WHAT BECAME OF THEM?

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Jan 20, 1904

WHAT BECAME OF THEM?

FIFTY years ago a gentleman of Ohio noted down ten drinkers, six young men and four boys. "I saw the boys," he says, "drink beer and buy cigars in what was then called a 'grocery' or 'doggery.' I expressed my disapprobation, and the seller gave a coarse reply. He continued the business, and in fifteen years he died of delirium tremens, not leaving five dollars.

"I never lost sight of these ten, only as the clods of the valley hid their bodies from human vision. Of the six young men, one died of delirium tremens, and one in a drunken fit; two died of disease produced by their excesses before they reached the meridian of life. Two of these left families not provided for, and two sons are drunkards. Of the remaining, one is a miserable wreck, and the other a drinker in some better condition."

Of the four boys, one, who had a good mother, grew up a sober man; one was killed by a club in a drunken brawl; one has served two terms in the penitentiary; and one has drunk himself into an offensive dote whose family has to provide for him."