The Life and Adventures of Ben Hogan, the Wickedest Man in the WorldHogan, Ben (Benedict)
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The Life and Adventures of Ben Hogan, the Wickedest Man in the World
Hogan, Ben (Benedict)
Hogan, Ben (Benedict), 1841?-
I hope and trust that there may yet be some space left to me to do good in
the world; and, in view of the fact that I am not in the sear and yellow
leaf, I think I can discern a bright gleam in the future. Still, I have
done so much evil that I scarcely dare mention what little good I had
allowed to fall to my lot. I shall, therefore, permit this drop to fall
unobserved into the bucket and begin life anew. Often my heart and tongue
struggle to say that which is embarassed by a restricted education, but
which lies burning or smouldering far down in the depths of my being. When
I see the youth about me wasting the precious moments of their lives as I
have wasted mine, and think of the possible fate that awaits them, I
sometimes shudder at the contemplation of their future. When I see a young
man in business hours, or after or before them, wending his way to the
tavern or liquor saloon, to which every vice gravitates, I feel as if I
could spring forward and arrest him on the threshold of the dangerous
spot.
There is something so infectious in the atmosphere of such places, that it
is next to impossible to shake oneself free from it once it has touched
the blood. Its fascination is that of the deadly serpent, which holds you
in thrall until escape is impossible, and the poisonous fangs are buried
deep in your soul. To learn the terrible power of such places has cost me
dear, and I now turn from them with a loathing so deeply seated as never
to be brought to tolerate them again. They are the destroyers of time, of
the purse, of the health and of character; and they brand a business man
so effectually and so fatally, that even his friends and the sharers of
his orgies shake their heads portentously in relation to his ultimate
fate. No drunkard has ever succeeded in life, or taken up an exalted
position in society; and when we all know that the constant use of
alcoholic stimulants not only destroys the physical body but ruins the
mind, what infatuation must it be to ever permit a drop of such stuff to
cross our lips.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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