The Washingtonian, or, Total abstinence advocate. (Augusta, Ga.) 1842-1843, December 03, 1842, Image 2

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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.