Meigs County Telegraph

Mr. Editor:—Being now at full leisure to devote my time to any purpose I may think fit, and being once more restored to the possession of my sober reasoning faculties, I thought it might profit some of the readers of your paper, particularly the youth of this vicinity, to point out the hell-holes, nests of depravity, and seats of profligacy and ruin in this far-famed town.

You will first go with me, if you please, to that respectable locality known as Back street. There, Sir, you will find a set of doggeries vastly inferior to the "rowdy" houses of "Rat Row," Cincinnati, and completely setting the sinks of the far-famed "Five Points," (so vividly portrayed in glowing colors, by the eminent writers of the Empire State,) far in the shade. I honestly believe there is no crime, amenable to justice under our present code of Acts and Laws, which would not be perpetrated by our Dutch tavern-keepers, in that notorious and infernal neighborhood, if money were to be made by the perpetration.

Long after all peaceable citizens have retired to rest, may be heard the uproarious laugh of the inebriate in that new Hall at the back of Henry Olinger's residence.— Drinking, carousing and blaspheming are carried on until the following morning, when it is thought advisable to separate for the time being, lest daylight should open the eyes of society and display to the public view the participators in this midnight debauch and revelry. Often, too, may be heard the sounds of contention and bloodshed, the screams and shrieks of contending parties, and cries for help, by the vanquished and bloody. And who (I think I hear the better part of our citizens enquire) are those intemperate and unruly characters, who thus disturb the peace of the community? The Rolling Mill hands, I suppose. Stop! Judge not! Look first down town, among your business men, and denouncing those games as unlawful, when those iniquitous grog-shop keepers are allowed their full swing, and permitted to commit those offences with impunity—their transgression, like the idolatry of old, being merely "winked at."

Having shown you a little of the infamy of Back street, allow me to draw your attention down town a little farther. You will there find an establishment known by the sign of the double-headed snake.— The device is meant, I presume, to represent the two honorable proprietors, Messrs. Tilner & Loubner, and likewise, I presume, to intimate that if it were possible to escape the clutches of the over-sized Tilner, there was no possible chance of eluding the poisonous fangs of his sneaking friend, Loubner. This is the rendezvous of our fast men and gamblers, and to the young is the graduating school. Here you will find the lounge in the second or middle room, comfortably cushioned off, so that carousing may be carried on with ease and pleasure; whilst in the back room, parties often assemble to amuse themselves with cards, by the light of a shaded candle,— Now I particularly wish to warn the rising generation against crossing the threshold of this "Man Trap," for it certainly deserves no better name. This is a house very little heeded at present; but the time will come, and that before long, when many of the promising young men will remember with grief that their seeds of intemperance were first planted at Tilner's, and that the venomous sting of the "snake" has left a deep and unhealing wound.— Beware of this dangerous reptile, lest like the vampire, it lives by sucking the life blood of the young and innocent; or like the whirlpool, it draws you nearer and nearer, and you are ultimately lost in its infernal vortex.

Now it may be asked by the critic, how I came to know all this, if I had not indulged in intemperate revelries myself.— To this I would say, that I candidly admit having led a very intemperate life for the last twelve months, and have been reduced by intoxicating drinks, first to a state of lunacy, and gradually lower until almost verging on madness. I sincerely hope that my punishment may be a warning to all young men in this vicinity, for I solemnly declare that liquor and liquor sellers have been my downfall and ruin.

Citizens of Pomeroy, beware of these doggeries, one and all. Parents and heads of families, mark well the nocturnal wanderings of the young men in your households. Young men, to you in particular I wish to address myself; take warning in time; remember no one ever became a drunkard in one day. Imagine to yourselves a loathsome, bloated mass of corruption; whose mouth is continually filled with blasphemies, calling his curses and maledictions on all who come near him in a state of wild delirium; whose days are shortened to half their proper number; an outcast, despised, avoided and alone; who, when death overtakes him, sinks in oblivion without any pitying hand to soothe his troubled pillow, or one pitying friend to shed the tear of compassion over his disgraceful and untimely end. Such will be the end of each and all of you, if you indulge in the intoxicating bowl.

God grant that I may be the last victim of black intemperance.

Respectfully yours, &c.,
TALIESIN R. WILLIAMS.