The west shore., November 01, 1878, Page 68, Image 2

68
THE WEST SHORE.
November, 1878.
1 1 1 K JIM JIMS.
nv 1. 11.
"Hiicyou ever had the Jimims,
my young'frictid 'The Jim-Jims T
l.c Kt-tt.l, ill reply t- my fju-ti..iiin
look . .
fohn Brinsley rn waled in nil
rooms, loading U10 price-currenl in the
. ning paper. I bad droppod in upon
him ti Inquire what were the pros.
mmI, not of our common country, but
of choose, lie was preparing himself
(in the delivery of an elaborate opinion
whm ho toddcnly started from hii
ehaii and, grasping we by 'lie arm,
cried : " Fm I Ic.n en's sake, tell me, was
that a fly '"
I BMpposod meant to inquire
whether I had bought a few tons of
cheese MJual foi a flj apeculaton
w ill understand the phrase or whethei
I Intended to add another branch to my
business, and replied accordingly.
" I mean, m'iii that is thai Hi fly ?"
lie Cried, nr.ik itij a wild sweep at a
bloQ.bottla whose wind's just then
hi uahod his nose.
11 ( 1 it 1-," I retui ned. "Whal
hd you iimik it whs a guineahen or
a tin koybuasard ?"
1 1- seati d himself, and began itirring
the Are thoughtfully.
Mi. ohn Brinsley, let me explain, ii
a well-to do mid i.ilhci poitly com.
mission merchant, whose acquaintance
I had lately made. Naturally a verj
lonsible fellow, he had the advantage
in disadvantage mi stalling in life of a
collegiate education, graduating either
a a Bacchanalian 01 .1 baccalaureate I
do not exactly remember which, of
Ins fbrmei habits I knew nothing, but
he w I 1 1 ii 11 oiie of the slam hi st tcctn
Inlets going, telnsiii OVOfl that delicious
phjsr nt the grape Tokay, to which I
always yield myself a iculv victim.
Suddenly he wheel eu round in bin
ihmi mid propounded the queries with
which thU article begins. I replied in
the pogatlvi that I had nonet nad the
lim-JlmS, and did nut even know what
they wrfc.
" l.h I o " ho aald, squaring him
self in iiis mat "Weil, 1 linctnly
boat you never will. .s it Is, let rue
tell you something alwiut lliem."
I uatonod) then is no stopping lohn
Hiuislry when he omc got! bulling:
Bud he went on as follows :
Fur aboejl thirty yoan of my life I
was ad luted ti o permit mc a (
tii)his,s the use of stimulants. Ncui
a hard diinkct in the common accep
Mliou ihm ict,,,, I was still what
may lc called a steady diinker. I
diank, as people vole in the less re
sectable MM ahtie. earlv and often. In
'bort, I would a iuxn have thought of
Kimiik Ihimigh the day without breath-
jag as without bibi.mjf. M ooei M
have acquired a hghtly coppery coloi
in poooMqaaojco, pt no one svet uw
me under the influence uf liquoi , and.
the charge of intemperance was never
brought against DM. Shutters and gut
ters were alike strange to mc.
Right here let me ask how the sin
of drunkenness is to he estimated and
measured ? I" it the quantity drunk or
the effect produced which we are to
consider when sitting; in judgment upon
a man's habits and character ? For
while one man can drink all day with
out manifesting any symptom of inebri
ation, another, who should undertake
or be persuaded to undergo a similar
course of discipline, would probably
And himself carried home in a most
ignominious way upon an uncomfortable
and hastily improvised litter, long be
fore the sun was at its zenith; those
who witnessed the informal procession
would undoubtedly blazon the horizon
tal hero as a drunkard of the most em
inent type! and solemn tracts with
Startling titles would be showered upon
him in lieu of the ivy-leaves wherewith
the brows ofBlCchuiof oltfwero bound.
All this while the other man, who ear
ned oil' his more frequent indulgences
w ith an air of unconscious grace, stand
ing 11 j under his potations like a three
decker to only a moderate breeze, would
very likely be lauded for his temperate
habits, and held up as a model of so
briety to his less fortunate neighbor,
Mut whether the iniquity of imbibition
is to be measured by the amount drunk
or by the capacity of the drinker to
withstand the subtle spell which be
wilders the brain and confuses the pow
ers of locomotion, I can not undertake
to determine, nor will 1 r.ow discuss;
but one thing is certain, fourth part
of the liquor which I every day con
sumed without fear and without re
proach would have sent half of my ac
quaintances reeling to their beds, and
won for them, in a very short time,
most unenviable reputations.
It was only some six months since
that I experienced any ill effects of my
habit (tout grnduaily set in, which
w as by no means pleasant to a man
fond of dancing, Besides, I developed
an apoplectic tendency, which ac
quaintances remarked upon; like the
elder Mi. Wilier, I swelled visibly;
sudden rushes of blood to my head
rendered me at times nearly blind.
' Men on entering or leaving a room I
w as obliged to put out my hands and
giope my way and blindiiian's-hufr is
an amusement for which 1 never had
my partiality. Consulting my phy
la jan not hydropathiit, understand
he at mice ordered me to "cease the
use, .1 stimulants"-the technical way
"I saving "Stop drinking." I re
miinstiatcd; hut he win peremptory.
1 said: -Not toosuddc.lv;'' but he rc.
plied: "At oncer To my mild urging
that it would be U-st to "taper oir" he
nudcan-wc. it at a ta,c, was ,lirnjn
" elala.and that ipiritl were the
Ma winch ltd the Bum, He Midi
s"11" out at once; cut off the fuel"'
To my representations that I could not
live he replied that I might as well die
one way as another; that if I continued
to drink, my death was certain; that if
I stopped, there was a chance for me.
And he clapped a stop on further oh
jections by refusing to treat my case at
all unless 1 abandoned drinking be fort
coming under his hands. Ale was
worse than whisky, because more
bulky; wine more dangerous than any
thing else, necause so insidious and se-
ductlve.
lie had been the physician of myself
and of my father's family I have no
family of my own since first the fam
ily was founded, and there was none
other in the city to whose hands I could
commit myself with confidence. So I
yielded to his ultimatum, converted my
demijohns into yet more fragmentary
divisions, and became a water-drinker
on the spot.
The first day of my new experience
I suffered; slightly, but still I suffered
nor was I strong. My hand was
shaky in the morning; and I said to
myself : "This conies of temperance,"
Through the day I felt singularly
strange; my voice was tremulous; I
planted my foot upon the pavement in
an uncertain way, and had a general
impression that I had lost something.
At my regular dinner-hour I was ip
nctiteless. I retired to bed wretched.
My dreams were unpleasant; and the
next morning I awoke with an un
comfortable sense of unrefreshedness.
My hands were hot, and my face,
though pale, was burning. In making
my toilet several attempts were neces
sary to enable me to part my hair in a
line any thing like an approach lo
straightness; for my hand, in its man
ipulations of the comb, dotted up and
down like a dairy-maid's in printing
butter. As for breakfast, I was con
scious of no fast to break. Mechan
ically, however, I appeared at the table.
Hut toast, tea, muffins, eggs had lost
their power of fascination. Hot and
tempting though they were, I looked
upon them coldly. So tremulous and
uncertain was my hand that in attempt
ing to drink my tea I nearly poured it
into my car. While being shaved, sub
sequently, I found it next to impossible
to sit still. Several times in my ner
vous starts the barber gashed my face.
ana ciun.
A blank, horrible day seemed before
mc. Time, like a leaden weight, hung
upon my soul. To some simole bus
iness calculation which the cashier of
our house tried to present to mc, I found
it impossible to listen. The figure
were before my eyes, and I attempted
to grasp them. They danced and jo
led each other like puppets at a booth
the nines watreine their heads at roe
mockingly, and thc sevens curling up
tails in derision. The cashier, noticing
my bewildered air and look, attempt
to explain ; his tones fell upon my etf