"I feared--nay, I was certain--that he was in the toils of this man!
And yet your confirmation of the fact startles and confounds me," said
he, moving about his office in a disturbed manner. "If my mind has
questioned and doubted in regard to young Hammond, it questions and
doubts no longer. The word 'mystery' is not now written over the door
of his habitation. Great Father! and is it thus that our young men are
led into temptation? Thus that their ruin is premeditated, secured?
Thus that the fowler is permitted to spread his net in the open day,
and the destroyer licensed to work ruin in darkness? It is awful to
contemplate!" The man was strongly excited.
"Thus it is," he continued; "and we who see the whole extent, origin,
and downward rushing force of a widely sweeping desolation, lift our
voices of warning almost in vain. Men who have everything at
stake--sons to be corrupted, and daughters to become the wives of young
men exposed to corrupting influences--stand aloof, questioning and
doubting as to the expediency of protecting the innocent from the
wolfish designs of bad men; who, to compass their own selfish ends,
would destroy them body and soul. We are called fanatics, ultraists,
designing, and all that, because we ask our law-makers to stay the
fiery ruin. Oh, no! we must not touch the traffic. All the dearest and
best interests of society may suffer; but the rum-seller must be
protected. He must be allowed to get gain, if the jails and poorhouses
are filled, and the graveyards made fat with the bodies of young men
stricken down in the flower of their years, and of wives and mothers
who have died of broken hearts. Reform, we are told, must commence at
home. We must rear temperate children, and then we shall have temperate
men. That when there are none to desire liquor, the rum-seller's
traffic will cease. And all the while society's true benefactors are
engaged in doing this, the weak, the unsuspecting, and the erring must
be left an easy prey, even if the work requires for its accomplishment
a hundred years. Sir! a human soul destroyed through the rum-seller's
infernal agency, is a sacrifice priceless in value. No considerations
of worldly gain can, for an instant, be placed in comparison therewith.
And yet souls are destroyed by thousands every year; and they will fall
by tens of thousands ere society awakens from its fatal indifference,
and lays its strong hand of power on the corrupt men who are scattering
disease, ruin, and death, broadcast over the land!
"I always get warm on this subject," he added, repressing his
enthusiasm. "And who that observes and reflects can help growing
excited? The evil is appalling; and the indifference of the community
one of the strangest facts of the day."
While he was yet speaking, the elder Mr. Hammond came in. He looked
wretched. The redness and humidity of his eyes showed want of sleep,
and the relaxed muscles of his face exhaustion from weariness and
suffering. He drew the person with whom I had been talking aside, and
continued an earnest conversation with him for many minutes--often
gesticulating violently. I could see his face, though I heard nothing
of what he said. The play of his features was painful to look upon, for
every changing muscle showed a new phase of mental suffering.
"Try and see him, will you not?" he said, as he turned, at length, to
leave the office.
"I will go there immediately," was answered.
"Bring him home, if possible."
"My very best efforts shall be made."
Judge Hammond bowed and went out hurriedly.
"Do you know the number of the room occupied by the man Green?" asked
the gentleman, as soon as his visitor had retired.
"Yes. It is No. 11."
"Willy has not been home since last night. His father, at this late
day, suspects Green to be a gambler. The truth flashed upon him only
yesterday; and this, added to his other sources of trouble, is driving
him, so he says, almost mad. As a friend, he wishes me to go to the
'Sickle and Sheaf,' and try and find Willy. Have you seen any thing of
him this morning?"