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it without covering it up, or otherwise injuring
its growth by the dirt that rolls from the plough
share. Well, we happened unluckily that day to
pull the cork and drink our success a little too
often, and about the middle of the afternoon we
become a little more than “corned;” and being
either too blind to see the direction of the row,
and not having a sufficiency of strength to guide
the handles of onr ploughs; besides, the mules
growing very refractory, in consequence of our
high sounding “gees” and “hairs," and instead
of directing the point of the gopher at a proper
distance from the roots ofthe young corn, we ran
too close, overturned, and covered it all up! We
were possessed of sufficient presence of mind,
however, to know this was not the proper mode
of treating young corn. So wc came to the de
termination it would be best for us to cease our
operations with the plough, until we should some
what recover from our aggravating illness! —
And it was a happy conclusion for the welfare of
the field o. corn that we did thus conclude; for
if we had continued the destruction as we began,
it is more than probable an cxulierent crop would
not have been gathered front that field at the
reaping time.
My drunken sprees, however, were not wholly
confined to the precincts of my nativity. The
transacting of my father’s business would occa
sionally call inc into public assemblies, or if I had
no business to perform for hint, I usually attend-
ed such places. Here, opportunities were always
afforded me to drink, which I was known always
to accept and make the very best use of. My in
satiable desire for liquor, and the almost innu
merable invitations of other votaries to drink with
them, invariably terminated in a Bacchanalian
carousal. I acquired great celebrity throughout
my native district, as one being well versed and
trained in all the arcana of drunken licentious
ness. Often did my father and mother remon
strate with me, and beg me, in the most pressing |
and affectionate manner, to amend iny course ol
conduct, and abstain from my drunken career—
told me of the loveand affection they had bestow
ed on uie daring my infancy—of the anxious and
indefatigable solicitude with which they had
watched over, protected and.nurtured me, when I
was unable to defend myself—of the great hopes
they had fostered of my becoming some day a
useful and an ornamental member of society, and
causing their hearts, when old and worn out with
the toils of life and the advances of decrepitude,
to leap and rejoice in the exulting and cheering
thought of having brought me into existence.—
Nor were the importunities of my brothers and
sisters less numerous and urgent for my redemp
tion from the vortex of inebriety ; but 1 still per
sisted, stubbornly, in the path of drunkenness,
vice and shame, entirely heedless to all parental
and fraternal advice and supplication. My eld
est brother once made a proposition to mo, that if
I would but just forego the idea of getting drunk,
and other excesses, he would make me a present
of a complete suit of the finest and best broad
cloth that could be obtained in the city of Augus
ta; and, Mr. Editor, 1 can assure you, a broad
cloth suit, especially if purchased in Augusta, is
by no means an unimportant desideratum in the
mind of a young man brought up in the back
woods, as 1 have been. 1 accepted the offer of
my brother, and the bargain was consequently I
closed. But do you think I succeeded in the
the consummation of tho resolution 1 set to re
frain from getting drunk? Far from it.—l kept
away from the bottle four or five days, when my
inclination to drink bore down all interposing
impediments, and 1 relapsed back into the same
old channel as before. Having violated the co
venant with my brother, the bargain was of
course no longer valid, and 1 did not get the suit
of broad-cloth.
The reader will now, doubtless, be solicitous
to understand the circumstances which led to my !
conversion from brutal and slavish intemperance
to total abstinence. In the month of June last,
I received information, by letter, from one ofmy
brothers, a medical practitioner, residing in the
village of C , in one cf the upper counties
of Georgia, that a temperance celebration was in
contemplation at that place on the 4th of July,
and that be had, at the solicitation of friends )
consented to give the citizens a dissertation on
the subject of total abstinence on that day, and
also requesting me to make such arrangements
as would permit of my visiting him at the time
above mentioned, and of being a spectator of the
proceedings of the meeting. Having adjusted
the necessary preliminaries, 1 departed from home
on Friday, the Ist day of July, for the village of
C *, which place I reached at a late hour on
the evening of the third day. Safely landed, the
first thing with nte to be attended to, was to get
something to drink, which it was not a difficult
task to procure, as there were no more nor less
than six dog-shops in that single village. As
fate ordered it, I did not get extensively blue this
time ; only gentlemanly groggy. The next day,
(the 4th,) the citizens of the village and sur
rounding country, congregated at the Court
house at the hour of 10 o’clock, and, the Throne
of Grace being implored by a minister of the gos
pel present, my brother took the stand, and deliv
ered the address he had prepared for the occasion.
Hi*reasonings were cogent, applicable and well
directed—He depicted the ruinous and disser
viceable tendencies of intemperance, in colors too
ostensible to he misunderstood, and too veritable
not to have an effectual and saving influence on
me. The speaking done, the pledge was pre
sented for signatures, to which a considerable
number of names was attached, and to which I
also affixed mine. I had come to the decision
again and again, before, with myself, to stand
aloof from intemperate gratifications, but as often
violated those self-made promises. When I met
witli a friend with whom I was wont to associate
in quaffing off the mutual glass, and was solicited
by him to drink, I, in compliance to his demand,
complied with the requisition; because the pro
mise thus made with myself was insufficient to
enable me to withstand the temptation. Four
months have now clap.-ed since I became a mem
ber ofthe Total Abstinence Society, since which
time I have not tasted one drop of the poisonous
liquid in any combination. Now, when Ichancc
to meet with an old acquaintance and am urged
on to join in the contents ofthe bowl, the pledg
ing mystlf. as a gentleman, to the Washingtoni
ans, to refrain entirely from all intoxicating bev
erages, recurs with full force and effect to my
mind, and I unhesitatingly give my refusal to
comply with his request.
In conclusion, permit me to remark to all, but
particularly to young men, who have and are de
grading themselves, destroying their lives, wast
ing their competencies, and rendering themselves
fit only to co-habit and associate with the beasts
oftlie forests, by depraving and degenerating su
perfluity in the use of ardent spirits, ihat the only
sure and indubitable means by which you can
possibly evade its ravages and blasting conse
quences, is forthwith to give your consent to bo
cpmo a Washingtonian, sign the Pledge, and
adhere rigidly and pertinaciously to it.
GUILLAUME.
For the Washingtonian.
Mr. Editor —On the perusal of an article in a
number of your interesting paper entitled “ The
Drunkard'a Bible," the following sketch from
real life was suggested to my mind, which I shall
call—
The Family Bible, or the History of Jor
dan Rollins.
In days long gone by, there lived in the county
of G. a man whose name I shall call Jordan Rol
lins, though he was more familiarly known in the
village of G., and in the vicinity of Major M’s
store, by the name of Uncle Jord. —lndeed so sel
dom did he hear himself called Mr. Rollins, that
he to«k it as an insult, (particularly if he was in
a spree,) and was apt to assure him who attached
Mr. to his cognomen, that he was '■'■one of the
blue hen's chickens ,” and if he did’nt mind his
“ P’s and G’s” better in future, he would “ take
him where he takes his snuff."
Os the early history of this individual, the wri
ter knows but little, other than the fact, that he
was among the hardy sons of the “ Old Domin
ion,” who emigrated to Georgia soon after “ the
toils of war” had ceased—about the year 178 G.
Being in possession of a comfortable share ofthis
world’s goods, nothing remained to be done but to
“ take care of the cents, and let the dollars take
care of themselves,” in order to ensure “honor,
wealth and powerbut, alas! for him, he soon
formed a habit (in opposition to the views of the
philanthropic Oglethorpe) of gentlemanly dram
[ drinking , viz: whenever he went to the village,
or to the Major’s store, he never failed to take a
! glass of the overjoyful with those of his friends
I whom he happened to meet; but it was not until
’ after several years had elapsed, that he was ever
; known to take so much as to be seen tight, (in the
■ common acceptation of the term with a Bacchan
allian,) though frequently known to be as much
as gentleman-groggy, on election days and at
other public “gatherings;” and yet he would
spurn the name of a drunkard with as much in
-1 dignity as would Richard P. Taylor, or Thomas
; F. Marshall; and such, no doubt, were the feel
ings of the most abandoned sot in the gutter, had
he been told when he first enlisted under the
banner of King Alcohol, that he would at some
future day become a sot, in alt probability he
would have hooted at the prediction. It is unne
c cssary to follow the subject of this sketch through
all the various stages of the slow, hut certain dis
ease, that terminated his terrestrial existence :
Suffice it to say, that he went on, {torn fashiona
ble to regular drinking, and from that, to notori
ous tottishnesn. By the time that he had arrived
at this crisis, his worldly means were very much
straitened - indeed, well nigh exhausted, and his
wit and ingenuity were often put to the test to
supply his (now) insatiable thirst lor the “critter,’
as will be seen when the reader shall have perus
ed a few of his eccentricities, which I shall relate.
After having disposed of several family relics,
such as, watches, finger-rings, breast-pins, &c.
he on one occasion took the Family liible, which
not only contained the record of all the progeni
tors of his “ better half,” but. was her constant
companion—“ a lamp to her feet and a light to
her path,” in which she read the awful denun
ciations against the drunkard, over which she
prayed daily for those judgments to be averted
from him whom she had plighted her vows to
“ love, honor, serve and obeyand, appearing
at the bar of Major M., proffered to barter “the
volume of God's inspiration,” for Rum! But the
Major, who claimed himself to be above “the
baser sort,” refused to take the sacred volume; at
which Uncle Jord. exclaimed, “Well, Major,
you are the greatest skeptic in the world—you
won’t take my word, nor the word of Gcal!”
Failing to obtain any Rum by this dernier re
sort, Uncle Jord. went home and formed a resolu
tion (which he kept for several months) to become
a sober man; and had there been in that day and
place a society of true Washingtonians to have
taken him into membership, anil borne with him
a part of the (to him alone) ponderous yoke of
temptation, in all probability he would have died
a sober man; but on election day (the resolution
having been formed in the spring) the tempter
came, and he yielded—took a regular-built spree,
which lasted until he had expended the last cent
of his earnings. Being somewhat out of prac
tice, the poison wrought fearful ravages on his
constitution, as well as his pocket, for he became
so much reduced as to excite the sympathy of
some of the young devotees of Bacchus, who pro
posed to Uncle Jord., in order to induce him to
go home, that they would fill a black belly for him,
on the condition that he would not uncork it un
til he should reach home—this was immediately
ratified by him, the bitty filled, and he took up
his homeward march. The boys wishing to see
whether or not he fulfilled the stipulations of the
treaty, honestly, pursued on after him,only a few
rods in his rear, and tound that after he had gone
a mile or two he became “ a thirst,” and thus so
liloquized—“ I promised those boys that I would
not uncork this until I got home; but I want a
dram mighty bad” —and looking down on the
ground, he discovered a stone a few feet in ad
vance of him, which he immediately procured,
and taking the bottle in his left haud, closely
clutching it just below the cork, with a well di
rected blow of the stone in his right he severed
that part of the neck containing the cork, from
it, without injuring the remainder of the bottle,
or liquor, at the same time exclaiming—“ There,
by jingo, I did’nt uncork it.” The youngsters
interposed---aceompanied Uncle Jord. home, and
gave his wife instructions not to let him have
more than three drams per day, until he had
cooled off ; but he remonstrated against the pre
scription heavily, and took advantage of his wife’s
absence to slip along in his chair by means of his
cane, (being unable to walk on the morning after
his arrival home,) until he got immediately under
the bottle, (which, for security, his wife had plac
ed in tho loft, or garret, of his “log-cabin,” the
boards, constituting the floor, of which were not
nailed down ) and with his cane he displaced the
boards, so that down came the bottle, which he
caught with his hands without spilling a drop! at
the same time chuckling. “By the eternal—a
pretty good catch.” Being enabled, by the help
of his wonderful auxiliary (the cane) to keep his
wife off at a distance, he was soon beastly drunk.
I will pursue his character no further, but leave
the issue to the more fertile imagination of the
reader, by informing him, that the next article
Maj r M. was called on for by the Rollins fami
ly, was a shroud. P.
Georgia, Nov. 1842.
Striking.— A convict ship took out 300 cul
prits; they were allowed only water, while the
crew had ardent spirits. On arriving at Sidney,
every convict was in perfect health; no case of
illness or death had occurred during the seven
months’ voyage; but of the crew several died, and
several were sick on landing.
iiULai'rUtAlCSy
TIIE VV A S II I N G T O NIA N:
AUGUSTA, iECUMBER 3,1842.
Washington Total Abstinence Pledge.
IVe, whose names are hereunto annexed, desirous M
of forming a Society for our mutual benejit,
and to guard against a pernicious practice,
which is injurious to our health, standing and
families, da pledge ourselves as Gentlemen,
not lo drink any
Spiritous or Malt Liquors, Wine or Cider.
“ D. L. R ” has been received, and will
appear in our next.
At a meeting of the Washington Total Absti
nence Society, held at the Unitarian Church on
the evening of Nov. 2lst, the Rev. A. Means ad
dressed the society in a highly instructive and
interesting manner. The meeting was well at
tended, and the lively interest awakened in the
audience, by their attention to the remarks of the 4
speaker, was 'manifest in the number of acces
sions to the pledge on the occasion—fifteen names
were subscribed to the list.
Mr. Richard P. Taylor, (the reformed drunk
ard,) arrived in this city a few days since, and has
given two lectures before the Society. He still
goes ahead” in the noble work, with his accus
tomed cheerfulness, urging upon all a strict ad
herence to the pledge. Owing to the inclemency
of the weather, we presume, the meetings were
'cry small, and his success heretofore in this city
has been such, that but a small field is left for
operations; the number of accessions, we are in
formed, were but six,
Mr. Taylor informs us that since he left Au- \
gusta, in April last, he has visited 40 counties in
the upper part of Georgia, given 240 lectures, se
cured to the Washingtonian Pledge 10,818 ac
cessions, 790 of which were the hardest kind of
eases, and about 500 of them were men offatnilies.
We commence, in to-day’s paper, the publica
tion of a journal of his travels in this State,
which will be continuedin the ' Washingtonian,’
and we know will be interesting to our readers.
Mr. Taylor’s Journal will contain a full account
of the progress of Temperance at the South,
wherever he lectures, and we are happy to state
to our readers, that he has kindly offered us the
results of his travels, for publication.
“ Franklin Evans, or the Inebriate,” a tale of
the times, by Walter Whitman. Mr. Silas A.
Holmes, of this city, has left with ns a copy of
the above novel. We have not had an opportu
nity to peruse it entire; as far as we have read it,,
the work is both interesting and instructive, and,
well worth the price of twenty-five cents.
The South-Carolina Temperance Advocate,
states that there has never been a session of Co
lumbia College at which there has been so little
of riot and intemperance, as the last. The effect
of a College Temperance Society.
Out of seven distilleries, in one town in Massa
chusetts, that were in operation one year ago, but
two remains.
Five hundred of the Philadelphia Firemen re--
centlv signed the Washingtonian Pledge, in the
course of three evenings.
A little boy seeing a drunken man. prostrate
before the door of a rum-shop, stepped in and
informed the landlord that his sign was down.
A friend hands ns the following recipe, taken
from an old magazine, which he considers infalli
ble, having suffered much from chilblains until
he had used it:
Cure for Chilblains.
Take of new hog’s lard, two oz,; of oil of sweet
almonds, one oz.; white virgin wax, half an oz.; ;
camphor, half an oz.dissolve all in an earthen
pipkin, and when well incorporated together,
pour into an earthen vessel, and set by to cool.
When the feet and hands begin to swell, itch,
and become discolored, rub them well by the fire
with this ointment, five or six nights successively,
and it will not fail of giving, not only relief, but
effectually cure them. If the skin is broken, the
ointment must be spread on a fine linen rag and
laid on the excoriated part, it will occasion a few
moments severe pain, but will allay the inflam
mation, and in a short time, heal the wound.