TEMPERANCE DEPARTMENT

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Feb 19, 1880

TEMPERANCE DEPARTMENT.

A FANATICAL MAN.

KIND friend put your glass on the table Untouched, and listen to me. You say I'm a temperance fanatic— Mayhap I have reason to be. It is years since we parted at college, Let us talk over times passed away, And see of companions and class-mates, Who's dead, and who's living to-day.

There were ten of us came off together : Here are two—now what of the eight ? But a few days ago I saw William— He who beat us all in debate. He was rich, you know; now he is needy. I asked where his fortune all went; He tipped up a glass as he answered, "I drank it down so—every cent."

Then Ralph, who bore the first honor, He took to the bar, as you know, But another bar claimed his attention, And business progressed rather slow. He died of the tremens, poor fellow! His talents would rank with the first, And to think of his dying ere forty— A prey to the demon of thirst.

Then Bob, irrepressible Robert— Who always took lead in our fun— The gayest and wildest of fellows, Yet the kindest and best hearted one. Well, he went to prison—life sentence; He took too much liquor one day, And a spree, that began in good feeling, Ended up with a stabbing affray.

Then there was that young prince of topers, That high-headed Archibald West; He never was known to be tipsy, Yet he drank more than all of the rest. Ah! he's reaping the crop of his sowing— His son loves the cup, and has not A stomach of steel like his father, And already the boy is a sot.

I made Tom a visit last summer, You remember Tom—quiet and mild. Well, he makes the most fretful of husbands; I pity his wife and his child. He's pleasant enough in the evening, As he sips his hot toddy and ale, But all the forenoon he's a terror— Cross, headache, snappish and pale.

And George—who was called Claus Adonis— Who turned women's head with a smile, That straight-limbed and graceful Apollo, Who took a "dram once in a while." Oh, Charles, you could scarcely believe it, But the fellow's a sight to behold; His nose is as red as a lobster, He's bloated, and blear-eyed, and old.

Then Herbert—he's traveling somewhere. But one more remains—Henry Lee; And you know, from the deck of a steamer He fell, and was lost out at sea. A friend, who was with him, since told me That Hank was light-headed from drink, And that's how he so lost his balance; 'Twas the general opinion, I think.

So, Charles, when I name o'er our class-mates Who all tipped the glass now and then, I think that woes might have been saved them If they had been temperance men. You, I own, seem untouched by drink's dangers. Yet your future we neither can scan, And I really feel safer for being A very fanatical man.