Stories of Achievement, Volume III | Page 9

occurred, my good name was not so far gone but
that I might have succeeded, by the aid of common industry and
attention, in my business. I was a good workman, and found no
difficulty in procuring employment, and, I have not the slightest doubt,
should have succeeded in my endeavor to get on in the world but for
the unhappy love of stimulating drinks, and my craving for society. I
was now my own master; all restraint was removed, and, as might be
expected, I did as I pleased in my own shop. I became careless, was
often in the barroom when I should have been at my bindery, and
instead of spending my evenings at home in reading or conversation,
they were almost invariably passed in the company of the rum bottle,
which became almost my sole household deity. Five months only did I
remain in business, and during that short period I gradually sunk deeper
and deeper in the scale of degradation. I was now the slave of a habit
which had become completely my master, and which fastened its
remorseless fangs in my very vitals. Thought was a torturing thing.
When I looked back, memory drew fearful pictures, the lines of lurid
flame, and, whenever I dared anticipate the future, hope refused to
illumine my onward path. I dwelt in one awful present; nothing to
solace me--nothing to beckon me onward to a better state.
I knew full well that I was proceeding on a downward course, and
crossing the sea of time, as it were, on a bridge perilous as that over
which Mahomet's followers are said to enter paradise. A terrible feeling
was ever present that some evil was impending which would soon fall

on my devoted head, and I would shudder as if the sword of Damocles,
suspended by its single hair, was about to fall and utterly destroy me.
Warnings were not wanting, but they had no voice of terror for me. I
was intimately acquainted with a young man in the town, and well
remember his coming to my shop one morning and asking the loan of
ninepence with which to buy rum. I let him have the money, and the
spirit was soon consumed. He begged me to lend him a second
ninepence, but I refused; yet, during my temporary absence, he drank
some spirit of wine which was in a bottle in the shop, and used by me
in my business. He went away, and the next I heard of him was that he
had died shortly afterward. Such an awful circumstance as this might
well have impressed me, but habitual indulgence had almost rendered
me impervious to salutary impressions. I was, at this time, deeper in
degradation than at any period before which I can remember.
My custom now was to purchase my brandy--which, in consequence of
my limited means, was of the very worst description--and keep it at the
shop, where, by little and little, I drank it, and continually kept myself
in a state of excitement.
This course of procedure entirely unfitted me for business, and it not
unfrequently happened, when I had books to bind, that I would instead
of attending to business keep my customers waiting, whilst in the
company of desolute companions I drank during the whole day, to the
complete ruin of my prospects in life. So entirely did I give myself up
to the bottle that those of my companions who fancied they still
possessed some claims to respectability gradually withdrew from my
company. At my house, too, I used to keep a bottle of gin, which was in
constant requisition. Indeed, go where I would, stimulant I must and
did have. Such a slave was I to the bottle that I resorted to it continually,
and in vain was every effort which I occasionally made to conquer the
debasing habit. I had become a father; but God in his mercy removed
my little one at so early an age that I did not feel the loss as much as if
it had lived longer, to engage my affections.
A circumstance now transpired which attracted my attention, and led
me to consider my situation, and whither I was hurrying. A lecture was

advertised to be delivered by the first reformed drunkard, Mr. I. J.
Johnson, who visited Newburyport, and I was invited by some friends,
who seemed to feel an interest, to attend and hear what he had to say. I
determined after some consideration to go and hear what was to be said
on the subject. The meeting was held in the Rev. Mr. Campbell's
church, which was pretty well crowded. I went to the door, but would
go no farther; but in the ten minutes I stood there, I heard him