Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne
page 144 of 488 (29%)
page 144 of 488 (29%)
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such moments as follow the delirium of the drunkard. Their dead faces
shall express what their spirits were and are to be by a lingering smile of memory and hope. Ahem! Dry work, this speechifying, especially to an unpractised orator. I never conceived till now what toil the temperance lecturers undergo for my sake; hereafter they shall have the business to themselves.--Do, some kind Christian, pump a stroke or two, just to wet my whistle.--Thank you, sir!--My dear hearers, when the world shall have been regenerated by my instrumentality, you will collect your useless vats and liquor-casks into one great pile and make a bonfire in honor of the town-pump. And when I shall have decayed like my predecessors, then, if you revere my memory, let a marble fountain richly sculptured take my place upon this spot. Such monuments should be erected everywhere and inscribed with the names of the distinguished champions of my cause. Now, listen, for something very important is to come next. There are two or three honest friends of mine--and true friends I know they are--who nevertheless by their fiery pugnacity in my behalf do put me in fearful hazard of a broken nose, or even a total overthrow upon the pavement and the loss of the treasure which I guard.--I pray you, gentlemen, let this fault be amended. Is it decent, think you, to get tipsy with zeal for temperance and take up the honorable cause of the town-pump in the style of a toper fighting for his brandy-bottle? Or can the excellent qualities of cold water be no otherwise exemplified than by plunging slapdash into hot water and woefully scalding yourselves and other people? Trust me, they may. In the moral warfare which you are to wage--and, indeed, in the whole conduct of your lives--you cannot choose a better example than myself, who have |
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