Very SAD LESSON.



"THEN, Doctor, there is no hope? Must I see my husband thus helpless the rest of his life? Are you sure there is no help for him?"

"No, Mrs. E, I am sorry indeed for you, but I cannot with hold the truth. This severe stroke of palsy, brought on by the incessant use of tobacco, has left him a cripple for life, both in body and mind. He will never be able to utter one sentence, and can never talk any more than you now hear him."  "Oh, dear!" and Mrs. E stopped her ears, as oath after oath of the most terrible character came from the mouth of the wicked man. 

Having always been a profane man, uttering scarcely a sentence without an oath, now the judgment of God, as the neighbors said, seemed to rest upon him, and he could utter nothing but oaths.

Mrs. E, a timid woman of high birth, looked into the future with sadness. No friends were near to advise, and being unused to business, and no assistance to be expected from her only son, the picture was indeed dark. 

Her husband, a strong, healthy man, had been that morning brought home entirely helpless. He must be cared for; the farm must be tended; their only son, about fourteen years of age, must be controlled, and taught to bear the burdens and attend to the business of the farm, and all rested upon her, the father and husband being unable even to advise. Anxious that her son should make life a success, all the advantages of a good education, regardless of expense, were bestowed upon him. After finishing his studies, the farm was given into his hands; but things did not prosper. "What does ail my boy," inquired the fond mother, of a neighbor; "his health is so poor, and have you noticed what a swollen, bad nose he has?"

"Do you not know the cause?"

"No, I have thought of many things that might cause it, but cannot find the real cause."

"Do you not know of the saloons and 'the great temptation’ that is brought to bear upon the young, and that your son has yielded?"

"Tobacco and rum, oh would such evils had never existed! One has ruined my husband, and must I live to see the other destroy my boy?

With a heavy heart Mrs. E finished her work for the evening. Her heart ached as she saw Tom start for town in the evening, and as she watched him day by day, the words of her neighbor were proven too true.

A few years after as mother and son stood by the lifeless form of husband and father, who had been only a care and a burden all those long years, how his worthless life rose before them! Given up to that cruel monarch, tobacco, his manhood had been ruined, his son almost wrecked, and himself sunk into a hopeless grave, hopeless, because no bright hope for the future was his, nothing but the lot of the blasphemer.




MRS. I. J. HANKINS.