Now! Then! The Leeds Mercury reproduces a typographical intemperance tree from the 1840s origins of the Band of Hope

Excerpt

The
sin of
drunkenness
expels reason;
drowns memory;
diminishes strength;
distempers the body;
defaces beauty; corrupts the
blood; inflames the liver; weakens
the brain; turns men into walking
hospitals; causes internal, external, and
incurable wounds; is a witch to the senses;
a devil to the soul; a thief to the pocket;
the beggar’s companion; a wife’s woe and
children’s sorrow; makes man become
a beast and self-murderer,
who drinks to other’s good
health and robs himself
of his own!

So drunkenness
and dissipation

Are the root of all evil.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

It doesn’t work for me at the moment – line ten is one character shorter than line nine. What were they smoking?

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Original

Perhaps the readers of this column would notice that at od one of the meetings in celebration of the Temperance Jubilee in Leeds attention was drawn to the fact that it was in Leeds where the Band of Hope movement had its origin and received its name, and where, also, the first Band of Hope melodies were composed. Between 30 and 40 years ago, just about the time the first Band of Hope was organised in the town, the Leeds Mercury contained a specimen of typography in the shape of a tree, drawing attention to the evils of intemperance. Mr. T. Harper, of Cawood, Selby, who says he has been a reader of the Mercury for half a century, asks for the reproduction of of the tree, and it is given below:-

The
sin of
drunkenness
expels reason;
drowns memory;
diminishes strength;
distempers the body;
defaces beauty; corrupts the
blood; inflames the liver; weakens
the brain; turns men into walking
hospitals; causes internal, external, and
incurable wounds; is a witch to the senses;
a devil to the soul; a thief to the pocket;
the beggar’s companion; a wife’s woe and
children’s sorrow; makes man become
a beast and self-murderer,
who drinks to other’s good
health and robs himself
of his own!

So drunkenness
and dissipation

Are the Root of All Evil.

270 words.