Promising Young Man Wrecks His Home
By E. R. Potter
A Personal Experience in a Life Tragedy
THE charges preferred against the culprit at the "bar" are many and most serious, and demand careful investigation and prompt decision by every man, woman, and child on this world "jury." The sworn testimony of eye-witnesses without number has substantiated every charge made, and still fresh and convicting testimony comes from the "witness-box," appealing for swift and just condemnation of the liquor traffic. Of all the crimes committed by this traffic, none are more pernicious than its breaking up and destroying homes. The welfare of society and the prosperity of the nation depend upon home influences. Please allow a personal witness upon this point. TRAGEDY OF THE YOUNG WIFE'S HOME
The first place we called our home after our wedding day, May 16, 1906, was part of a new dwelling-house on Atlantic Avenue, in the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Upon acquaintance with the young couple occupying the other part of the house, we learned of the singular circumstance that they had been married on the same sixteenth of May. We became quite intimate, and our associations were the pleasantest, as we found them to be especially kind-hearted and happy, and devoted to each other. They attended a certain mission in the city, and were, with us, much interested in Christian work. Several weeks thus passed, when suddenly a change took place. Late one night, after we had retired, we heard our friends enter the house; but instead of the usual quietness, there were unusual sounds, which became louder and louder. I arose and was preparing to go down to see what was the cause, when one of the mission workers called me. I went down, and on nearing the door of the nicely furnished parlor, was surprised to hear my friend say, with thickened and unnatural voice, "If Mr. Potter comes in here I will smash him." Entering the door, I said, "I thought some one must be sick down here," to which he mumbled a reply, "We are sick." He certainly looked it. And there sat his beautiful young wife with two of the workers from the mission, all trembling with terror. Some of the furniture was broken, and his wife's dress was in tatters, giving evidence of his cruel treatment and insane actions. I was compelled to watch him and guard his wife and friends all that night. That was the sad beginning of a bitter chapter in the history of this home. The next few years were marked with times when he was a kind, repentant husband, and times of fearful trial and disgrace to himself and the only daughter of Christian and highly respected parents. The last time I saw him, he was staggering on the streets of Vancouver, British Columbia, where her parents had helped him to get into new associations and new work, but with the same story repeated till the home was broken up, the wife heart-broken, and her parents in despair of doing anything more for him. It is the oft-repeated story of the promise of reform before the marriage vows are taken. This noble girl felt confident, like many another, that she would be the means of reforming her husband. I make my appeal for the sake of the children upon whom the liquor traffic stamps a curse before their birth, whom it robs of food, clothing, love, and education during their helpless years; for the sake of the young men and women whose brightest hopes and prospects it blights; for the sake of the most generous and gentle and manly of our sons and husbands whom it debauches and degrades; for the sake of our country, whose courts it fills with criminal cases, prisons with convicts, and asylums with maniacs. Let us each render the verdict that will banish this traffic from the land.