Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/190

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A MAN UNMANNED. 179 < . • it be here understood, there is no desire or wish to in- jure the poor, pitiable creature who would drink the last glass, even if they knew they would die the aezt moment. Here is an experience of a lifetime, and it is true: A dear friend was drinMng too much. He was infor-

med that if he did not brace up he would be ruined,

not only physically but financially; this he assented to, and after considerable discussion, iasisted on shakiiig hands with a solemn promise from that time to cease its use. The solicitions friend being desir- ous of displaying his feeling in the matter, said to the penitent: "You have a red cow and a red calf in your pasture belonging to me. I am so anxious to have you straighten up that instead of promising you a cow in the future, this cow and calf are given to you so as to seal the compact in red; that being the color of whisky and beer, it will remind you of your prom- ise whenever your eyes see them." About a week after the above dialogue, a man who drank to excess informed the temperance crank ! ! that he knew of the cow and caU matter, but that the promiser had backslid; that although he was a drunkard himself, he hated a sneak, for the man was trying to hide his faU from his best friend; and, sad to teU, the poor fellow had fallen by the wayside, as was witnessed. The incident to this point has been enacted hundreds of thousands of times, but here is another part of this incident which is less frequent: Concluding there was no hope to save thfe man from himself, a last resort was taken as follows: The faUen man and his friend were both members of a