d seemed to be
lending him their sympathy; and he was one of the most loathsome and
degraded human beings my eyes ever beheld. I should not be surprised to
know that he is now with the dead. May my latter end not be like his.

* * * * *

A respectable merchant in P----, having long observed that a farmer,
with whom he often traded, was in the habit of using ardent spirits to
great excess, offered one day to give him fifty dollars, if he would
drink no more for ten years; except so much as his physician should
think necessary for his health. The farmer agreed to the proposition,
and the bargain was confirmed in writing. It was not long before he felt
unwell, applied to his physician, and bitters were prescribed. He had
scarcely begun to use them, when he found that his appetite for ardent
spirits was returning with almost irresistible violence. He foresaw the
evil that would probably ensue, threw away his bitters, and dashed his
bottle to pieces. He drunk no more ardent spirits till the ten years had
expired, when he called on the merchant, and informed him that the
conditions of the obligation had been, on his part, fulfilled. "Of
course, then," said the merchant, "you want your money." "No," he
replied, "I cannot take it. I have saved far more than my fifty dollars
in my bills at your store, and I have made ten times that sum by
attention to my business." The merchant has long since gone to his rest.
The farmer still lives, has a large estate, and a fine family around
him, and is a respectable and worthy citizen; for, till this day, he
drinks no ardent spirits.

* * * * *

DECLARATION OF THIRTY-EIGHT PHYSICIANS.

"The undersigned, physicians of Cincinnati, feel it their duty to
express their decided opinion in opposition to the habitual, as well as
occasional use of ardent spirits. They are convinced, from all their
observation and experience, that ardent spirits are not only
_unnecessary_, but absolutely _injurious_ in a healthy state of the
system; that they produce many, and aggravate most of the diseases to
which the human frame is liable; that they are unnecessary in relieving
the effects of cold and fatigue, which are best relieved by rest and
food; that their use in families, in the form of bitters, toddy, punch,
etc., is decidedly pernicious, perverting the appetite, and undermining
the constitution; that they are equally as poisonous as opium o