show, Fanny Morgan never found her meal barrel empty without
knowing where to get it replenished.

"But, after Slade sold his mill, a sad change took place. The new
owner was little disposed to pay wages to a hand who would not
give him all his time during working hours; and in less than two
weeks from the day he took possession, Morgan was discharged.
Since then, he has been working about at one odd job and another,
earning scarcely enough to buy the liquor it requires to feed the
inordinate thirst that is consuming him. I am not disposed to
blame Simon Slade for the wrong-doing of Morgan; but here is a
simple fact in the case--if he had kept on at the useful calling
of a miller, he would have saved this man's family from want,
suffering, and a lower deep of misery than that into which they
have already fallen. I merely state it, and you can draw your own
conclusions. It is one of the many facts, on the other side of
this tavern question, which it will do no harm to mention. I have
noted a good many facts besides, and one is, that before Slade
opened the 'Sickle and Sheaf,' he did all in his power to save his
early friend from the curse of intemperance; now he has become his
tempter. Heretofore, it was his hand that provided the means for
his family to live in some small degree of comfort; now he takes
the poor pittance the wretched man earns, and dropping it in his
till, forgets the wife and children at home who are hungry for the
bread this money should have purchased.

"Joe Morgan, fallen as he is, sir, is no fool. His mind sees
quickly yet; and he rarely utters a sentiment that is not full of
meaning. When he spoke of Blade's heart growing as hard in ten
years as one of his old mill-stones, he was not uttering words at