The Serpent of Strong Drink
Some time ago a party of sailors visited the Zoological Gardens. One of them, excited by the liquor he had taken, and as an act of bravado to startle his companions, took hold of a serpent. He held it up, having seized it in such a way that it could not sting him. As he held it, the snake, unobserved by him, coiled itself round his arm, and at length it got a firm grasp and wound tighter and tighter, so that he was unable to detach it. As the pressure of the snake increased, the danger grew, and at length the sailor was unable to maintain his hold on the head of the venomous reptile, and was compelled to loose it. What did the snake do then? It turned around and stung him, and he died. So it is with the appetite for strong drink. We can hold its influence in our own grasp for a little while, so that it shall be powerless; but afterwards "it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder."—Ex.