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TBi WABBX96TOIIAiri
VOL. I.]
iTHE WASHINGTON!AN.
PUBLISHED BY JAMES McCAFFERTY,
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Old Church P O. J A Bell.
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80-well C. H (S C.)-0. D Allen.
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Mich mood County Washington Total Ab
s tine lice Society.
OFFICERS.
Dr. Joseph A. Eve, President.
r-oi. Jons Mii.lkdce, T
*/aWKINS Hcjff, i
T)r. F. M. Robertson, S- Vice Presidents.
Or. i- P Gauvin,
J VV. Meredith,
MANAGERS.
ofciMES Harper,
John G. Dunlap,
JESSE W ALTON,
E. E. Scoi 'IELD,
James Gl>d.«t,
H*** M«*\ 9.C., Nov. B<l, 1842.
Editir WttkingtonSan:
I* Dear Sir,—After perusing this piece, and making
modifications, it any are necessary, you will please give
it a place in your respectable little journal. It is my
first attempt at composition, and I know it is incoherent
ly and imperfectly written ; the events, however, as
* f recorded, are really and substantially correct. I have i
been a General in the service of King Alcohol, and I
look forward with plefising anticipations of being able
in future of doing something for the cause of Temper,
auce, to counterpoise the vast amount of harm 1 have
caused, by my influence and example in persuading
men to swallow down the hellish curse.
Your sanguine friend
in the cause of Total Abstinence,
GUILLAUME.
For the Washingtonian.
Mr. Editor —As it has become remarkably
common, and even fashionable, of late days, lor
Reformed Drunkards to make known, through I
_ |
the columns of Temperance Journals, their expe-!
rieneeofthe destructive and ruinous effects which j
too great indulgence in the inebriating bowl has j
had on them ; and as I am fully satisfied the re-;
ij presentation which I shall be able to giveofits
horrid and deleterious consequences on me, will l
not suffer in comparison with other accounts giv
en by some of the foremost reformed inebriates in
the country. I have, in perlect congruity to my !
own feelings, concluded to pen down for your j
Journal, a few of the anomalies and eccentricities ;
which characterized me during my allegiance to!
the sceptre of the Stygian Monarch—Prince Al
cohol.
My father embarked in the mercantile business
about ihirty-five years ago, many years before my
induction into the world, at old P. C. H., in So.
Carolina, and after continuing a respectable and i
very successful merchant at this place for seven j
years, he removed about seventeen miles to the :
South, where he settled, and erected a fine set of,
merchant mills, &e., and denominated his resi
dence R M . Here he resumed the vo- i
cation of merchandizing, and continued actively
TOTAL ABSTINENCE ADVOCATE.
YVm. F. Pemberton,
Wm. O Eve,
A. Phii.lips,
Dr. Benjamin Docolass,
J. L. Mimms.
AUGUSTA, GA. SATURDAY, DECTiMBt'iST 1842.
and zealously engaged in its pursuits up to the ]
time of his demise, which occurred in 1837. At j
this place I was horn, which event transpired !
about twenty-two years ago; and as I grew up
and became able to share in the management of
my father’s concerns, my services were occasion
ally demanded in the store as clerk. My father
also carried on an extensive distillery: lie manu
factured thousands of gallons of whiskey, brandy
and gin, and kept it in his store to sell to his cus
tomers. He tvas one of those men who, errone
ously, believe that it is an utter impracticability
for any merchant to succeed in making sale of
any thing like a fair quantity of dry goods, with
out blending the sale of spirituous liquors with
them. The idea was this: When a man entered
the store, it he were in the habit of drinking, he
would most generally call out his half pint, or
quart, as the case might be, or if he happened to
be not of the inclination to spend his money in
the purchase of it, why, the clerk, in conformity
to the orders of the employer, would present him
with a glass for the purpose of infusing into him
a disposition to make other purchases. And, Mr.
Editor, you perhaps know, or if you don’t. I do,
that when a fellow has taken down two or three
pretty stiff “horns” of the “ overjoyful,” he feels
like hew both the bigest and the richest man in
creation ; and t’e not unfrequently, after his intel
lectual and visionary organs have been a little
brightened up in this way, sees and wants a great
many things, which he would not, if he were so
ber, ever think of purchasing; and he readily,
and without the least hesitation, and not at all
considering the real value of the article, agrees to
pay whatever price the clerk may be pleased to
put upon the article, wholly regardless of the
contents and dimensions of his purse, and the
amount of the debt he may be contracting.
Being, as 1 stated before, frequently engaged
in the supervision of the affairs of my father’s
store, and accustomed every day to draw and sell
large quantities of liquor, I occasionally would
taste a little, and very soon, and very young, con
tracted the habit of moderate dram-drinking.—
The thirst gradually and imperceptibly increased
! upon tne, as is always the case, and very often I
would find myself deeply intoxicated, and entire
ly incapacitated to perform any of the duties that
necessarily devolve on a clerk. My father had
i in his employment several young mechanics—
tailors, waggon makers and blacksmiths, the ma
jority of whom evinced as great a delight and
p easure in swallowing down the contents of the
bottle as I did, and every night, after the labors
of the day were done, and rny father had retired
to his dwelling, which, by-the-by, was situated at
a sufficient distance from the store-house and
w« rk-shops, for us not to apprehend any fear or
danger whatever of.being detected by him in our
midnight, Bacbanalian carousals, we would as
semble ourselves in the counting-room, or in some
more commodious and suitable establishment,
| where we would while away the night in card
I playing, drinking, fiddling, dancing, &c. and
I early in the morning, each one again would en
gage in the duties of his res|iectivc occupation;
though after having undergone the tiresome labor
of “cutting the pigeon wing,” and feeling the
enervating effects which the liquor had produced,
wearied out with the loss of sleep, and other bad
feelings consequent upon a night thus spent in !
; drinking and revelling, you may safely conclude j
j that we did not discover any great degree of
| cheerfulness in proceeding to our labor. We all
j were apprized that it would not answer the pur
! pose so well, to let the old gentleman into the
J secret of our course of procedure during the
I night; and knowing this, all were careful not to
! make any movements that would lead to the de
tection of our conduct. We thus continued to
; drink and frolic, clandestinely, without my father
j suspecting such a thing. Often have we met in
the store-room at night, and after getting pretty
! drunk, we would'break every tumbler, pitcher,
bottle and decanter, that came within our reach,
i nd not satisfied with doing this, we would very
' often commence ojierations on the wares on the
OR,
shelves, and shiver whole dozens into atoms.
Next morning by times, the broken fragments
would be carefully and cleanly swept up, and de
posited in some secret place, to avoid the old gen
tleman s seeing them, and all the goods placed
judiciously and systematically back on the shelves
again, in such a manner that he could not possi
bly have the least suspicion of what had been
done the night before.
My father was in the habit of waggoning his
cotton, flour, &c. to Augusta, where he most
generally sold his produce, and purchased his
supplies ot goods. Once, I recollect, he left home
for that place, and hired a young man to super
vise his negroes and carry on the affairs of his
farm, and me, he directed to take into my charge
the management of the store, distillery and mills,
until he should return from Augusta, which gen
erally required about ten days to make the jour
ney. Well, we barely gave the old gentleman
time to got out ot sight, when I and the overseer !
commenced a campaign of drinking which lasted
without any kind of intermission, for eight days. -
There were barrels of whiskey in the store at our
command, but a thought struck our minds that,
“old ball-face” would not put a taste sufficiently
pretty in our mouths, and so we determined to
have the best that could lie obtained in the neigh-'
borhood. There lived about a mile from the
store a wealthy old planter who we knew always
drank, and kept the best juality of peach brandy
for sale. So we, not more than an hour after the
departure of iny father from home, gathered up
two jugs, each of which held a gallon and a half,
and oil'we started for the brandy. We had to
"lank down one dollar per gallon, and that dollar
had to be silver, the real “ rhino,” or we did not
get the liquor; for the old gentleman from whom
we purchased it, w is no great believer in Tom
Benton’s cravat stiffening. When our jugs were
filled, and we had paid oft' the hill, we started back
home. We would call a halt about every hun
dred yards, draw the stoppers, and take a pull at
the “ critter,” and when we arrived at the store,
the inflamable properties of the brandy had so
completely darkened my vision, that I could not
have told northern homespun from black broad
cloth ; and to judge from the circular windings
and back steps which the overseer made in his
attempts to walk, the organs of his sight were
not less materially obnubilated and operated on.
Wc, in the period of eight days, drank no less
than eight gallons ofthe strongest kind of peach
brandy, without giving away more than one gal
lon at the furthest to friends. We would gel
drunk three times in the day, and twice at night.
If the overseer had been interrogated what the
hands were engaged at in the farm, he could not
have given a definite answer to the question. If
he had been asked, whether they were planting
or gathering corn or cotton, lie would have repli
ed one as soon as the other. Ido not now recol
lect that he went out into the fields the first time
during my father’s absence to Augusta. Whilst
the overseer was utterly reckless of the perform
ance of the commands which my father had given
to him about the plantation, 1 was equally re
gardless ofthe resjionsibilities of my station, and
the directions he had given me when he departed.
It is true, I did not abandon the store entirely,
only when I went after a supply of brandy ; but 1
was so constantly and completely drunk, that I
could not superintend any kind of business per
taining to it. When a customer came to me for
an article, it was altogether optional with me
whether he got it or not. If I were requested to
show a piece of goods to a man who said he wish
ed to purchase, if it pleased me, I complied with
his demand ; if not, he was not accommodated.—
And if I did so far condescend, as to subject my
self to the trouble of taking down an article from
the shelves for his inspection, and if he refused to
pay me the price I asked for it, or endeavored to
obtain it for a less amount than I demanded, I
would impose on him such a copious profusion of
abuse and execrations, as would compel him to
abscond from my presence immediately. I did
not exhaust much oratory in telling him a big
talo about the quality and cheapncsse of the
goods, nor in persuading him to buy it. He wa#
obliged to purchase, if he purchased at all, at my
price; and if he discovered any backwardness in
purchasing, or hesitated on account of the price,
1 would forthwith place the goods back on the
shelves, and order him to shore, for he should not
have the gratification of carrying my merchant
dize home with him at any price!
Our supply ol'liquor would not last us more
than two days, and as soon as we discovered that
it was nearly exhausted, we would navigate, as
well as we were able, back to the old farmer’*,
and have our jugs re-lilled, frequently leaving
the store establishment wide open—good*, mo
ney, books, all exposed. The approach of night
would invariably cotnc upon us in a state of too
great intoxication to be able, or even think of
fastening a single door or window of the store
house. We would get into the house in which
we slept and ate just the best way we could. If
any thing chanced to be stolen from the *tore,
why it had to go so—we were by’ no means par
ticular and watchful over small mailers.
Things went on this way until the evening of
the eighth day, two days before the expected re
turn of my father from Augusta, when we con
cluded it would be much to our advantage to cool
off a little. Wc were well aware that it would
not answer the purpose at all for the old gentle
man to return home and find us in a state of
inebriety; for if he did, the times would have
been any thing but agreeable and pleasant to us.
I had got sober from innumerable drunken frolics,
and thought I had suffered all the bad feelings
that could possibly attend them ; but never in my
liie did I have such horrible sensations before,
j My lather came back at the appointed time, and
found all things going on pretty mueh to his no
tion. On examining the books he discovered
that hut few sales had been made while he was
absent, and demanded of me, why I had not suc
ceeded in selling more goods. My response to
this interrogatory was, that application had not
been made for them, and of course I could not be
expected to effect sales if no one wished to pur
| chase. The overseer was also questioned as to
the progress of the work in the farm—what work
had been done, how much, &c. &c. He reported
that the negroes had been constantly and assidu
ously engaged in the prosecution of their work,
and had completed their tasks according a* he
had allotted them off to them, and in good order;
also, that he had faithfully obeyed and executed
all the injunctions that were given him. These,
our studied explanations accomplished, for the time
being, the desired end to a fraction—they proved
perfectly satisfactory to my father; and the old
gentleman seemed highly delighted with the idea
that I, his youngest son, had directed his business
with such skill and judgment during his trip to
market.
It was sometimes requisite for me to labor with
the negroes in the farm. Habituated, while offi
ciating as a clerk in the store, to drink more or
less every day, consequently, I very often felt a
desire to take a “horn” whilst engaged at laborin
the field, but could not exercise that gratification,
having no suitable mode for carrying it with me.
To obviate all difficulties, and in order to fix a
plan for carrying it with convenience with us in
the field, I and the overseer each had a frock coat
usually denominated a W shington coat, made
with a pocket in each side sufficiently roomy to
contain a big flask. These, we would contrive
secretly to fill every night with spirits to drink
the ensuing day in the field. The overseer and
myself were usually required to follow the
plough, and at every round or two, we would
stop our mules, draw out our bottles from our
“ Washingtons,” pull the cork, and drink each
other’s good health in the middle of the field.
One day we were ploughi in afi dos young
corn, that had just begun to make its appearance
above the surface of the ground, and every man
who is conversant with the process of cultivating
this plant while in its young and tender state,
knows it is a very difficult matter to run close to
[No. 13.