipation, for Antillo’s beauty and 
 sweetness of disposition had made her a universal 
 
190 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 favorite, while the sorrows which had overloaded 
 her life for the past two or three years had thrown 
 a melancholy interest around this heart-sacrifice, 
 for so it seemed to all. 
 
 The bridal party entered the church and passed 
 down the aisle toward the altar. The minister 
 arose and had just commenced the beautiful nup- 
 tial service of the Episcopal Church when the 
 attention of all was attracted by the hasty 
 entrance of a man who, without removing his hat 
 or paying any heed to the solemnities of the place, 
 rushed forward toward the altar, crying out as he 
 did so, 
 
 “ Stop this mockery. This man’s name is not 
 Roberts but Joseph Davis, and I arrest him for the 
 murder of his wife. And this woman he would 
 marry is his own daughter,” and as he spoke he 
 grasped the bridegroom by the collar. 
 
 In an instant all was a scene of the wildest con- 
 fusion, as might well have been expected. 
 
 “How know you this?” demanded the minister. 
 
 “I am a detective officer from Xew York,’’ 
 replied the man, “ and for years I have been in 
 search of this villain. Twenty years ago he 
 murdered his wife, the mother of the girl who 
 stands at his side ; was tried and sentenced to 
 death. He effected his escape by murdering his 
 jailer, and from that time to this the officers of the 
 law have been on his track. 'SYe have followed 
 him through England, France, Spain and Aus- 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 191 
 
 tralia, and have at last unkennelled him in San 
 Francisco, in time, I hope, to save a worthy young 
 lady from a life of shame and misery.” 
 
 Those who looked upon the countenance of 
 Davis as this horrid revelation was rapidly 
 unfolded, in accents which rung with the unmis' 
 takable sound of truth, will never forget its varied 
 expressions. Terror, remorse, despair, chased 
 each other in rapid succession across his features, 
 and at the close of the fearful tale he drew a 
 pistol from his pocket, pointed the muzzle at his 
 own forehead, and, before any one could interfere, 
 pressed the trigger. There was a blinding flash, a 
 terrible roar, and the wretched man fell ghastly 
 and bleeding into the arms of the detective ! 
 
 If the church had been a scene of confusion 
 before, it was now increased tenfold. The poor 
 girl who had been saved in such an almost mirac- 
 ulous manner fainted, and was received in the 
 arms of the groomsman ; the terrifled and excited 
 audience rushed into the streets, and for a time 
 scarcely any one seemed capable of coherent 
 thought or action. 
 
 An examination demonstrated the fact that the 
 wound which Davis had given himself would soon 
 prove mortal. He still retained his senses, but it 
 was evident to all that he was rapidly sinking. 
 He inquired anxiously for Antillo, and she, having 
 been restored to consciousness, came to him, and 
 there in the presence of her father, (for so we must 
 
192 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 still call the good old Doctor,) the minister and 
 the officer whose fidelity to duty had unmasked a 
 hardened villain, he confessed the crimes with 
 which he had been charged, but solemnly averred 
 that he had no knowledge or suspicion of the 
 relationshiiD existing between himself and his 
 would-be bride. He further confessed that he had 
 himself murdered Gross and had taken steps to 
 fasten the guilt upon Austin in order to win 
 Antillo for himself; that Austin was still alive, 
 and that the evidences of his death which he had 
 exhibited to her were neither more nor less than 
 forgeries perpetrated in furtherance of the scheme 
 he had projected. And as he finished the sicken- 
 ing recital he gasped once or twice, shuddered, 
 and his polluted soul winged its way to the 
 presence of Him who judgeth in righteousness 
 tempered with mercy. 
 
 What need to add any thing farther? Why 
 relate how Willard Austin, heart-sick at not 
 receiving tidings of his loved Antillo, was glad- 
 dened by the information of the establishment of 
 his entire innocence in the minds of the whole 
 community ; how he returned by the first vessel to 
 San Francisco ; how in the presence of a select 
 few in the parlor of Dr. Dick’s, the loving pair, so 
 long separated by fraud and treachery, were 
 united in the holy bonds of wedlock, never to be 
 separated until the sounding of that summons 
 which all men are powerless to resist; how Mrs. 
 
The Story of a Ruined Life. 193 
 
 Dick laughed and cried by turns, and embraced 
 the bride, the groom, and everybody else, or how 
 fervent the blessing which the good Doctor 
 invoked upon the heads of his children ? 
 
 Let us humbly trust that He who ruleth all 
 things shall so order their paths that their future 
 lives may be as bright and pleasant as the past 
 few years have been gloomy and miserable. 
 
 We will bid them farewell. 
 
 13 
 
CALIFORNIA WINE AS A TEMPERANCE 
 DRINK, AND ITS RESULTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MOEE TRCTTH THAoST FICTION. — THE FIRST TI3IE. 
 
 In the City of Sacramento, California, my hus- 
 band and I were walking down blinth street, 
 returning from prayer-meeting. It was about ten 
 o’clock, and very dark. We noticed a man 
 stretched across the sidewalk. My husband 
 spoke to him but he did not answer. I was afraid 
 he was dead, for we could not wake him up for 
 some time. I recognized him as a son of my 
 friend, Mrs. Fence. I grabbed him bj^ the arm and 
 said, 
 
 “ Charlie, what are you doing here ? I believe 
 you are drunk. Charlie Fence, wake uji.” 
 
 He then started to get up but fell down again, 
 saying, “ Annie, is that you ? Oh don’t tell 
 mother I am drunk. Please don’t. Will you ? 
 It would kill her, I know it would ; and this is the 
 first time.” 
 
 “ Charlie, I am so sorry to see you in this 
 
 terrible condition.” I said, “Husband, call a hack 
 
 ( 194 ) 
 
California Wine as a Temperance Drinh. 195 
 
 and we will get Charlie into it and take him home 
 with us.” 
 
 The next morning we asked him to explain how 
 he got drunk, and where he had been. He said, 
 
 “ I was at a friend’s to supper, and there were 
 about a dozen young people there. It was a birth- 
 day party. They all drank wine, and as' I had 
 never drank any I refused at first, but they all 
 drank and insisted so, I drank also. It was 
 California wine, and every one of them said it 
 could not hurt me. After I had drank two glasses 
 of wine I began to feel bad in my head. I was 
 getting drunk, but they all laughed at me and 
 teased me to drink more, until every one in the 
 room was drunk. I started home, for I knew I 
 could not keep from drinking and stay in that 
 crowd, so I slipped out the back way and I 
 thought I could reach my room and go to bed 
 without mother hearing me. I got where you 
 found me, and you know the rest. Please do 
 not tell any one I was drunk, and I will go home 
 to mother. I will tell her I met you on the street 
 and went home with you, and she will think it is 
 all right. I will promise you to never drink wine 
 or beer, or any liquor again if you will not tell on 
 me this time.” 
 
 We promised not to tell, and he left. But, 
 reader, in five years he filled a drunkard’s grave. 
 It was his first glass that killed him. If he had 
 never taken the first drink he would never have 
 
196 
 
 National lieform. 
 
 filled a drunkard’s grave. This was the result 
 of California wine. We will now go and see 
 Charlie Fence’s young friends, three of whom have 
 filled drunkard’s graves; all had taken their first 
 drink at that hirth-day party. 
 
 Here is young Hun , a bright young man of 
 
 one of the best families in the city, a clerk in a 
 bank in Sacramento City, and he drank his first 
 glass of wine at the same birthday party with 
 Charles Fence. We will watch this bright young 
 man and see if he with his good company and 
 kind friends will be safe. One year has jrassed, 
 
 and young Hun is still in his place in the bank, 
 
 but his friends are uneasy. They often see him 
 under the inliuence of liquor. 
 
 Four years have passed. We will see what the 
 Sacramento Record Union has to say. It reads 
 thus : 
 
 William F. Hun sends a bullet through his 
 
 heart. He committed suicide shortl}^ before five 
 o’clock last evening. He had been drinking for 
 the last three or four days. He reported at the 
 bank each morning until yesterda}* ; he was seen 
 by many of his friends in an intoxicated condi- 
 tion. Mr. Hun began to weep like a child and 
 
 chided himself for drinking. He then went to the 
 president of the bank and told him of his condi- 
 tion, and he told him to go home and keep quiet 
 that day and come back the next morning. The 
 young man left the bank, but did not go home. 
 
California Wine as a Temperance Drink. 197 
 
 He went to a saloon on K. street. One of the 
 proprietors induced him to lie down for awhile in 
 a hack room. An hour later he went out in a 
 carriage and took a drive about the city, then 
 drove up to the corner of Eighth and M. streets, 
 which is within a few rods of his home, and 
 alighted. Instead of going home, he went into a 
 grocery store where they kept liquor, on the corner 
 of Eighth and M. streets. He remained here some 
 time. The proprietor noticed he had been drink- 
 ing to excess, and he instructed his clerk not to 
 give him any more liquor. It was not long after 
 
 this that Mr. Hun asked the clerk for a drink 
 
 of wine, and the clerk of course declined to supply 
 him. The young man seemed to take this consid- 
 ably to heart and wept bitterly for some time. 
 
 Then he walked out into the front part of the 
 store, where several gentlemen acquaintances were 
 sitting. His hand sought his pocket, and just as 
 he reached the door he turned his tear-stained face 
 to the party and said, “ Good-bye, boj^s.” The 
 next instant he whipped out a large 38-caliber 
 revolver, and before anyone could reach him placed 
 the muzzle over his heart and pulled the trigger. 
 Death was instantaneous. The bullet pierced the 
 unfortunate young man’s heart and he fell to the 
 floor a corpse. 
 
 There was great excitement at the store and in 
 the neighborhood of the sad occurrence. The clerk 
 immediately went to inform the bereaved parents 
 
198 
 
 National llefovm. 
 
 The scene which followed the bringing of the news 
 to the parents was sad indeed. The father, almost 
 bereft of his senses by the shock, rushed up to the 
 grocery store and prostrated himself beside the 
 remains. Immediately afterwards the body was 
 removed to the deceased’s home. 
 
 William F. Hun — was thirty-three years of age, 
 and a native of Sacramento. He was unmarried. 
 Reader, this is no fiction. It is a true story with 
 only the names changed. It occurred in the city 
 of Sacramento, California, while the author was a 
 resident of that city. 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 FACTS AXD FIGURES. 
 
 It has seemed to me for a long time that our 
 jails and prisons are useful mainly as storehouses 
 for the products of the saloon. At least that is 
 the way it looks to me ; for the government is a 
 partner with the saloon-keepers, or they could not 
 get a license to sell. The preliminary report of 
 the Internal Revenue Commissioner contains some 
 interesting facts and figures bearing upon the finan- 
 cial aspect of the liquor problem. From the report 
 it appears that there was consumed in the United 
 States, during the year ending June 30, 1889, of 
 fermented liquors 25,119,853 barrels, or 778,715,- 
 
California Wine as a Temxierayice DrinJc. 199 
 
 443 gallons ; and of distilled spirits 77,164,640 gal- 
 lons, representing 92,597,568 gallons sold at retail. 
 This aggregates 871,313,011 gallons, or a per 
 capita consumption of over fourteen and a half 
 gallons, counting the population at sixty millions. 
 The increase in consumption over the preceding 
 year is 18,347,635 gallons, or over one-third of a 
 gallon per capita. The direct cost of all this to 
 the consumer presents an interesting problem. 
 Taking the estimates of Dr. Hargreave, which we 
 have never seen disputed, we find the total 
 cost to be $1,057,982,468, and the increase in cost 
 over the preceding year $49,106,590. 
 
 During the same period the entire value of the 
 imports into the United States amounted to $723,- 
 879,813, and customs duties collected amounted to 
 $219,091,173. In view of these facts, it is clearly 
 evident that the liquor question to-day is a serious 
 one. 
 
 The Christian people must not neglect their duty 
 any longer. How a man can pray, God deliver us 
 from this terrible curse, and then vote for it, and 
 license it, is more than I can understand. They 
 know they vote for liquor and pray against it. 
 God will not hear such prayers, they go no higher 
 than the man’s head that utters them. 
 
 Christianity and Temperance go hand in hand, 
 you cannot separate them, and when Christians 
 vote as they pray they will close every saloon in 
 the United States. I cannot see how a man or 
 
200 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 woman can be a Christian and not take a stand 
 for temperance. I pray that this article may lead 
 some of my readers to more serious reflection upon 
 this subject. 
 
 The California legislature, two years ago, made 
 an appropriation of $15,000 for the beneflt of viti- 
 culture of California, for expenses of carrying on 
 and fostering the wine business. In Platt’s Hall, 
 San Francisco, the Commission are running a wine 
 “ cafe,” or, in j)lain words, a wine saloon, at an 
 expense of several hundred dollars per month. 
 Miss Kate Field, a talented lecturess, is in the em- 
 ploy of the Commission at a salary of $250 per 
 month and expenses, and her work consists in in- 
 troducing California wines to Eastern homes, or, 
 to tell the truth, Kate Field is employed to make 
 drunkards. For nine out of every ten who will 
 drink wine for three months will then drink any 
 kind of liquor they can get. Wine or beer will 
 create a craving appetite for strong drink. There 
 never was a drunkard who intended to become 
 one when he took his flrst drink, and had he never 
 taken the flrst he never would have been a drunk- 
 ard. We will say there are three bridges across 
 the Sacramento River and there is only twenty feet 
 between each ; now the flrst is all on fire at each 
 end, we know it is not safe ; the second is old and 
 broken, the piers are gone, and it has no support, 
 so we know it is not safe ; the third is a fine, new 
 bridge. We know that every sensible person will 
 
California Wine as a Temperance Drink. 201 
 
 take the safe bridge across, for they know there is 
 no risk ; then why do they not take the safe side on 
 the liquor question and avoid the fire of all liquors ? 
 The safe bridge is to let wine, beer, in fact all 
 kinds of intoxicating beverages alone, then you 
 know they cannot harm you. “ Come out and be 
 separate,” saith the Lord. “ Touch not the unclean 
 thing. What fellowship has light with darkness ? 
 Let us walk in the light.” The scales of party love 
 having fallen from our eyes, we now see how to 
 vote as we pray — for prohibition. Reader, if this 
 is your case, if you have got your eyes opened 
 and free from old party love, and will vote and 
 pray for prohibition — Praise the Lord ! 
 
 Miss Kate Field, in a tirade against the Woman’s 
 Christian Temperance Union, declares that women 
 do not govern themselves, and are incapable of gov- 
 erning others. Of course Miss Kate Field judges 
 others by herself. She said that mothers had no 
 influence over their children. It is evident she 
 forgot that her mother was a woman, and also that 
 she herself is a woman, though I must say, Kate 
 has lost every spark of true womanhood or she 
 would not take a stand against her own sex and 
 everything that is good and pure for the sake of 
 money, for we all know that she is only talking 
 for money, and I say any woman that so far for- 
 gets herself as Kate Field has, does not deserve the 
 name of woman. 
 
 It is no doubt fortunate for womankind that the 
 
202 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 sex cannot be judged by the acts or words of a 
 single individual ; otherwise, those seeing the ex- 
 ample of Miss Kate Field, would form as poor an 
 opinion of woman’s wisdom and prudence as she 
 herself possesses. Of this we will leave the reader 
 to be the judge. 
 
THE AUTHOR’S APPEAL AS A W. C. T. U. 
 TO THE VOTERS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 “moral suasion.” 
 
 You have been using the ballot and making the 
 laws to punish the drunkard ; now we need to use 
 the ballot for a while upon the drunkard-maker. 
 The saloon-keeper not only makes drunkards, but 
 makes criminals for our prisons and our jails, 
 paupers for our poor-houses, invalids for our hos- 
 pitals, idiots for our insane asylums, and murder- 
 ers for the gallows, and Christian men and moral 
 men put their hands in their pockets and help to 
 pay all these expenses and then vote to keep the 
 drunkard-maker’s hell holes open. 
 
 Moral suasion might possibly do for the drunk- 
 ard, but we must have legal suasion for the 
 drunkard-maker. The fact of the case is just this 
 — saloon-keepers will not come where we can per- 
 suade them. They will not listen to sermons on 
 “ The sin of putting the bottle to thy neighbor’s 
 lips.” He will not read the Bible on “ The duties 
 
 he owes to God and his fellow-man.” He has no 
 
 (203) 
 
204 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 time to go to cliurcli ; liis saloon runs seven days 
 in a week. What we want is to legal-suade him 
 to close his saloon, and then not give him a chance 
 to open it again. 
 
 There are very few Southern people of the 23res- 
 ent day that think slavery is right, but many did 
 think so at the time it was abolished. They have 
 become convinced that slavery was wrong. Now 
 we are convinced that saloons are wrong; that this 
 government is doing wrong to permit a saloon to 
 exist. This government owns the saloons, and, 
 reader, you cannot deny it, for you know it grants 
 licenses to sell liquor and takes the money. Yet 
 you are not willing to say that the government is 
 running saloons ! Some say we can never obtain 
 prohibition. Anyone that will say that is not 
 posted ; they only see the whisky side of the ques- 
 tion, and do not see the other side. We would 
 advise all such to read the New York Voice, the 
 Chicago Lever, and in fact all the Prohibition pa- 
 pers, and they would learn that we are gaining 
 prohibition, and the time is not far distant when 
 their blind eyes Avill be opened, for we can and 
 will obtain prohibition. The saloons must go. 
 
 AYe must pass laws to prohibit this heart-break- 
 ing, crime-fostering, soul-destroying, hell-peopling 
 business. And if every Christian and every tem- 
 perance man would vote against liquor, this source 
 of crime and poverty and curse to our fair land 
 would soon be wiped out. It is legalized by the 
 
An Appeal to Voters. 
 
 205 
 
 government; it must be killed by the ballot. 
 Moral suasion for the drunkard ; legal suasion for 
 the drunkard-maker. 
 
 Voters, may God open your blind eyes, and 
 make you see your duty in this matter; and, 
 Christians, vote as you pray; then the saloons 
 would be closed all over this nation. 
 
 Voter, have you ever thought that God will hold 
 you responsible for your vote, if you do not vote 
 against this terrible sin ? If you have never 
 thought of this, may you never sleep until you ask 
 God to pardon you for your neglect of duty in this 
 matter. And you must perform that duty in the 
 future, or God will hold you responsible still. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of 
 this nation, impelled by its duty toward “ God and 
 home and country,” can no longer keep silent. 
 We must voice our convictions — that the needs for 
 temperance agitation and reform are simply aston- 
 ishing. The saloon power, with all other monopo- 
 lies, holds its grip upon this nation. Can she 
 free herself? Not without a mighty effort is made 
 by her people. 
 
 We here summon the patriotism and principle 
 now slumbering in the reform factions to awake 
 
206 
 
 JSFational Reform. 
 
 and arouse themselves to the performance of their 
 duty towards the homes of this nation, which is to 
 gather all the forces of these reform factions into 
 line, and join hands and battle mightily against 
 these destroyers of our youth and of our homes. 
 Organize, then, and unite in one great army for 
 aggressive work. Let all men and women of all 
 creeds, and no creeds, join in this great conflict for 
 right, for God and home and native land. The 
 Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of this na- 
 tion will give you their aid, and will give you 
 their sympathies and their prayers. And if you 
 are brave, valiant and united, the Lord will give 
 you the victory. 
 
 Do no longer shield the foe, 
 
 To manhood do your •whole duty ; 
 
 AVe’ve had enough of shame and woe; 
 
 The burden grows; voters, do your duty. 
 
 AVill you not haunt him to the death? 
 
 Speak out ! speak out ! voters, brothers, 
 
 AVill you not join in this reform call. 
 
 Protect sisters, wives and mothers? 
 
 AVe’ve had enough of whisky chain ; 
 
 This demon drink to fetter. 
 
 Good bullets from the ballot-box 
 Is what we need ; yes, they are better. 
 
 God help all to work like Christians, 
 
 By vote and earnest agitation. 
 
 Till we have killed the power of rum 
 By just and righteous legislation. 
 
 To stand united is what is needed ; 
 
 Chai'ge on, boldly, then, ye voters, 
 
An Appeal to Voters. 
 
 207 
 
 Come united, then move in line ; 
 
 There are deadly foes to vanquish, 
 
 Found in beer, alcohol and wine. 
 
 Who will raise the signal cry? 
 
 There is great danger in this waiting 
 When deadly foes are lurking nigh. 
 
 Let there be no broken column. 
 
 If you think to win the battle. 
 
 You must do it in 'God’s name; 
 
 Let your strength on Him be stayed. 
 
 There must be no falling backward. 
 
 Straight the road that leads to fame. 
 
 Let your aim be sure and steady. 
 
 For each attack brings victory nigher. 
 
 Voter, we pray God to open your blind eyes, and 
 that every reform faction will come together in one 
 great battle against liquor and monopoly. 
 
FARM MONOPOLY IN CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FACTS. A VISIT TO THE MILLION AIEES. 
 
 We will first visit Hon. Albert Gall. He owns 
 one hundred thousand acres of land in one body, 
 about twenty miles from Red Bluff. California. 
 Here we find twenty-five tenants located in small, 
 comfortable houses, a good large barn to each 
 tenant. Each has his proportion of ground to 
 cultivate. The owner gets half of what is raised. 
 Each tenant is allowed to keep only one cow 
 and one dozen chickens, and only what horses are 
 needed to cultivate the ground he has charge of. 
 There is a foreman placed over the twenty-five 
 tenants to see after the interests of the millionaire, 
 who has five hundred head of blooded horses and 
 other fine stock on the farm. All the tenants and 
 help are subject to the orders of the foreman, who 
 has his orders from his employer, and is required 
 to hand in an account of everything pertaining 
 to the farm once each month. This is only one 
 place of this millionaire. He has a farm in 
 
 southern California worth as much as this one. 
 
 ( 208 ) 
 
Farm Monopoly in Galifornia. 209 
 
 We will now go and visit a wealthy friend in 
 Red Blulf. We have been out to see three of 
 his large farms. We will call him Harry Will. 
 He has two large farms on Pain’s Creek, one on 
 Sandy Creek and one on the Oregon line, and a 
 large stock farm in Oregon. He told the author 
 that he started on Stony Creek, near Sacramento 
 City, in his buggy and went to Oregon, and 
 stopped every night on his own land. He, like 
 Albert Giall, has a foreman on each farm to look 
 after his interests, but he is a man of more 
 principle. He lets his tenants have more privi- 
 leges. They can raise all the chickens they want, 
 and make all the butter they want. They are not 
 restricted to any number of horses. We spent 
 a week visiting a tenant on Pain’s Creek. 
 
 We are not in favor of monopoly, yet if the 
 millionaires were all as kind and liberal as this 
 one we would not find so many poor people in our 
 travels. 
 
 We will now visit a millionaire senator. He 
 has thousands of acres of land, and has fine, large 
 mansions all over the United States. He owns 
 railroads and yet he represents the people in 
 Congress. 
 
 How did he get there? By your vote, farmer. 
 Yes, by your vote, laborer. As long as men vote 
 for the monopolist they must endure monopoly. 
 All the mining monopolies are united against the 
 
 poor miners. In every large city in the United 
 14 
 
210 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 States, there are monopolies to control all the 
 manufacturers. Many large cities have European 
 monopolists in them that control every trade 
 there is. When we were in Denver we heard of 
 nothing but monopoly. In fact, we have more 
 monopoly in this nation than anything else. This 
 Government should control all the railroads and 
 make every foot of land owned by the railroad 
 companies open for settlers. No man or woman 
 should be allowed to own more than one thousand 
 acres of land. Thd Government should own all the 
 rest, and throw it open to settlers. 
 
A STORY OF CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TEMPTED AND TRIED THE SUICIDE. 
 
 We read in this morning’s paper of the sad 
 suicide of John Wills. He was aged thirty-three 
 years, seven months and ten days. He was a 
 prominent lawyer in the city of Denver, Col- 
 orado. 
 
 We will go back to his early childhood and 
 give a history of his life. He was born in Cin- 
 cinnati, Ohio. His mother was a true Christian 
 woman, a member of the church. His father was 
 a member of the church and a prominent mer- 
 chant. He had three sisters, but no brother. His 
 parents were both taken ill with typhoid fever. 
 His father recovered. At this time John Wills 
 was twenty-three years old, and was studying 
 law. But he was drinking and would come home 
 at times intoxicated. His mother called him to 
 her bedside and said, 
 
 “ My son, your mother is dying. Will you 
 promise her to quit drinking and prepare to meet 
 her in heaven ? ” 
 
 ( 211 ) 
 
212 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 Tears came into John’s eyes. He clasped his 
 mother’s hand and promised her never to drink 
 any intoxicating drink again, and to join the 
 church and meet her in heaven. He kissed his 
 mother good-bye. She then bade all the family 
 farewell, closed her eyes, and in ten minutes fell 
 asleep in Jesus. The next day she was buried. 
 A husband and four children were left to mourn 
 for her. 
 
 Thou*^art gone to the grave, 
 
 Lonely hearts are left to grieve ; 
 
 Thy husband and children dear — 
 
 Oh, how they will miss thee here ! 
 
 They would forget, were they able. 
 
 When they gather ’round the table. 
 
 That there is a vacant chair ; 
 
 Yes, they will miss thee everywhere. 
 
 To be prepared our Lord to meet. 
 
 In heaven all our friends to greet ; 
 
 A happy meeting in the skies. 
 
 For those the Lord shall hid arise ; 
 
 Asleep in Jesus, oh, for me 
 May such a blissful refuge be ! 
 
 Lord, teach our feet the narroM' way, 
 
 And may we never from it straj-. 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE — THE KINDNESS OF A 
 WIFE TO A DRUNKARD. 
 
 Ten years have passed since the close of our 
 last chapter. John Wills has married a beautiful 
 
A iStory of Clouds and Sunshine. 213 
 
 young lady, a music teacher, Miss Hattie Corley. 
 They have three children — a sou Charlie, aged 
 eight years, and two little girls aged four and six 
 years. John Wills loves his wife and children, 
 hut the appetite for liquor was so great that he 
 would drink and he taken home drunk. His Avife 
 was so kind to him that she would never say a 
 word to him while he was drunk, hut would 
 kindly care for him and put him to hed. After he 
 got over his drunken spree, his wife would go to 
 him and say, “ Dear hushand, will you promise 
 not to drink any more ? ” and she would kneel 
 down hy him and pray for him. This would 
 touch his heart and he would promise not to drink 
 any more. He was not a Christian, hut his wife 
 was a true Christian woman, and a W. C. T. U. 
 Had she abused him, as many wives do their 
 husbands, he would have been a hard-drinking 
 man. As it was, he would keep his promise 
 sometimes two and three months. Then some 
 temptation would overcome him and he would 
 drink again. He knew it grieved his wife. 
 
 On one occasion he had been drinking all day. 
 It was election day, and so many had treated him 
 to liquor that he Avas picked up and taken into a 
 saloon to keep him from going home, for they 
 wanted his vote. He begged them to take him 
 home to his wife, but they refused, saying, “ You 
 must stay here until you cast your vote. You 
 know you are right here at the ballot-box. So 
 
214 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 just keep quiet.” Hardly had the saloon-keeper 
 the words out of his mouth, when John drew his 
 revolver and shot himself. The bullet passed 
 near his heart. He died almost instantly. 
 
 His wife was overcome with this sorrow, and 
 she was such a good mother that her son, then ten 
 years old, was her comfort. He was a bright boy 
 and promised his mother she should never have a 
 fear for him. He belonged to the Band of Hope 
 and had joined the church where the Band of 
 Hope met ; his mother was a member of the same 
 church. They owned their home and had live 
 thousand dollars after the estate was settled. 
 This was put out at interest, and Mrs. Wills 
 taught music to support herself and children. 
 The interest was used to educate the childi’en. 
 Charlie was placed in school to study for the min- 
 istry. Mary and Nettie were also in the same 
 college with their brother Charlie. 
 
 Mrs. Wills was the music teacher of the college 
 and she was with her children most of the time. 
 Mr. Ketchel, the President of the college, and the 
 professors, all were very kind to Mrs. Wills and 
 her children. They were all the time praising 
 Charlie and his ability to make a good orator. 
 The two girls, Charlie’s sisters, were encouraged to 
 become teachers. 
 
 Mrs. Wills was very proud of her children and 
 very hopeful for their future. She was very suc- 
 cessful as a music teacher, and all her children had 
 
A Story of Clouds and Siinshme. 215 
 
 a natural talent for music and good voices for sing- 
 ing. Charlie was a fine base singer, Mary a soprano, 
 and ISTettie, alto. 
 
 We will now take up the history of Prof. Flagg, 
 of the College. He is a young man about thirty 
 years old. He has been in the Christian College 
 for six years as a teacher, and is not married. He 
 has many lady friends that would like to be the 
 wife of Prof. Flagg, and think it an honor. But he 
 has treated them all as sisters up to this date. 
 But now he shows more attention to Miss Mary 
 Wills than any other lady. He was never known 
 to show so much attention to any other scholar, 
 and the ladies were all jealous of Mary Wills. 
 
 Prof. Dodd was paying very much attention 
 to the mother, Mrs. Hattie Wills. This attracted 
 the attention of the older lady teachers, and they 
 were inclined to be jealous also. He was a bache- 
 lor of forty-nine ; had been in the college for ten 
 years. Many of the ladies had tried to catch him, 
 but all had failed. How the Professor would take 
 Mrs. Wills out buggy riding. This he never was 
 known to do before. Prof. Dodd go out with a 
 lady ! Such a thing never was known. Something 
 was going to happen ! 
 
 Miss Rosa Bond is a very fine young lady, and 
 a scholar in the college. She has been receiving 
 the attention of Charlie Wills. They are about 
 the same age. Charlie is now twenty-two years of 
 age. Miss Nettie Wills will now soon be eighteen ; 
 
216 National Reform. 
 
 she is her mother’s pet, being the youngest, and 
 her companion. 
 
 We will leave them a short time now to finish 
 their education. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE DOUBLE WEDDING THE PKEACHEE — NETTIE A 
 
 MUSIC TEACHEE. 
 
 Three years have jDassed since we left our young 
 friends at the Christian College. We find Charlie 
 Wills a very able and eloquent preacher. He has 
 charge of a church in Southern Nebraska and has 
 a large congregation and is doing a good Acork as 
 a Christian minister. Miss Rosa Bond is teaching 
 school in Lincoln, Neb. She has a large school 
 and is well liked, but cards are out for her mar- 
 riage to Charlie Wills. We will go to the AA'edding 
 and see our preacher married. Here Ave find all 
 our college friends ; they have all come to see 
 Charlie Wills and Rosa Bond united in the holy 
 bonds of AA^edlock. 
 
 But a surprise aAvaits us, for Avhen Charlie and 
 Rosa Avalk up before the man of God, to unite them 
 as man and AAufe, up Avalks Prof. Flagg Avith Miss 
 Mary Wills ; they are to be married at the same 
 time. 
 
 Mrs. Wills and Nettie are here to witness the 
 
A Story of Clouds and Sunshine. 217 
 
 double wedding. They are living in their house in 
 Denver City, Col., where Mrs. Wills was left a 
 widow. Nettie lives with her mother and they 
 both teach music. Nettie can play as well as her 
 mother. 
 
 Prof. Dodd is still paying great attention to 
 Mrs. Wills, and it is whispered that wedding cards 
 are being sent out for another wedding. 
 
 We will return to Nebraska and visit our minis- 
 ter and his wife ; they have been married one year. 
 We find them in a nice parsonage, furnished in 
 style by the church, and we find Rosa, the minis- 
 ter’s wife, one of the workers in the church. She 
 is President of the Ladies’ Sewing Circle ; she is 
 Superintendent of the Band of Hope ; she is a W. 
 C. T. U., and one of the Central Committee of the 
 Y. M. C. A. So you see she is doing a noble work. 
 The church is crowded every meeting. 
 
 We will now take leave of Mr. and Mrs. Wills, 
 wishing them a long and happy life in their noble 
 work, and we will go and visit Mrs. Hattie Wills 
 and Nettie. They are expecting us to be there to- 
 morrow, for we have received an invitation to the 
 wedding and must not fail to be there. 
 
 We arrive and find the church crowded. Prof. 
 Flagg and wife are here and Bro. Charlie Wills 
 and wife, and the strangest part of all is that the 
 pastor in charge of the church is our old friend, 
 the president of the college, Bro. Ketchel. He 
 performs the ceremony that makes Mrs. Hattie 
 
218 National Reform. 
 
 Wills the wife of Bro. J. W. Dodd. We will now 
 leave them and wish them a long and happy life. 
 Nettie will now go home with her brother Charlie 
 and wife and make a visit. She has had no vaca- 
 tion for years and it will do her good to be at 
 liberty for some time. 
 
 Just as Nettie was about to get into the hack to 
 go with her brother and his wife the mail carrier 
 brought her a letter. 
 
 Nettie took the letter and glanced at the address. 
 It was in a well-known handwriting. She with- 
 drew to her room to read it alone. Upon breaking 
 the seal she saw it was indeed from Jim Noble, 
 one of her Y. M. C. A. friends. 
 
 Nettie had no time to spare, for it was near 
 train time. Oh, how she did want to answer that 
 letter; but she must wait until she arrived at 
 her sister’s home before an opportunity would be 
 given her to write. 
 
 No incidents worthy of note transpired on their 
 homeward journey, and in due time they reached 
 their home. Professor Flagg assisted the ladies 
 out of the bus, and we now see them in their 
 own home. Mary is very happy. Nettie went 
 to the room she was to occu23y while there. She 
 called for paper and ink, so she could write to her 
 lover, Jim Noble. He had proposed to her in his 
 letter, and had asked her to answer before she 
 left her mother’s house. This she could not do, 
 as she had no time to spare before going to the 
 
A Story of Clouds and Sunshine. 219 
 
 train. She had made up her mind to accept his 
 proposal. She wrote her letter and mailed it, but 
 she kept her secret to herself. No one should 
 know she had a lover. 
 
 Nettie was very hapjDy with her friends, and had 
 a very pleasant visit. They all insisted that she 
 stay and make her home there. But, no, she said 
 she had a father now, and she would go home and 
 live with father and mother. 
 
 True, she did wish to be with her mother, but 
 she longed to see Jim Noble. So she wrote him 
 what train she would arrive on, and asked him 
 to be at the train to meet her. As the train came 
 into the depot Jim was there. The lovers met and 
 arranged for a meeting the next evening at 
 seven o’clock. They then separated, for they 
 wished to keep their meeting a secret. The 
 next evening Jim Noble called to see Miss Nettie, 
 and her mother was consulted and she gave her 
 consent to their marriage. 
 
 It was now but three weeks till the day set 
 for the wedding, and preparations for the great 
 event were going on with a rapidity which 
 excluded everything else. The invitation cards 
 were sent out, and the minister engaged. 
 
 At the proper time the guests began to assemble 
 in the parlors of the Dodd mansion — a gay 
 party of the elite of the city — all clad in their 
 gayest apparel, to do honor to the occasion; for 
 Nettie Wills was a universal favorite in the circle 
 
220 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 in which she moved, and Mr. IS’oble was esteemed 
 and respected by all who knew him. The guests 
 had all arrived. 
 
 As soon as the happy pair were pronounced 
 man and wife, there were many congratulations, 
 and many handsome presents were displayed. 
 We will now see the bride and groom in their own 
 nice, new home that has been prepared by the 
 husband, Jim Noble. And now, dear reader, our 
 story is ended. We have seen all our Christian 
 friends happy in their own homes, and we will bid 
 them farewell, wishing them a long and happy 
 life. 
 
THE W. C. T. U. APPEALS TO VOTERS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A SHOET HISTORY WHAT PROHIBITION IN POLITICS 
 
 HAS ACCOMPLISHED. 
 
 Miss Frances Willard, President of the World’s 
 Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, wrote an 
 excellent article on the ‘‘Progress of the Prohi- 
 bition Party,” some time ago, which we quote 
 from the Chicago Lever, of January 22, 1891, that 
 every reader of this book may have an opportunity 
 to read it, and that the W. C. T. U. will be better 
 understood in view of the methods of non-parti- 
 sans. It is herewith given to the reader : 
 
 “ A party means a part of the voting population 
 that think one way. It implies another part who 
 unite because they think a different way. The 
 reason for different ways of thinking is that people 
 have inherited unlike qualities of mind, and have 
 been moulded by unlike surroundings and educa- 
 tion. In early times parties were pairs of indi- 
 viduals, and pounded with fists ; then they were 
 tribes, and struck with spears, or shot with arrows ; 
 
 still later they were armies, and hurled missiles 
 
 ( 221 ) 
 
222 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 by means of gunpowder, but in the latest 
 encounters they print opinions on paper, called 
 ballots, which are counted and majority makes 
 victory. 
 
 “ There are two classes of mind ; one looks 
 forward, the other back. One says : ‘ The thing 
 
 that has been shall be.’ The other declares that 
 in so wide a universe ‘ the next thing ’ is likely to 
 be the best; yesterday was well enough in its 
 way ; to-day is better, but to-morrow the red-letter 
 day of all the calendar. So there has always been 
 g party of conservatism and a party of progress. 
 These perpetually change characters, for like a 
 man, a party has an individual life ; its weak 
 childhood, its generous youth, its prime, and its 
 decrepit age given up to memories of past glory. 
 Unlike men, parties are not always buried when 
 they die, but remain above ground ‘ to interfere 
 with and vex the citizen.’ Old association 
 and the habit of obedience to leadershijp exercise 
 a force that is practically binding upon men 
 of average mind. But always there are other 
 minds of better fibre and stronger equipoise to 
 pioneer the way for humanity along the endless 
 path of progress. Where the vanguard walks 
 to-day, the guard will walk to-morrow. 
 
 “ ONLY TWO PAETIES. 
 
 “ The national Prohibition party is the outcome 
 of the ceaseless warfare between old and new, 
 
The W. C . T. U. Ap'peals to Voters. 223 
 
 false and true. It came as tlie sequel of educated 
 convictions, resulting from the work of modern 
 science, of pulpit, press, and temperance society. 
 But it came also as an offset to the alcohol party, 
 which, under various disguises, has forced its way 
 into politics and into power. Dr. Jutkins, in his 
 invaluable ‘ hand book,’ says the Brewers’ Con- 
 gress, held in Chicago in 1867, before any tem- 
 perance party was organized, had 
 
 “ Resolved., That we will sustain no candidate of 
 whatever party, in any election, who is in anyway 
 disposed toward the total abstinence cause. 
 
 “ Every brewers’ congress has re-affirmed this as 
 its standing creed and unchangeable purpose up 
 to this day, their motto being, in the words of 
 Louis Schade, their salaried attorney and lobbyist 
 at Washington, ‘first beer and then politics. ’ 
 
 “ In 1869, two years after the brewers had flung 
 down their gauntlet to the temperance people in 
 the resolution quoted, the Good Templars, at their 
 national meeting in Oswego, N. Y., appointed a 
 committee of five to prepare and issue a call for a 
 convention to organize a national prohibitory 
 party. The chairman of that committee was Rev. 
 John Russell, a Methodist minister of Detroit, 
 Michigan, whose name will pass into histoiy as 
 the father of the party, in equal honor with the 
 name of Judge James Black, of Lancaster, Pa., 
 and Hon. Gideon T. Stewart, of Norwalk, Ohio. 
 
 “ These three men are by common consent the 
 
224 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 chieftains of the clan that dares to stand alone. 
 Its first presidential convention was held in Col- 
 umbus, Ohio, on Washington’s birthday, 1872. 
 Its platform declared that : ‘ There can be no 
 
 greater peril to the nation than the existing party 
 competition for the liquor vote ; and that any party 
 not openly opposed to the traffic will, as experi- 
 ence shows, engage in this competition, court the 
 favor of the criminal classes, and barter away the 
 public morals, and the purity of the ballot for 
 party success.’ 
 
 “the EASTER RESOLUTIOX. 
 
 “Hence the necessity for a party committed by 
 its organic law to prohibition. The convention 
 was not based on one idea, but took high ground 
 on all leading public issues. Its nominees were, 
 for president, James Black, of Pennsylvania ; vice- 
 president, John Russell, of Michigan. These can- 
 didates received 5,508 votes. It will be remem- 
 bered that in this first year of a Xational 
 Prohibition Party, Horace Greeley, an undoubted 
 temperance man, was practically a Democratic 
 candidate; and the ReiDublicans, to eiuj^hasize 
 their position as nationally the brewers’ party, 
 which they have been unswervingly for over fifteen 
 years, adopted the famous Raster resolution, pre- 
 pared for them by Herman Raster, a leading Ger- 
 man of Chicago, editor of the Staats Zeitung, a 
 
The W. C. T. U. Appeals to Voters. 225 
 
 German Republican paper. This resolution was 
 so carefully worded that casual readers might miss 
 its meaning, but Herman Raster declares that it 
 was against temperance and Sunday laws, and 
 that this whole platform committee of the Repub- 
 lican Convention in 1872 so understood it. Let it 
 be remembered that the Republican party at its 
 Chicago Convention, while careful to make no 
 allusion to the request of the W. C. T. U. for a 
 declaration in favor of submission of a national 
 constitutional amendment, did distinctly renew its 
 allegiance to all previous platforms. So its can- 
 didates to-day stand upon the Raster plank as 
 adopted in Philadelphia in 1872. 
 
 “In 1876, the second National Convention of the 
 Prohibition Party was held in Cleveland, Ohio. 
 The platform adopted four years before was re- 
 affirmed, and the following nominees were made : 
 President, Hon. Green Clay Smith, of Kentucky ; 
 vice-president, Hon. G. T. Stewart, of Ohio. They 
 received 9,522 votes. The third National Conven- 
 tion was held in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1880, and 
 nominated for president Gen. Neal Dow, of Maine ; 
 vice-president. Rev. Dr. H. A. Thompson, of Ohio. 
 They received 10,305 votes. 
 
 “famous campaign of 1884. 
 
 “ The fourth nominating Convention was held in 
 Pittsburg, Pa., July 23, 1884. Its platform was 
 
 practically the same as had obtained from the 
 15 
 
226 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 beginning. Its candidates were Ex-Gov. St. John, 
 of Kansas, and Hon. William Daniel, of Mary- 
 land. Four years earlier eleven States were rep- 
 resented in the convention ; this year thirty-one 
 States. Then Minnesota had one delegate, but at 
 the Pittsburg Convention, twenty ; then Hew York 
 had nine, but now seventy-live ; then Michigan had 
 nine, but now her full quota, hfty-six; then Wis- 
 consin had four, but now her full quota, liftj^-live ; 
 then Illinois was not represented at all, now she 
 had forty-five ; then California had none, now she 
 had seven, besides Dr. R. II. McDonald, a noble 
 man and worthy of the honor ; then Kansas had no 
 delegates, now she has eighteen ; then not a South- 
 ern State was represented, now all but five. Maiy- 
 land was out in force with sixteen delegates, and 
 its chief is second on the ticket, while Missouri 
 came with a full delegation. These facts prophe- 
 sied a greatly-increased vote in the fall of 1884, 
 which was realized by 150,000 against something 
 over 10,000 four years earlier. 
 
 “In 1888, Gen. Clinton B. Fisk and Dr. John A. 
 Brooks became our standard-bearers, and even 
 their enemies could bring no accusation against 
 them that was not at once proven to be ‘ for reve- 
 nue only.’ 
 
 “The great Convention at Indianapolis num- 
 bered 1,020 delegates. A gallant campaign was 
 made, and though the tariff was again used as the 
 ‘ buffer ’ against prohibition, over a hundred thou- 
 
The W. C. T. JJ. Appeals to Voters. 
 
 227 
 
 sand more voters rallied to our standard in face of 
 the opposition — without a parallel in American 
 politics — notwithstanding half the prohibition 
 votes cast were never counted, through the fraud 
 of the liquor parties. The press, in the interest of 
 the old parties in North and South alike, ruled 
 out reports of our returns, so this figure is but 
 approximate. In the fall of 1889, there was even 
 more effort, if possible, to throttle any correct 
 statement of the prohibition vote. But with all 
 this power of the liquor traffic, the office-holders 
 and the office-seekers, against this movement for 
 home-protection, the admitted vote was increased 
 to the highly-encouraging aggregate of 250,000. 
 
 “every growth has a beginning. 
 
 “ Take the Liberty party, from whence the 
 Republican party had its origin. In 1840, it polled 
 for Birney 7,000 votes ; in 1844, for Birnej^ again, 
 02,000; in 1848, for Van Buren, 291,000; in 1852, 
 for John P. Hale, it fell back to 156,000; in 1856, 
 for Fremont, 1,343,000, and in 1860, for Lincoln, it 
 counted 1,866,000. But it had to begin, because, 
 as Mr. Blaine said in a campaign speech, ‘ a party 
 is a growth,’ and every growth has a beginning. 
 Doubtless the old line conservatives, who had just 
 then organized the ‘ know-nothing ’ diversion, with 
 Millard Fillmore at its head, scolded the free- 
 soilers roundly, saying, ‘You profess to oppose 
 slavery, and yet your action resulted in putting 
 
228 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 “dougli-faced” Buchanan in the presidential chair/ 
 But the new party replied, as the Prohibition 
 party does to-day (only, thank Heaven, the best 
 people of the South are with us now), ‘ Duties are 
 ours ; events are God’s.’ It must be right to do 
 right. Four years count for but little in the long 
 life of a great movement for humanity. It is 
 darkest just before day. Evil, by its excess, tends 
 to its own cure. Ho man has this world to man- 
 age; that is God’s part; but each man is solemnly 
 bound to condense his convictions into his ballot. 
 This we have done and bide our time. 
 
 “ HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF. 
 
 “ History repeats itself, and to-day we stand at 
 the crossing of the roads. Four sign-boards point 
 the way : 
 
 “Democratic party: In 1884 it explicitly de- 
 clares against ‘ all sumptuary laws that vex the 
 citizen,’ and puts up a candidate who is at least a 
 moderate drinker, and who devotes a paragraph of 
 his brief letter of acceptance to reaffirming the 
 ‘ saloon plank ’ of its platform. In 1888 it renomi- 
 nated the same man and reaffirmed its old jilat- 
 form. 
 
 “ Republican party : Its platform denies the 
 prayer of the W. C. T. U. ; reaffirms the Raster 
 resolution ; nominates in 1884 a candidate whose 
 Washington dinner- table has not been Avineless. 
 
 “ In 1888 this party gives a weaker utterance on 
 
The W. C. T. U. Api^eah to Voters. 
 
 229 
 
 temperance than the brewers’ congress itself, and 
 nominates a man who is opposed to prohibition, 
 and has publicly said so, and who offers wine to 
 guests. 
 
 “The Union Labor Party is made up of well- 
 disposed men as to its rank and file, but made no 
 declaration favorable to prohibition in 1884, and 
 had a political mountebank as its head, while in 
 1888 it was practically nil. 
 
 “ The Prohibition Party has as its battle-cry, 
 ‘ protection of the home from the saloon ; ’ frankly 
 recognizes the claims of women to the ballot ; in- 
 vites them to its platform and its counsels, and put 
 forward as its candidates in 1884 and 1888 men of 
 pure purpose and heroic championship. 
 
 “ THE HOME CONSTITUENCY. 
 
 “ To-day the voters of our nation stand at the 
 crossing of these roads, reading these sign-boards. 
 There is no question in any mind as to how the 
 liquor men will cast their ballots. Indeed, of them 
 it might be said, ‘ the world is all before them 
 where to choose.’ Nationally the two great parties 
 both bid for their ballots. They will vote as they 
 prey. 
 
 “Would that the Christian manhood of the Re- 
 public might, with clarified perception and quick- 
 ened conscience, march forward to represent not 
 themselves only, but their home constituency and 
 vote as they pray ! 
 
230 
 
 National Heform. 
 
 “no hope in the old parties. 
 
 “ To this showing many good men will make 
 objection, and insist that ‘ our hope is in the 
 Republican party.’ 
 
 “ It is true that in a few exceptional States the 
 Republican party has been friendly to prohibi- 
 tion, and in Iowa, Kansas, and South Dakota, has 
 frankly accepted that issue. But it is also true 
 that that was not done until a prohibition party 
 had ‘ stood up and had been counted.’ In Kansas 
 the anti-Prohibition Republicans are on the war- 
 path for re-submission ; in Ohio the Republican 
 party is the avowed enemy of prohibition, and 
 killed the constitutional amendment of 1883, 
 Joseph B. Foraker, its candidate for governor, de- 
 claring during his canvass that ‘ the principle of 
 license is an eternal principle,’ and the leaders of 
 the campaign taking the Scott tax law as their 
 platform; while in Illinois, Wisconsin, and other 
 Western States, the Republican party is the bond- 
 slave of the beer interest. 
 
 “ On the other hand, the Democratic party gave 
 the Maine law to the nation, and neither party in 
 the Pine-tree State dare place an anti-prohibition 
 plank in its platform ; while in Maryland, South 
 Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, 
 and other Southern States, the Democratic party 
 has granted prohibition by local option, and there 
 is as great activity in the South as in the Xorth 
 along the line of law. North Carolina Democrats 
 
The W. (7. T. U. Appeals to Voters. 231 
 
 adopted a proliibitoiy law in 1881, which, when 
 submitted to the people, was snowed under by 
 Republicans, who rallied the solid colored vote to 
 the war-cry, ‘Your old masters mean to take away 
 your liberties ! ’ The Republican party long ago 
 repealed prohibitory laws in Michigan, Connecti- 
 cut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and came within 
 one vote of doing this in Yew Hampshire. It also 
 repealed the local option law of Pennsylvania, and 
 in all cases without submitting the question to the 
 people. Its leading men and party organs fought 
 the amendments of 1889, and did their utmost to 
 bring about the defeats of that fatal year for pro- 
 hibition. 
 
 “ STUDY OUR KNEMY’S METHODS. 
 
 “As temperance people, we can with profit study 
 the methods of our enemies, intrenched as they are 
 in the great national parties. In 1882, a national 
 liquor conference was held in Chicago, which flung 
 its banner to the breeze inscribed, ‘ Personal Lib- 
 erty League of America.’ It passed the following 
 resolution: Resolved, That we pledge ourselves 
 
 to work harmoniously and assiduously at the bal- 
 lot-box against the election of any and all candi- 
 dates, or the success of any party who favor the 
 prohibition movement ; and in favor of only those 
 men or that party who are known to represent and 
 advocate the principles embodied in these resolu- 
 tions. 
 
232 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 “ What do politicians say in secret counsel v^ver 
 such declarations as the foregoing? Some of us 
 have learned to our sorrow that this is the tenor of 
 their discourse : 
 
 “We must bait the party hook with a heathen 
 Chinee for the Pacific Coast, a fleece of wool for 
 Ohio, a shotgun for the South, a tariff list for the 
 manufacturing districts, and a beer-keg for the 
 foreign vote; but the temperance men. Heaven 
 bless them, will bite a bare hook every time. 
 Their favorite song has been — 
 
 “ ‘ Old dog Tray is ever faithful, 
 
 Grief cannot drive him away.’ 
 
 “ TEMPERANCE VOTERS THEIR FOOTBALL. 
 
 “ So our confiding voters have been the football 
 of their respective political parties. But to-day 
 these men are becoming aroused, and the writing 
 on the wall can be read as the doom of those 
 parties which have played the role of the Laodi- 
 cean in politics : ‘ Because thou art neither cold 
 
 nor hot I will spur thee out of my mouth.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Thou art weighed in the balance and found 
 wanting.’ The curse of Meroz is upon them, 
 
 ‘ because they come not up to the help of the Lord 
 against the mighty.’ Their name is Ichabod, 
 ‘because the glory is departed.’ 
 
 “ These words are written in no censorious spirit. 
 A house divided against itself cannot stand. To 
 say this is not to speak against the house, but 
 
The W. C. T. JJ. Appeals to Voters. 233 
 
 simply to declare the law of gravitation. The 
 Republican party cannot live without the vote of 
 the beer interest. Self-preservation is the first 
 law of nature and the second nature of a party. So 
 long as it could face toward King Gambrinus and 
 the home with equal smile, so long it could suc- 
 ceed; but that day is past. High License is the 
 last milestone on the route to the grave. The 
 Christian people of this country, kept apart by 
 political organizations which represent the two 
 sides of a question settled twenty years ago, are 
 anxious to coalesce in a new party of righteous- 
 ness which shall attack the nation’s most redoubt- 
 able enemy. They want a party no more along 
 the lines of latitude, but on those of longitude. 
 
 “ A EE-UNITED STATES. 
 
 “ Neal Dow, of Maine, marched in the old war, 
 side by side with the men who were ‘ proud to 
 fight mit Sigel.’ To-day he can do this no more. 
 Governor St. John and Governor Colquitt have 
 stood side by side for years in their soldiership 
 against King Alcohol, but party inclosures have 
 separated them at the ballot-box. The time has 
 come when for the best and truest patriots. North 
 and South, a party lives which will blot Mason 
 and Dixon’s line out of the heart as another did 
 off the map, and give to us really Re-United 
 States. 
 
234 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 “ To-day the old party camps are uniformed so 
 much alike that one hesitates to fire a gun lest he 
 should hit a comrade ; hut party leaders, plumed 
 knights upon the caparisoned steed of a personal 
 ambition, charge up and down the line, beating the 
 drum of hard money, waving aloft the tariff fetich 
 and shouting war-cries, long out- worn. Mean- 
 while the temperance reform stands like Banquo’s 
 ghost between the battle lines — a presence solemn 
 and portentous, that will not down for all the 
 noisy incantations of its foes. Beyond any other 
 time in our generation, this is the office-holders’ 
 period of the party in power, and the office- 
 seekers’ of the party out of power. But the 
 ‘ northern heart ’ and the ‘ southern chivalry ’ are 
 ^ fired ’ no longer by these automatic motions. 
 
 “ OVERTHROW MEANS INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 “ It takes a great cause to stir a great people. 
 The overthrow of the liquor oligarchy means 
 independence to the working man ; means taking 
 off the galling tax from our industrious class, and 
 2U”otection to the American home, be its inmates 
 Catholic or Protestant, white or black, native or 
 foreign-born. 
 
 “ A great party of the people founded thus and 
 dedicated to those glorious principles, when it 
 comes into power, will be like the Sun in the solar 
 system ; its position in the nation will determine 
 
The W. C. T. U. Appeals to Voters. 235 
 
 the dominant party in the States. We can then 
 amend the national constitution, and hy its ratifi- 
 cation in two-thirds of the States outlaw the liquor 
 traffic forever in the republic. We are even now 
 on the borders of that promised land. We are 
 able to go up and possess it. God grant we be 
 not turned again into the wilderness through 
 unbelief, as were the Israelites who feared the sons 
 of Anak, though they knew that the Great 
 Jehovah was in their camp and had promised 
 them victory. 
 
 “ As women we pray, plead and work, for that 
 party that pledges itself to the protection of our 
 homes. Let us renew the methods of the Crusade, 
 no longer making the saloon but the individual 
 voter our objective point. Parties have neither 
 brain nor heart, voters have both. We must 
 appeal to them. Partisan we are in the Woman’s 
 Christian Temperance Union as individuals ; sym- 
 pathetic with the party that declares itself for 
 Prohibition, we must be in the nature of the case. 
 Nationally, but one party has so declared. Non- 
 partisan in the form and organic law of our 
 society, we most assuredly have been and are, 
 leaving every Union, State, District, County and 
 local to act according to its own convictions.” 
 
 We have given Miss Willard’s able article to 
 our readers hoping that it will be carefully read, 
 and in the hope that every voter that reads it will 
 vote against the liquor traffic. We ask you to 
 
236 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 read it over again and again, and we pray God to 
 open the eyes of every reader so that he may 
 vote as he prays. 
 
A W. C. T. U. REPORTER PAINTS A BAR- 
 ROOM. 
 
 HOW I WOULD PAINT A BAE-EOOM. 
 
 If I had the adorning of a har-rooin, it should 
 he done somewhat in this wise : On one side I 
 would paint Death on the Pale Horse, his arm 
 wielding the thunderbolt, the fiery hoofs of his 
 flying steed treading down everything fair and 
 lovely ; the Garden of Eden before him — a black- 
 ened waste behind him. 
 
 On the other side I would draw the picture of a 
 wretched hovel, once a happy home ; the roof 
 broken in, the windows stuffed with rags, and in 
 the doorway a weeping wife with ragged children 
 clinging to her skirts, piteously beseeching her for 
 bread. In the distance should be seen the once 
 happy husband and father, now a reeling drunk- 
 ard, on his way from the saloon to the hut he now 
 calls his home. 
 
 Back of the bar, in full view of the bloated 
 creatures that stand with the glass to their lips, I 
 would paint a company of demons, in the death- 
 
 dance of fiendish hilarity around a fire kindled 
 
 ( 237 ) 
 
238 
 
 National Heform. 
 
 with the flames of alcohol, and over it I would 
 write ill lurid letters ; 
 
 ^'‘Moderate Drinking Lights the Flames 
 That Burn to the Lowest HellT 
 
 Opposite the bar should be a lonely and dishon- 
 ored grave ; a lightning-blasted tree should stretch 
 its leafless branches over it ; and on the same with- 
 ered bough should perch the melancholy owl hoot- 
 ing to the wintry moon. At the foot of the grave 
 should kneel the Angel of Mercy, with hands and 
 eyes upraised to the pitying heavens ; and at the 
 head of the grave should be the Angel of Justice, 
 carving with stern, relentless hand upon the tomb- 
 stone, these fearful words of doom : 
 
 “Ab Drunkard shall Inherit the Kingdom 
 of GodT 
 
 In the intervening space I would paint a grin- 
 ning skeleton, and then a broken heart, a shat- 
 tered hour-glass, a stranded boat, a torch extin- 
 guished in blackest of darkness; while from over 
 the doorway and the ceiling should look down 
 all kinds of woful human faces — pale, imploring, 
 wrathful, deadly, despairing. 
 
 The walls of the room should be shrouded in 
 sackcloth, and the floor covered with ashes and 
 the bar wreathed in weeping willow and gloomy 
 cypress ; while all the vessels that held the damna- 
 
A W. C. T. U. Reporter Paints a Barroom. 239 
 
 ble fluid should he black — black as the gates of 
 doom. Then I would call the rumseller, if he 
 would, to take his place behind the bar ; and 
 though a few besotted wretches, hardened in cirme, 
 might stagger up to the bar and drink defiance to 
 their fate, yet I should hope that the young — the 
 pride of mothers and the light of homes — might 
 turn away as though they had caught a glimpse 
 of the infernal world. 
 
HONEST REFORMERS. 
 
 The following appeal to the independent citi- 
 zens in all parties, by Chairman Dickie, we give 
 as published in the Lever. AVe wish it could 
 be read by every voter in the land : 
 
 “ 7b the Reformers of America: 
 
 “ It is apparent that there exists an unusually 
 deep thoughtfulness among the American people 
 in regard to political conditions, or they would not 
 ignore the temperance question at the Reform 
 Conventions as they do. Few Avill deny that 
 through inisgovernment, by political parties, 
 which, while largely composed of honest men, 
 have been controlled by corrupt and selfish 
 politicians, the masses are opj^ressed Avith grieA’- 
 ous and unnecessary burdens, under Avhich it is 
 next to impossible to secure for labor the just 
 reAvard Avhich should folloAv it. 
 
 “ THE PEOPLE ARE TIIIXKIXG. 
 
 “ Voters are no longer content to be led to the 
 polls in blind allegiance to parties or candidates 
 from which they have in the past derived no 
 
 benefit. The Avomen of America, Avho by their 
 
 240 
 
Honest Reformers. 
 
 241 
 
 toil and thrift have helped to make its homes and 
 its wealth, and have shared in full measure the 
 undeserved distress, are also studying political 
 problems as never before. Young men starting in 
 citizenship and abhoring the chicanery and 
 duplicity of old party leaders are seeking for 
 political associations in which they may patriotic- 
 ally work for the people. 
 
 “ To the thoughtful and honest citizens of 
 America, we appeal for a hearing. Do not cast 
 this by unread. Those whom we represent desire 
 absolutely nothing but to share in the general 
 good which will follow true reform in the admin- 
 istration of public affairs. We claim the right to 
 a hearing from all those who sincerely desire to 
 bring about political reform. 
 
 “We represent the National Prohibition party. 
 Por twenty, years a hostile pres^ has represented 
 it. Reformers should know where it stands. 
 They should not form their opinions from what 
 its enemies say upon the rostrum and its sub- 
 sidized papers. Read our papers. Hear our 
 speakers. Listen to both sides, you will be then 
 better able to judge which side is right. 
 
 “ NOT A PAETY OF ONLV ONE IDEA. 
 
 “^The platforms of our party since 1872 have 
 rung out clearly and strongly upon the political 
 questions, which from time to time have agitated 
 
 the public mind. 
 
 16 
 
242 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 “ The prohibition party has been from the first 
 the educator of reformers on social, financial and 
 political questions. It has been leading the 
 leaders. 
 
 “ In 1872 this party declared against the liquor 
 traffic, and declared for a civil service reform; 
 substitution of fixed salaries for the extortionate 
 fee and perquisite system in vogue in the -public 
 service ; the election of president, vice-president, 
 and senators by direct vote of the people : a 
 national currency adequate to the demands of 
 business, convertible into gold and silver at the 
 will of the holder ; government control of tele- 
 graphic, railroad and water communication in 
 the interest of the people ; anti-discrimination in 
 revenue laws ; free schools ; equal suffrage. 
 
 “ In 1876 the above principles were re-adopted 
 and in addition thereto j)lanks fav.oring public 
 land to settlers only ; the suppression of stock, 
 produce and gold gambling ; the separation of the 
 money of the government from all banking 
 institutions. 
 
 “In 1880 these principles were enunciated in 
 concise and strong terms, and in 1884 and 1888 
 prohibition again placed itself unequivocally in 
 line with the principles that underlie good 
 government administered in the interest of the 
 masses, and in opposition to all those forms of 
 oppressive class legislation which have tended 
 to the prosperity of the few at the expense of 
 
Honest Reformers. 
 
 243 
 
 the many. The press and speakers of the 
 prohibition party have repeatedly proven their 
 interest in, and co-operation with, the reform 
 spirit of the times. The prohibition party has 
 quickly and honestly responded to the righteous 
 demands of the people, while consistently avoiding 
 the unwise and dangerous policy of advocating 
 any system of class legislation to remedy the 
 serious evils that have already resulted from such 
 legislation. 
 
 “ This broad reform spirit is not assumed; is not 
 a pretext ; but is the natural result of the fact that 
 the prohibition party is born of the people, is 
 controlled by the people, and as an inevitable 
 consequence stands for the people. We invite 
 fair and impartial examination of the literature 
 and public utterances of our party and its 
 advocates, to prove that in all its history it has 
 stood in the forefront as the consistent and fearless 
 champion of political reform. 
 
 “not narrowly partisan. 
 
 “ The Prohibition Party has not been narrowly 
 partisan. In all its history this party has been 
 anxious, not merely for party success, but to ad- 
 vance needed reform. Again and again has jiarty 
 work been temporarily abandoned in order to co- 
 operate with others in efforts to promote temporary 
 good. Frequently the party has refrained from 
 making nominations, and has cast its induence 
 
244 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 and votes for the nominees of other reform parties, 
 where such action seemed desirable in the interest 
 of reform. Prohibitionists have desired, not so 
 much the election of this party, as for the success 
 of a new party which would stand firm for needed 
 reforms, and against the liquor traffic. 
 
 “We want a reform party to exist that will, by 
 rigid principles and incessant efforts, elect to 
 power parties which will enact and enforce laws 
 based on these j)rinciples. 
 
 “ WHY KEFORM EFFORTS FAIL. 
 
 “ W e honor the noble men and women who have 
 given their efforts toward the formation of reform 
 parties. We share in their disappointment in 
 that these parties have failed to accomplish their 
 noble purposes. We have watched with interest 
 the present movement in that direction. Many of 
 our best men and women have co-operated therein ; 
 but, fellow-reformers, the new party cannot bring 
 about the needed reforms which the people de- 
 mand, lacking the vital elements (the extermi- 
 nation of the liquor traffic). The new party must 
 make the temperance movement one of the 
 planks in their platform, if they wish to succeed, 
 or it cannot attain to any power by which it can 
 shape legislation, and it would fail. If we did not 
 mention the diverse opinions, the clashing inter- 
 ests, the personal differences, which have already 
 operated to weaken and disintegrate, there is one 
 
Honest liefonners. 
 
 245 
 
 element which to our sorrow, and through no fault 
 of honest, true reformers, has secured controlling 
 influence in its counsels, and which deprives it of 
 all claim to the support of reformers. 
 
 “No reform movement can hope to succeed by 
 yielding to the dictation or blandishments of the 
 arch-enemy of all reforms — the liquor traffic. Yes, 
 the liquor traffic is the greatest monopoly in the 
 land; it is the corrupt tool of other monopolies. 
 It, as well as all other monopolies, exists only 
 through the suffrage of the two old parties. The 
 liquor power wants no new party to complicate its 
 interests. Therefore, they wish to kill the reform 
 party just as other similar organizations have been 
 killed by the same power when it had no longer 
 use for them. 
 
 “hope eoe eefoem. 
 
 “ What, then, is there no hope for reform ? Yes. 
 The National Prohibition Party will continue to 
 ffght until reform is secured. We believe that the 
 liquor traffic is the greatest enemy of all reform 
 movements. We believe that the friends of re- 
 forms should unite against this enemy of all 
 reforms, and that the liquor traffic must go down 
 to its grave in order to make way for the reforms 
 needed. 
 
 “ The Prohibition Party wants the prohibition 
 of the liquor traffic as a first step towards the pro- 
 hibition of unjust monopolies and trusts, the prohi- 
 
246 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 bition of the control of the means of communica- 
 tion and transportation by private corporations 
 for private advantages, the prohibition of the issue 
 of money except the direct issue by the National 
 Government, the prohibition of all gambling, in- 
 cluding stock-gambling ; the prohibition of land- 
 grants to speculators and land-owners by aliens, 
 the prohibition of the political degradation of 
 women (in not allowing women a vote. The Pro- 
 hibition Party is for woman suffrage). 
 
 “ THE PARTY OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 “Fellow reformers: Why waste time, money 
 and effort in trying to build up a new party, 
 when the reform party of this nation already 
 exists? (Come in with us, we can agree on a 
 name that will not separate us.) Consider its 
 elements of strength. It is born of the reform 
 people. It has a natural and growing constitu- 
 ency in the churches and schools, and the homes 
 of our land. Strong societies are in existence to 
 promulgate its principles. Hundreds of thous- 
 ands of women are organized to advance its 
 interests, millions more of women are working for 
 its success. It is well organized throughout the 
 Union, has its national, state and county com- 
 mittees of honorable men. It is growing steadily. 
 It has a strong and influential press. It has a gen- 
 erous national fund, and good state funds contrib- 
 uted by people in moderate circumstances, and not 
 
Honest Refonners. 
 
 247 
 
 by a few wealthy men, as has been erroneously 
 stated by our enemies. 
 
 “ Our voters are honest and are as determined as 
 they are honest. They will never recede from the 
 position they have taken. It is a part of their 
 religion. 
 
 “ Again we ask, why waste time, money and 
 effort in building a new party when your party 
 already exists ? 
 
 “ A party born of the needs of the people and 
 destined in good time to supply those needs. 
 Only you voters can say when that good time 
 shall arrive. Come into our ranks, help us with 
 your wisdom, your zeal, your energy, your votes. 
 We want no self-seeking politician, we want no 
 corrupt office-seeker, but want honest men and 
 honest women. 
 
 “ WILL YOU COME ? 
 
 “ As for members of the Prohibition party, they 
 are pledged to secure the prohibition of the liquor 
 traffic. We are sure we are right, sure that victory 
 will come and in this belief, ‘ having done all we 
 can will stand ’ firm as a party and work and vote 
 until we dethrone corruption and favoritism in 
 politics, and establish a righteous government of 
 and by, and for the whole people. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF ALCOHOL AND ITS PURPOSE. 
 
 Once as the devil full of •v'rath, 
 
 Was pacing around his burning path, 
 
 He racked his brain with every plan, 
 
 To punish poor, weak, silly man. 
 
 Of all dire plans which he possessed. 
 
 He chose the one he thought the best. 
 
 Said he, “I will make alcohol ; 
 
 With it I can make men fall ; 
 
 And woman, too, shall not escape; 
 
 I’ll punish her in every shape. 
 
 In politics I’ll take my stand. 
 
 To sway my scepter o’er the land.” 
 
 In every town his agents stood. 
 
 To snare the evil and the good. 
 Saloon-traps he made to catch his game. 
 In town and city just the same. 
 
 In the saloon he makes his home. 
 
 And politicians to him come. 
 
 To vote for him he gives them rum ; 
 
 He knows just who to him will come. 
 
 To beat God's plans is all his aim. 
 
 And all elections he tries to gain. 
 
 In both now he takes the lead. 
 
 And unto him they both give heed. 
 ( 248 ) 
 
National Reform. 
 
 249 
 
 
 In Conventions then they make a show, 
 And good and bad together go. 
 
 They get their work in all too soon, 
 
 And plan it all for the saloon. 
 
 Some men will go to the saloon 
 If wife and children starve at home. 
 
 Then like a silly sheep or goat. 
 
 He drives them up and makes them vote. 
 The true Christian will say, “ Nay; 
 
 I always vote just as I pray.” 
 
 Voters, God will hear you on election day, 
 If you will all vote just as you pray. 
 
NEED OF REFORM. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MIXING THE LOAD. 
 
 On the last day of April, 1869, Dan King, with 
 his wife Susan, and four children, reached Coloma, 
 having emigrated from the hanks of the Missis- 
 sijipi, stimulated hy the hope of bettering his tem- 
 poral condition. They were Christian people of 
 pure hearts, devoted to God and his service ; they 
 had received the advantages of good mental and 
 physical culture and were hopeful of the future. 
 
 He had three good teams and a few hundred dol- 
 lars. He stretched his tent near the old Sutter mill 
 in California, where gold was first discovered. 
 
 They found themselves amidst strange surround- 
 ings. All races and conditions of mankind were 
 represented, and excitement pervaded all. Fabu- 
 lous amounts of gold were being washed out every 
 day by successful miners from the river bars — 
 fabulous prices were charged for all articles of use 
 or necessity. Men, released from the restraints of 
 society, drank, gambled and maimed each other. 
 Coloma was the central point for a large territory. 
 A few days after his arrival King started with his 
 
 team to bring provisions from Sacramento, fifty 
 
 ( 250 ) 
 
National Reform. 
 
 251 
 
 miles distant, to procure winter supplies for his 
 family. On the road he overtook a tired, dusty 
 traveler, who asked for a ride. 
 
 “Jump in,” said King, “ Where are you going ? ” 
 
 “Don’t know,” said the man, “Just arrived, 
 broke. I want a job to earn some money, then 
 I’m going to the mines. Where are you going ? ” 
 
 “Oh, I’m going to Sacramento after provisions 
 and miners’ tools, then I shall return to Coloipa. 
 I intend to go to mining this winter.” 
 
 “Well, I wish you would give me something to 
 eat, and I will go back with you and work till I 
 pay you for it at your own price. Hayes is my 
 name, and I am from Indiana.” 
 
 “All right,” said King. When he drew up to his 
 tent on his return, the miners from all over the 
 country left their mines and hurried towards him. 
 He was glad to find his family all well, and sur- 
 prised to see so many men gathering around his 
 tent. 
 
 “G-ot any whisky, Mr. King?” was the first 
 question from a half-dozen persons at once. 
 
 “ Ho, sir ; I don’t sell whisky,” said King firmly. 
 
 “ You don’t? Well, you will before you’re here 
 long.” 
 
 “Well,” said another, drawing from his pocket 
 a well-filled purse, “ I’m first, and I want some of 
 everything you’ve got in them wagons, no difier- 
 ence about the price. Here is the gold to pay for 
 it. Put up your scales.” 
 
252 
 
 Need of Reform. 
 
 
 The balances for weighing gold were adjusted on 
 a box, and the miner’s purse was found to contain 
 twenty-five ounces, worth $400. He had several 
 men employed at an ounce per day, and they pro- 
 cured their provisions from him. He received from 
 King four hundred pounds of Hour, potatoes, onions, 
 coffee, sugar, bacon and beans, in exchange for the 
 contents of his purse. Another came, and another, 
 and before night King had sold out all of his two 
 loads. 
 
 Just at sunset a man with two horses drove up 
 near King’s tent. 
 
 “What you got?” yelled the crowd. 
 
 “ Whisky ! red eye ! ” shouted the teamster. 
 
 “ How much ? ” eagerly questioned the crowd. 
 
 “Fifty cents a drink.” 
 
 “ Give me a drink ! ” 
 
 The man had two boys with him, and the three 
 commenced drawing the whisky, and by sunrise he 
 had sold out. 
 
 “All gone, and still they come ! ” he exclaimed, 
 as he sauntered into King’s tent. He sat down 
 and poured upon the ground, from a sack, his coin. 
 After counting his coin and weighing his dust, 
 King said to him : “ How much did your load 
 amount to ? ” 
 
 “Just six thousand dollars.” 
 
 “ Goodness ! That’s as much as my two loads 
 came to. I hauled up provisions and tools, miners’ 
 tools.” Turning to his wife. King said, “ You hear 
 
National Reform. 
 
 253 
 
 that, Susan, what do you think of that? This 
 man gets as much for a two-horse load of whisky, 
 as I got for my two four-horse loads of provisions 
 and tools.” 
 
 “Well, Dan, nobody has any regard for religion 
 here ; we are entirely out of place here among 
 these people. I think you had better mix your 
 load next time.” 
 
 The load was mixed, half miners’ general sup- 
 plies, and half miners’ special supplies — whisky. 
 He sold one barrel on the road, clearing a dollar a 
 pound for freight. Leaving his load with Mrs. 
 King, he hastily returned and brought up another. 
 This was repeated several times before winter. A 
 large hotel took the place of the tent. Before the 
 rainy season set in, he had a large stock of sup- 
 plies, particularly whisky and other liquors. 
 When a man came to King and said : “ I am 
 broke, have just arrived, would you credit me with 
 a miners’ outht?” King was not the man to say, 
 no. He was a generous, noble-hearted man, thirty- 
 live years old. Mrs. King was a woman of rare 
 mental ability, very sympathetic by nature, kind- 
 hearted and self-sacrificing. She was ever ready 
 to minister to the wants of the needy and afflicted. 
 Deeds of violence were common, and she often wit- 
 nessed them, and devoted herself to relieve the 
 suffering victim of many a conflict. At the time 
 the hotel took the place of the tent, a large, square 
 room was erected for a dining-room. Dan King 
 
254 
 
 Need of Reform. 
 
 liad gone to Sacramento for goods, when, one day, 
 a man drove up in a light wagon. He was well- 
 dressed, polite and affable. He walked into the 
 tent, and calling up all hands that were standing 
 around, invited them to take a drink, and threw 
 down a Mexican coin called an ounce. All drank 
 but one, Iria Long. He refused, saying, “Ho, I 
 never do drink, and I wish the rest of you did not.’’ 
 Mrs. King was about to make change, when he said 
 to her, “Hever mind; you are putting up a hotel, 
 I see.” “ Yes, sir, that is the dining room just fin- 
 ished,” said she, pointing to the large, square 
 room. 
 
 “ Well, where will you have your bar? ” (a bar 
 had not been put up ; the customers were served 
 by drawing from the barrel into tin cups). 
 
 “ Oh, I am not going to have any bar in my 
 dining-room ! ” 
 
 “I will give $10 j)er day, cash, for a table four 
 feet square, right here in this corner, to deal monte 
 on. I will run night and day and will agree to in- 
 sure you a sale amounting to 0100 per day from 
 m}^ table to your bar. Come, put up your bar; 
 your receipts will be from 0300 to 0500 per daj^ ; I 
 will give you 0300 per mouth and leave you your 
 hotel table over there.” Such logic could not be 
 resisted. The devil wins. Mrs. King said, “ I will 
 take it.” 
 
 “ Of course you will tend bar for me ? ” 
 
 “ Ho; I never thought of such a thing! ” 
 
National Reform. 
 
 255 
 
 “Well, that is my understanding. You put up 
 the bar and rent me the table at $10 per day.” 
 
 A crowd gathered around them. A man in the 
 crowd said, “ I Avant a table here in this corner to 
 deal faro.” Another said, “ I want a table here for 
 poker, I Avill pay $10.” The result was the men 
 brought in their tables in half an hour from the 
 beginning of the above conversation. In one hour 
 a rough counter Avas in place, and upon a shelf be- 
 hind it were five dozen bottles of Avhisky. The 
 whole room was soon jammed full of rough miners 
 trying to reach the gambling tables. The bar was 
 next day extended the length of the room ; before 
 night she had tliree bar-tenders ; she did nothing 
 but weigh out the gold dust. On Mr. King’s return 
 he decided to remain at home. He would superin- 
 tend the Avhole. They would soon be rich. About 
 five o’clock the next day a dispute occurred and 
 two pistol shots settled the matter, two men lay 
 stretched out on the floor, one was dead, the other 
 wounded, groaning and swearing ; there were two 
 physicians in the croAvd avIio cared for the wounded 
 man. The dead man they carried to one side, and 
 carpenters set to work to make a coffin. In one 
 hour he Avas put in his grave under a pine tree, and 
 all evidence of the terrible work was cleared away 
 and the games were proceeding as though nothing 
 had happened. The attentions to the wounded 
 man that Mrs. King gave in the days and weeks 
 that followed, were so tender and womanly, that 
 
256 
 
 Need of Reform. 
 
 all were praising her ; no one sought her sympathy 
 in vain. The man recovered, and left for jDarts un- 
 known; his name was Iria Long, the temperance 
 man who had refused to drink. We will speak of 
 him in the future. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 TEMPTED AMD TPvIED. 
 
 Dan King hired teamsters and kept his teams 
 constantly busy. His daily receipts were nearly 
 one thousand dollars. On Sunday they frequently 
 amounted to $1,500. Some of the men that got 
 broke at the bar and gaming tables, came to King 
 and asked for work. “ I have no work,” said King. 
 “Mr. King,” interrupted a bystander, “I have an 
 ounce a day claim which I will sell for two hun- 
 dred dollars. I got broke at poker, and I want 
 some money.” 
 
 “Well,” said King, “show it to these men, and 
 tell them how to work.” 
 
 “Well,” said the miner, “anybody can do the 
 work. It’s going on all around.” 
 
 Hayes, the man picked up by King on his first 
 trip to Sacramento, was given charge of the work 
 at five dollars a day and board. Every fifteen feet 
 was a claim, and the ground was all being worked- 
 
National Reform. 
 
 257 
 
 They went to work under Hayes, all green hands. 
 The miner, Henry Hixe, took his two hundred dol- 
 lars, walked deliberately up to one of the gam- 
 bling tables, which had stacked up on one side ten 
 thousand dollars in gold dust, on the other side 
 was gold coin to the amount of over five thousand 
 dollars. In one hour and a half he had broken the 
 bank, and opened on his own account. 
 
 When night came. King’s ten men came in with 
 an aggregate of $200. The next day they had 
 five hundred dollars’ worth of gold dust, and the 
 next day they brought in eight hundred. They 
 had struck a rich pocket from which they after- 
 wards took $50,000. It all belonged to Dan King 
 except the five dollars a day and board. One man 
 skipped with over ten thousand dollars’ worth of 
 gold dust that belonged to King. 
 
 “ Where is Tom Bean ? ” said King ; “ he has 
 not paid his board, and has stolen ten thousand 
 dollars’ worth of the gold dust. I think that is 
 mean.” 
 
 “ Oh, Dan, here you are complaining and not 
 thanking God as you ought for our prosperity.” 
 
 “ Mind your own business,” said King in reply 
 to his wife ; “ I need none of your interference in 
 this business.” 
 
 “ I did not think that success in our business 
 would make my husband so selfish.” 
 
 The winter of ’66 set in with heavy rains. King 
 had built good houses and barns, and had a large 
 
258 
 
 Need of Reform. 
 
 supply of provisions and whisky. The bar was 
 open day and night. No one would ever think 
 this was the King family, that were such good 
 Christian people down on the Mississippi, such a 
 change had taken place. 
 
 To the reader who is not familiar with the early 
 history of mining in California, the transformation 
 of character herein delineated may appear alto- 
 gether improbable. But the circumstances were 
 peculiar ; men found themselves surrounded by in- 
 fluences new and strange. Kind, thoughtful, con- 
 siderate and Christian men were radically changed, 
 some into cold, heartless monsters of selfishness 
 and greed, others into dissipated, careless spend- 
 thrifts, while still others threw off every restraint, 
 and gave themselves up to gratification of passion 
 and appetite. 
 
 In the case of King, the unusual opportunities 
 offered for accumulating wealth rapidly turned all 
 his thoughts in a sordid direction. In addition to 
 this, he had accidentally, as it Avere, drifted into 
 business pursuits which brought large profits and 
 deadened imperceptibly all the naturally noble 
 traits in his character. If he had stopped to rea- 
 son with himself, his natural instincts would hare 
 caused him to turn with disgust from his present 
 occupation, but, compromising with his conscience 
 under a plea that it was only for a little time, and 
 that others were ready to do Avhat he Avas doing if 
 he Avithdrew, he continued month after month to 
 
N^ational Reform. 
 
 259 
 
 harden his heart against his fellows, for the sake 
 of gaining gold. He did not realize that moral 
 rnin was sure to result from this prostitution of 
 moral to material interests, and in his blindness he 
 kept on, silencing all his better impulses by tak- 
 ing, day after day, the hard earnings of others, 
 without rendering an equivalent. The result was 
 that in the space of a few months, he had $200,000 
 in gold, and mammon had become his God. With 
 Mrs. King the case was dilferent. Her besetting 
 sin was in another direction ; her sympathies were 
 always with the weak and needy, hence the change 
 in her husband was a distressing revelation to her. 
 Thoughtlessly, and entirely through her desire to 
 add to the enjoyment of others, she had frequently 
 sipped the social glass, without thinking that the 
 exhilaration which she sometimes experienced was 
 closely allied to intoxication. She had observed 
 with much pain and solicitude the increasing greed 
 and selfishness of her husband and no thought of 
 danger to herself had ever crossed her mind until 
 her husband’s words im]3lied that her manner was 
 not natural. She then said, “And I am to blame 
 jbr it all, for I told him to mix his load.” She then 
 lesolved to guard against further indulgence. A 
 few days afterwards she fell ill, and during a pro- 
 tracted sickness, used wine and liquor in various 
 forms continuously, in obedience to the instruction 
 of the attending physician. After convalescence 
 it was prescribed thrice daily, and when in March 
 
260 
 
 Need of Reform. 
 
 she resumed her household duties, she found it 
 convenient, and, as she believed, necessary to con- 
 tinue the practice. 
 
 Hayes, after working out King’s claim, had 
 struck a rich deposit of his own from which he 
 had washed out the handsome sum of 660,000 
 which he intrusted to Mrs. King's care. He was a 
 scholarly, Christian gentleman, and manifested 
 much kindly interest in Mrs. King’s family. He 
 had been an inmate of the family since his first 
 acquaintance with them, and had regularly taught 
 their children, and a few others, in a log cabin in 
 the rear of the hotel. 
 
 One Sunday Mrs. King, flushed with drink, went 
 out for a walk, and passing, unperceived, the open 
 door of Hayes’ cabin, overheard Hayes in prayer. 
 “It is a heavy cross to bear, but help me, O God, 
 to warn that man, who is so cold, so selfish, so 
 given over to hardness of heart, and love of gold to 
 turn to Thee. And, 0 Lord, save that woman from 
 the appetite that is leading her to ruin. Permit 
 not the evil one to win them away from Thee.” 
 
 She turned away without having been seen. 
 Every fibre of her being was shaken, shocked by 
 the discovery she had just made. She hastened to 
 her room, saying to herself, “ Is this so ? O heaven ! 
 AVhat is wealth and fortune at such a cost, such a 
 sacrifice ! ” 
 
 She tried to pray, but her lips refused to move, 
 her thoughts could not be concentrated. Again 
 
National Reform. 
 
 261 
 
 she sat down and tried to realize her situation. 
 She knew she was to blame, for it was she who 
 had said to her husband, “ You had better mix your 
 load.” She thought of this and said, “ O, go away, 
 devil, do not tempt me any more. God help me to 
 do better. I am drunk now. Oh, what shall I do ? ” 
 The entrance of her children turned her thoughts 
 towards their teacher. She sent Peter, her eldest 
 son, to tell Mr. Hayes to come to her house, she 
 wished to see him. Hayes soon made his appear- 
 ance, when she said : “ I have sent for you, Mr. 
 Hayes, to seek your advice. A sudden impulse to 
 return to my old home on the Mississippi has 
 seized me. I want you to find out when the 
 steamer sails, and further, I want you to remain 
 here, and fill my place in this house.” 
 
 “You surprise me, Mrs. King,” said Hayes; 
 “ this indeed seems a very sudden determination. 
 What do you wish me to do ? ” 
 
 “ I want you to take my place here ; hire and 
 supervise the help and attend to weighing the gold 
 dust at the bar, as I do.” 
 
 “Mrs. King,” said Hayes solemnly, “I would not 
 for any price sell a man a glass of whisky, or take 
 the money in payment of one. I cannot, I will not 
 do it! ” 
 
 “Well, King can attend to the business, I sup- 
 pose. He will stay, of course. He is getting to 
 hate me because I rebuke his selfishness, and I 
 know we are both going to ruin here. I dare not 
 
262 
 
 Need of Reform. 
 
 stay any longer here and risk the consequences 
 of daily contact with this vile business in which we 
 are engaged. Please find out how soon the steamer 
 sails, and I will arrange with Mr. King.” 
 
 Hayes left the house and she sent one of the 
 children to call their father. 
 
 “AYhat do you want?” said King, sullenly, as 
 he entered the room. 
 
 “Well,” said she' tenderly, “I have determined 
 upon a thing suddenly, and ask your kind consent- 
 We must quit this vile business and leave here 
 or hell will be our portion. You wind up the busi- 
 ness as soon as you can and we will leave.” She 
 continued, “We have made more money than we 
 thought of ever having. We must give up this vile 
 business, forsake our sins, return to our former 
 course of life, and amid old scenes and friends be 
 ha2Dpy. The seduction of the cup oveiqDOwers my 
 mental and moral strength. I will return to that 
 society in which we were so happy. I will never 
 take another drink or sell one.” “But, Susan, you 
 know I cannot go with you ; if you want to go, why 
 go. I will stay here.” “Well,” said she, “I am 
 going on the first steamer.” King gave his con- 
 sent, and the details of her journey were all 
 arranged before he left the room. Mrs. King and 
 the children, in three days thereafter, were on the 
 way to their old home on the Mississippi river. 
 There King and his wife had been Christian peo- 
 ple ; they were members of the Methodist Church, 
 
National Reform. 
 
 263 
 
 and were teachers in the Sunday-school, and had 
 never drank any intoxicating liquor. 
 
 Mrs. King and children arrived at her father’s 
 house in the night, taking them all by surprise. 
 As soon as it became known that Mrs. King had 
 returned from California, the house was crowded 
 by scores of people eager to ask questions about 
 the land of gold, and why she had returned so un- 
 expectedly; all anxious to know all about the 
 mining interest in California. She gave to all such 
 information as she possessed on the various phases 
 of gold digging, and of the social life of the people. 
 
 A young preacher asked her if there was any 
 chance for a strong, sober man, to get the gold. 
 
 “ Yes ! Oh, yes,” she said. 
 
 “ Then would you advise me to go ? ” 
 
 “Ko, never! never I ” said she, emphatically. 
 
 “ Why ? Why not ? ” questioned several at once. 
 
 “ Because I have learned that some things are 
 more precious than gold. The climate is delight- 
 ful, the gold is plenty, and the country grand, but 
 it is a terrible place of wickedness and vice. True 
 manhood seems to shrink and shrivel before the 
 temptations there existing. Drunkenness, gam- 
 bling and debauchery seem to be a natural conse- 
 quence in the search for gold. All moral consider- 
 ations disappear. Men forget all their obligations 
 to Cod and their fellows ; throw otf all disguise 
 and revel in depravity. Scarcely any are proof 
 against the allurements of vicious pleasure. Men 
 
264 
 
 Xeed of Reform. 
 
 who are ordained to preach the gospel, forget their 
 vows, and descend to the vilest of beings. God is 
 forgotten and his laws are trampled under foot. I 
 have lied, as it were, to escape the dangers and 
 snares of California life. Do not leave your safe 
 and quiet homes for the dangers and strifes of that 
 land.” 
 
 She believed that she had overcome, through 
 penitence and prayer, her appetite for strong 
 drink, but to no one save her mother did she re- 
 veal the real reason of her sudden return. Of Mr. 
 King, she only said, “ He, also, is much changed, 
 but in a different way.” To Mr. King’s brothers, 
 who declared their purpose to go to California, she 
 said, “ Take my advice and do not go. The chances 
 are not worth the risk. Men make wrecks of them- 
 selves without realizing it. Grace may keej) some 
 safely, but it is a fearful struggle.” 
 
 “ Why does brother Dan never write to us ? ” 
 said his brother Charlie. “We have not received 
 a letter from him for two years, while yours came 
 regularly.” 
 
 She answered evasively, “His heart seems set 
 on getting rich. I have brought each of you two 
 thousand dollars ; that will pay your debts and 
 give yoii a home. Stay here and take care of 
 your father and mother, and enjoy your lives in a 
 rational way.” 
 
 “ Brother Dan was a kind brother, he was a 
 
National Reform. 
 
 265 
 
 Ohristiai), a fine scholar, the most manly man I 
 ever saw. How has he changed? ” 
 
 “ Please don’t ask me, hut take my advice and 
 remain here.” 
 
 After she had visited all her friends, and several 
 weeks had passed away and she had received no 
 news from California, she began to think of return- 
 ing to her husband. One morning her mother was 
 surprised to find her packing her trunks. “ I am 
 going back to California. I have been very happy 
 here since my return, and I have just concluded 
 that Dan will not come as he agreed to, and I must 
 go and try to bring him. I iiave not told you all 
 our business, and I cannot, it overwhelms me with 
 shame, not that it is unlawful ; on the contrary, it 
 is highly respectable out there. It will not do for 
 Mr. King to remain there, and me stay here. He 
 agreed to close up our business and return, but now 
 I fear he aimed to deceive me. I have now renewed 
 my covenant of grace and had a delightful visit, 
 and my place is with my husband. I will try to 
 bring him back here. I shall bid every one of my 
 friends good-bye to-day, and take the ten o’clock 
 train to-night.” And true to her word she left on 
 the night train, and in due time she landed in San 
 Francisco with her children. She entered a car- 
 riage and was on her way to a hotel, when, looking- 
 out of the carriage window at a new, large build- 
 ing, she was surprised to see in large letters over 
 the door, “Dan King, Wholesale Liquor Dealer,” 
 
266 
 
 Need of Reform. 
 
 and standing in the door she saw her husband. 
 She stopped the carriage, her husband came up to 
 the carriage and she and her children alighted. 
 
 “ What does this mean ? ” said she. “ When 
 will wonders cease ! ” 
 
 “ 0, Susan ! how glad I am to see you and the 
 children again,” said King, hurriedly. 
 
 Leading them into his store he said : “After you 
 left, a druggist came to our house in Coloma, who 
 knew how to make all kinds of liquors from drugs 
 and essential oils. He worked for me there for 
 several weeks, and finding that he was master of 
 his art, I left the business in charge of a friend and 
 came down here to engage in the wholesale liquor 
 business, and I deal in California wine. Here is 
 some of the richest wine you ever drank,” said he, 
 handing her a glass of California wine, “ and my 
 sales are over three thousand dollars per day. 
 Here, drink this, why don’t you?” “I do not 
 want to drink ; do not tempt me ! I had a pleasant 
 trip. I made everybody around the old home 
 happy. I intend never to drink wine or beer or 
 any kind of liquor. I told my heavenly Father, 
 when the ship sailed that carried me away from 
 California, that I would never drink a drop of 
 any intoxicating liquor, and I have so far kept 
 my word, and I do not want to see you in this 
 business, Dan.” 
 
 “ But what brought you back, then, Susan ? 
 What brought you back? I was not as much sur- 
 
National Reform. 
 
 267 
 
 prised when you aiiuonuced your intention to go 
 back to your father in Mississippi, as I am to see 
 you here again in California.” 
 
 “ I came back, Dan, to try to save you. I want 
 3 ^ou to quit this infernal liquor business, and go 
 back to Mississippi with me. None of our friends 
 there know that you ever kept or sold liquor ; they 
 are all Christians. Dan, I told the first lie I ever 
 told in my life when I told them you were still a 
 Christian. Mother asked me if we had a Meth- 
 odist Church here. I told her, ‘No’. ‘But,’ said 
 mother, ‘ you and Dan are still true Christians ? ’ I 
 said, ‘ Yes.’ God forgive me for that lie. Will you 
 go back, Dan ? ” 
 
 “ No, I will never go back, Susan,” said Dan. 
 “No, I do not want to go back; I am making 
 money.” 
 
 “ I do, Mr. King,” said his wife. “ I would cheer- 
 fully surrender all we have made, if the past three 
 years could be wiped out. We have lost our 
 religion, and that is worth more to us than all the 
 gold in California. We are now estranged from 
 God, like a ship at sea without a rudder, drifting 
 with the tide.” 
 
 “ Did you not suggest that I mix my load the 
 second trip from Sacramento to Coloma ? ” 
 
 “Yes, God forgive me! and you fell so easily. 
 It did not take as many arguments to convince you 
 as it did Adam. We are in the sinful business ; 
 God help 1 How we will get out is the problem. 
 
268 
 
 Need of Reform. 
 
 Three years has bound us to this wicked business 
 with chains hard for us to break.” 
 
 “ I do not want to get out of the business or undo 
 the past,” said King. 
 
 Calmly, yet glad to survey the lost ground, and 
 determined to do so without a scene, ]\Irs. King^ 
 said: “Many a slave loves his chains; we have 
 both lost, Mr. King, what we never can regain in 
 this business. I went to Mississippi fully deter- 
 mined to abandon this liquor business forever, and 
 to get my heavenly Father’s forgiveness. I be- 
 lieved I had found grace to stand. Oh, where is 
 Mr. Hayes ? It was his prayer for you and me that 
 God would make us see our wrong-doings in this 
 business that made me go back to Mississippi. I 
 want him to come here and pray with us.” 
 
 “ Here I am,” said Hayes ; “ and if I can assist 
 you, may God help me to do so. Mr. King, my 
 advice to you is to close out your business and go 
 back with your wife and children to your old 
 home.” 
 
 “Ko, Hayes, I shall not go back. She can go 
 back if she wants to, but I will not. You are a 
 very good preacher, but you can never get me to 
 give up my business. Everybodj^ deals in liquor 
 here, ^ye all came here to make money, and I 
 never drank ; I do not fear that I will ever be a 
 drunkard,” said King. 
 
 “Well, I shall go back,” said Mrs. King; “and 
 
National Reform. 269 
 
 I will take my cliildren with me. I will now 
 pray.” 
 
 Going over to where King was standing, she 
 kneeled down and prayed God to touch her hus- 
 band’s heart and to help her to do her duty. Her 
 prayer brought tears to the eyes of Hayes, who 
 was near by, but her husband turned away and 
 went out of the house. 
 
 "^‘Mrs. King,” asked Mr. Hayes, “what can I do 
 to assist you? Just name it. I have prayed for 
 you and your husband that God would save you 
 from the appetite of strong drink.” 
 
 “I know that, Mr. Hayes,” replied Mrs. King; 
 '^‘‘andlwish I had stayed in Mississippi when I 
 went back.” 
 
 Just then three shots were heard in the bar-room. 
 Hayes opened the door and found King badly 
 wounded, and two men killed. This was the result 
 of California wine and gambling. The next day. 
 King was found dead in his bed by his wife ; he 
 bad died of the wound received the day before. 
 
 After King was buried, Mrs. King took what 
 money was on hand belonging to King ($100,000), 
 saying, “ I will not close up the business ; I will 
 leave it all, and go back to mother and friends.” 
 
 She asked Mr. Hayes if he would assist her to 
 get away. He said, “Yes; when will you start?” 
 
 “ To-night,” she said. “And I will set fire to the 
 house and burn up all the wine and whisky in it ; 
 no one shall ever drink it, and I will not sell it.” 
 
270 
 
 JSFeed of Reform. 
 
 
 Mr. Hayes ordered a team, and shipped all of 
 Mrs. King’s goods that she wished to take with 
 her. Then she poured oil all over the floor up 
 stairs, so it would burn readily. She then went 
 into the cellar, and turned open a barrel of coal 
 oil, and then she left the place. She had been 
 gone only one hour when some one threw a match 
 down on the cellar step)s. It reached the oil while 
 burning, and the house was soon in flames. 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 AT THE OLD HOME. 
 
 In due time, Mrs. King arrived at her father’s 
 house in Mississippi, where we will leave her 
 happy in the society of her Christian friends. She 
 has joined the W. C. T. U., and is to-day one of 
 its noble workers. She says Kate Field never 
 could have any influence over her, for she knows 
 more about the result of California wines than any 
 one can tell her. We will leave the reader to be 
 the j udge. 
 
 We will now return to Mr. Hayes. He has been 
 very successful in everything he has ventured into. 
 He has now in his possession S100,000. He bought 
 land and built houses, and put poor men to work 
 on his land. He had friends all over the country 
 who were praising him for his kindness to the 
 
National Reform. 
 
 271 
 
 poor. And all the appurtenances of a promising- 
 American settlement were now to be found on 
 Hayes’ land. They had plowed and sowed half 
 the land to grain, and were planting large crops 
 of potatoes. They also had school-houses and 
 churches. There were 300 settlers within the 
 limits of his grant. These settlers were from the 
 best families in the States from east, north, south 
 and west, and were mostly Christian people, lovers 
 of law and order. Hayes had selected that class 
 for his colony. He was a kind, Christian gentle- 
 man. 
 
 Harry Miller, a son of one of the men who were 
 killed in King’s bar-room, was to work for Mr. 
 Hayes. After the murder, he asked Hayes to take 
 his mother and sister out onto his farm. 
 
 “Yes,” said Hayes, “and Mrs. Dillon and her 
 children. Take them with you. They have no 
 home now, for when James Dillon was murdered, 
 he had lost ten thousand dollars in King’s bar- 
 room at the monte table. He had refused to give 
 it up, and that was what caused his death.” 
 
 Hayes bought more land, paying $40,000 for one 
 tract ten miles square. This he divided into five 
 acres each. 
 
 “ This,” said Hayes, “ is for a school-house,” 
 pointing to a new house he had just finished. 
 
 “And what is that?” asked a bystander. 
 
 “ That is a church I have put up in hopes we 
 can have Sunday-school and meetings in it.” 
 
272 
 
 Need of Reform. 
 
 Hayes was very popular. He held meetings at 
 all the school-houses, and in every way labored 
 earnestly to warn the peojtle against the dangerous 
 power of the saloons. He endeavored to show them 
 that their homes were the one treasure to be prized 
 and defended against all intrusion or molestation. 
 He said: ‘‘Hot one of you who has a title for 
 your home but what is a better man for having it. 
 Your wives and children are better for having a 
 home. You now have schools. By industry and 
 economy, and the practice of morality and the 
 observance of religious duty, jmu will build up a 
 y prosperous and happy community. Six hundred 
 homes thus established on the James river in Vir- 
 ginia in 1611 were the foundation of all American 
 civilization. Romulus, by dividing up the land 
 among 700 followers, was the founder of Rome, 
 that vast power that forced a whole world to pay 
 tribute. All the grand civilization and wisdom 
 and learning of the Greeks were based upon the 
 home, the beginning of which was smaller than 
 yours. The home condition is the only one in 
 which men always improve, and I would not be 
 afraid to guarantee an empire to sj^ring from this 
 beginning if it were not for the wine interest and 
 the saloons. They are your worst enemies, and 
 there will be no failures here except those caused 
 by their existence among you. Again I warn you 
 against them. Never touch, taste nor handle wine, 
 nor beer, nor any kind of intoxicating liquors, and 
 
National Reform. 
 
 273 
 
 you are safe. It is the first drink that makes the ’ 
 drunkard. If the first drink never was taken, 
 there would never have been any saloons, and 
 there would be happy homes to-day that are now 
 unhappy. Remember the fact — for it is a fact — 
 that the men who are sober, religious and temper- 
 ate, will own all the land here, all their homes. 
 They will have happy homes if liquor is kept out 
 of their reach.” 
 
 The saloon interest denounced Hayes on all occa- 
 sions. He hated the saloons and never entered 
 one ; he could not bear to pass one. 
 
 Just at this time Hayes received a summons to 
 attend the bedside of his sick mother. Hastily 
 giving directions to his foreman to look after his 
 business, he took his departure on the steamer for 
 San Francisco, where he took the train for Ohio, 
 his old home. Mr. Hayes lost no time in his 
 travels, so anxious was he to reach his mother’s 
 side before her death. When he arrived, a death- 
 like stillness pervaded all the surroundings. 
 Making his way at once to his home, he pushed 
 open the door, without waiting to rap, and entered. 
 A glad smile spread over the face of his mother ; 
 the nurse turned towards the door, and bounded 
 across the room. Glad tears suffused their faces. 
 Ten years before, a lovers’ quarrel had separated 
 them, driving him to California. Now they met 
 under different circumstances. They had grown 
 up together and loved each other. Each was pos- 
 
274 
 
 Need of Reform. 
 
 sessed of a strong will ; they had both given their 
 hearts to God and joined the Methodist Church in 
 early youth, and up to this time were true Chris- 
 tians. Hayes’ mother had given him a college 
 education. He had been the pride of his mother, 
 and when Ella and he quarreled, and he left for 
 California, his mother had tried every way in her 
 power to bring him back and to have a reconcilia- 
 tion, for she loved Ella Hall as her own daughter. 
 His mother wrote to him that she was on her 
 death-bed, and she wanted to see him married to 
 Ella before she died, and to make haste and come 
 home. Ella had been with her all the time. She 
 taught school and made her home with Hayes’ 
 mother. 
 
 When Hayes entered the room where his mother 
 la}^, she opened her eyes wide and said, “ My son, 
 come to your mother’s bosom.” 
 
 He hastened to her side, kissing her again and 
 again. 
 
 “ Send for the preacher ; I want to see you mar- 
 ried before I die,” she said. 
 
 A preacher was sent for, and united them in the 
 holy bonds of matrimony. In a few hours the 
 mother died with her hands clasped in theirs. 
 A few days after the funeral, Hayes, accompanied 
 by his wife, started for California. On the train 
 was a preacher from England. He said : 
 
 “We have spent large sums of money, and a 
 great deal of time and talk on the temperance 
 
National Reform. 
 
 275 
 
 question, but there is more whisky sold and drank 
 now than ever before. We must close the saloons. 
 But how can it be done ? ” 
 
 “I will tell you how to close up every saloon 
 and stop the manufacture and sale of liquor,” said 
 Mrs. Hayes. “ I am a W. C. T. U. I can tell you 
 how.” 
 
 “Do tell us, then; for I do want to see it done,” 
 said the preacher. 
 
 “ Yote as you pray. If every voter would vote 
 as they pray, the saloons would be wiped out,” 
 said Mrs. Hayes. 
 
 “ That is so,” said a young lady in the rear end 
 of the car. (She was a W. C. T. U. We could see 
 that by the badge of white ribbon she wore.) 
 
 “Yes,” said Hayes, “alcohol arouses every vile 
 passion of a man, and destroys every virtue. It 
 dethrones honor, breeds falsehood and dishonesty, 
 and leads to crime of the deepest dye. It para- 
 lyzes usefulness, destroys happiness, blasts char- 
 acter and sullies a good name. It closes the gates 
 of heaven, and opens wide the door of hell. Every- 
 thing that intoxicates is a great home destroyer. 
 It makes the home a place of poverty and wretch- 
 edness ; it takes the furniture from the house, the 
 carpets from the floor, the clothes from the ward- 
 robe, and the bread from the cupboard ; it puts out 
 the Are upon the hearthstone ; it separates husband 
 and wife, and throws helpless children upon the 
 world’s cold charities. Everything that will intox- 
 
276 
 
 Need of Reform. 
 
 icate is death to true Christianity. It turns man 
 away from the church of Christ, and destroys all 
 hope of heaven.” 
 
 Dear reader, touch not, taste not, handle not the 
 unclean thing, and you are safe from its influence. 
 
 We will now take leave of our Christian friends, 
 wishing them a happy married life and prosiDerity. 
 
ALL THE REFORM PARTIES MUST UNITE. 
 
 IN UNION THERE IS STRENGTH. 
 
 There are now many organizations that could 
 come together in one great National Reform Party, 
 and take a national name. We will name some 
 of them that, if united, would he a power, and the 
 saloon would have to go. There is the Farmers’ 
 Alliance, the Agricultural Wheel, the Farmers’ 
 Mutual Benefit Association, the Patrons of Indus- 
 try, the Farmers’ and Laborers’ Union, the Prohi- 
 bition Party, etc., etc. All ought to come together 
 and adopt one name and one platform against the 
 liquor traffic. There is nothing to prevent the Pro- 
 hibition Party from uniting with such a national 
 party, if that national party will make the prohi- 
 bition of the liquor traffic for beverage purposes 
 the dominant issue in their platform. As soon as 
 these principles appear in their platform, the Pro- 
 hibitionists will indorse that party, and the W. C. 
 T. U. will indorse that party also. 
 
 We do not care what the name is; it is the prin- 
 ciple we want. We were all very indignant over 
 
 the treatment our appeal received at the Chicago 
 
 ( 277 ) 
 
278 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 Convention, when they ignored and cast under 
 their feet and spit upon our petition for a temper- 
 ance plank in their platform. That a new and 
 powerful reform party is about to be born is cer- 
 tain. Will the farmers create a new national 
 party? We do not care what the name is; it is 
 the ]3rinciple that we want. Sooner or later the 
 farmers and laborers will construct a national 
 party apart from and opposed to both the old par- 
 ties, or suifer themselves to be divided and diverted 
 from their purpose, as the old grange movement 
 was. Again I ask: “Will the farmers and labor- 
 ers create a new national party? ” Either they must 
 receive such substantial legislative concessions as 
 will satisfy them, or the centrifugal motion that 
 has this year been so effective will continue and 
 be accelerated. 
 
 But we prophesy that the old party machines 
 will not grant them any portion of their demands. 
 As far as possible they will be cheated with prom- 
 ises or diverted with some reciprocity. 
 
 But we do not believe that these old shams can 
 be made effective much longer. It is certain that 
 the people will have to construct a new party as 
 an instrument of reform that will cover the whole 
 ground, and probably it will be done in time for 
 the conflict of ’92 ; if not, we know it will be done 
 by ’96. 
 
 So far as the Prohibitionists are concerned, the 
 principal ideas of the farmers’ and laborers’ re- 
 
All Reform Rarties Must Unite. 279 
 
 form are entirely acceptable ; all they need is the 
 temperance plank in their platform, then nothing 
 will separate them. From the start the Prohibi- 
 tion party has been an industrial reform party, 
 and of late years these features have grown to 
 such an extent that in almost any of their plat- 
 forms the farmers can find their major tenets 
 strongly and plainly set forth. It only remains 
 for the farmers and laborers to accept prohibition 
 of the liquor traffic in order to make the two ele- 
 ments one in purpose as they are one in the char- 
 acter of their constituency. 
 
 The farmers will eventually have to fight the 
 saloon, and fight a duel to the death, too. No 
 scheme of financial reform can bring a wide-spread 
 and enduring prosperity which leaves the wasteful 
 and corrupting liquor traffic to continue its destruc- 
 tive work ; and no real reform party can mount to 
 power except by marching over the ruins of the 
 rum power. The saloon is the natural ally of ma- 
 chine politics. It is the instrument with which 
 bosses and election exploiters do their work. It 
 creates the great array of tramps and vagabonds 
 we see, who are always purchasable by the 
 monopoly power. How shall the new party be 
 constructed? If the farmers think they can win 
 upon a platform framed only in the interests of 
 agriculture, they are mistaken. The phenomenal 
 success which they obtained this year was ob- 
 tained mainly because the monopolists were sur- 
 
280 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 prised, caught divided, and had no time to arrange 
 a ]3lan of defense or employ the tremendous energy 
 of money in the elections. The devil with money 
 wins. He will give them whisky and money, and 
 lead men this way and that, both Hepuhlican and 
 Democrat. 
 
 Then like a silly sheep or goat, 
 
 He drives them up and makes them vote. 
 
 The farmers cannot win alone. The new party 
 must include all of the reform elements in the 
 country in order to be effective. The new party 
 must be a composite party. There are many rea- 
 sons why the farmers and the Prohibitionists, at 
 least, ought to unite readily in forming a national 
 party. First, they are both constituted of veiy 
 much the same class — the intelligent American. 
 From the start the Prohibition party has been a 
 party of the common people ; and a few wealth}^ 
 who belong to it are men in Avhom the sense of 
 truth and justice outweighs all selfish considera- 
 tions. 
 
 We believe that this union of reform forces is 
 necessary, and finally inevitable. Why, then, 
 should reformers waste months and years of valu- 
 able time in desultory and disconnected efforts ? 
 Why not get together and lift their united ban- 
 ners in the ajDproaching struggle of ’92, with Pro- 
 hibition as the dominant issue ? 
 
 What would the farmers gain by making a close 
 alliance with the Prohibition party ? They would 
 
All Reform Parties Must Unite. 281 
 
 gain all the enthusiasm that comes with a great 
 moral purpose. They would gain thousands of 
 able speakers and writers now in the Prohibition 
 ranks, who would render valuable aid in pushing 
 on the economic reforms which have called the 
 farmers into the field. They would gain the party 
 organization already created by the Prohibition- 
 ists, and which is growing in every State in the 
 Union. They would gain hundreds of able news- 
 papers and magazines now in the Prohibition 
 service. They would gain the Prohibition vote, 
 which in most of the States is even now large 
 enough to decide a close contest between reform 
 and reaction. And they would gain the tremen- 
 dous infiuence of the W. C. T. U. (of which the 
 author of this book is a member), an organization 
 whose past achievements are only a prophecy of 
 what it will yet do. 
 
 And what will the Prohibitionists gain ? They 
 will gain speedily and effectively the one great end 
 for which they have been struggling these many 
 years. They will quickly and overwhelmingly 
 crush and bury out of sight the greatest enemy of 
 Grod and man — the cruel, infamous, deadlj^ saloon ! 
 
 With such great possibilities, lying immediately 
 before us, we hold that now is the time for a wise 
 and effective arrangement of the American reform 
 forces ; for in union there is strength. 
 
 Let us cast away timidity, distrust and party 
 pride. Let us not wrangle over mere names or 
 
282 
 
 National Reform. 
 
 inconsiderable issues, but let the Farmers’ and 
 Laborers’ Unions, Farmers’ Alliance, the Agricul- 
 tural Wheel, the Farmers’ Mutual Benefit Associa- 
 tion, the Patrons of Industry, Prohibition Party, 
 and all other reform organizations come together; 
 then they would be a power and could accomplish 
 their purpose and wipe out every saloon in the 
 United States, and Avipe out all the monopolies 
 and trusts. We have said that they should unite 
 and be one body, as they are all aiming at the 
 same purjDose. Join and come all into one line ; 
 make one grand forward movement, “for God and 
 home and native land.” 
 
 We have no doubt that the Prohibition party 
 would gladly unite with every organization 
 that opposes the whisky traffic as its chief issue, 
 while its political scope would be wide enough to 
 satisfy all anti-saloon voters who are willing to 
 break away from their old parties and form one 
 great National party, the object of which will first 
 be to destroy the sauons, the cruel monopolies, 
 the crusliing oppression of the farmers and many 
 Avage- workers, and the terrible corruption in poli- 
 tics. Leader, Ave have given our vieAvs on the 
 reform question. We Avill uoav take up the Avine 
 and liquor question, and sIioav you the results of 
 the use of California Avine and all the intoxicating 
 beverages. We liave been in California for years 
 as a W. C. T. U., and investigated the Avine ques- 
 tion, and can give facts and figures that cannot be 
 denied. 
 
HOW TO BE A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 In one of the great churches of the East, a 
 church that numbered near a thousand members, 
 two or three years ago, on a bright moonlight 
 night, when the mercury was away down, there 
 was held an executive board meeting. There 
 were present all of the members of the official 
 board of the church. They were holding a very 
 earnest consultation on a grave subject. Nearly 
 a half hundred members had just pulled out from 
 the mother organization to establish a prohibition 
 church, and it had brought the official board to a 
 point that made them think that there was some- 
 thing wrong. And they were discussing the ques- 
 tion gravely. The pastor (Dr. Jones, we will call 
 him) is saying that a half hundred members down 
 from a membership of near a thousand does not 
 count much, of course, but who are they? They 
 are not the wealthy of the church. But a church 
 cannot be run by wealth alone. They are the 
 very ones that sustain and carry on our prayer- 
 service. (Logical thought : those that are most 
 active iir all branches of service are always the 
 
 first to step out to defend the right.) .And how to 
 
 (283 ) 
 
284 
 
 How to he a Christian. 
 
 get on without them is a question. Just at this 
 point Judge Wilson, of the police court, who was 
 a member of the board, spoke up, saying, “Let 
 them go. Those prohibition cranks have got 
 awful bold here of late. Some of them have said 
 that those that do not vote as they do are casting 
 their influence -vvith the awful liquor traffic, and I 
 say, let them go.” “ True, but we must give them 
 letters, for there is nothing against their Christian 
 character.” “ Well, I say, let them go,” said Sena- 
 tor W^hite, who was also a board member. “ This 
 idea of the meek and holy followers of Jesus 
 being the bulwark of the rum traffic is all non- 
 sense. I claim to be a better prohibitionist than 
 they are, for I had the honor of voting for our 
 present high license law, which will do more for 
 prohibition than the whole j^rohibition party will 
 ever do. I say, let them go, and then our church 
 will have no more contention.” Pastor: “Well, 
 of course, we will have to” — Just then there was 
 a heavy knock at the door, and the pastor’s sen- 
 tence was never finished. “ Come in,” said the 
 sweet, melodious voice of Dr. Jones, and the door 
 opened and in stepped the great, portly form of 
 the saloon-keeper across the way. “ Grood even- 
 ing,” said he ; “ I knew this was one of your meet- 
 ing nights, and so I came over to tell j’ou that 
 myself and family have concluded to join your 
 church and help along this good work.” All eyes 
 were fixed on the pastor, and a distressing silence 
 
How to be a Christian. * 
 
 285 
 
 prevailed, whicli was finally broken by the pastor, 
 who said, “Have you quit the saloon business?” 
 “No, sir.” “Are you going to?” “No, sir, I am 
 keeping a respectable place over there, and don’t 
 see any reason why I should quit.” But he was 
 rejected. Why? Because he«kept a saloon. How 
 came he to keep a saloon ? Because the members 
 of that church and other churches in that city 
 voted a saloon ticket. And then will you say 
 that the church is not in league with the awful 
 curse? Don’t you know that there are church 
 members in every town that stand themselves up 
 as examples to the world who will, at the fall 
 election, vote for that Republican ticket founded 
 on a whisky platform with its plank No. 14? 
 With its wine and brandy maker at its head for 
 Governor, and the other with its anti-sumptuary 
 plank as old as the party, and with its lewd law- 
 yer at its head for Governor — verily, three-intoxi- 
 cant-users up this year for Governor — surely the 
 rumers will be able to make a choice who to vote 
 for. But can the Christian? Sir, there is just one 
 man up for Governor this year, and no more, whom 
 a real Christian can vote for, and that is Henry 
 French. Will you do it? But it is a fact that 
 the church has, to a very great extent, lost its 
 grip on the masses by its failure to teach along 
 these lines as it should. One says that labor 
 organizations are the cause of strikes. In one 
 sense this is true. It is true that if there were no 
 
286 
 
 TIoid to he a Christian. 
 
 labor orders there would not be so many, at least. 
 But again, if class legislation had not made it 
 possible for capita] to concentrate in the hands of 
 a few arrogant and over-bearing money-kings, 
 then there would have been no need of labor 
 organizations. So you see there are two sides to 
 almost every subject. The ministers of the Gos- 
 pel have been so eternally silent on these ques- 
 tions that the man that only goes to church once 
 in a great while never hears him say anything 
 that would lead him to think that the preacher 
 cared for any only the rich. For the careless and 
 unconcerned have gotten an idea that it is the 
 rich that pay the salary of the preacher, but this 
 is a very great mistake, as the writer very well 
 knows ; for the Tich, as a rule, hate to pay the 
 preacher as bad as any laborer ; but if the 
 preacher would take more interest in these ques- 
 tions there would not be so much misunderstand- 
 ing, and then church members would know their 
 duty better. 
 
 It is a fact that most preachers, away down in 
 their heart, are all right along this line, but as we 
 said before, the devil has got the inside track and 
 has brought things into a desperate condition, and 
 we may need some desperate remedies as we did 
 in the case with slaveiy. Much as we deplore the 
 use of violence, we certainly think that there will 
 some good come out of the recent strike. For it 
 has opened the eyes of a large number of the 
 
Holo to he a Christian. 
 
 287 
 
 masses and brought them out of the Demo-Repub- 
 lican party. We say Demo-Republican because 
 there is no difference between them. One makes 
 tariff reform the campaign cry, the other wants to 
 reform the tariff. Do you see the difference ? — 
 tariff reform and reform of the tariff. Statesman- 
 ship, isn’t it ? I do hope the time will come when 
 such men as we saw on the platform at the Re- 
 publican Convention of Yolo county recently, will 
 be ashamed to train with that class and vote their 
 saloon-stated tickets. There was not a man or 
 woman put on that ticket from top to bottom but 
 what endorsed rotten whisky state platform with 
 its fourteenth plank, and they knew it, and they 
 stood up there and said that they would vote the 
 whole ticket, including their rotten old wine and 
 brandy-maker, M. M. Estee. Particeps criminis 
 in the saloon of Yolo county ! and some of them 
 church members, and some of them carrying the 
 sacred emblems on Lord’s day! If the writer 
 would do such things, we would be afraid to put 
 our hand on the ark containing those sacred things, 
 for fear that the Lord would strike us dead, as he 
 did one of yore. Dear reader, these things have a 
 great deal more to do with strikes than you are 
 willing to admit, but how can you help but know 
 it ? May God help you to see more clearly. You 
 may ask how this has anything to do with strikes? 
 It is thus, the Republican party has made the laws 
 for thirty years, almost without let or hindrance — 
 
288 
 
 How to he a Christian. 
 
 laws for the few. Monopolies innumerable have 
 grown up because of these laws. The rum traffic 
 has been made king by the same laws made by 
 the same party and now protected by the Demo- 
 crats only because they are in office, and you pro- 
 fessed Christian voters training with this class ! 
 You are equal to Judas Iscariot, and if Christ 
 would come just now, you would betray him to 
 death. You are betraying him now, and you know 
 it. Is it any wonder that we have brothels of the 
 blackest type, aye, and murders too? We think, 
 not less than three hundred and thirty times in 
 the Bible God has said we must not use the rotten 
 stuff. If we are not to use it, we are not to cause 
 it to be used. God is saying to us to-day, AYhere 
 is thy brother ? He is saying. Thy brother’s blood 
 is crying to me from the ground, from the drunk- 
 ard's grave, aye, and thy sister’s too from the graves 
 caused by prostitution ! From the millions of 
 starving wives and children, widows and mothers, 
 the blood of those five men killed in that train 
 wreck are crying to God to be avenged on this 
 cursed class-legislation which has been made by 
 the dominant parties in power from time to time. 
 AVipe out of existence monopoly, trusts and com- 
 bines, and the liquor traffic, and you will hear of 
 no more strikes or train-wrecks on their account. 
 So we say, that strikes have more blame to lay at 
 the door of class-legislation and the awful dram 
 traffic than anything else. Let us get at the cause 
 
How to he a Christian. 
 
 289 
 
 and destroy that, and the effects will disappear, 
 and then prohibitionists won’t be throwing mud 
 all over labor orders through the press, as has 
 been done recently. If the old party folks want 
 to throw mud let them, but let reformers refrain 
 from such campaign methods. The old parties are 
 dying hard, and will naturally want to throw 
 something to keep up appearances, but let reform 
 ers work together as much as possible. The time 
 will come when we can all pull together, and then 
 the victory will come surely when mother votes. 
 But continuing, the pastor said, “ Our church 
 rules forbid us to take in a saloon-keeper unless 
 he reforms and quits the saloon business.” Said 
 the saloon keeper, “ And upon what grounds do 
 your church rules forbid taking in a saloon-keep- 
 er?” “Upon the grounds that no drunkard can 
 enter the kingdom of heaven, and consequently no 
 drunkard-maker can. Therefore we will have to 
 reject you.” The saloon-keeper was now thoroughly 
 aroused and spoke in no mild tone, saying, “ Do 
 you know that I got my license to keep a saloon 
 of Judge Wilson, sitting right over there, for which 
 I paid the regular and full license fee.” “ Hold 
 on,” said the Judge, “ don’t be so fast. I did not 
 make the law ; the law compels me to give the 
 license when properly filled.” “ I am well aware 
 of that,” said the saloon-keeper, “but there sits 
 Senator White who did more to pass this high 
 license law than anybody else.” 
 
290 
 
 IIoio to he a Christian. 
 
 “Xot so fast, my friend; I was not elected by 
 the prohibitionists. If I had been, I should have 
 voted for a prohibition law. My party stands for 
 high license.” “ I fully understand that,” said the 
 saloon-keeper, “ but I voted for you because you 
 jDroinised this law. And the pastor voted for you ; 
 so did the Judge, and so did all of this board of 
 officers here to night, and in fact nearly all of this 
 church. And besides, there are two of this board 
 that are my regular customers. And many of j^our 
 members are also, and I supposed our cause was a 
 common cause,” and with this he slammed the 
 door behind him and left them to think. After 
 the exit of the saloon-keeper there was a long 
 silence, so much so that it became painful. Fin- 
 ally the silence was broken by the pastor sajdng, 
 “ That saloon-keeper told us some stunning truths 
 to-night : let us think this over.” Dear reader, 
 has there not been too much of this kind of work 
 already for our nation’s good ? To-day the sun of 
 our American Liberty is fast sinking in this vast 
 sea of unfaithful professed Christian voting for my 
 party. Christian voters, you have the key to a 
 better government in your hands, will you throw 
 away your old party pride and use that key this 
 fall and vote for the whole prohibition ticket and 
 save our fair Nation from further disgrace by the 
 accursed liquor traffic, and the slush and slum ele- 
 ment which it brings in its train ? The liquor 
 traffic is to a larger degree than anything else — 
 
How to he a Christian. 
 
 291 
 
 yea, than all else combined — responsible for the 
 present disturbance and discontent, and as Mrs. 
 Helen M. Gougher has said recently, is largely to 
 blame for the late Debs strike. I will not say, as 
 some of our would-be leaders and reformers have 
 said, “insurrection,” for that word is a harsh form 
 of contempt, and revengeful, and carries with it 
 none of the love that Jesus exhibited daily while 
 he was here teaching us how to live and act toward 
 our fellowman. God forbid that I should ever 
 utter a word or write a sentence that would reflect 
 an undue condemnation upon any man or order 
 composed of men of which the blessed Master 
 would disapprove. But it is said that in Chicago 
 where there was the most violence, there was 
 a great amount of money spent for beer and other 
 intoxicants, which is probably true, for such is 
 only the natural results of the infamous drink 
 trafRc. It matters not to the man behind the bar 
 how much destruction there is on the outside, so 
 he gets the money on the inside of his till. But 
 why should this be so when the facts stand out 
 prominently and uncontradicted that the Protes- 
 tant professed Christian has in the United States 
 in round numbers over seven million votes, while 
 the liquor traffic, if deprived of all aid from this 
 direction, has only about two million votes ? One 
 asks, “ How then can the traffic maintain its posi- 
 tion as the supreme power in controlling our Con- 
 gress and legislatures and manipulating the laws 
 
292 
 
 How to he a Christian. 
 
 of our land so as to keej) them in existence ? ” We 
 answer that it is because the average church mem- 
 ber is so completely wedded to his political party 
 that he has become perfectly blind and is a stran- 
 ger to all perceptions of his obligations to his God, 
 and thinks only of the success of his party. And 
 it is not unfrequently that we find men behind the 
 pulpit in the same fix, though the preachers are 
 beginning to see the way more clearly of late. 
 But we find once in a while one that is willing to 
 be counted as a prohibition voter, but is afraid to 
 condemn the men that vote with a party that has 
 such planks In its National and State platforms as 
 the following: ‘‘Resolved, that we are opposed to 
 all so-called Sunday and Temperance legislation 
 (Republican platform 1872), and we recognize in 
 this State the large and increasing product of the 
 orchard and vine which naturally adds to the gen- 
 eral prosjDerity of our citizens while furnishing 
 employment to vast numbers of our people. W e 
 are therefore in favor of encouraging this industry 
 b}^ wholesome legislation, which shall be regulated 
 by the various counties in the State in accordance 
 with their interests, having due regard for the 
 equitable distribution of public burdens, and we 
 express our belief that neither prohibition laws 
 nor unequal exactions should result from either 
 State, county or municipal enactments.” (Repub- 
 lican State platform 1894, California.) “And we 
 are opposed to all sumptuary legislation.” (Bern- 
 
Hoxo to he a Chx'istian. 
 
 293 
 
 ocratic platform since beyond the boundary line of 
 the memory of man.) Such a voter is particeps 
 criminis in all the terrors accompanying the 
 cursed traflS.c. For such we have a profound pit 3 ^ 
 To such an one we would say, Did Paul, when 
 brought before the kings and rulers of the land, 
 begin to reason how he could avoid telling them of 
 their wickedness? No sir, he did not; he flung 
 into their very teeth their blackest crimes. See 
 first his defense before Felix, see Acts 24th, 25th ; 
 also before King Agrippa, in same book, 25th 
 chapter, etc. But again, did Peter dodge or flinch 
 for fear of his salary when he was at the city of 
 Jerusalem and Jewish disciples brought a grievous 
 complaint against him for doing a thing that 
 seemed to them out of place in going into the 
 house of a Gentile ? No, sir ; he stood up before 
 that great audience and told them just what God 
 said should be done, and he closed the mouths of 
 the growlers. And so should the ministers of 
 to-day act in like manner. God has made the way 
 plain, and if we do not follow it we will be held 
 responsible at the judgment. 
 
 If every minister in the land would tell his 
 brethren just what the Bible teaches along these 
 lines, the next President would be a prohibition- 
 ist sure. Will you do it ? Remember the awful 
 enunciation, “ If you give not thy brother warn- 
 ing, and he dies in iniquity, his blood will I re- 
 quire at thy hands.” (Ezek. 3 : IS). While tnese 
 
294 
 
 How to he a Christian. 
 
 duties and responsibilities rest on the minister of 
 God, yet there is great blame lying at the door of 
 every professed Christian. The preacher may lay 
 open the case in a forcible manner, and even urge 
 his members to action, and it may yet fall useless 
 to the ground for want of interest on the part of 
 the members or for want of appreciation of their 
 duty toward God and their fellow men. Would to 
 God that we could say something that would bring 
 this subject home to the heart of every praying 
 man and woman in the land, for they have the key 
 in their own hands to put a stop to this whole bus- 
 iness, which is the ballot. Dear brother, in the 
 name of God, will you not use it? Come up to 
 the work at the election this fall and elect the pro- 
 hibition ticket and clear your skirts of complicity 
 with the 250,000 murder-mills of this United States, 
 and in time your fellow-citizens will bless you for 
 it as they did in Kansas a few years after the pro- 
 hibition law was passed, and God will bless you 
 in the act. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 There has been a good deal said on the late 
 strike, and a good deal more might be said on the 
 cause of the strike which would do good in the 
 present confused state of public sentiment and 
 thought. First, we think that the hard times are 
 
Hoxo to be a Christian. 
 
 295 
 
 primarily the cause leading up to the strike. 
 Therefore the cause would consist largely in the 
 same elements which we have heretofore stated — 
 bad legislation, which has made it possible for a 
 few law-favored individuals to amass large and 
 colossal fortunes, thereby creating and encourag- 
 ing and finally cultivating an eminent greed for 
 gain, making the possessor proud, opulent and 
 overbearing, grasping everything in sight. They 
 finally become so covetous that they begrudge the 
 laborer the necessary remuneration to keep the 
 wolf of starvation from his door. Thus it was 
 with Geo. M. Pullman when he cut down his men’s 
 wages until they, with the strictest economy, 
 would come out in debt to him at the end of every 
 two weeks, when they had to settle with him. 
 This class legislation must be abolished and laws 
 made that will give every man a chance to at 
 least earn a competency during his lifetime. Now 
 let us take a little deeper view of the periods of 
 disturbance in channels of business when these 
 strikes are precipitated on to us. The Christian 
 Standard., of Cincinnati, Ohio, gives us some food 
 for thought in this wise. It says that the strike is 
 due to one of three causes, viz. : The gospel is a 
 failure, man is totally depraved, or the church is 
 unfaithful in saving the masses, and of course the 
 latter is the final conclusion of the Standard. 
 But we would put it a little diflerently and say, 
 that the church is a failure as an educator along 
 
296 
 
 How to he a Christian, 
 
 these lines, for we believe that the church ought 
 to teach pure and undefiled politics just as much 
 as it does morality or honesty. But one says, 
 “ That won’t do ; the church must not touch poli- 
 tics ; if it does it corrupts the church.” If this is 
 so, then the church members must keep out of 
 politics, for it is a logical conclusion that if poli- 
 tics corrupts the church, then it will also corrupt 
 the man or woman that belongs to the church, to 
 have anything to do with politics. But we think 
 this is a very erroneous idea, for this would dis- 
 franchise the whole church membership ; we must 
 keep away from the polls entirely to avoid pollu- 
 tion. I tell you, no, my brother ; to enter into 
 politics is as much a duty of every Christian man 
 and woman in this laud of the free as it is to 
 attend church services. No, dear reader, politics 
 is a duty to every one, be he church member or 
 not. And then the devil wants no better weapon 
 to wield you to his own will than to make you be- 
 lieve that politics and religion won’t mix. I tell 
 you they will mix, and the more we do mix them 
 the better it will be for the country and the church 
 too. The devil made people believe that religion 
 and politics would not mix during the old days of 
 the slavery agitation. He managed to get things 
 in a pretty bad shape before the populace found 
 out that it would do for a preacher to say any- 
 thing about slavery, because that question, just 
 like some questions at the present, had evolved 
 
How to be a Christian. 
 
 297 
 
 itself into a political question. And it took a 
 vast amount of blood and treasure to get things 
 fixed up in good shape again, but finally it was 
 fixed, but no sooner fixed than the devil got in his 
 work again and brought the rum traffic into the 
 field and said, “ Don’t you dare to touch this ques- 
 tion.” And professed Christians drop down on 
 their knees to him and say. Amen and Amen. 
 the close of the present century all of the public 
 land upon which wheat, corn and cotton can be 
 raised will be exhausted. Then the surplus pop- 
 ulation which has hitherto dilfused itself on the 
 public domain will concentrate in the towns and 
 cities. Then the struggle for bread will become 
 fierce and desperate ; the rich will grow richer 
 and the poor will grow poorer. To-day there are 
 more than three million people in this country 
 that see the glaring eyes of the gaunt wolf of 
 starvation staring them in the face. Fathers, 
 brothers and husbands, tramping the country in 
 great armies, called tramps, vagabonds and other 
 vile names ! Dear reader, during the years 1889 
 to 1892 inclusive, there were many thousand farms 
 that were deeded to European Mortgage Compan- 
 ies to avoid foreclosure suits. 
 
 And right here let me tell you that these pluto- 
 crats have pursued their thirst for plunder so 
 viciously that they got laws made in the U. S., so 
 that when a mortgage of one thousand dollars was 
 foreclosed they could bid it off" at the sheriff’s sale 
 
298 
 
 Hoiv to he a Christian. 
 
 for $50.00 to $100.00 or $200.00, as they may 
 choose, and then after they have taken a farm 
 worth two or three thousand dollars on a one 
 thousand dollar mortgage, bid otf at those figures, 
 the courts will issue judgments for the balance of 
 the one thousand dollars. Not satisfied with get- 
 ting the land at half its value, they take a judg- 
 ment to dog the victim the rest of his life, after 
 turning him out in the street with his helpless 
 family to starve, thinking that perhaps he might 
 meet with a streak of good luck and gather up a 
 little means that they could take with this judg- 
 ment. And at this time the district courts of 
 Kansas find most of their time taken up in tiying 
 foreclosure suits. To the unbiased seeker for 
 right, comment is unnecessary. Reader, in fur- 
 ther testimony of claims of reformers that such 
 powers over the industries of the country are exer- 
 cised in the manner charged by reason of the 
 power conferred by class legislation in favor of 
 the few and discriminating against the many, 
 read the following declarations of financiers, 
 statesmen, and prominent ReiDublican leaders. 
 The editor of the Canton, Ohio, People's Forum, 
 says : “ The dollar has never changed in value ; 
 
 it is only the cost of the dollar in labor that has 
 changed. Dollars measure the value of all labor 
 and its product, and all property, but the amount 
 of labor that buys a dollar depends upon the vol- 
 ume of money in circulation.” On this point, see 
 
How to he a Christian. 
 
 299 
 
 John Stuart Mill, Political Economy, before cited, 
 page 301. John Thompson, Vice-President of 
 Chase National Bank, of New York, in Rodes’ 
 Journal of Banking, April, 1888, says, among 
 many other things, that “ if we had currency of 
 double the amount now in circulation, increasing 
 as it would the amount of enterprises, the tariff 
 question would settle itself.” There is a great 
 amount of talk and speculation these days about 
 hard times, and justl}^, too, and the question is 
 constantly asked, ” What is the remedy ? ” And 
 this question has become a very pertinent one, 
 when we look at all of the facts connected with 
 the subject. First, we will glance at some of the 
 points discussed heretofore more or less fully. 
 First, the exception clause in the greenbacks. 
 Secondly, the contraction of the volume of cur- 
 rency with all of its terrible effects in business 
 failures, loss of money to the individual, loss of 
 property, many deprived of work, and consequent 
 hunger and distress staring their families in the 
 face. Third, the funding and refunding of the 
 public debt when there was no call for such legis- 
 lation. Fourth, the plundering of our public 
 domain. Fifth and lastly, the overshadowing, 
 demoralizing and destructive liquor traffic. We 
 say this question has become a tremendous ques- 
 tion. Let us look a little deeper into these facts. 
 We will first introduce the subject of “wealth.” 
 We will call it “wealth” in order to give it a 
 
300 
 
 How to he a Christian. 
 
 broad plane. How is the wealth of the country 
 distributed? We will first introduce J. J. Ingalls, 
 of Kansas (a Republican), who says that 31,000 
 indivdduals in this country own three-fifths of all 
 the wealth in the United States; 31,000 is about 
 one 25th part of one per cent. It is said also that 
 250,000 ]3ersons own four-fifths of all the wealth. 
 Dear reader, how does this look to you? Will 
 you stop and ponder these questions? Now, let’s 
 take a look at past history, and then ask our- 
 selves how much strain this government will stand 
 before the revolution will come ? In looking back 
 in the dim distance we see Egypt, the proudest 
 and most powerful nation on the globe. She 
 excelled in mighty undertakings, and to-day we 
 marvel at the ruins of her vast structures which 
 have withstood the crumbling touch of forty cen- 
 turies. But an oppressive land-monopoly rule 
 worked her fall. And when that ciisis did come 
 one per cent of her people owned all of the land in 
 Egypt; and ninety-nine per cent owned none, and 
 Egypt died, and her death-dirge is still ringing in 
 the ears of the world. 
 
 Again we look to the Roman Empire, with its 
 golden city, Rome, the most magnificent that 
 man ever looked on or built. The founding, 
 growth and glory of this Empire has been the 
 wonder of the world for centuries. Begotten in 
 myth, fed on the ferocity of the wolf (Plutocracy), 
 led by the intellect of man, she grew to be at last 
 
How to be a Christian. 
 
 301 
 
 tlie palladium of law. Her twelve tables underlie 
 the codes of all civilization to-day ; her military 
 prowess has been the admii’ation of mankind the 
 world over ; her works in every department of 
 human thought and action are unsurpassed. 
 Rome has been termed the Eternal City. From 
 that center has gone forth blandishments, political 
 chicanery, ecclesiastical Jesuitism, and they for 
 ages have ruled the world. Rome in her highest 
 glory was simple in habit and austere in manner. 
 There was but a slight distinction between the 
 people. Citizen was the name of man. Equality 
 of fortune, generous distribution of land, was the 
 law of common consent and the legal enactments 
 of the State also. So rich in these common sense 
 principles was she at one time, that eighty-five 
 per cent of her people owned titles in land. Then 
 her legions were heroes bej^ond conquering ; then 
 Rome was founded on a rock; but she followed 
 the course of the great Empires that preceded her. 
 In the incipiency of them all, justice ruled and 
 mercy reigned more largely than at any other 
 period of their life. But as the nations before her 
 turned from those true principles of equity and 
 justice in the day of their degeneracy, so did 
 Rome. She traveled the same road to the same 
 death, to the same certain destruction. But in 
 what way ? Their volume of money at the com- 
 mencement of this era was nearly $2,000,000,000, 
 made U 20 of brass, copper and other metals. But 
 
B02 
 
 How to he a Christian. 
 
 this was doomed to destruction. She determined 
 to shrink her volume of currenc}^ and make the 
 lesser volume of liner metals. So she shrank her 
 volume into $200,000,000. A long time was con- 
 sumed in doing it, but the road was at last trav- 
 eled over and the haven reached. But this fatal 
 journey had its inevitable fatal ending, and Rome 
 fell by reason of this very shrinkage of the volume 
 of the mone 3 ^ The land passed out of the hands 
 of the masses into the hands of a few millionaires, 
 so that when their national death came, and civil- 
 ization had to die, we see that 2,000 people owned 
 all the land in the Roman Empire. Less than one 
 per cent of the people owned all, and more than 
 ninety-nine per cent owned nothing. Dear reader, 
 think of these historic facts and remember that one 
 twenty-fifth jDart of one per cent of this Nation 
 own three-fifths of all the wealth within its bor- 
 ders. How long can we expect to perpetuate our 
 institutions? AYe are on the crown of a heaving, 
 seething volcano. We sajg not long, my brother. 
 Ah, yes, what is the remedy? This is easier 
 asked than answered, but we will give some of our 
 views on the remedy. The first thing that should 
 be done is to unseat the traitorous old parties who 
 have been holding the reins of this government 
 for nearly forty j^ears, while things have been 
 growing worse, though there have been times when 
 we seemed to be in a condition of prosperity. But 
 these times were only when there had been an 
 
Holo to he a Christian. 
 
 303 
 
 uprising of popular indignation and a demand for 
 certain needed legislation. This would relieve the 
 stringency only temporarily ; then while the pop- 
 ular clamor was quiet, plutoci’acy would obtain a 
 better hold on the rights and liberties of the peo- 
 ple and further enslave them, when they began 
 again to tighten their grip upon them, or, when a 
 Lincoln would over-ride the dictatorial demands of 
 Shjdock and give the much needed relief. We 
 say, then, that we must dethrone this double- 
 headed monster of the Demo-Republic political 
 party and instead send men to our legislative halls 
 who will serve the masses instead of a few 
 wealthy, law-favored money kings, and this can 
 only be done when the free American Christian 
 voter emancipates himself from the old parties, 
 which are too corrupt for any true Christian man 
 or woman to support, either by voice or vote. We 
 mean the Demo-Republic party. " If a man is a 
 Christian he must act like Christ acted while he 
 was here on earth, is the sentiment, or thought, 
 particularly brought to bear on the minds of the 
 audience of Elder David Wetzell in his sermon on 
 Lord’s day. Sept. 30, 1894. “He said, “If a man 
 claimed to be a surveyor, it takes a good surveyor 
 only five minutes’ talk with him to find out if he 
 was or was not a fraud; if he claimed to be an 
 engineer, a good engineer could tell in a short con- 
 versation with him whether or not he was an 
 impostor.” 
 
304 
 
 How to he a Christian. 
 
 He then told the story of a man on the train 
 who claimed to be an ex-conductor; the conductor 
 looked at him a moment and passed on. After he 
 had passed through the train, as his duty de- 
 manded, he came back and said : “ So you are an 
 old conductor, are you?” “Yes, sir,” was the 
 prompt reply. “ AYill you please tell me the time 
 of the day?” The impostor pulled out his watch 
 and remarked that it was half-past two o’clock. 
 The conductor then said, “Sir, you are not an ex- 
 conductor; if you had ever railroaded any, you 
 would have said it is two-thirty.” So he was 
 ejected from the train. Yow, dear reader, there is 
 a world of meaning in these simple statements 
 illustrating our real character all along the jour- 
 ney of life. Let us look at some of these little 
 scenes which go to make up our character in the 
 world. If a man be a Christian indeed, he will 
 verily act like a Christian. But you ask. How 
 should a Cliristiau act? AYe would say, read the 
 jSlew Testament. In it is a perfect pattern. If 
 you. will follow this guide you will never go 
 astray. In it we are told to shun all evil. AYe 
 are not to go in the way of evil doers. AYe are 
 warned to guard well all of our actions in life, and 
 to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. And 
 again, we are told in that perfect guide that we 
 must all appear before the judgment-seat of 
 Christ, that every one may receive the things done 
 in his body according to that he hath done, 
 
How to he a Christian. 
 
 305 
 
 whether it be good or bad; and then again, the 
 same writer says in the next chapter, “Therefore 
 come out from among them, and be ye separated 
 with the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, 
 and I will receive you.” Are we trying to shun 
 all evil when we go on the platform of a political 
 party and do their dirty work when they have in 
 their platform such statements as the following? 
 “We are opposed to all so-called Sunday and 
 Temperance legislation.” And again, “ AVe rec- 
 ognize in this State the large and increasing 
 product of the orchards and the vine, which mate- 
 rially adds to the general prosperity and pros- 
 pects of our citizens while furnishing employment 
 to vast numbers of our people. We are therefore 
 in favor of encouraging this industry by whole- 
 some legislation which shall be regulated by the 
 various counties in accordance with their inter- 
 ests, having due regard for the equitable distribu- 
 tion of public burdens, and we express our belief 
 that neither prohibitory laws nor unequal exac- 
 tions should result from either State, county or 
 municipal enactments.” In the name of God, 
 how can a Christian train in line with this 
 class? When we say “Christian” we do not 
 mean every one that has his or her name on a 
 church roll, but one that is truly and honestly a 
 follower of the meek and holy Nazarene. Are 
 they keeping themselves unspotted from the 
 
 world ? Are they shunning evil companions ? Are 
 20 
 
306 
 
 How to be a Christian. 
 
 they coming out from among the vile and con- 
 temptible elements that are degrading the body 
 politic of this nation ? Are they living in such a 
 Avay as to lit them for the judgment- seat of Christ? 
 Will they there be able to say that they used 
 every means open to them to crush this curse of 
 all curses, the liquor trafhc, when they said on the 
 28th of last September, 1894, that they were 
 023posed to prohibitory enactments as per four- 
 teenth plank of the State j)latform of California 
 for 1894? And when they said by their actions 
 in that convention that the}^ would support that 
 arch-sinner (we almost said demon) and wine and 
 brandy-maker for Grovernor of this State (Califor- 
 nia)? Great God, what school were they educated 
 at, anyhow? With the light of the teaching of 
 the New Testament, and in the light of the sermon 
 jDreached by Elder Wetzell, on Lord’s day. Sept. 
 23, 1894, any man who votes thus the Republican 
 or Democratic ticket will be held responsible to 
 their hurt before God in the judgment. Anj^ man 
 who votes thus is particeps criminis in the awful 
 tragedies that llovv from the liquor traffic. One 
 says that he is staying with the Republican party 
 because they have been a party of reform and 
 have accomplished great things, and he is in 
 hopes they will do the right thing yet. Dear 
 brother, you know they won’t do the right thing. 
 They never did do a righteous act since they abol- 
 ished slavery, and they were organized for that 
 
How to he a Christian. 
 
 307 
 
 very purpose, and since that time they never have 
 passed one act of legislation that party policy did 
 not prompt them to hold the reins of Grovernment, 
 and not because it was right. I say this advis- 
 edly and after much study of their actions and 
 methods. We do not say these things in a spirit 
 of malice, but in all candor, with the hope that we 
 may say something that may open the party- 
 blinded eyes of some that are yet too deep in the 
 ruts to see out to either side. Grod help you, my 
 brother, to read some good, sound prohibition 
 papers, and learn something else. And then we 
 must have more money. Instead of a shrinking 
 volume, we must have an increasing volume; or, if 
 you please, an oscillating currency. One asks 
 how we can have such a system. It can be thus : 
 Let the Government establish Postal Savings 
 Banks in every State somewhat after this fashion, 
 let the United States Treasury establish a bank at 
 each State capital, one in each county-seat, and in 
 like manner one in each township, or more, if 
 necessary. Then let the United States Treasury 
 issue to the county, and likewise the county to 
 townships; then authorize the county and town- 
 ships to loan direct to the people at, say four per 
 cent interest, one per cent to go to the bank from 
 whence it came ; if from the township, then one 
 per cent to the township, one per cent to the 
 county, one to the State, and one to the U. S. 
 Treasury. This interest will pay for the expense 
 
308 
 
 How to he a Christian. 
 
 of the business as conducted by the Government. 
 Then if a man wanted, say one or two thousand 
 dollars, he could get it at a rate of interest which 
 he could afford to pay, and make some money out 
 of it for himself. And then the township would 
 draw from the county, and the county from the 
 State, and the State from the United States, and 
 when the borrower was done using it he would 
 pay it into the township, and the township would 
 return it to the county. State, and the United 
 States, and so it would work back and forth as 
 the demand for use required, and when the de- 
 mand required it let the Government make more. 
 And let it be made out of gold, silver and paper, 
 and let it be payable for all debts, both public 
 and private. Abolish the present infamous bank- 
 ing system, and give no private individual or cor- 
 poration any hand in the business whatever. 
 
 This is one measure for relief from the hard 
 times. Another would be to place the railroads 
 in the hands of the government and run them at 
 cost in the interest of the people. But here again 
 we are met with a cry of horror and dismay that 
 this would in a measure bankrupt the couhtry. 
 Let us see. It is estimated that the railroads have 
 cost their projectors actually about two billion 
 dollars. We know that the railroad people claim 
 more than this, but good authority says not ; but 
 for the sake of argument suppose they cost twice 
 that amount — four billion. We pay more than 
 
How to he a Christian. 
 
 309 
 
 one-third that amount for liquor, which had better 
 be burned up. So you see that if this curse was 
 wiped out and a direct tax made for this purpose 
 of the same amount it would only take three years 
 to pay for all the railroads in the country. Then 
 again, the Demo-Republic party seems too overly 
 anxious to issue bonds. Now, if the United States 
 Treasurer would issue taxable non-interest-bearing 
 bonds to buy railroads with, we think you would 
 hear but little growling about it. It certainly 
 seems to us to be a plausible proposition. And 
 then, don’t you see that we could well afford to be 
 taxed directly for this purpose if we could get out 
 of a large share of the tariff which is levied by the 
 corporations. Even this would pay for the roads 
 in a short time, and then after we have plenty of 
 money in circulation and the railroads in the 
 hands of the government, and had shut off this 
 robbing banking system, we would suggest that 
 the government take all of the undeeded land 
 which has been given to corporations, and throw 
 the same open for the home-seeker. For when 
 there is money enough to do the business of the 
 country with on a cash basis, then will fanning 
 pay, and we will see an exodus from the town and 
 city to the farm. And then we would enact a 
 graduated income tax so as to make those that 
 have means bear the heavy burden of running the 
 country, and we would make the man that has an 
 income of two thousand dollars over and above all 
 
310 
 
 How to he a Christian. 
 
 expenses income tax. And again, we would 
 enact a law that would make the man that has 
 one quarter section of land pay a minimum land 
 tax. For instance, his land is worth $20 per acre, 
 we would assess it at that and then lay a tax of 
 say twenty-five cents on every one hundred dol- 
 lars, and if he owned an extra quarter, etc., we 
 would add two cents more to the extra quarter and 
 so on. We would add on tax until the bloated 
 landlord would be glad to sell ofi" his large land 
 holdings to some one that didn’t have any, and at 
 prices that would justify the poor man to venture 
 on a piece of land to make a living for himself and 
 family. And then would we see good and prosper- 
 ous times and everybody would be happy because 
 he had a good home for his famil}^ and plenty to 
 eat, drink and wear. But we would have the 
 drink consist of good, pure water, or perhaps a 
 little tea or coffee mixed with it, but the less of the 
 latter the better, for we do not believe coffee to be 
 good for the health of the human family. But 
 there can be a drink prepared from the fruit of the 
 vine or the grapes that go to waste every year that 
 would not only be pleasant to the palate, but 
 healthy and invigorating. It can be made by 
 pressing out the juice and immediately boiling it 
 down from four gallons into one, and then it will 
 keep, if put up in jugs or bottles or a keg, for 
 years without fermenting, and will be just as nice 
 when it is used as when it is first put up. And 
 
How to be a Christian. 
 
 311 
 
 then when you want to use it you have only to 
 take what amount is needed and add three-fourths 
 water and then you have it the same as when first 
 pressed from the grape. If people would put up a 
 quantity thus each year there would always be 
 plenty of communion wine in easy command. 
 Grape syrup put up thus was used to a very great 
 extent in Palestine in the beginning of the present 
 or Christian era. And then it was mixed with 
 milk and made an excellent dish and can be so 
 used now, and we will say right here that wine 
 made as we have described was the only wine that 
 was allowed with Jews at the feast of the Passover 
 during the whole seven days that this feast lasted. 
 No leaven was to be found in the house of any 
 Jew, Webster says that “leaven is ferment in 
 vegetable particles,” and it requires the same 
 influence in all instances to bring it about, and it 
 was therefore forbidden at that time. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Theke is one cause of hard times which we had 
 almost overlooked, which is extravagance, not only 
 in private life but in public as well. In these ter- 
 ribly hard times it is well for each of us to look 
 well to our outlays to see that there is nothing 
 wasted. There are frequently charges made, and 
 not without some degree of truth, that the hard 
 
312 
 
 How to he a Christian. 
 
 times are all caused by the extravagance of the 
 common people. This we think is true only in a 
 small degree. It is a fact that many of our people 
 under prosperity following the war, became some- 
 what reckless with their money ; knowing as they 
 did that they were making money freely, they 
 spent it in like manner. Bat if adverse legislation 
 had not come in their way it would have been out 
 of the possibilities to bring this terrible financial 
 crash by this cause alone. But let us look 
 further, we will begin at the top of the ladder and 
 come down. It is commonly believed by a large 
 portion of our citizens that tlie 850,000 paid our 
 President as salary is the sum total of the Presi- 
 dent’s office, but this is a mistak^^, as you will find 
 by examining closely First, 850,000 is paid as 
 salary, and then 836,000 is given him in addition 
 to pay the salary of his subordinates and clerks ; 
 his private secretary is paid 83,250 ; his assistant 
 private secretary, 82,500 ; his stenographer, 81,000 ; 
 five messengers, each 81,200 ; steward, 81,800 ; two 
 door-keepers, each 81,200 ; four other clerks at 
 good salaries ; one telegraph operator and two 
 ushers, $1,200 and 81,400 each; a night usher, 
 $1,200; a watchman, $900, and a man who takes 
 care of fires, $864 ; and in addition to this there 
 is given him $8,000 for incidental expenses, such 
 as stationery, carpets and tlie care of the presi- 
 dential stables ; and under another heading there 
 is given him easily $40,000 more. Of this $12,600 
 
t How to he a Christian. 
 
 313 
 
 is for repairs and refurnisliing the White House ; 
 $2,500 is for fuel ; $4,000 is for the green house ; 
 $15,000 is for gas, matches and stable. The White 
 House all told costs the people of this countiy 
 $125,000 each year. (Henry Davenport Northrop 
 in Golden Manual or the Royal Road to Success.) 
 Dear reader, can you see any opportunity for a 
 reform in these facts? Just think for a moment, 
 only one branch of the government costing $125,- 
 000. If you will look over the salaries of the 
 heads of the nations of the world you will be 
 impressed with the thought that we are drifting 
 toward monarchy ; the salaries of all our govern- 
 mental officers partake more or less of extrava- 
 gance. For instance, the Cabinet down to the 
 Speaker of the House receiving $8,000 per year; 
 the Foreign Ministers will average about $10,000, 
 the Senate and House of Representatives $5,000, 
 and so on. There might be reform all along the 
 line which would help out in onr taxes. 
 
 Now let us look at the management of our dif- 
 ferent States. We will commence with the State 
 that pays the highest salaries, which is New York. 
 She pays her Governor $10,000, and a house to 
 live in ; Lieutenant-Governor, $5,000 ; Secretary of 
 State, $5,000 ; Treasurer, $5,000 ; Comptroller, $6,- 
 000; Attorney-General, $5,000; Chief Justice, 
 $7.500 ; Senators and Representatives, $1,500, and 
 mileage at ten cents a mile ; three District Judges, 
 $4,000 each ; Pension Agent, $4,000 ; Postage 
 
314 
 
 How to he a Christian. 
 
 Stamp Agent, $2,500 ; Deputy Superintendent Rail- 
 way Service is $2,500 to $4,500 ; twelve collectors 
 of Internal Revenue, $2,750. Of course they must 
 have big pay. Collector of Customs, IST. Y., $12,- 
 000; Superintendent Assay othce, $4,500. Popula- 
 tion (1890), 5,997,853. We find that Pennsylvania 
 comes next for high salaries, with her Grovernor at 
 $10,000 ; Lieutenant-Governor, $3,000 ; Secretary 
 of State, $4,000 ; Treasurer, $5,000 ; Chief Justice, 
 $8,500; six Associate Justices, $8,000 each; Sena- 
 tors and Representatives, $1,000 for 100 days, and 
 mileage live cents; two District Judges, $4,000; 
 two Pension Agents, $4,000 ; ten collectors of Inter- 
 nal Revenue, $2,375 to $4,500; Collector of Cus- 
 toms at Philadelphia, $8,000. Population in 1890, 
 5,258,014. Now we find Illinois with a Governor 
 at $6,000, but the officers run far below those of 
 New York and Pennsylvania, and she has a popu- 
 lation of 3,826,351. Let us now take a look at our 
 own State, California, with a population in 1890 of 
 1,208,130; a much smaller State than Illinois. 
 California pays to her Governor, $6,000 ; Secretary 
 of State, $3,000 ; Comptroller, $3.000 ; Superintend- 
 ent of Public Instruction, $3,000 ; Attorney-Gen- 
 eral, $3,000 ; Surveyor General and State Librarian, 
 each $3,000; District Judge, $5,000; Senators and 
 Representatives, $8 per day and mileage ten cents, 
 and $25 contingents; two collectors of Internal 
 Revenue, $3,125 to $4,500; Collector of Customs, 
 San Francisco, $7,000 ; Pension Agent, $4,000 ; 
 
IIow to he a Christian. 
 
 315 
 
 Superintendent of Mint, $4,500 ; Assayer, $3,000 ; 
 Melter and Refiner, $3,000. Then follows Arkan- 
 sas, with a population of 1,128,179. Governor’s 
 salary, $3,500, with under otficers much lower, and 
 consequently a cheaper administration. Then 
 Georgia, with a population of 1,837,353, and the 
 Governor at $3,000 ; also a much lower per cent of 
 salaries. Then Indiana, population 2,192,349 ; 
 Governor’s salary, $5,000, and a much lower rate 
 of salaries. Then Iowa, population 1,911,896; 
 Governor’s salary, $3,000, with the other salaries 
 running very much lower than ours. And now 
 comes the best-governed State of all, despite the 
 mud that has been thrown upon it, the State of 
 Kansas, with a population of 1,427,096. Gov- 
 ernor’s salary, $3,000 ; Secretary of State, $2,000 ; 
 Treasurer, $2,500 ; Auditor, $2,000 ; Attorney-Gen- 
 eral, $1,500; Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
 $2,000 ; Secretary Board of Agriculture, $2,000 ; 
 Insurance Commissioner, $2,5000; three Railroad 
 Commissioners, $3,000; State Librarian, $1,500; 
 Chief Justice, $3,000; two Associate Justices, 
 $3,000; Senators and Representatives-, $3.00 per 
 day, and mileage 15 cents; District Judge, $3,500 ; 
 Pension Agent, $4,000. Thus you see here is a 
 larger State in population, just as well managed, 
 and in fact better, with much less expense. Then 
 follow Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massa- 
 chusetts and Michigan, all with as great or greater 
 
316 
 
 How to he a Christian. 
 
 population tlian California, with the Governments 
 on a much more economical administration. 
 
 Reader, don’t you begin to see where the trouble 
 lies? Don’t you see that the fault lies in corrupt 
 politics, and will you stay in the old party lines 
 and help to fleece yourselves under the lash of the 
 bosses? I say, break down the old party fence 
 and free yourselves from this thralldom, assert 
 your mandood and emancipate yourselves and 
 come out on the broad and glorious plane of a free 
 American Independence! Free yourselves forever 
 from corrupt politics. 
 
 I have taken you through this line of statistics 
 to show you that there is a good chance for reform 
 in national politics as well as State. "We have 
 shown you, dear reader, the cause of the hard 
 times, and you can see the remedy if you will 
 study this subject. One thing we must have — right- 
 eous legislation. We must have a law authoriz- 
 ing the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the 
 ratio of 16 to 1. The liquor trafiic must be wiped 
 out; laws prohibiting and dissolving all monopoly 
 and trusts ; laws granting our American women 
 equal rights with the men at the ballot-box ; laws 
 restraining promiscuous emigration ; laws requir- 
 ing foreigners to be here twenty-one years regis- 
 tered as citizens of America before they can vote, 
 must be enacted. Our boys borndn America must 
 be here twenty -one 3 ^ears before they can vote. 
 Now, dear reader, we have given the hard times 
 
How to he a Christian. 
 
 317 
 
 and the cause. Now we will give the remedy. 
 You have seen that the corruption in politics has 
 been largely the cause of the hard times. Now 
 the remedy is to elect men that are pure and true 
 Christians. Men that will not sell their souls for 
 money. Men that can be trusted and will do what 
 they say they will do if they are elected. Now 
 this is a deep subject — an important question. 
 Reader, I hope your blind eyes will be opened by 
 reading this little volume. Vote as you pray. 
 So many say, We can never wipe out the curses 
 from this nation. So many say, I cannot see what 
 the remedy is. They that say this are willfull.^ 
 blind, and do not try to see their duty in this 
 matter. We can put the right men into office all 
 over this nation at every election if the voters will 
 nominate good, true Christian men for every office 
 from the mayor to the president. Cast away party 
 pride and do what you know Gred will sanction; 
 then we will have found the remedy for the hara 
 times. The women will soon have equal suffrage, 
 that means equal vote with the men. Women will 
 have a right to vote for every one a man has a 
 right to vote for. And when that time comes 
 there will be a different class of men in office from 
 the mayor to the president’s chair, for there will 
 not be any good Christian women that will vote 
 for a bad man. 
 
 What are the churches all over this nation made 
 up of ? Principally women ; four-fifths of most of 
 
318 
 
 How to he a Christian. 
 
 the congregations are women. We have very lit- 
 tle hope in the old for the salvation of our nation, 
 but the Young People’s Christian Endeavor is one 
 of the greatest, grandest movements, in the hands 
 of God, ever permitted to rise, God bless them, 
 and may they be the instrument in his hands to 
 wipe out every curse from this nation. Now, dear 
 reader, we will bid you an affectionate farewell, 
 hoping you may have been benefited by reading 
 this little volume, and do your Christian duty in 
 the future. 
 

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