A STAUNCH TEETOTALLER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2028, 4 January 1889, Page 3

A STAUNCH TEETOTALLER.

An Irish correspondent writes to a contemporary : — A ehott time »go I was ln~ tjoraated m oomlDg eorois one of Abe few /wrvlvingeonvertsmade by Father Mathew, the" great Irish apostle of temper anos In _the early part of this century. This convert was a village jblsoksmith^ In county Dublin who had been a ham drinker Id his early manhood. At the time of whioh I speak ha was seventy-two years of age, and he was passing through a severe crisis of illness. His daughter came to me to beg I would try to persuade him to take some stimulant ; for she said the doctor had told her that " nothlu' but the whisky would keep life In him, an' sorra a dhrop will he let pass his lips, the oraythor, for the rayson of the promise he gey* Father Mathew forty years come Michaelmas.' I accompanied her to his bedside* and did my best In urging him tc take some whiskey, I found it was In valp, and desisted when be asked me patheiloally. " An' how conld I meet Father Mathew In Heaven, God bless bim an' me, afther breaking the holy promise I gey' him ? Sure, toj, wouldn't the blessed St, Peter, himself bo afther turning me back at the gate, an' me wid his rivirenoe's medal, an 1 the smell of the whiskey On my lips t" Strange, to say, despite the doctor's opinion, this sturdy follower of Father Matbew triumphed, and weathered the crisis wlthont alcohol.