A WARNING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2292, 11 May 1886, Page 2

A WARNING.

It is apt to be too late to save a drunkard when his habits havo driven him to rrmw-a-pok ; Toub the Now York Sun tells of a shoemaker in Angelica, of that State, who minded the warning in time toescope. Going to his barn one day,, he " m snakes;" one was a crooked stick, and the other a whip-lash-but they moved. He tells the rest of the atory as follows The cold sweat of fear came out on my forehead. 1 wiped it off with •my handkerchief, and sat down on tho lower round of the hay-ladder, for 1 felt faint. Then I stared straight ahead at a cornstalk; it soon began slowly to wriggle and curve 1 With bursting eye balls and all the strength of mind I possessed 1 forced that cornstalk back from the animal to the vegetable kindom, an 4 then Istag'gerod feebly out into tho open air. I leaned against a post, and for fear I should see more of those horrid twisting things, I clung to a post and closed my eyes, " Time is called, Jim," lsuidto myself, "Whiskey and you part company to day;" and soberer than I had been for many months, though with no more strength than a baby, I managed to get back to ■ ■the house.

There was a fight, though. 1 didn't :ell my wife; for 1 had made many promises that hadn't been kept, and 1 ihougho I'd go on alone for awhile. I

got up in tho morning after a terrible night, with the thitsfc of a chased foi upon me. Water wouldn't quench it and I tried milk, I crept into tho milk room, slipped a straw into the edgo of the cream-covered pan, and sucked out the milk,, until only tho cream was left, lowered Smooth and unbroken, at the' bottom.. Then I tried another and another, until tho fierce craving was somewhat dulled.

It was a household mystery what became of the milk. No cat could lap it my wife said, and leave tho sides and cream untouched, and where did it go 1 I let them talk, for the'struggle was too sore and fearful to be spoken of, and I went on drinking the milk.

■The road from my house to my shop lay by the groggery. When I left my gate in the morning, I took the rond, and on a dead run, aB if pursued,-1 made the distance. I ran kard all the way home to dinner, and baok after that meal, nevor, in fact, trusting myself to walk, or even take to the sidewalk, for months. The cure was slow. I keep all tho brakes hard set yet. A single glass of hard cider would undo tho work of all thene

years; but that glass doesn't touch my lips while the memory of those little crawling black reptiles stays with mo. " Yes," and his voice broke; "I told her on her deathbed. "Jim, dear,' she said, when I had finished, with her hand clasped in mine, "Jim, dear, I knew it all the time.'"

The struggle glided in victory ; but who would be willing to entor upon a course that would impose upon life an exporienco like this I—Youth'B Companion.