you are simply drunk.

If those imperilled were heartless young men, stingy young men, I
would not be so sorry as I am; but there are many of them generous to
a fault, frank, honest, cheerful, talented. I begrudge the devil such
a prize. After a while these persons will lose all the frankness and
honor for which they are now distinguished. Their countenances will
get haggard, and instead of looking one in the eye when they talk,
they will look down. After a while, when the mother kindly asks, "What
kept you out so late?" they will make no answer, or will say "That is
my business!" They will come cross and befogged to the store and
bank, and ever and anon neglect some duty, and after a while will be
dismissed: and then, with nothing to do, will rise in the morning at
ten o'clock, cursing the servant because the breakfast is cold, and
then go down town and stand on the steps of a fashionable hotel, and
criticise the passers-by. While the young man who was a clerk in a
cellar has come up to be the first clerk, and he who a few years ago
ran errands for the bank has got to be cashier, and thousands of other
young men of the city have gone up to higher and more responsible
positions, he has been going down, until there he passes through the
street with bloated lip, and bloodshot eye, and staggering step, and
hat mud-spattered and set sidewise on a shock of greasy hair, the
ashes of his cigar dashed upon his cravat. Here he goes! Look at him,
all ye pure-hearted young men, and see the work of the fashionable
club-room. I knew one such who, after the contaminations of his
club-house, leaped out of the third-story window to put an end to his
wretchedness.

Many who would not be seen drinking at the bar of a restaurant, think
there is no dishonor and no peril connected with sitting down at a
marble stand in an elegantly furnished parlor, to which they go with a
private key, and where none are present except gentlemen as elegant
as themselves. Everything so chaste in the surroundings! Soft carpets,
beautiful pictures, cut glass, Italian top tables, frescoed walls. In
just such places there are thousands of young men, middle-aged men,
and old men, preparing themselves for overthrow.

In many of these club-rooms the talk is not as pure and elevated as
it might be. How is it, men and brothers, at half-past eleven o'clock,
when the tankards are well emptied, and the smoke curls up from every
lip? Do they ever swear? Are there sto