The Massachusetts Spy, And Worcester County Advertiser

The trial of Daniel Stone, which we publish this day, is worthy of perusal, as affording another instance of the fatal effects of intemperance. To see a young man in the vigor of youth, prematurely cut off by a violent death, inflicted upon him, too, by the hands of his own father—to see that father, bowed down with the weight of years and infirmity, arraigned at the bar of his country, for taking the life of his son—and to know that, but for this degrading and beastly vice, they might both of them now be filling their respective stations in society, honorably and respectably, would, one might suppose, be sufficient to cause such, as have entered on the down-hill road of intemperance, to pause and reflect.

Yet it is true, lamentably so, that when the citadel is once surrendered, when the victim has overcome all regard to his own character, and consented to sacrifice his domestic peace, and the welfare of his family, there is little hope that any other considerations will lead to a reformation. This is an enemy which must be met at the threshold, and there resisted, or little hope remains. "Touch not, taste not, handle not," should be the motto of every one, who finds an appetite for ardent spirits growing upon him. It is thus, and thus only, that he can hope to escape the tremendous evil, which overshadows our land, and which has overwhelmed thousands in irremediable ruin and disgrace.